Hi all. I think I've hurt my rotator cuff, not badly. But leading up to summer I'm getting a little worried.
I would like to go get it looked at , but I'm heading away and won't get time.
Just curious if others had the same injury, how they went about it. I've been taking anti inflammatorys, rubbing it and icing it.
I'll be kiting for 5 days and lots of cable next week. Would strapping it help, and what stretches?
Cheers

sorry to hear about your injury. I had mine torn last year, and also nearly lost my finger in a pretty horrible accident while kiting. I tore my rotator first, then as I tried to get the lines off my shoulder it nearly severed my finger. I was eleven days in the hospital trying to save the finger never thinking about the shoulder. Four surgeries the first was 7.5 hours. All went better than expected. However, the shoulder was ignored as the priority was saving the finger.
For me, it took a good 6 months of yoga and physio to get it sorted. I knew it would eventually would come good. I did stretching every night like clockwork along with the yoga. I had torn one before in a building accident before and knew eventually it would come good with the above. However, it is really hard to have a good night sleep when you can't use your shoulder. Stay positive because eventually it will come good. I am 100 percent withboth my the shoulders. :)

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dafish said..
sorry to hear about your injury. I had mine torn last year, and also nearly lost my finger in a pretty horrible accident while kiting. I tore my rotator first, then as I tried to get the lines off my shoulder it nearly severed my finger. I was eleven days in the hospital trying to save the finger never thinking about the shoulder. Four surgeries the first was 7.5 hours. All went better than expected. However, the shoulder was ignored as the priority was saving the finger.
For me, it took a good 6 months of yoga and physio to get it sorted. I knew it would eventually would come good. I did stretching every night like clockwork along with the yoga. I had torn one before in a building accident before and knew eventually it would come good with the above. However, it is really hard to have a good night sleep when you can't use your shoulder. Stay positive because eventually it will come good. I am 100 percent withboth my the shoulders. :)

the sleeping bit dose suck. its od tho, it only hurts when i rub it or stretch it past my head. i can still pass the bar in mobes but struggling when landing blind (i think that's how it urt it in the first place). i was rock climbing yesterday and it didn't bother me at all. what stretches would you recommend dafish?

Hi kemp

a rotator cuff tear in a young fit and athletic bloke is a high velocity injury and not just something that creeps up on you, did you have a BIG crash which started it all off or has your pain just slowly built up with use and time. If it is pain of a gradual onset then it is unlikely a rotator cuff tear but almost certainly subacromial bursitis (inflammation of the shock absorbers of the shoulder). This is common in people who do a lot of activity with their arms above their head and is due to the posterior muscles of the shoulder getting to strong and "tight" compared to the balancing anterior muscles. The effect is the head of your humerus gets pulled up and pinches the bursa cousing pain and inflammation of it.

Treatment is simple but takes time.....

1) confirm diagnosis - see your gp if possible and get referral for an ultrasound. This will also exclude rotator cuff tear

2) reduce the inflammation - the most important component here is unfortunately rest. And this means ideally 6 weeks with no above head heavy activities like climbing, swimming and kiting. Anti inflammatories will help but a steroid injection into the bursa at time of the ultrasound works very well but carries a small risk of infection. If you so have a steroid injection you MUST rest your shoulder as you can do serious damage if you don't as you will not feel the pain and damage you are doing due to the Roids.

3) physio and stretching - look up the "sleeper stretch" and start doing it every day before bed and before and after every time you exercise for the rest of your life as unfortunately there is a tendency for this to come back if you let the muscle get unbalanced again.

Good luck and keep positive and stretch stretch stretch it will get better but takes time and don't go hard in the next few weeks otherwise you'll be out for the summer

Nick

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NitrousOxide said..
Hi kemp

a rotator cuff tear in a young fit and athletic bloke is a high velocity injury and not just something that creeps up on you, did you have a BIG crash which started it all off or has your pain just slowly built up with use and time. If it is pain of a gradual onset then it is unlikely a rotator cuff tear but almost certainly subacromial bursitis (inflammation of the shock absorbers of the shoulder). This is common in people who do a lot of activity with their arms above their head and is due to the posterior muscles of the shoulder getting to strong and "tight" compared to the balancing anterior muscles. The effect is the head of your humerus gets pulled up and pinches the bursa cousing pain and inflammation of it.

Treatment is simple but takes time.....

1) confirm diagnosis - see your gp if possible and get referral for an ultrasound. This will also exclude rotator cuff tear

2) reduce the inflammation - the most important component here is unfortunately rest. And this means ideally 6 weeks with no above head heavy activities like climbing, swimming and kiting. Anti inflammatories will help but a steroid injection into the bursa at time of the ultrasound works very well but carries a small risk of infection. If you so have a steroid injection you MUST rest your shoulder as you can do serious damage if you don't as you will not feel the pain and damage you are doing due to the Roids.

3) physio and stretching - look up the "sleeper stretch" and start doing it every day before bed and before and after every time you exercise for the rest of your life as unfortunately there is a tendency for this to come back if you let the muscle get unbalanced again.

Good luck and keep positive and stretch stretch stretch it will get better but takes time and don't go hard in the next few weeks otherwise you'll be out for the summer

Nick

I did hurt it a few months ago, caught a heal edge when landing blind. my got pulled back and up (kind of like when you see cops in movies have the crims arm behide them to immobilise them lol). it faarking hurt, and then hurt a little bit after, but been progressively getting worse, keeping me up at night. I managed to get an appointment with a physio. Ill see what they say. Sleeper stretch, ill make sure to do this!

I tore mine last year playing rugby.

Light weights that focused on drawing the shoulders back (rows, rotator cuff rotations, etc) really helped. Keep the weights light and focus on range of motion...worked for me.

Good luck

What Nitrous said. I did have to have one steroid shot via ultra sound right where the tear was, it alleviated the pain and let it settle. The sleeper stretch slowly every day over time helped enormously. I could not do a pushup for a long time nor a pullup. But it's all good one year on. I still do the stretches almost every day. Rest is really the best help though.

Hope youse are not coming up
over the next week

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Tractorguy said...
Hope youse are not coming up
over the next week

I know I know, I've seen the forcast lol.


Injury update.
So I went to the physio. Did all the testing and it's not my rotator cuff. Could be 1 of to things. Torn laybrum, or my delt being spastic. Only a mri can tell. Booked in for that after my trip. Fingers crossed it's not the laybrum.

thread necro . Had surgery for a rotator cuff tear 3 weeks ago . turns out the tear was closer to ~80% once he opened me up

apparently 6 months recovery .

fuarken sling 24/7 is pissing me off and haven't slept properly since
even with drugs

have not had any impact trauma . I have for many many years suffered with a dodgy shoulder . My surgeon seems to think that this is a result of the many hours as a youngster trying to turn pro . From 15 to early 20's i was at the driving range everyday hitting a sh!t tonne of balls and at the chipping and putting green plus 4-5 rounds of 18 a week .

I knew you were soft Dusta, this just proves it.

Go see a doctor. The longer you try ride with it when its partially injured, the more damage you will do.

If you go down the operation path, taking as long as you can to recover. The longer, the less chance you have of having it happen again and make sure you follow the physio no matter how painful it is.

If its the torn labrum - I had a solid tear, was going to go the surgery route but after finding out it was about 3 months rehab i put it off (cos it was nearly summer). The surgeon i had basically said that it wasn't something that would get worse - what I could do would be limited by the pain and it didn't really matter when I did the surgery. I worked with my physio and got to the point where i didn't end up getting the surgery - i have no pain whatsoever now and no limitations in what i do.

Adding to what Nitrous Oxide said, what i learned from that process was that a) I had very limited shoulder movement that i had never paid attention to because it wasn't directly obvious, and b) once i started strengthening and stretching that area it improved my overall strength and posture and significantly reduced tension after a SUP or kite session.

Once you've got the ok from your doc/physio, hit the shoulder exercises religiously, and buy yourself a foam roller and a theraband. A lot of these are super easy, low effort, and can be done anywhere, even in short shorts.

antranik.org/prone-shoulder-rolls/
antranik.org/scapular-shrugs/

My other kite-specific tips would be 1. lay off the unhooked tricks for a while (and i reckon the cable wouldn't be too good either), and 2. reduce the throw of your bar a bit. the only time i regressed while kiting early in the process was when i got yanked out of a wave and i still had one hand on the bar and stretched my shoulder to full extension.

In addition to the sleeper arm stretch i'd throw in the eagle arm stretch as well, which opens out the inner rotator cuff, but check with your doc/physio first as its probably not a great one to do initially if you do turn out to have a rotator cuff injury.

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Underoath said..
I knew you were soft Dusta, this just proves it.

god damn it i posted that looking for sympathy from you pauline but i got nothing :)

Just one piece of advice go see either a Dr for a MRI or ct scan or see a physio or both before you damage it more then your out for the whole upcoming summer season

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jackforbes said...
If its the torn labrum - I had a solid tear, was going to go the surgery route but after finding out it was about 3 months rehab i put it off (cos it was nearly summer). The surgeon i had basically said that it wasn't something that would get worse - what I could do would be limited by the pain and it didn't really matter when I did the surgery. I worked with my physio and got to the point where i didn't end up getting the surgery - i have no pain whatsoever now and no limitations in what i do.

Adding to what Nitrous Oxide said, what i learned from that process was that a) I had very limited shoulder movement that i had never paid attention to because it wasn't directly obvious, and b) once i started strengthening and stretching that area it improved my overall strength and posture and significantly reduced tension after a SUP or kite session.

Once you've got the ok from your doc/physio, hit the shoulder exercises religiously, and buy yourself a foam roller and a theraband. A lot of these are super easy, low effort, and can be done anywhere, even in short shorts.

antranik.org/prone-shoulder-rolls/
antranik.org/scapular-shrugs/

My other kite-specific tips would be 1. lay off the unhooked tricks for a while (and i reckon the cable wouldn't be too good either), and 2. reduce the throw of your bar a bit. the only time i regressed while kiting early in the process was when i got yanked out of a wave and i still had one hand on the bar and stretched my shoulder to full extension.

In addition to the sleeper arm stretch i'd throw in the eagle arm stretch as well, which opens out the inner rotator cuff, but check with your doc/physio first as its probably not a great one to do initially if you do turn out to have a rotator cuff injury.

Really pain free. Even at night? both my labrum are shredded. Just waiting to find out my surgery date.

My step son has a rotator cuf tear at the moment from gym. He can't lift anything past 90 degrees. Phys just gave him light weight exercises to do

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dusta said...
t.

fuarken sling 24/7 is pissing me off and haven't slept properly since
even with drugs

When I got my shoulder reco the only way I could sleep was fully reclined in a reclining chair for the first month.

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Capt Loopy said..

dusta said...
t.

fuarken sling 24/7 is pissing me off and haven't slept properly since
even with drugs

When I got my shoulder reco the only way I could sleep was fully reclined in a reclining chair for the first month.

yer i have just migrated to the bed and been slowly removing a pillow every few days . I still have one on my left side supporting the shoulder but last night i managed to have my first nights sleep without any medication and man was it good to get 7 hours sleep .

I was in a recliner chair for the first 3 weeks and while it is mega comfy it was near impossible to sleep due to the arm starting to ache badly due to inactivity .

But having said that been doing rehab for a week and movement is really improving now . Pretty soon i will be able to lift the middle finger at underoath

If close to Brisbane my physio mate Luke has limited his practice to shoulder issues ONLY!!!

His business is www.shoulderguyphysiotherapy.com.au/

Luke rehabs for patients of many Orthopaedic surgeons (specialising in upper limb conditions).

As a health care practitioner myself (dentist), the diagnosis is critical, and scans/MRI's essential and a clinician to steer you down the correct path...Luke can help you with all this, but not having read every word of the forum post responses I think you have a bit of this covered already (scans that is).

Surgery last resort!

Good luck!

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dusta said..

Pretty soon i will be able to lift the middle finger at underoath

Hahaha, you Perth race boys need to settle down, too much aggression and too many injuries. I dont' know if its the meth entering the Swan River water or that rap music you keep listing too.

Anyway- I'd go easy on giving me the finger there Dusta.

You just might pull a muscle and injure that too.

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Underoath said..

dusta said..

Pretty soon i will be able to lift the middle finger at underoath

Hahaha, you Perth race boys need to settle down, too much aggression and too many injuries. I dont' know if its the meth entering the Swan River water or that rap music you keep listing too.

Anyway- I'd go easy on giving me the finger there Dusta.

You just might pull a muscle and injure that too.

the meth is down in bunbury mate , meth capital of OZ . We ingest jellyfish in perth :)

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kemp90 said..
Really pain free. Even at night? both my labrum are shredded. Just waiting to find out my surgery date.

My step son has a rotator cuf tear at the moment from gym. He can't lift anything past 90 degrees. Phys just gave him light weight exercises to do

I did it in 2012, I haven't had any shoulder pain at all for at least 2.5 years. I'm now doing handstands, pull-ups, ring work, monkey bars with the kids, playing squash, SUPing, surfing, kiting (not all at once), with no issues. It was probably at least six months before i didnt have pain on any given day though, but i also didn't really stop doing any of my day to day activities, just toned it down a bit and would stop once it hurt a bit. Most of the time when i regressed was surfing, as i got tired and did a final stroke for takeoff i would occasionally twinge it. Eventually settled on just doing the SUP for a while which seems to have a smaller range of motion.

I visited a few people, my experience was that surgeons recommended surgery and physios recommended physio. In theory at least the surgery is necessary to reattach the tendon to the bone, but if you strengthen the supporting area enough then it seems to resolve the problem (I assume that would depend on the length and size of the tear though).

Good luck with it anyway, whether you go surgery or physio, and either way hit the strengthening and flexibility exercises for the shoulders, I've become a total evangelist for it!

The meth will take the edge off the pain but doesn't help with the sleeping!