Rotator Cuff Research Paper

Rotator Cuff Tear The primary function of the rotator cuff is to allow you to raise your arms forward and away from your body up and over your head. It also enables us to perform movements like throwing and catching a ball. The rotator cuff is a group of tendons and muscles in the shoulder, connecting the upper arm (humerus) to the shoulder blade (scapula). But in order for our rotator cuff to perform these tasks and movements, there are four muscles that must work together to achieve this. The muscles the rotator cuff consists of is the supraspinatus muscle, infrapinatus muscle, teres minor muscle and subscapularis muscle. These muscles work together to push down on the head of the humerus bone as your deltoid muscle strains, wraps and pulls in the opposite direction. The rotator cuff tendons provide stability to the …show more content…
This is because you need to let the swelling from the surgery die down and you need to make sure that your shoulder doesn’t tighten up. At the start of physical therapy you will only be doing light stretches because you need to give the rotator cuff some time to heal. You will probably start off by doing stretches like bringing your injured arm across your chest cradling it with the opposite forearm and holding that stretch for 30 second intervals. When you progress past just the stretching another exercise you might be doing is where you lay on your side with your knees bent and your top leg resting on top of your bottom leg. Then you will hold a small amount of weight in the hand of your injured arm, positioning it so that it is front of your naval. Then you want to slowly raise your arm toward the ceiling and lower it with control. You want to do about three sets of ten repetitions for this exercise. The most common types of equipment that are used in physical therapy for the rotator cuff is lightweight dumbbells, resistance bands and medicine