Preventing Rotator Cuff Injury

For anyone involved in a sport or job that involves repetitive lifting or overhead activity of the arms, stretching the shoulders and arms must be an indelible prerequisite to activity. At Espinosa Family Chiropractic, we believe that NO injury is the right type of injury: prevention is as much a part of our practice as rehabilitation.

Keep in mind that 5 minutes of stretching before work out could save you 5 weeks of recovery time from an avoidable injury. 

For those involved in baseball, weight lifting, construction and other shoulder-heavy activities, we encourage you to avoid shoulder injury by focusing on strengthening the rotator cuff muscles. Because the rotator cuff is a collection of small muscles, we generally advise low resistance exercises with more repetitions, thereby gradually strengthening the region as a whole.

At our practice, we teach people how to stretch and strengthen their rotator cuff muscles: internal and external rotation exercises are simple enough to learn but they impart strength to the muscles that is indispensable for people who rely on their shoulders for activity. For people who suffer an injury to the rotator cuff, we advise resisting activity until the muscles can repair themselves. We perform range of motion assessments to determine how limited your shoulders really are as a result of injury. Frequent massage will encourage more active blood flow in the rotator cuff region, bringing oxygen and healing nutrients. Cycling between heat and ice reduces inflammation and allows the region to heal quicker.

Call our office in Sacramento at (916) 457-8825 to schedule an appointment today.

Dr. Raymond Espinosa, D.C.