otator cuff injuries are fairly common in the United States and can occur from a number of things, including poor posture, reaching up to place items on a shelf above your head or even throwing a baseball.

It's quite possible you will suffer from a rotator cuff problem at some point in your life, and it's something massage can help alleviate.   

Everyday Examples

Mary is a 50-year-old moderately active woman. After complaining of shoulder pain for several weeks, she saw her physician. He told Mary she has rotator cuff syndrome (RCS), a painful condition that causes disturbed sleep, limited range of movement and pain even without movement. Ted, too, was diagnosed with RCS by his doctor. However, Ted is a professional athlete in his mid-20s. Though the cause of the pain is different for each of these cases, both are suffering from the effects of rotator cuff syndrome (RCS). This painful condition can cause limited range of movement and pain without movement and even sleep disturbances.

Above: Shoulder with the posterior rotator cuff muscles

What Goes Wrong?

RCS means a few muscles have quit working together. The shoulder is best likened to a sports team where all the members of the team need to work together. If any one member is having an off day and he is not pulling his weight, the other team members will need to work harder. And they will eventually become fatigued. The team of muscles that make up the shoulder work the same way. If one muscle is injured in the shoulder, then the other muscles will need to make up for that deficiency. With an excessive workload, the muscles that are overworked may fatigue and become injured themselves. One muscle dysfunction causes another and another.

The best prevention for rotator cuff syndrome is to never have the initial one muscle injury. But trying to prevent rotator cuff syndrome is difficult because the signs of injury can be subtle. Who hasn’t had some shoulder soreness after activity? Usually, this isn't the start of rotator cuff syndrome, but sometimes it can be.

Another problem with detecting rotator cuff syndrome is the fact that the muscles of the shoulder tend to compensate—particularly in the athlete—and the problem may go unnoticed or may be passed off as “just a sore shoulder.” If the initial injury is ignored, the shoulder will get worse, eventually involving more and more muscles.

Ted’s muscle tendon tear is due to a different reason than Mary’s. His problem is from trauma. Ted felt his shoulder becoming more sore after he threw a number of pitches. He just figured he didn’t warm up properly. As a result, he continued to throw. This is a common occurrence with athletes; the initial muscle imbalance was ignored and eventually progresses. In Ted's case, he now has a tear in his rotator cuff. Now he is unable to raise his arm above his head, and he feels like his future in sports is over.

How Massage Therapy Can Help

With proper therapy, Mary and Ted will recover. But what is proper therapy? Simply put, the proper therapy can be summarized with one word: balance. The best therapy for a RCS is to balance the muscles so that each will be able to do its job and heal the tendons. Tendons with proper stress have a better chance of rehabilitating and healing.

Massage therapy is especially suited to rehabilitate RCS. The underlying muscle imbalance can be helped by specific soft tissue massage, which your massage therapist can provide. The key to proper care of the shoulder muscles that involve RCS is to relieve the muscle spasm and strengthen the weak muscles.

Your massage therapist can access which of your muscles are weak, which ones are too tight, and which ones are properly functioning. Once the imbalance is known, the therapist will work to relax the spastic muscles and strengthen the weak ones. It'll go a long way to helping you relieve the RCS pain you are experiencing!

Dr. Leo B. Stouder, D.C. (aka, Dr. Anatomy) teaches Applied Anatomy Seminars Send comments to: DrAnatomy@Bellsouth.net or visit his Web site at www.AnatomySeminars.com.

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