How to Rehabilitate a Rotator cuff injury without needing surgery:

As we age the likelihood of developing a rotator cuff strain,where some of the tendon frays and eventually detaches from the muscle, is not uncommon. Several studies of people without shoulder pain in their 60s, 70s and 80s who had MRI scans demonstrated that  circa 40% of 60 year olds, 60% of 70 year olds and over 75% of 80 year olds had Rotator cuff failure BUT had no pain and good function! Yes

So what does this actually mean?  Well if you have shoulder pain and have a rotator cuff strain you would be wise to start doing some rehabilitation and strength work for at least 12 weeks.

John  severely strained his shoulder while out working on his farm causing grade 3 injury to part of his Rotator cuff.  He was unable to use the arm for 4 to 5 days and saw no improvement after two weeks.

At this point he decided to come back to us for our opinion on this new matter. John had been in for his back before and did well and was back to full fitness and able to work pain free so he was familiar with the process of recovery and that it would take time and effort on his part.

Following his first meeting and friendly discussion with the physio they both were in agreement that it was a cuff injury, but decided to get it scanned to assess the extent of the injury. Meanwhile John started his rehab to keep his muscles activated which also helped with the pain and movement.

A few week later once the MRI was completed and the report received, it confirmed the suspicion of a full tear of part of his rotator cuff and John was content to focus completely on his rehab to try and get this right without surgery.

The progress was slow but steady, with some ‘ups & downs’ but his dedication to the rehab paid off . It took the bones of four months of rehabilitation exercises that were mainly done at home and 10 physio sessions to get John back to full working capacity once again, where he was confident to use the arm no matter what the task at hand.

Back to text;  Our system, which is based on the same hands on treatment techniques and exercise rehabilitation process for professional athletes based on Patrick’s (APC’s lead physios experience with Munster Rugby), is guaranteed to get you back to full strength and movement with confidence so that you can get back to work, your hobbies and playing sport.