Monday, August 20, 2007

Simple rotator cuff exercises will help you avoid injuries.

I came across a little article describing a man who had a rotator cuff tare due to playing Golf. He was only playing twice a week but the damage was built over time and he will now need surgery to remedy the problem. I guess rotator cuff exercises are not going to help him at this point.

This puzzles me - the guy is not exactly into competitive sports (he glofs twice a week), so how can this reach a surgery level damage?

First, I'd like to show you a little more info about the rotator cuff.

It's a group of four muscles and their tendons that connect the upper arm and the shoulder blade. More than that, the rotator-cuff muscles and tendons hold the ball of the upper arm into the shoulder joint, allowing us to move the shoulder joint through a large range of motion.

I even got a picture for you:












Now, back to our little glofing problem. The way I see it, many amature sports fans are prone for problems of this sort because they are not aware of the potential damage that can be caused by doing all sorts of sports activities without the proper preparation. So What should you do to avoid these kind of damages?

Steps to protect your rotator cuff

1. Build muscle gradually. This will help make your rotator cull stronger and will lessen the risk of damage. Here's a great resource for learning how to protect your rotator cuff
2. Always warm up. Many golfers skip warm up. This is a big mistake.
3. Check your doctor regularly. He/she may see the problem before it happens. Taking preventive action is always smarter than dealing with the heavy result of neglection.


Take care

Dan

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Kudos to your recommendation to be pro-active in the care of one's shoulders. Once injured, the healing process can be slow and take you away from the activities you love for a long time.
-David
www.squidoo.com/shouldertherapy