Rehab After Injury (Tearing Rotator Cuff)
Rehabbing After a Rotator Cuff Tear
Most people assume that personal trainers are just for people who want to lose fat or gain muscle, but a large part of our job is improving peoples quality of life from helping people in their seventies to be able to move better, getting rid of chronic back pain, and rehabbing injuries.
After tearing their rotator cuff it's people will suffer from a lack of mobility and strength after tearing their rotator cuff. This is in part because of poor aftercare, but it doesn't have to stay like this.
The NHS is particularly poor when it comes to the aftercare it offers due to a limited budget. I had personal experience with this when I fractured my knee. The NHS was so slow to get me booked in to see a physio, and then there was a massive gap for I was booked in to see them for a second time. I ended up only seeing them once before realising I was better off doing it myself. Fortunately, I had the knowledge to do it and I regained full strength and mobility in my knee to the point that I can't remember if it was my right or left knee that I injured. Unfortunately, this I see this often with my clients in my job
I currently have a client that has torn his rotor cuff twice. I asked him what aftercare he was given after surgery and he told me he was given a few exercises and when he asked them how long it would take he was told it could take months or years. He did what they told him to do and the result was that he ended up with severe strength and mobility issues. The exercises they gave him were totally inadequate.
When he came to me he couldn't lift his arm up to his side without twisting his body and couldn't lift his arms overhead. He was in constant pain and was often in agony when he moved it. He hardly got any sleep as a result and l;ibved off painkillers. He wanted to fix it, but hadn't recieved much help, and didn't know how to improve it and was worried he would make it worse and injured himself again.
He has been with me for two years now. He has two personal training sessions a week where we worked on a combination of strength and mobility work. He was given extra mobility work to be done in between sessions as well.
At the start he was extremely limited in what strength work he could do. Doing barbell work wasn't an option as he couldn't even get in the starting position. He wasn't able to press anything over his head, or do any exercises where the elbows went past his body like with the bench press.
To start with all we did was dumbbell floor presses, split squats, hamstring work, lots of single-arm back and rear delt work as none of this aggravated his shoulders and he could perform them safely without having to twist his body to perform them. Gradually over time as his mobility and strength have improved we have been able to add more exercises.
The increase in strength and mobility has been remarkable. Most importantly his quality of life has improved outside the gym. He has gone from not being able to lift his hands high enough to put money in the cark park metre to being able to lift his hands overhead and touch each other. Simple day to day activities that were difficult before have become much easier and he finds he's not as limited while playing with his son.
If you have an old injury which has left you with strength or mobility issues, get in touch and come in for a chat and see if I can help you. We also have a physio at the gym that I work with.
After tearing their rotator cuff it's people will suffer from a lack of mobility and strength after tearing their rotator cuff. This is in part because of poor aftercare, but it doesn't have to stay like this.
The NHS is particularly poor when it comes to the aftercare it offers due to a limited budget. I had personal experience with this when I fractured my knee. The NHS was so slow to get me booked in to see a physio, and then there was a massive gap for I was booked in to see them for a second time. I ended up only seeing them once before realising I was better off doing it myself. Fortunately, I had the knowledge to do it and I regained full strength and mobility in my knee to the point that I can't remember if it was my right or left knee that I injured. Unfortunately, this I see this often with my clients in my job
I currently have a client that has torn his rotor cuff twice. I asked him what aftercare he was given after surgery and he told me he was given a few exercises and when he asked them how long it would take he was told it could take months or years. He did what they told him to do and the result was that he ended up with severe strength and mobility issues. The exercises they gave him were totally inadequate.
When he came to me he couldn't lift his arm up to his side without twisting his body and couldn't lift his arms overhead. He was in constant pain and was often in agony when he moved it. He hardly got any sleep as a result and l;ibved off painkillers. He wanted to fix it, but hadn't recieved much help, and didn't know how to improve it and was worried he would make it worse and injured himself again.
He has been with me for two years now. He has two personal training sessions a week where we worked on a combination of strength and mobility work. He was given extra mobility work to be done in between sessions as well.
At the start he was extremely limited in what strength work he could do. Doing barbell work wasn't an option as he couldn't even get in the starting position. He wasn't able to press anything over his head, or do any exercises where the elbows went past his body like with the bench press.
To start with all we did was dumbbell floor presses, split squats, hamstring work, lots of single-arm back and rear delt work as none of this aggravated his shoulders and he could perform them safely without having to twist his body to perform them. Gradually over time as his mobility and strength have improved we have been able to add more exercises.
The increase in strength and mobility has been remarkable. Most importantly his quality of life has improved outside the gym. He has gone from not being able to lift his hands high enough to put money in the cark park metre to being able to lift his hands overhead and touch each other. Simple day to day activities that were difficult before have become much easier and he finds he's not as limited while playing with his son.
If you have an old injury which has left you with strength or mobility issues, get in touch and come in for a chat and see if I can help you. We also have a physio at the gym that I work with.