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.
It's common for people to 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 be 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 is 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., Most people don't know how to rehab an injury.
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. He couldn't lift his arm up to the side, or above his head without having to twist his whole body, and it caused him constant pain when he moved it. He wanted to fix it, but hadn't recieved any help, and didn't want to go to the gym by himself in case he made it worse and injured himself again.
He has been with me for 3 months. He has two personal training sessions a week where we worked on a combination of strength and mobility work. He also saw our sports massage therapist Hedi Burns once a week. He was given mobility work to be done in between sessions as well.
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 behind his body like with the bench press.
To start with all we did was dumbbell floor presses, single-arm back work, split squats, leg press, and machine hamstring curls 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 in such a short time. Most importantly his quality of life has improved outside the gym. Simple day to day activities that were difficult before have become easier and he finds he's not as limited while playing with his son.
It's common for people to 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 be 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 is 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., Most people don't know how to rehab an injury.
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. He couldn't lift his arm up to the side, or above his head without having to twist his whole body, and it caused him constant pain when he moved it. He wanted to fix it, but hadn't recieved any help, and didn't want to go to the gym by himself in case he made it worse and injured himself again.
He has been with me for 3 months. He has two personal training sessions a week where we worked on a combination of strength and mobility work. He also saw our sports massage therapist Hedi Burns once a week. He was given mobility work to be done in between sessions as well.
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 behind his body like with the bench press.
To start with all we did was dumbbell floor presses, single-arm back work, split squats, leg press, and machine hamstring curls 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 in such a short time. Most importantly his quality of life has improved outside the gym. Simple day to day activities that were difficult before have become easier and he finds he's not as limited while playing with his son.