Rotator Cuff: Exercises and Strategies to Prevent Injury
Have you ever experienced a dull ache or sharp pain in your shoulder or upper arm? Maybe you are unable to sleep on one side because your shoulder wakes you up at night. Perhaps, you have discomfort reaching behind your back to tuck in your shirt or grab your wallet. If so, you may be suffering from a rotator cuff injury.
Rotator cuff injuries, such as tendonitis, bursitis and tears plague several people in our population. The rotator cuff consists of four small muscles, which form a sleeve around the shoulder and allow us to raise our arm overhead effectively. These muscles, consisting of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis, oppose the action of the deltoid and depress the head of the humerus (upper arm) during shoulder elevation to prevent impingement.
The most commonly injured muscle is the supraspinatus. It is responsible for initiating and aiding in elevation of the arm. If torn, the individual typically experiences persistent pain in the upper lateral arm and significant difficulty raising the arm without compensatory motion from the scapula (shrug sign). The hallmark signs of a tear are nocturnal pain, loss of strength, and inability to raise the arm overhead.
However, acute tendonitis may also present with similar signs and symptoms, as pain can inhibit motion and strength. Yet, symptoms associated with tendonitis normally respond to rest, ice, anti-inflammatory medication and therapeutic exercise.
Rotator cuff tears are most common in men age 65 and older. Tears and/or injury are typically related to degeneration, instability, bone spurs, trauma, overuse and diminished strength/flexibility related to the aging process. However, youth are also at risk for injury if they are involved in repetitive overhead sports, including swimming, volleyball, baseball, softball, tennis, gymnastics, etc.
Many people can function adequately with a torn rotator cuff provided they have a low to moderate pain level. The primary reason for performing rotator cuff surgery is to alleviate pain rather than to restore function. It is common for post surgical patients to lose some mobility/range of motion. strength recovery is dictated by the size of tear, quality of the torn tissue at the time of surgery, time elapsed between injury and repair, and the surgeons ability to recreate the proper anatomical relationship.
It may take up to 18 months following surgery to completely recover, although most people return to normal activities of daily living in 3-6 months. On the contrary, tendonitis usually resolves within 4-6 weeks, depending on the management of the injury.
The key to avoiding rotator cuff injury is performing adequate conditioning prior to stressing it with vigorous activities. Many weekend warriors try to pick up the softball, baseball, football, etc. and begin throwing repetitively and forcefully without properly warming up. In addition, they are not likely to condition before the season like competitive athletes.
This often leads to excessive strain on the rotator cuff and swelling. The inevitable result is soreness, especially with overhead movement or reaching behind the back. The act of throwing is the most stressful motion on the shoulder. The rotator cuff is forced to decelerate the humerus during follow through at speeds up to 7000 degrees/second.
without proper strength and conditioning, the shoulder easily becomes inflamed. Since the rotator cuff muscles are small, it is best to utilize lower resistance and higher repetitions to sufficiently strengthen them. sample exercises include theraband or light dumbbell external and internal rotation exercises, which can be performed at various degrees of abduction.
Other common exercises include forward elevation to shoulder height in the plane of the scapula (scaption), press-ups, prone dumbbell horizontal abduction with external rotation, and diagonal arm patterns with bands, weights or medicine balls. In addition to cuff specific exercises, it is also important to strengthen the muscles around the shoulder blade. These exercises include wall push-ups with a plus (rounding shoulder blades), shrugs, rows and lower trapezius exercises.
Finally, it is important to note some precautions with general exercises routinely performed in health clubs. I recommend the following suggestions to prevent rotator cuff problems:
Avoid lat pull downs and military presses behind the head, as they place the shoulder in a poor biomechanical position encouraging impingement.
Do not lower the bar or dumbbells below parallel with incline/flat bench press for the aforementioned reason.
Refrain from using too much weight with lateral shoulder raises. This exercise increases the load on the shoulder to 90% of the body weight, so there is no need to use heavy weight. It is best to maintain an arc of movement slightly in front of the body with lateral raises to decrease stress on the rotator cuff, while avoiding elevation above 90 degrees.
Specific rotator cuff exercises can be incorporated into upper body workouts. Perform 2 sets of 15-25 repetitions for each exercise. These exercises should be done no more than three times per week to avoid overtraining.
Brian Schiff, PT, CSCS, is a respected author, physical therapist and fitness expert. For more information on his e-book on resolving rotator cuff pain, visit http://www.rotatorcufftraining.com. This article was originally published in Business First Columbus, Ohio in 2004.
Copyright 2004 Brian Schiff
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Geocaching The Technology Behind The Hi-Tech Treasure Hunt
It all started on May 2, 2000 with the removal of selective availability by the White House. (Selective Availability is the intentional modification of GPS signal to degrade accuracy of readings) At that moment, the GPS receiver became 10 times more accurate.
GPS, or Global Positioning system is a navigational system which operates through the use of twenty-four satellites positioned around the globe in low Earth orbit. These sattelites were placed by the U.S. Department of Defense but are free for the world to use.
Each satellite above the Earth is solar-powered, with a battery back-up for times during eclipses. They send a signal that is extremely accurate, within 40 billionths of a second. GPS receivers take the signal from the satellites and use triangulation to calculate the exact location of the user, as well as speed, distance traveled, and elevation.
Triangulation works by the receiver using the signals of three or more satellites to determine location. It is a trigonometric process that identifies the position of a point using the bearings to it from two fixed points a known distance apart.
Before Selective Availability was removed, GPS units received a scrambled signal which affected their accuracy. After May 2, 2000, a new world of opportunity involving GPS opened up.
GPS units are popping up more and more these days as their particular usefulness is recognized by the general public. Many cars today offer a GPS navigational system to help guide you to your destination.
One day after the removal of selective availability, a computer consultant by the name of David Ulmer decided to test the new accuracy. He hid a container in a forest in Oregon and shared the coordinates with an online community. Within a week, several people found his container, and they started hiding their own. Thus, Geocaching was born.
The name of the hobby is simple enough Geo meaning Earth and cache referring to hidden treasure. Taking part in the sport is also simple. The only tools required are the GPS unit and a love for adventure.
The seeker acquires coordinates to the hidden container through the hobbys official website www.geocaching.com. The GPS unit points the way, with an accuracy usually within 25 meters. Once at the location, the seeker must hunt for the hidden cache which may be in a tree stump, in between rocks or even hanging in the air!
The containers may also vary in size, from small keyholders or 35 mm film canisters to large buckets or ammo cans. Each container normally contains a log book for the finder to sign and also may hold various items and trinkets available for trading. Generally the finder takes an item and leaves another item in its place.
The removal of Selective Availability allows civilian use of GPS technology, which has led to many advantages. In addition to the hobby of geocaching, GPS is also used in surveying, exploration, mapping and various location and transportation systems, among many other uses. Geocaching is just one example of how GPS technology is used by civilians today. Technology at its finest offers a plethora of applications.
Tonia Jordan is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for all kinds of writers. Her portfolio can be found at http://www.Writing.Com/authors/spidergirl so stop by and read for a while.
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How To Monitor Weight Loss?
Too much TV-->Too much junk-food-->Lack physical activity= obesity
Childhood obesity is a disease that goes treated with the professional support like: doctors-dietists-psycologists could provide help kids to start this slow and difficult way.
The prevention is basic if assisted through a "program" based on self-control.
The rules of prevention are:
to reduce the sedentariness: to avoid that our children spend most of their time watching TV and playing videogames influenced by marketing, misleading advertising about sofdrinks, hyper caloric snacks and other foods.
Daily physical activity: a long walking is surely healthier and is the equivalent to waste energy almost 3 times higher than that obtained spending the same time watching TV. Especially are suggested: swimming and biking. The benefits of physical activity are many, from reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases to improvement of mental health.
balanced nutrition: the dietetic therapy beyond having the purpose to reduce the weight of child also should educate him and his family to a stable nutrition looking for:
- to reduce the caloric insertion.
- to introduce meals that makes feel gratifyied.
- to control the introduction of fat and proteins of animal origins.
- to increase the contribution of carbohydrates to high absorption like fruit
and vegetables.
- to decrease the quantity of simple sugar.
- to increase the income of fibers with integral food and the daily
insertion of vitamins and minerals.
The overweight's reduction must be gradual and at long term. Planning new nutritional habits either in the child's life or in all family, preventing mistakes in the nutrition from the part of the family members.
The child must feel himself like a protagonist of choosing the food respecting the right nutrition and not consider the hyper caloric diet as an order.
To not become overweight and to live in healthy way it's very important to give a "rhythm" to the daily nutrition.
To the 3 main meals, namely, breakfast, lunch and dinner is necessary to add 2-3 light snacks: yogurth, some fruit or milk avoiding snacks and cracker hypercalorics.
All this to avoid getting the child at the table too starved.
A health feeding education is checking the food's quality but also the quantity of the consumed food. Good quality = right quantity
eating smarter and being more active!!!
Cinzia Cervellini is a private article writer and owner of blog: http://defeat-childhood-obesity.blogspot.com, a public space where she loves sharing with the persons who asking and looking forward the responses about childhood obesity, issue of critical and increasing importance.
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