ROTATOR CUFF PAIN ASSESSMENT: WHICH MUSCLE IS IT

What do you do for rotator cuff pain? That’s another question I get along with “What are the best exercises for rotator cuff pain?”, which I’ll get to in my next blog article. The answer is that it depends on which of the rotator cuff muscles is irritable. An effective intervention for an irritable supraspinatus tendon should look different than that for an irritable subscapularis tendon.

There are two important components, then, to intervening more efficiently on rotator cuff pain. First is understanding the function of each of the rotator cuff muscles so that you can specifically and accurately adjust the training load and modify exercises to support the rehab process. The second is being able to identify the pain triggers which will help you identify which muscle is more likely irritable.

The rotator cuff is composed of four different muscles. Together, these muscles function to stabilize the humeral head within the glenoid fossa during upper extremity movement. Although they are commonly visualized as “external rotators”, the largest and strongest muscle of the cuff, the subscapularis, is actually a powerful internal rotator, whereas the main action of the supraspinatus is not in external rotation.

This is the reason why the classic external rotation exercise that is often generically prescribed for everything rotator cuff related is usually a hit or miss.

While together the muscles of the cuff have a stabilization role for the glenohumeral joint, individually they have important functions for various movements involving the upper extremity. These are important to take into consideration when looking to avoid pain triggers or to avoid overloading a tendon that has decreased tolerance.

If either of these two is missing, you’ll probably also miss the target, which is helping your clients move without pain.

Check out the full article at: https://rehab-u.com/blog/rotator-cuff...

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