Around 6/7 weeks ago i fell off and landed with my right arm outstretched. It hurt! I work with someone in the know (surgeons) and they said i'll have damaged my rotator cuff. I'm still getting pain and although it's nowhere near as bad as it was i don't want to damage it any more before its healed properly. Too much movement seems to inflame it.

Has anyone else had the same injury, and if so when would it be safe to get back on the bike again? Im not sure i can wait that much longer!

I dislocated my shoulders last year and ever since they’ve been weak. If I come off the bike or slip on some ice (as has been the case recently) I instinctively put out my arm to brace the fall. If the force is sufficient this action inevitably results in a shoulder subluxation. That is to say a partial dislocation and I have to fanny about with my shoulder twisting the humus back into the joint!

If you suspect you have a rotator cuff injury, do yourself a favour, see your GP and discuss a referral appointment to see a Physiotherapist ASAP. They will advise as to rest periods etc.

They may recommend exercises such as this; which is what I've been doing recently to build strength and hopefully avoid operations – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm7xqu-pOEc&feature=related

All the best.

cheers deluded, i did go to see my gp about it a while back and he told me to take some painkillers and use ibuprofen gel which seems to help, but nothing about exercising or about what the actual problem might be. pretty useless really. This is what gets me about GPs – he could have easily referred me to a physio there and then but didn't and now i'm still having problems with it.

Go see someone who knows about shoulders (it will probably need to be private). The best outcome is that they give you exercises to help with rehab, the worst it that you need to be referred to an orthopod for a repair. I would advise against leaving it to get better on its own after this time.

Get a physio – now. I didn't with my shoulder injury and ended up needing injections into the joint.

You have been told.

Rotator cuff injuries are potentially nasty. go get it properly diagnosed. You will need a lot of physio and maybe steroid injections.

they come in different degrees of severity and different parts of the joint capsule are affected. I did one years ago and have been left with a slight permanent deficit

That video shows the exercises you need to be doing. Try a body building forum for more info as it's a popular issue with them.

Do not do exercises without proper professional advice. You could easily make it worse.

seeing the gp tomorrow

i saw my gp this morning and he said to do some exercises against resistance so i've bought a big rubber band off ebay and plan to do some of the exercises off that youtube link. Many thanks 🙂

I've done this twice (both times stacking shoulder first on the bike). First time i went to the physio after a few weeks, the exercises I got sorted it. Second time I went to the physio straight away and it healed quicker.

So in summary, go to the physio, and secondly enjoy the comedy that is putting on a t-shirt with a torn rotar cuff!

I had this on my right shoulder in 2008. Still gives me occaisional twinge even now!
At the time it was agony.
Best bit of advice the physio gave me was to watch my posture, you tend to hunch your shoulder to relieve the pain. This compresses the damaged area and makes it worse. You have to keep your shoulder "dropped and back", imagine trying to get your shoulder blade to move down and towards your spine. This helped loads.

Go see someone who knows what they are talking about. If you have rotator cuff damage it could be to any combination of four muscles, each has a different action. Doing the exercises in the right way under the right load is important. Given that this happened nearly 2 months ago you will also have other related muscles misbehaving – these need looking at too.
If it's a simple problem it should only take a couple of appointments, if it isn't at least you know what you are dealing with – money well spent IMHO

Minimum diagnostic input should be full clinical exam, Ultrasound and MRI the latter being fairly definitive, a large number of true rotator cuff tears do need surgery, most done these days with keyhole surgery.

I was skeptical about exercising my arm after a problem with my rotator cuff at the start of last year as if just seemed to hurt more, but I followed the physio's instructions and used the Therra-band stuff. After a few months the full movement was back in my arm, although I do tend to be more cautious now when over reaching.

I did mine falling at very slow speed sideways off my bike – after a few days i gradually realised i was struggling to lift my arm.

GP referred me to a physio – who gave me a load of exercises with a big blue elastic band.

In certain planes (?) my sholder was really weak – physio could move my arm and i had no strength to resist.

Apparently stting hunched over laptops doesnt help either so i had a load of stretching and twisting and posture work.

All sorted now. 😉

MRI eventually found out what was wrong with my shoulder. I did it when I was BB though. Had to have surgery on the AC joint, bicep tendon and rotator cuff. All done by 5 little holes!

I did exactly the same thing in November. Still not healed despite multiple doctor visits 🙁

LIke yo I fell off, using my arm to break the fall, but kew straight away I'd injured it. I rode home but by the next morning couldn't move my arm. The doc said "oh it'll be better in a couple of week with Ibuprofen", but it wasn;t so I went back. That doc has left (she was a temp – locum is it?) so another doc had a look and confirmed I'd damaged the supraspinatus, and said it would get better in a couple of weeks with Ibuprofen. it didn't so I went back a third time. This Doc prescribed some stronger anti-inflammatories, which was a bad idea as I had a bad reaction to them! She then swapped that for some gel (voltarol) and that was great it made a massive difference, but didn't sort it entirely, and after 10 days I was beginning to suffer the side effects that I'd experienced with the tablets, so I went back again. I saw the doc I'd seen on my second visit who was slightly reluctant to believe that could happen, and reluctant to do anything other than advise me to wait and see if would get better on it's own. I refused and insisted he arrange a cortisone injection, which he eventually agreed to do. I had the injection over two weeks ago, but it doesn't appear to have worked. Will have to see about going back to the docs, I was told it could take up to two weeks for the cortisone to kick in but if anything the injury is flaring up again. It's usually fine through the day unless I aggravate it by making certain specific movements – unfortunately as I normally climb, play volleyball and ride bikes, the movements which trigger the injury are those which I would use to climb and play volleyball, although I'm ok now when riding bikes

yes, will call the docs tomorrow and go back, I think. I've go BUPA cover but with a £100 excess 🙁

I'm the same it's any movements above the head which cause pain. It's good to know you're ok on the bike, the doc has told me i'll be ok unless i fall off and land on it again in which case it might be serious. So i'll try and get out again now the snow's gone but just take it steady

There's definitely no need for steroid injections or surgery for this one, i'd know if it was torn 🙂

Did mine a couple of years ago after an over the handlebars moment after hitting a marmot hole in the alps! Couldn't move it for weeks then didn't really do much about it. Lost a lot of muscle due to over-compensating with other arm – weird how the brain works like that, anyway finally got physio about 4 months later to get it stretched out and mobile again, still not 100% 2 years later but lots better. Get it sorted sooner rather than later.

If it's a serious rotator cuff injury, strength isn't going to fix it, you'll need surgery. It's a really common problem in sports where throwing is a key part and to get proper use of the arm again, going under the knife is the only way.

Of course it depends on how much less pain you get with the exercise (check out some baseball websites for good shoulder exercises) and whether you can live with it.

From what i've read there's different degrees of damage ranging from a sprain to torn to snapped completely and i think mine falls into the sprain category. I'm hoping those rubber band exercises are going to sort me, cheers deluded 🙂

Hope it gets sorted bomberman – most of it's been said above, but if it continues to give gip, you'll need to get it scanned to find out what exactly is wrong.
I went through 6 weeks of physio (including hard massage right on the sore point (ow!)) and eventually a scan showed that there were bone chips floating around in my shoulder. So no amount of physio would've sorted it! Had to have surgery and god it was painful. Morphine though, wow maaaan…

Dam, been there and it sucks. Hope you get mended.

Tore mine maybe 8/9 years ago snowboarding, trying to master 360s – came round short and at a funny angle and hit the deck hard, catching my elbow in the snow which pulled my arm from the shoulder socket. Saw a physio and got the exercises and the big rubber band but didn't stick with it properly and soon aggravated it.

For the next couple of years it didn't get the chance to heal and the shoulder dislocated maybe 20-30 times – riding, playing football, sneezing – got to the stage where I could put it back in without much bother, but I couldn't carry anything in my right hand or throw anything. I'd been on an NHS waiting list for a corrective operation since the start, but heard nothing at all.

Someone I spoke to recommended swimming breast stroke as a way of strengthening the muscle, so I did – swam about a km and a half at least 4 days a week for a year or so, which was sore at first but became easier after a while and I could feel the benefit (and enjoyed the fitness payoff).

Since then I've dislocated it once, maybe 3 years ago, smacking into a rock face snowboarding (which I had to reset myself by grabbing a binding strap and trying to stand up) – just carried on swimming and everything was fine.

No dislocations since (despite a few incidents where I felt certain it would happen) and no pain throwing and normal strength. There's a chip out of the top of the bone in my upper arm (can't remember what the bone's called) which can cause a sharp twinge when my arm's twisted a certain way, but that's rare.

Everyone's injury is different of course, but I'd certainly recommend swimming breast-stroke – its more or less the same resistance movement as the big rubber band exercise. Takes a while to have an effect, but worked wonders for me.

Good luck!

haven't read all of these, but I'm fairly certain that a GP won't be able to help much except for prescribing ibuprofen. Go and see a good sports physio, and definetely get some excercise band. I used to do it to help prevent injury from playing sport and it really works.

Diagnosis, diagnosis, diagnosis then appropriate treatment follows like night follows day!

I did mine about 11 years ago and struggled for years with it. It would half pop out of the socket and back in but it was the most painful thing I've ever known. Happened a couple of times biking which was scary, and 10ft up a boulder problem which was scarier, but it happened mostly playing football when striking the ball hard with the right foot, swinging my left arm for balance swung it out of joint. Excruciating it was.

GP sent me for physio where I did resistance exercises but didn't really feel it was doing much so I went for surgery and haven't had a problem since, other than that shoulder will always be weaker (not helped by breaking the same collar bone 3 times).

My advice would be to go for surgery if its an option. Unless you feel the physio is working, but I think mine was too damaged for physio to do much good.

Just back from the docs, had a second cortisone injection fro a different angle – from the back rather than the side. Fingers crossed it works!

I had mine cut open for an ORIF. You dont want to mess with this area.

Get pro help.

My arm will be about 85% capacity for ever.

My arm is mostly fine – it just one little post of inflammation on a tendon. If I move carefully, it's fine. If I make a sudden movement with my arms up, it's like someone's stabbed me.

Just to make a quick update, i've been doing the rubber band exercises a couple of times a week and also over the last few weeks i've been doing simple tricep curls with 5kg weights and it is coming on leaps and bounds. The more strengthening exercises i do the better it gets. I did it early in December and it's taken 4 months to get it to this stage 😯

exercising over the head is still a no-no but i should think a bike ride *may* be over the horizon in the next few weeks!

yay!

Nice one. I'm alright riding but I still get pain in mine when I got to bed – often wake up as it's quite uncomfortable. Seems to be fine during th day though, oddly :S

100% recovery here by sticking to physios strengthening exercises

when went to physio couldn't get stuff out of cupboards or sleep on side

mine from driving/keyboard/bike falling/climbing when old not listening on antagonistics

good news is you can fix it

if do the stuff physio says if can't pay for physio google it stacks of self help espec' on climbing sites just need to do it

The SO did her cuff in a crash straddling slalom poles. Sports physio did wonders. She was skiing very cautiously within 2 weeks and after a few months there was just a dull ache and now she's fine.

Physio good.

good to hear – just started getting a recurrence of an old Rotator cuff impingement and its hurting like hell sleeping – I wake up in big pain in the small hours when the ibuprofen has worn off. Aggravated by working above my head (hammering in joist hangers).

Fine during the day when my stabilising muscles are all working, just rubbish at night when lying flat. Unfortunately my physio has been off sick and only just returning to work with a 3 wk waiting list :(. Need to find another, or may go and see Osteo…

I had the key hole operation on my right shoulder on Dec 18th last year, 6 wks in a sling, started commuting by bike this tuesday. Just finishing physio.

I first hurt it (crashing, out stretched arm, wrenching tearing feeling, hurt alot, managed to ride then drive home but stiff for a few days) in 2004 and various offs (some of ewhich were really minor) repeated the process on 4-5 occasions until this summer I had my first sublux that hurt exquisitely but doing chicken impressions got it to slide back in quite easily at which point the pain melted away and I finished the race in question. Happened again at D2D and saw GP a few weeks later having done some research amongst friends.

Consultant examined himself, x rayed then MRI scan all of which showed some but not massive damage. He said if I wasn't going to ride again then leave it but if i insisted on mountain biking then I ought to have the op. Excercises were never mentioned as a solution – he said cartilage etc doesn't mend itself (I may be mis quoting but that was the gist), I did worry he was incentivised to recommend (his) op but the op worked for a mate a few years ago so I chose to do it at start of winter. HONC will be my first proper event (not that its a race!!)

6 weeks in a sling is tedious esp if you need to drive. I missed riding in the snow!

What's the rotator cuff? Sounds painful.

Excercises were never mentioned as a solution – he said cartilage etc doesn't mend itself

difference between torn and inflamed
torn = op
inflamed/swollen and rubbing as passes thru shoulder blade physio/exercise

edit

What's the rotator cuff? Sounds painful.

muscle and thingies that pass thru hole in shoulder blade and stabilise all your arm movements* *i made that up but is sort of right poss' better than wiki