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Meet Your Muscles - The Rotator Cuff: part 3

Posted Feb 10 2009 11:32am

Alright you are almost an official rotator cuff master!

Over the past two blog posts you have learned: 


1.What musclesmake up the rotator cuff  and where they are located

2.What does the rotator cuff dofor the shoulder joint


Now today, we are gonna discusswhere a typical exerciser's shoulder pain can come from.

Before we dive into this I want you to look at the shoulder joint and the rotator cuff one last time....




 

Beautiful, isn't it?

Take note of four things:

1. 'The ball' of the humerus (on the left) and how much space is above it between the clavicle

2. How the rotator cuff tendon (white is tendon, red is muscle) completely covers 'the ball' and its relationship to the bone (acromion - the very edge of the clavicle) right above it 

3. There isNOT a lot of spacebetween the rotator cuff tendon and that bone that sticks out above it

4. This space is calledsub-acromialspace


MOST common shoulder injuries for exercisers and weight lifters are from three main origins:

1. areduction in sub-acromial space

2. repetitive exercises/movements that can lead tooveruse of pecs, lats, anterior delts, and biceps

3. Muscle imbalances between these small external rotator cuff muscles and large muscles that cause internal rotation (pecs, lats, and delts).


All of the above origins of injury can result in the humeral head (the ball)pinching and rubbing the tendons surrounding it on the nearby bones.

Over time this can result in injuries like shoulder impingement and/or rotator cuff tendonitis. It is these conditions to the rotator cuff that can cause pain in your shoulder.




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