If you have shoulder pain, you’ve probably heard the term “rotator cuff” before, but you might not know what the rotator cuff actually is.

In this video, I’ll explain how the rotator cuff is made up of four small muscles, and I’ll tell you how these muscles function to stabilize your shoulder joint when you move your arm.

These muscles include the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis.

Towards the end of the video, I’ll also explain why rotator cuff pain is so common (things like rotator cuff tendonitis and tendinosis, as well as impingement).

This should help you understand why shoulder pain is so common, and why the rotator cuff muscles are often involved.

If you have shoulder pain and you think your rotator cuff might be torn, it’s very important that you figure out if it’s torn quickly!

That’s because any significant or massive tears that require surgery are time sensitive… the longer you delay surgery, the more you risk an unsuccessful surgical outcome.

So, if you think you might have a serious rotator cuff tear, check out the video below where I’ll share 3 telling signs that your rotator cuff might be torn.

hen you’re first trying to get on top of your shoulder pain, you want to focus on pain-free stretches that allow you to increase your “range of motion” (ROM) without increasing your shoulder pain.

In this video, I’ll demonstrate four simple stretches to help ease shoulder pain and prevent too much tightness from developing.

The four stretches include the following:

– Pendulums
– Table Slides
– Pulleys
– Wall Slides

you have shoulder pain, when you’re first starting to strengthen your shoulder you want to make sure you perform pain-free exercises.

For many people with shoulder pain, performing gentle rotator cuff isometrics is a great place to start.

Later on, as their strength is improving with these exercises, they can progress to more active strengthening (like using a resistance band or tubing).

In this video, I’ll demonstrate two simple-to-perform rotator cuff isometric exercises (external rotation and internal rotation).

If you’ve been struggling with shoulder pain, you might be wondering if it’s better to use ice for pain relief vs. using heat for pain relief.

The answer to that question really depends on two things:

– What’s causing your shoulder pain?

– What are you hoping to accomplish?

For example, if you have rotator cuff tendonitis, you might favor ice. And if you have rotator cuff tendinosis, you might favor heat.

At other times, it might be beneficial to use BOTH ice and heat in the same day.

Again, it really comes down to the cause of your shoulder pain, as well as what you hope the ice/heat will do for you.