Importance of Flexibility in a Sports Rotator-Cuff Injury

A tear in your rotator cuff is quite painful, and having to sit out from your chosen sport makes it doubly frustrating. As with any shoulder injury, it is very important to slowly reintroduce movement in order to avoid a stiff joint. Incorporating flexibility exercises and stretching into your workout routines helps to get you off the bench and back in the game as quickly as possible.

Identification

• The rotator cuff is actually a group of tendons and muscles that secure the shoulder ball in the socket, preventing it from slipping out during physical exertion. An injury to the rotator cuff may appear after experiencing shoulder trauma, such as in a collision with another player. Sometimes it may be the culmination of repetitive stress on the joint, which is common among baseball players, quarterbacks and bowlers. A torn rotator cuff will often present itself as weakness and greatly reduced flexibility in the shoulder and will require you to immediately leave the game.

Causes

• The most common cause of a rotator-cuff injury is sudden force placed on the joint, as when a hockey player is checked against the boards. It can also form as a side effect of dislocation due to a fall or a collision in a game. Repetitive motions such as throwing a football or a baseball or holding your arm in the same position for a long time (as with catchers or goalies) lead to poor flexibility in the shoulder; this, in turn, weakens the shoulder's ability to cope with sudden movements and reduces its range of motion. This is why flexibility exercises are so important.

Benefits

• One of the major benefits of incorporating shoulder flexibility exercises into your workout is to avoid injuring the sensitive rotator cuff muscle while playing your sport. The cuff is made up of many tendons that do not receive as much blood or nutrients as major muscles, making them much more susceptible to injury. Stretching muscles following a shoulder injury allows them to regrow more healthily and keeps the joint limber. This is especially important for pitchers and quarterbacks, who have to rely on their shoulder strength to throw.

Prevention/Solution

• Stretches help stabilize the shoulder joint and improve overall flexibility in the area, making sports injuries in the rotator cuff less likely to occur. Yoga poses such as the "Warrior," that extend your arms, increase the range of motion in your shoulder. Making windmill motions with your arms also maintains looseness in the shoulder joints, and it is easy to do even during a game (you often see pitchers doing this on the mound). If you do have a preexisting injury in the shoulder area, make sure you sit out at least a few games until it heals, as overuse will exacerbate the injury.

Considerations

• If you are experiencing severe pain or stiffness in the shoulder or if you have the sensation of tingling or numbness in the affected arm, report this to your team's physical trainer immediately. A severely torn cuff may take months to fully heal, forcing you may miss a sizable portion of your sports season. Discuss with your trainer (or a health-care professional) which treatment options are best suited to your particular needs and the sport that you play. Carefully perform movements from your sport, such as throwing, shooting a basket or swinging a bat, in a slow and controlled fashion to reintroduce the joint to those motions.