How do I fix my rotator cuff?

What does the rotator cuff do?

Consider that your "rotator cuff" are all muscles surrounding your shoulderblade. The acronym is SITS for: Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres Minor, Subscapularis. Why is this important? If you're relying on one side of this structure that's designed to keep the ball inside that socket, even better "centered" in that socket... if there's a positional bias which leads to imbalance, at some point you will be facing an overload injury from one side or the other.

How do you fix shoulder pain at the root?

Our priority is to address the shoulderblade, as it sits at the root of the tension/overload that is related to the imbalances and lack of capacity. This causes the nerve impingement, as well as the tension being loaded onto the neck.

There are cases where we need to dig deeper and address core stability to manage rib-flare, or arching of the back, as people have built a default mechanism to "cheat" the requisite movement asked of the shoulder itself.

Learning about the role of your shoulderblade in shoulder health, improving the capacity and integrating it to better movement quality, is the only way to regulate the stress placed on your nerve bundle connecting through your shoulder.

More in the shoulder series

• How do I fix my shoulder pain?

• What's the root cause of numbness in my arm?

Want help finding where your shoulder is getting stuck? Work with us.

This article is for education and isn't a substitute for an individual assessment. If you're in pain, get checked by a qualified professional.