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Eatmorechicken
New member
Rotator cuff injuries are very common due to imbalanced overuse issues and risky exercises.
It's very common for people to do a lot of upper body pressing movements without also doing comparable amounts of pulling work in similar planes of movement. That sets up strength and flexibility imbalances between opposing muscles groups making one more injury prone. Also, the muscles performing the external rotation function just don't get much in the way of sufficient adaptive training through any of the typical exercises, other than the Olympic lifts, if you consider them typical. So if the Olympic lifts aren't ideal for your goals, you're pretty much forced to throw in some direct isolation movements for the external rotator function if you want to ensure avoiding injury due to imbalance issues.
Also, there are just some movements that are unnatural for most people's biomechanics and therefore associated with more injury risk. Before I injured my rotator cuff, the behind-the-neck press was my favorite movement, and I was using it frequently. I was also doing dumbell pullovers on occasion. After injuring my shoulder, I found out both of these exercises fall into the rotator injury prone risk group. Also in this group are upright rows, dips, behind-the-neck pulldowns, and arnold presses. Of course individual biomechanics varies and allows some people to use these movements effectively without issue, but as a general rule, these seem to be commonly accepted by sports therapists as involving greater risk for a lot of people.
Pay no attention to it, and you just may end up with a serious enough tear for expensive surgery and long rehab only to end up with sub-optimal shoulder functionality for the rest of your life after it's all said and done. Thankfully mine did not get that bad, but I've had a couple unfortunate acquaintences of whom theirs' did.
It's very common for people to do a lot of upper body pressing movements without also doing comparable amounts of pulling work in similar planes of movement. That sets up strength and flexibility imbalances between opposing muscles groups making one more injury prone. Also, the muscles performing the external rotation function just don't get much in the way of sufficient adaptive training through any of the typical exercises, other than the Olympic lifts, if you consider them typical. So if the Olympic lifts aren't ideal for your goals, you're pretty much forced to throw in some direct isolation movements for the external rotator function if you want to ensure avoiding injury due to imbalance issues.
Also, there are just some movements that are unnatural for most people's biomechanics and therefore associated with more injury risk. Before I injured my rotator cuff, the behind-the-neck press was my favorite movement, and I was using it frequently. I was also doing dumbell pullovers on occasion. After injuring my shoulder, I found out both of these exercises fall into the rotator injury prone risk group. Also in this group are upright rows, dips, behind-the-neck pulldowns, and arnold presses. Of course individual biomechanics varies and allows some people to use these movements effectively without issue, but as a general rule, these seem to be commonly accepted by sports therapists as involving greater risk for a lot of people.
Pay no attention to it, and you just may end up with a serious enough tear for expensive surgery and long rehab only to end up with sub-optimal shoulder functionality for the rest of your life after it's all said and done. Thankfully mine did not get that bad, but I've had a couple unfortunate acquaintences of whom theirs' did.
