Hi,

I'm a 18 year old male who was diagnosed with a strained rotator cuff at college in December 2019. I went to a PT who was very unhelpful, only prescribing rest and telling me that shoulders take a "long" time to heal. After months of doing bs band internal/external rotations in my dorm room we were sent home from college due to COVID. It was at home that I began reading SSBBT. It was in it that I learned more about rehab than I had from months of going to physical therapy.

The section on the press clarified to me that the rotator cuff muscles are worked during a press and I figured I could rehab myself using dumbbells that I have at home. With a little more digging into the strength training world I came across the following article and videos which completely changed my outlook on pain. It's safe to say that learning about the bio-psycho-social model of pain was a literal game changer. Dr. Baraki's lecture linked below gave me hope that I could get become to being pain-free and eventually, stronger.

YouTube

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In quarantine I started my rehab with light 7.5 lb dumbbells for 3 sets of 20. Progressively, I loaded my shoulder to the point where I am now able to do 3 x 10 with 25lbs dumbbells. My shoulder used to ache all day, and it is now to the point where I experience no pain. I am happy with the progress that I have made and I am excited to continue strengthening my press when gyms open up and barbells and heavier weights become available to me. My only issue is that I still have some tightness(?)/weakness in my rotator cuff, near the bottom of my scapula. I am hoping that it will go away when I have access to a barbell and can progressively load my overhead press.


After using the content I linked above, I strongly feel that I am simply in the final stages of my rehab, and that I need to be patient and keep making incremental progress. I just figured that I might as well ask so i stopped worrying and catastrophizing:

1)Is this common with an injury?
2)Is it likely that this sensation will simply fade with time as my perception and fear of the injury diminishes?
3)When returning to the gym is it advisable to simply press until my shoulder feels strong, or should I start lightly with my squat, bench, deadlift, and press, and load appropriately?

Thank you very much