Is it possible to get rid of rotator cuff tendinitis?

For the last 2 years I’ve had shoulder pain every single time the day after I workout using any pressing movement, or a throwing or hitting sport like volleyball or football. It started one day after probably benching too much. I can do back exercises with no pain the next day so I thought I could climb. I tried it and I loved it but I’ve found it’s something that causes the same pain as benching. I never realized how much pectoral strength is needed to squeeze outward facing crimps. I’m pretty sure what I have is rotator cuff tendinitis because that is where the pain is, but I’m not sure. Has anybody overcome the symptoms I’m describing?

I have had tendonitis in my shoulder and what seemed to work best for me was to just hold a push up position (arms fully extended) for as long as I could. In my experience, push ups made things worse, but just holding the position really helped strengthen the muscles in the shoulder. Also a fair amount of stretching seemed to help. Obviously you should see a PT or Doc and get their opinion but all the PT ever told me was to rest and that didn't help. 

Have you seen a physical therapist? 

dino74 wrote:

Have you seen a physical therapist? 

Yes, I got the sense that he didn’t really know what it was and he just prescribed building back into exercise slowly, and of course rotator cuff exercises. It didn’t really work. 

I’ll just add this from a sports doc I saw for rotator cuff pain: it takes months not weeks to heal shoulder injuries.

I did PT for about 6 mos and it was eventually fine.

I was kinda hoping for a cortisone injunction, and he was willing but said it would make it take even longer to heal.

I’ll also say that as we age only resting tends not to heal tendonopathy. The remodeling of the tissue requires carefully applied stimulus.

In sum: pt + patience.

(Sorry)

Orthopedist. 

When you have a climbing question, ask a climber.

When you have a medical question, ask a doctor.

Casey Harris wrote:

Yes, I got the sense that he didn’t really know what it was and he just prescribed building back into exercise slowly, and of course rotator cuff exercises. It didn’t really work. 

How long did you do the exercises?

I'd see another therapist. Ideally one closer to sport-related injuries. If you can find a climber all the better.

The thing with PT though, and that is really a question for yourself personally, don't even answer it here - how diligent were you REALLY about those? IME they need to be done every fn' day, maybe leaving out a single day a week because life. If you can squeeze some in the morning, then evening, all the better. If you just do them a few times a week, or lots one week-end and little the next week, they won't work. Consistancy is key, even more than for regular training (where you can always sort of crank the intensity up to somewhat make up for a lack of volume/consistency). Execution is also key - you do need focused, quality mouvement. I used to do those watching videos, but I stopped doing that because I realized I was sometimes picking bad patterns & botching the exercise somewhat.

I don't usually like to chime in on these threads, but assuming your diagnosis is correct, it might be worthwhile to find a practitioner that does Active Release Technique (A.R.T.) and/or Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (I.A.S.T.M.) which is sometimes referred to as "Graston Technique" or "Gua Sha".  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me.  Good Luck!

Probably a good first step is to stop doing the movements that make it hurt.

The problem with shoulders is that you can take the same mri to 10 different doctors and get 11 wildly varying opinions, ranging from "take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning" to "you need a complete shoulder replacement and will never climb again."

Kind of the same thing with tendonitis. Some say completely rest for a certain length of time. I think completely resting tendonitis is the second worst thing you can do. (The worst thing being to take extended breaks from climbing, ie not climbing during ski season, etc). It will just come back as soon as you start back up.

I had a skiing injury that resulted in rotator tendinitis. Weird it was skiing, but I average 100 days a year, mandatory. Nevertheless, I hit a tree awkwardly. Never had an MRI. However, I saw an orthopedic surgeon. He recommended PT.

I went to PT for 3 months. Slightly painful, but worked through it with strengthening, and stim with electrodes and such. It was long, but came out of it feeling no pain at all after 6 months.

I had success with PT. But, I’m thinking my rotator injury wasn’t too severe.

Injured my wrist as well, this was a climbing induced injury. TFCC. Slight damage w pain, and an MRI revealed damage. Didn’t have surgery on that. Did PT again, and it’s been ok.

Injury sucks, bottom line. I consider myself fortunate, given the stories I’ve heard about other people’s injury or health misfortunes. 

My climbing has been very sporadic over the last few years, but the body is pretty amazing, healing wise. Don’t go too hard too fast. Try and enjoy stuff that is not gonna break you physically, but satisfy you mentally. Climbing is a life long sport, if you can flow with injuries along the way.