Rotator cuff injuries

If you've never suffered a rotator cuff injury be glad... very glad.
It hurts like the dickens and takes a long time to heal--sometimes six months or more. The discomfort is often enough to seriously interrupt your training cycle.

The rotator cuff consists of four muscles that stabilize the ball of the shoulder (the humeral head) in the relatively shallow socket of the shoulder blade. These muscles and the tendons attaching them are especially prone to injury when doing overhead lifting such as military presses, lateral raises and bench pressing.
Sometimes the tendons can become inflamed from overworking. More serious injuries can result in pinched tendons, or they can be torn, or in extreme injury the tendons can be severed.

I managed to cream my right shoulder several years ago benching more than I should have. While I was recovering my lifting buddy gave me a paperback book, "7 Minute Rotator Cuff Solution," by Robinson and Harrigan, which helped to figure out ways of decreasing the risks. For example, doing lateral raises palms-down instead of palms-up puts less stress on your shoulder joints, and still builds deltoids.

I've recently found a "Patient's Guide" from a rehab hospital in St. Louis, Missouri that provides an easy to understand guide to rotator cuff injuries.
http://www.markmillermd.com/patient-education/patient-guides/guide-to-rotator-cuff-injuries.html

Good luck, and lift safely.

Yea, I've done this twice. Once doing a stupid trapeze stunt (I used to do trapeze when I had 2 good shoulder ) the other time trying to rush to get a bodyweight shoulder press. First time I was out for 12 months before I could even move the shoulder without pain. Yea, I think the 7-minute rotator cuff solution is owned by most people who damage their shoulder other stuff I've found useful are Secrets of the shoulder it can show you overlooked weaknesses & asymmetries in shoulder function (both these guys are clever chaps!), thinking about it I've ended up with quite a few books, DVD's (I've found watching examples easier to follow than books in many cases) on shoulders as I've never wanted to injure that area again!

Yes, shoulder injuries are real attention-getters.
Also note that the danger of these happening becomes greater as the number of candles on your birthday cake increases.
I try to keep this in mind, along with the danger of compression fractures.
I remind myself that the object of my weight training is to stay fit and healthy, and that it is not a power-lifting competition.

It helps if I remember that one of my legs is held together with titanium bolts following a skiing accident.

...or you could think that extra metal gives you a real advantage..damn you've titanium leg bracing my man ..we need a squatting & deadlifting emoticon I reckon!

Once upon a time the treatment for a Femoral fracture was several months in a half body-cast, but now the guys in the white coats make small incisions near the break point. They drill holes and insert titanium screws that hold the broken bones together in proper alignment. The patient is able to walk with crutches immediately, and continues with crutches for several weeks while the bone knits. Not much fun, but better than a body-cast.
After my leg healed I asked the bone doctor if the screws, there are three of them, about four inches long, if they were like the reinforcing rods in ferro concrete, and would make my leg stronger than before (I wanted to get back to skiing). The doctor made a sour face and said No, and suggested that I would be crazy if I continued skiing.
The titanium is still there, doing nothing, and sometimes the bolts trigger airport metal detectors

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