With the recent completion of the Australian Open, we have no doubt that a few of you dusted off the tennis shoes, grabbed for that racket hanging in the garage, embraced that new can of tennis ball smell and snuck in a few cheeky games on the court.

Let’s chat about an area of the body that is essential to any racquet sport… the shoulder! And more specifically, the Rotator Cuff.

The Rotator Cuff is a part of the body that gets talked about a lot, so what is it made of and what does it do?

The Rotator Cuff is a group of four muscles located around the shoulder. It consists of the Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres Minor and Subscapularis. A good way to remember these are through the acronym “SITS”. These muscles sit on our shoulder blades (scapula) and connect into the top of the arm bone (the humerus).

The muscles of the Rotator Cuff are a part of the complex relationship of the muscles of the shoulder used to create movement. But this isn’t all they do; we also need to consider the other function of our Rotator Cuff muscles as protectors of the shoulder. These muscles achieve this via the small movements of the Rotator Cuff readjusting the top of our arm in our shoulder socket to create stabilisation during movements.

What makes the shoulder so unique is the amount of motion available. If you compare it with your hip, a similar type of ball and socket joint, there is significantly more motion available in the shoulder. This is what makes it so important to have muscles like the Rotator Cuff creating these positional changes to create stability while being able to generate a large variety of movement.

There are many different ways injury to the Rotator Cuff can occur. Sometimes injuries occur through overuse; sometimes they occur due to changes within the shoulder after a long-term injury; and sometimes they occur after trauma to the shoulder.

Sports with repetitive motions can be associated with Rotator Cuff injury. These include tennis players, kayakers, swimmers and baseball pitchers.

If you were to injure the Rotator Cuff, you may experience some of the following symptoms:

Pain over or around the outside of the shoulder
Reduced range of motion that may be painful while moving
Difficulty performing some of your day to day tasks

What to expect from an Osteopathic treatment?

With any treatment, we will start by having a chat with you about your presentation, we will then take you through some testing to determine your best course of action, we will chat to you about our findings so that you have a complete understanding of your current presentation. Each case is different, and it is important that your individual circumstances are taken into consideration which is why our Osteopaths at Be Well Health Group pride ourselves on our individualised patient-centred care.