Have you heard people talking about the rotator cuff as if its some mythical beast without really knowing what it is other than the fact you know its in or around your shoulder?
I’m going to do my best to break it down so that its easy to understand with the least amount of confusing anatomical names as we can get away with!
So, the rotator cuff is made up of four muscles. *Warning here comes some anatomy, the Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Subscapularis and Teres Minor.
Supraspinatus and Infraspinatus sit on the posterior or back of the shoulder blade. Supra meaning above sits above the bony spine of the Scapula or shoulder blade and therefor Infra meaning Inferior to, sits below the bony spine. Hope you’re still with me!
Sitting bellow and to the outside of the Infraspinatus is Teres Minor
Leaving us with Subscapularis. Sub meaning below or under, gives an idea where it sits in shoulder, on the underside of the scapula when looking from the rear. So, it sits between the scapula and the rib cage.
All four muscles are attached at one end to the scapular and at the other attached to the humorous or the bone in our upper arm.
They all have their own individual jobs controlling and stabilising various movements of the arm as well as their most important roll which is to help the larger muscles around our shoulders such as the deltoids to keep the shoulder stable.
With all of the joints in our body there is a compromise between Stability and Range of Motion or how strong and how far a joint can move. So, for example a Knee is incredibly strong but compared to your shoulder has a relatively small range of motion.
The more movement available at a joint means it has to therefor be less stable. But our bodies are incredibly clever and organised machines, so where there is a joint with less stability, we have got extra muscles to try and control that mobility, such as the four muscles of the rotator cuff.
Hopefully that has given you some idea about the rotator cuff, if you have any questions or want to know anything else drop me a line and I will do my best to help!
Thank for reading.
