The rotator cuff is made up of four muscles that help move and stabilize the shoulder joint. Damage to any or all of the four muscles and the ligaments that attach these muscles to bone can occur because of an acute trauma or throwing injury.  This damage can cause significant pain and disability with range of motion and use of the shoulder joint. It can become chronic and lifelong injury unless something is done.
The shoulder is a ball-socket joint that allows the arm to move in many directions. The rotator cuff muscles are the dynamic stabilizers and movers of the shoulder joint and adjust the position of the humorous (upper arm bone) and shoulder blade during shoulder movement.
The four rotator cuff muscles include the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor.
Other muscles that help move and stabilize the shoulder include the deltoid, teres major, corachobrachialis, latissimus dorsi, and pectoralis major.

When the rotator cuff is damaged, a variety of issues arise:

• Pain and spasm limit the range of motion of the shoulder. The muscles do not make the small adjustments within the joint to allow the humeral head to move smoothly.
• Fluid accumulation within the joint due to inflammation limits movement.
• Arthritis and calcium deposits that form over time limit range of motion.

The severity of injury may range from a mild strain and inflammation of the muscle or tendon and can lead to a partial or complete tear of the muscle. Accessory muscles in the back, chest, or neck will compensate and posture will be affected (Upper Crossed Syndrome). Early treatment is best for proper recovery and preventing future flair ups.

Treatment Options:

Depending on how long or the severity of  the shoulder injury the therapy options change. With an acute injury (24-48 hours) immediate reduction of inflammation is recommended. Best practice is to slowly move the joint through range of motion every few hours and lightly massage the area to flush out excess fluid and swelling. With a more sub-acute or chronic injury, manual hands-on therapy is recommended including:

Active Release technique (A.R.T) can reduce the tension in the muscle and release fibres to restore normal motion around the shoulder joint. Graston Technique will break down scar tissue preventing the injury from becoming chronic. Joint mobilizations will prevent restrictions in the joint and help release the muscle tension. 

Get an assessment of a shoulder injury at Fit Chiropractic and Sport Therapy. 
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If you've been struggling with pain in your back, hip, shoulder, elbow, hands or feet for months or even years, you may want to consider Prolotherapy (aka regenerative injection therapy). This simple yet powerful technique uses the body's own healing abilities to restore structure and function to the injured area, by giving it a little nudge.
Ligaments and Tendons are notorious for taking a very long time to heal. In fact, often they will not make a full recovery at all. Surgery is often considered the only solution. Actually you would make a quicker recovery breaking a bone than tearing a tendon or ligament.
Most adults will recover from a broken bone in 6-8 weeks. Tendon, ligaments, and even cartilage however don't receive the rich blood supply that bone does, so the healing process can become stunted. We've all met someone who's shoulder or knee has never been the same since developing their injury. Those tendons and ligaments have never had the chance to fully heal.
Prolotherapy accelerates and reminds the body to continue and complete the repair process of these ligaments and tendons. How does it do that? With a little sweetness! By injecting a proliferating agent such as Dextrose (aka sugar water) into the injured/scarred area, we sightly irritate the tissue. This stimulates the body to elicit a small controlled inflammatory response, much like if you cut yourself. Inflammation isn’t always a bad thing. In fact it is a vital part of the healing process associated with the recruitment of growth and other healing factors that instruct the injured tissue(s) to proliferate or multiply, thus remodelling new connective tissue over the area.
Prolotherapy does not simply repair injured cells, but lays down brand new cells in and around the injured tendons and ligaments, thereby strengthening and tightening the connective tissue to create stable joints.
So what's the end result? Reduction or elimination of pain, increased range of motion, and
usually permanent healing.
In a nutshell Prolotherapy is a highly effective treatment that helps re-establish proper form and function, so you can continue living the active lifestyle you always have!
By Dr David Milanovich, ND