Part 2: Rehab: What does Non-Surgical Management look like for RTC tears?

What Does Rehab Involve?

Rehab Without Surgery?

• If you have one or more of the following:
  • Fit and Healthy 
  • have a small tear 
  • have a good understanding/experience of strength and conditioning
  • Then it will likely be 3-6 sessions over 4-8 weeks
• If you have one or more of the following:
  • Sedentary
  • Medium to large tear
  • Not much experience with strength and conditioning
  • Then it would likely take a little longer: 6-12 sessions over 6-16+ weeks

Rehab After Surgery?

• If you have one or more of the following:
  • Fit and Healthy 
  • have a small tear 
  • have a good understanding/experience of strength and conditioning
• Then it will likely be 3-6 sessions over 12-24 weeks
• If you have one or more of the following:
  • Sedentary
  • Medium to large tear
  • Not much experience with strength and conditioning
  • Then it would likely take a little longer: 12-30 sessions over 12-36 weeks

Why isn’t it the same for everyone?

• Being strong, fit and healthy means your body can tolerate more stress and it recovers from stress quicker and less painfully. 
• This is why we have recommended the above timelines for recovery. 
• A fit, healthy person who knows how to train, has a higher baseline than a sedentary person and therefore doesn’t go as far backwards following injury-meaning they recover quicker. 

Here’s what ideal rehab looks like:

An example of what rehab can look like

Adam is a fit, healthy tradesman with a small tear in his rotator cuff. He normally goes to the gym 3x per week and plays soccer during the winter.