So you just made some incredible gains in the gym during the last 2 months. Then one drunken night out with your friends you wake up just to discover that your shoulder hurts. Your range of motion is limited. If you move your arm too far a shot of pain surges through your body. The worst part is, you don’t even remember what happened. The good news is, you probably just aggravated your rotator cuff.

Your rotator cuff is made up of four different muscles and tendons. The Greek sounding names of these muscles are irrelevant since this isn’t a science spelling test. What you need to know, is that to rehabilitate this injury, you need to lightly exercise all four of these muscles. The goal here is to get your full range of motion back. Only then will you be able to safely get back to the gym and lift like a beast.

Here’s what not to do:

Just pop some pain killers and hit it hard! No pain no gain right! So bite down on that leather strap and lift like your life depended on it. After all, the best results come when survival is on the line.

This is utter crap. There’s just not a more eloquent way of putting it. It is very important that you don’t ingest any pain killers before you work out. Pain is there to notify you when you’re pushing a limit too high. If you work out with an injury, you will likely just injure yourself severely and seriously jeopardize your weight lifting future.

The reason that you are experiencing pain, (assuming that it’s not a serious injury) is inflammation of the tendons. It’s likely that you didn’t tear your tendons or muscles making up your rotator cuff. I should note, that if you do feel pain in your shoulder, it is highly recommended that you seek professional medical attention. Self-diagnosis from an internet source can make the problem worse.

With that said, let’s assume for the time being that you simply aggravated your rotator cuff. This results in swelling and inflammation of the tendons. The good news here is that you don’t need surgery. You simply need rest and to decrease the amount of inflammation.

Anti-inflammatory remedies:

Most people don’t realize that there is a big difference between Tylenol and Motrin. Tylenol is a pain killer that simply tricks your pain receptors in your brain. Motrin is an anti-inflammatory remedy. So of course in this case, you’re going to want to choose Motrin as opposed to Tylenol. The idea here is to reduce inflammation, not mask the pain.

There are many natural anti-inflammatories as well. Many of these are fruits. The two that are the most effective are apples and a brazilian berry (I'm not allowed to say what it is because many companies have explioted it's health benefits and claim false statements). It’d be a good idea to go to the local grocery store and pick up a big bag of apples. The brazilian berry is harder to come by, but you can find them in freeze dry format. The leading drink with this berry is mona vie, but it comes a high price. If money isn’t an issue, I would personally recommend you look into the mona vie drink.

Other than that, maintaining a well-balanced healthy diet and staying well hydrated will work wonders when it comes to recovering an inflamed joint. Focusing on Ph balancing your body will also help leaps and bounds. Pick up a Ph water balancer. Consume calcium. And get a glutamine supplement.

A solid diet isn’t the only thing you can do to mend this aggravated joint. Specific exercises can serve a great deal when it comes to repairing an injured rotator cuff. As I said before, it’s recommended that you go to a medical professional and get your injury looked at before taking any action yourself. Working out with the best workout routine to gain muscle before your shoulder is ready can be a costly mistake.

List of recommended shoulder workouts:

1) Arm circles

2) Reverse flys

3) Military press

4) Lying rear delt raises

5) External rotation

To make sure that you understand each of these exercises, I am going to talk about each of them in detail. The idea here is to prepare yourself to train with the best workout routine to gain muscle again, so this shoulder workout will be using very light weights. The overall goal here is to increase your shoulder’s range of motion pain free. Once this is accomplished, you will be able to train hard again.

1) Arm circles

This exercise is meant as an overall warm up of the rotator cuff. Start by holding your arms straight out to your sides. From there start to move your arms in small circles. After doing 10-20 rotations, grab a light weight and perform it again. You do a total of three sets of 20 reps each. If you feel pain, reduce the weight.

2) Reverse flys

Lay down stomach first onto an incline bench. You should make roughly a 45 degree angle with the floor, you should be laying upright and not upside down. From there you hold your arms out to your side, and raise them up and down as if you were flapping your wings like a bird. Of course this should be done slowly. After doing 10-20 reps without weights, do three sets of 10 reps with light weights.

3) Military press

Sit on a bench with your back perfectly straight making a 90 degree angle with the bench. From there hold your arms out to the side and make your forearms vertical. Your elbow should be at a 90 degree angle. From there you lift up over your head while looking straight in front of you and keeping your back straight. Once warmed up, do three sets of 15 reps.

4) Lying rear delt raises

Lay down stomach first onto a flat bench. Hold your arms straight out to your sides and let them go down to the ground. From there, with your elbows slightly bent, raise your arms back up to the level of your body. After your warm up, perform three sets of 15.

5) External rotation

Finally, we have the external rotation. While on a flat bench, prop yourself up on your side with your hip and elbow touching the bench. From there, keep your other arm in front of you. Do not allow any space to form between your elbow and your side, they should always be touching. At the same time, lift your fist up and down forcing your shoulder to rotate gently. Warm up with this exercise and then perform three sets of 15 reps.

These five exercises target all of the four tendons and muscles that make up the rotator cuff. When performed correctly, you will be well on your way to rehabilitating your muscle and being able to train hard again with the best workout routine to gain muscle. When you combine gentle stretching, a healthy diet, and effective exercises you will speed up your recovery greatly.

After each workout it is also helpful to ice your shoulder. This helps to bring down the inflammation. After all, that is one of the main goals here. When done properly, assuming your injury isn’t serious, you should be symptom free after 2-4 weeks of rest and smart training. Don’t make the mistake of rushing your recovery. If you’re disciplined, you’ll be back to training with the best workout routine to gain muscle in no time.