Rotator Cuff Tests that Matter
Testing the rotator cuff muscles can be tough when someone is in a lot of pain. It's hard for a clinician to determine what is causing the pain during motion testing. Isolating each individual muscle can be a challenge. Authors used electromyography (EMG) to determine the optimal position for testing the muscles of the rotator cuff in human subjects. They have determined four criterion in which position was optimal for the muscle to be tested: (1) maximal activation of the muscle, (2) minimal contribution from shoulder synergists, (3) minimal provocation of pain, and (4) good test-retest reliability. Please keep in mind that Special Tests for the shoulder are more comprehensive and this article only covers strength testing for the four (4) rotator cuff muscles. Out of a plethora of shoulder tests out there, I am merely posting a few here that I have done many times for testing the rotator cuff and I have taken the liberty to reference them as...
