Rotator Cuff Injury or Something Else?

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]It's a great question. It's very difficult to know just by physical examination alone, but I'll give you the rule of thumb. One of the rules of thumbs is if it's simply pain with overhead reaching, frequently that's berscitis caused by impingement. Um, pain associated with also weakness reaching overhead has always been sort of the classic textbook answer to that question is, well, it's not just painful, it's also weak. That being said, having been doing this for 25 years, I've seen people with rotator cuff tears with 100% straight and I've seen people with normal rotator cuffs with really poor strength. So, the ultimate the sort of the golden standard would be an MRI scan. You really need an MRI to to look at the rotator cuff tissue to see if it's torn.