Never Exercise Your SUPRASPINATUS (or Rotator Cuff) Without These 2 Keys

Hello,
I have a question regarding an injury. At the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, I experienced an injury where I strained my shoulder area, so I had an MRI done. The report diagnosed me with Supraspinatus tendinosis. After resting for a while, I continued doing sports for another 1-2 months before ending my membership. Now, in the early months of 2025, I’ve returned to sports, but I’ve noticed that the issue is still ongoing. While doing various movements, I feel a burning sensation and occasional cracking sounds in the back part of my shoulder, specifically in the like Trapezius and Supraspinatus areas. I continued for about a month, but since the cracking and burning sensation didn’t go away, I took a break.
Are these movements beneficial for that area, or would additional exercises be necessary? Also, how long does it typically take for tendinosis to heal?
Have a great day!

Finally able to see why scapular-tilt is a key to opening up the constricted area. It tends to be explained from a frontal view and you miss the context.

Excellent advice. I'm starting right now.

Hurt my shoulder 12 years ago, have really low mobility in my shoulder, and it easily gets painful. Found out today it's supraspinatus by some tests, is it too late for me to fix it? I can only train biceps, triceps and shoulders, I would really love to be able to train pushups and pullups again, swimming and tennis. I'm 35 now.

excellent presentation. Question: do you recommend myofascia release work before or after and on the same day or alternate? My pain encompasses rotator cuff and down the tricep to the wrist. Many thanks

Should I be doing the rehab exercises only on the side of my injured shoulder, or on both sides?

Great video! I recently had an ultrasound after month and months of shoulder pain and they identified a 9mm x 5mm tear in my supraspinatus tendon. Should I immediately start with these exercises or would you recommend PRP injections and recovery before starting? Thanks for the help!

That was an incredible video. Thank you very much. Is the lower body workout making the healing process shorter? When I'm in the rehabilitation stage based on my pain I guess

THANH U

Would this routine be good for calcification of the supraspinatus? my 1 year x-ray shows its breaking up. I'd like to weight train again but the shoulder is frozen. I dont get much pain other than bench press or putting arm behind my back. Tendon probably has atrophy from multple shots and not abusing it. Im not sure I can be pain free but I dont want to tear it. Its not torn now (vis MRI). Doctors dont want me pressing overhead so all these limits and fear of making it worse have me nervous but I want to get back to it.

I was just diagnosed with a full tear of the subscap is it possible to heal this without surgery?

Hey sir, I have made MRI scan pf my left shoulder. I have partial supraspinatus tear of 1.7cm in brusa side. Can you tell me this gona strengths my shoulder? I need to go gym

Is that good also in a patient diagnosed with with supraspinatus tendinosis with partial bursal surface tear?

Thanks for this excellent evidence-based guide. Really appreciate the way you show the studies that back the exercises you show.

Thank you so much. Your explanation is the best among other videos. The way you structure all the material was just genius. It is easy to understand and well explained. It is very well informative with a highly scientific base. I like how you explained the push-up plus explaining the protaction and push with the palm such a simple information yet supper powerful technique to fix my shoulder impingement. My salute for you, sir. You deserve a subscription.

Oh. Very good info. I've been doing so many exercises and stretches for my scapular winging and unstable shoulders. I just did these exercises and wow already feel my shoulder activating

Thank you so Much. I have suffered and spent a fortune for the last 5 years on both my shoulders, and now I have a partial tear in the right. Doctors, physiotherapists, and even a specialised coach have never addressed the issues like you have. I am 65 and always physically active. I've had rounded shoulders most of my life, & very little muscle strength in my shoulders, chest, & back. It is a miracle I am not in worse condition. Mind you the pain for the first year was unbearable at 60. I now have full movement, but pain is a level 1- 3 constantly. I will work on the posture and rounded shoulders first. I would love to work with you to finally heal & strengthen the problems and get back into learning pickleball and disc golf & my true joy, pruning trees. I finally have hope. Thank you. <3

what if, when doing concentric circles...it feels like my arm might fall out of the socket?

this solved my problem after 3 months of pain. already taken 3 weeks of corticosteroids and still the pain still sucks. ive never used the last one the pushup its very painful. i sleep with no pillows. for just 1 day theres a lot of improvement and almost 80% of pain gone

Why the heck cant doctors explain stull like this plain and simple like you have donet. I got a doc that wants to operate on me and it appears following your exercise this should be more than sufficient. Thank you very much Mr. Blue Shirt guy..............You Rock

I may have missed it, but how often should these exercises be performed per week?

Thanks

Thank you for your efforts

Great instructions appreciate all you do exercise 1 the pendulum exercise,made a difference first time doing it Exercise 2 isometric external rotation at zero degrees to 35 % max your holding your right arm with your left hand what I’m asking is am I pushing with my left hand or am I pulling out with my damaged right arm I’m assuming push with left but after watching the video a few times it also looks like your holding the right steady with left hand and then pull outward with the damaged right
I just want to make sure I’m doing it correctly

Without exercise 1 I would have never been able to do exercise 3 without holding the arm up with help from my left same question applies to exercise 3


I am struggling with posture as I have a bad curvature in my spine and I also have tears in both rotators
Left and right
Left cuff was operated on 12 years ago it was a 12 month old injury at the time it failed in 3 weeks and I suffered for months I still have no lifting power
This summer I damaged the right lifting a cage on my truck it was probably wear and tear

So my doctor refused to send me for MRI for the right cuff and sent me for ultrasound told me that it’s a partial tear this was back in June ,6 months ago I’ve had a steroid injection and didn’t have coverage for physiotherapy and have been struggling to find exercises that I can do that I understand and work
You are the man your video is awesome very good explanations of exercise

I’m a construction worker that can no longer preform my job this injury is breaking me , I damaged both of the shoulders on personal time so no work coverage
I also think I’ve further damaged the rotator since the ultrasound I took 10 weeks off got to the point I couldn’t afford to take more time off insurance was not enough to pay the bills and only covered 60 days which I was not aware of I worked for 2 months and just couldn’t take the pain

I’ve since moved into a partime office environment but it’s not working out as I have zero computer experience and my boss (27 years) is trying to help me out
I need to fix this if possible and get back to a job site where I belong
I’m in Canada and physiotherapy is very expensive on a single income

Thanks for all you do again

Coach E,

I need help please. I’ve been struggling for many years now.

I recently got MRI and this was the results

IMPRESSION: MRI of the left shoulder demonstrates:

1. Moderate grade partial-thickness articular surface tear of the anterior supraspinatus tendon at the footprint.
2. Mild to moderate rotator cuff and biceps tendinosis.
3. Moderate acromioclavicular joint arthrosis. Ossification of the dorsal AC joint capsule.
4. Tear of the superior and posterior superior labrum. Separate tear of the anterior inferior and inferior labrum. Paralabral cyst along the inferior and posterior inferior glenoid.
5. Mild glenohumeral joint arthrosis.

It also feels like I have internal impingement ,

Would doing these exercises + the 4 rotator cuff ‘stretches’ from your other video prove to be a good rehab routine for solving these issues ?

Thank you kindly for your reply

What If I have pain in more stable shoulder when I do lying external rotations, the pain is at the top, and on left arm which is unstable and has smaller deltoid muscle, feels no pain at this movement

Could this cause winging of the scapula as well? My shits been winged for almost a year now I’ve done wall slides scoops scap pull ups what do I need to start with off with to fix the winging?

Excellent video.

Thank you so much for sharing the video I have wear and tear problem doing psycho
Right now it has helped but I can’t do push ups but rest of the otherexercise able to do mine supraspinatus and rotar cliff muscles r weak there is a gap of 3cm but I did physio which helped me to decrease my pain to 99 %
I am very happy abt the physio exercises
Hope I don’t have to go through surgery there . Thank you once again for explaining it so well
One thing I would say be positive and believe in ur self it going to cure 👏

I have a minor tear on supaspinatus. Going thru rehab. Can I include some of these exercises as part of the rehab? Thanks.

Thank you Coach E. for clear, consise recovery plan. As ex swimmer with previous surgery on both shoulders, I only now realise importance of good scapular control. Only caveat is that I think push up plus exercise should be done with great caution

I have a tear there but without pain..are these good to help try to pro long of prevent surgery? I had surgery on the other shoulder..2 years of pain cortisone shots..bone spurs bursitis impingement had no choice..really don’t want to do that again..PRP is my next option

I am here because: I became lazy on my shoulder warmup and stability exercises and had just been doing my primary workout (decline and pike pushups, dips, pullups etc.) So here I am with a jacked-up shoulder... 😞
Moral of the story: Listen to Coach E and do your should prehab exercises!!! 🙂

omg you are so good i just found you i watched some videos. Thank you for your knowledge

So what do U do when U don't have a supraspinatus? Mine is completely atrophied following cumulative and long term shoulder injuries. I can find a lot of I do on rehab for the supraspinatus but nothing that says what to do when U don't have a functioning supraspinatus. What can I do coach?

Thank you!!

I have become a big fan of yours. I am actually a paying customer and subscriber now. But I have a nagging question: a popular fitness guru who is very well known in the strength space once said that he would “never isolate an injured or torn tendon”. He advocates OH presses for rehabbing shoulders since this is a compound movement which enables all the muscles in the chain to work together - in their own natural proportions- to accomplish the lift. What you show in this video is the complete opposite: finding the exercises that have the highest muscle activation and slowly working through phases towards the highest activation exercises (in this case the full can caption and the push up plus).
I must say that both his argument and your video are highly compelling arguments. But they are opposites!!! Can you help me square the apparent differences? Should I be doing isolations like side lying ER’s or compounds like shoulder presses?? Ahh!! Like I said, I love your content.

Thank you. Thank you thank you. Thank you for sharing this

Thank you for this, you've truly put in a great amount of work and reasoning in this. The tip about posteriorly tilting the scapula is really crucial.

I can do the full can with thumbs up easily, however with palms facing down I get an incredible pain... pretty much the same pain when doing T's, using reverse flies.
Is there a solution to this? Any diagnosis you can think of? I know I have a calcification in my right shoulder, or perhaps there's just a weakness somewhere.

Finally someone with a video that correlates the exercises with the degree of healing and pain!!

Thank you for the detailed explanations. I finally understand how the muscles connect, work, and what I need to do to feel better. You're incredibly amazing! My jaw is on the floor. I've been to five different physical therapists in the last year. They are great, but I never understood what was happening. Now I do. I can't thank you enough!

I have been diagnosed with supraspintus moderate tendinosis, with bulky supraspintus tendon adjacent at footplate critical zone, where to start fromm i m doing little pendulums butt in shoulder flexion movement and externl rotation there is crackling sound coming fron the joint and at night there is pain while sleeping.
I'm going to physiotherapist, he is giving electric Therapy and gentle exercise, but my pain isn't going, burning sensation around the tendon and neck also.
Your videos are very helpful, just need some guidance where to start to overcome the pain.

I just want to say youve been a big help in rehabing my shoulders sir! Thank you for all your videos 💯

Thanks

can you perform these last three exercises for as long as you want? Or should you change them after a long period?

Thank you, sir 🙏

But i already can do pushups at pain level 3-4 and it still hurts; i cant workout. What are the next steps after that 😭?

Really excellent shoulder therapy, Eric!
Clear explanation, interesting research, precise demonstration.
Understanding the posterior shoulder tilt is very helpful -- it opened up my thinking.
I've got a near full-thickness articular-sided tear of the supraspinatus.
Your routine is helping restore function, resolve pain and avoid surgery.