I can tell you cuff problems are no respecter of age -- undergraduates in their late teens and early twenties have them in abundance, while the numbers drop as age increases.
I suspect the numbers drop with age simply because injuries destroy motivation for training. Steroids help make the problem worse, especially for those who have not achieved a basic foundation of strength and balanced movement. An appalling number of youngsters gain amazing strength with steroid use, then suddenly find themselves handicapped by severe rotator cuff problems. Their gyms provide everything but the guiding wisdom to help them out of the trap ruining their futures.
Recognition of cuff problems is relatively new. Shoulder problems have been around for decades. But the diagnostically precise term 'rotator cuff' entered the active vocabulary of the irongame only in 1991 with publication and mass marketing of Horrigan & Robinson's The 7-Minute Rotator Cuff Solution.
Before then, bodybuilders and powerlifters suffered from "shoulder problems." Shoulder problems were something you worked around in the vague hope they'd heal and go away. For older guys, those aching shoulders were called bursitis, even arthritis. Removal of shoulder cartilage was a frequent intervention -- one resulting in loss of ability to do shoulder and chest work. Since 1991 news of the rotator cuff has spread at an astonishingly slow rate. How slow? Slow enough that Horrigan and Robinson's book remains the standard in the field despite important contradictions and a very limited approach to cuff rehabilitation. Popular bodybuilding magazines sometimes allude to the cuff -- usually in a way demonstrating next to no understanding. All this works well for keeping you in the dark and setting you up to get hurt.
I suspect the numbers drop with age simply because injuries destroy motivation for training. Steroids help make the problem worse, especially for those who have not achieved a basic foundation of strength and balanced movement. An appalling number of youngsters gain amazing strength with steroid use, then suddenly find themselves handicapped by severe rotator cuff problems. Their gyms provide everything but the guiding wisdom to help them out of the trap ruining their futures.
Recognition of cuff problems is relatively new. Shoulder problems have been around for decades. But the diagnostically precise term 'rotator cuff' entered the active vocabulary of the irongame only in 1991 with publication and mass marketing of Horrigan & Robinson's The 7-Minute Rotator Cuff Solution.
Before then, bodybuilders and powerlifters suffered from "shoulder problems." Shoulder problems were something you worked around in the vague hope they'd heal and go away. For older guys, those aching shoulders were called bursitis, even arthritis. Removal of shoulder cartilage was a frequent intervention -- one resulting in loss of ability to do shoulder and chest work. Since 1991 news of the rotator cuff has spread at an astonishingly slow rate. How slow? Slow enough that Horrigan and Robinson's book remains the standard in the field despite important contradictions and a very limited approach to cuff rehabilitation. Popular bodybuilding magazines sometimes allude to the cuff -- usually in a way demonstrating next to no understanding. All this works well for keeping you in the dark and setting you up to get hurt.
