3. Pain When You Push Forward
Three out of the four muscles of the rotator cuff are involved when pulling the arm back and rotating the arm laterally and externally, the other muscle in the rotator cuff is used to rotate the arm forward. The muscle that is used for medial/forwarding rotation is the subscapularis muscle.
This muscle works with the deltoids and pectoralis muscles to help the arm move forward. This means that it is not likely that you would experience an injury in this area without also injuring the pectoral or deltoid muscles as well, but it is possible. Irradiation, means that when you are contracting the muscle and those around it, in particular the antagonist’s muscles, are also going to contract.
This means that you may also feel pain when you are pushing the arm forward. If you are feeling pain when you push your arm forward and also experience pain when you move your arm back or in any direction, there is a good chance that you have damaged your rotator cuff in some fashion.