Quote Originally Posted by Kratos View Post
some exercises you can do to help
http://www.bodyresults.com/E2RotatorCuff.asp

http://www.binghamton.edu/athletics/strength/rota.pdf

Avoid lat pull downs and military presses behind the head, as they place the shoulder in a poor biomechanical position encouraging impingement.

Do not lower the bar or dumbbells below parallel with incline/flat bench press for the aforementioned reason.

Refrain from using too much weight with lateral shoulder raises.

The hallmark signs of a tear are nocturnal pain, loss of strength, and inability to raise the arm overhead.
Many people can function adequately with a torn rotator cuff provided they have a low to moderate pain level. If you do have a tear, depending on expectations, you may want to talk to a surgeon.
You can take ibuprofen to help with pain related to inflamation, other than that, there isn't much you can do.
My shoulders always hurt like a bitch after lateral raises, and it gets worse as I go up in weight. It only hurts when I first flex the muscle to get the weight moving and when I take all of the tension off the shoulder. Same thing goes for seated shoulder presses. Whenever I put the barbell down, I have to slowly let go or I will feel pain. If the spotter lifts up on it quickly, I can feel a fairly good ache in my shoulders. Nothing that's stopping me from lifting yet, but we'll see.