Video: Shoulder Strength And Safety – Six Rotator Cuff Moves
Complaining of sore shoulders or a weak bench press? Chances are your external rotation strength sucks!
Bad posture and the over-emphasis of shoulder internal rotation movements (particularly the bench press) has led to an imbalance between the shoulder internal and external rotator muscle groups for most people.
There needs to be a balance of strength and stability at the shoulder joint between the muscles – if there is not, shoulder pain, weakness and dysfunction arises.
If you’re not doing power cleans regularly then chances are you’re not getting any external rotation work through your bigger exercises.
You will need to do some specific isolated external rotation exercises (like the ones shown) to keep your shoulders strong and your healthy (and even if you‘re already doing cleans, these extra won’t hurt either!).
Unless you’re warming up, you should do your rotator cuff exercises to maximum reps after your other upper body exercises – this is so you do not pre-fatigue these important stabilisers and hinder their role in shoulder stability during shoulder movements (especially pressing motions).
Higher reps of 15> with lighter loads work best for rotator cuff muscles, and around 3 sets, two-three times per week should suffice.
Remember to switch up doing your external rotation exercises in both the sagittal and the frontal movement planes so that you increase your shoulder strength and stability at different joint angles:
Sagittal:
- No Money’s – resistance band
- Single Arm Sagittal Cable External Rotation
- Side Lying Dumbbell External Rotation
Frontal:
- Shoulder Horn Dumbbell External Rotation
- Single Arm Frontal Dumbbell External Rotation
- Cuban Press
Don’t put these off! Integrate external rotation exercises into your programme today to avoid unnecessary shoulder issues and bring up your strength levels as well!
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