There are a number of very effective rotator cuff exercises that will help strengthen your rotator cuff but does that mean everybody should do them?
Not necessarily…
Before you begin a program of exercise you need to determine exactly what you’re trying to achieve. The rotator cuff is a group of four small muscles that work to stabilize the shoulder joint and some will benefit far more than others from doing specific rotator cuff exercises.
Given that the rotator cuff works to stabilize the shoulder joint it stands to reason that the muscles of the rotator cuff will come into play whenever the larger muscles that work across the shoulder joint are exercised. So if you have no existing rotator cuff weakness or injury it may not be worth the time and effort to target the rotator cuff muscles with specific rotator cuff exercises.
However, if you are regularly involved in activities (sporting or otherwise) that repeatedly put an abnormal amount of stress on the shoulder joint and the muscles of the rotator cuff then it would definitely be worth your while to do some specific rotator cuff exercises. Doing this will ensure your shoulder joint stays strong and decrease the likelihood of incurring an injury. An example of a sport which places increased strain on the shoulder joint would be any sport that involves a lot of throwing movements such as baseball, for instance. Remember, prevention is better than cure – especially when it comes to rotator cuff injury.
If you decide to begin a rotator cuff exercise program as a preventative measure then the exercise program will be different from a program designed for rehabilitation of an existing injury. If your shoulder joint is already healthy then you can benefit from adding just one rotator cuff exercise to your standard workout. Bear in mind that since the muscles that make up the rotator cuff are relatively small you should start very easily with light weights and not overdo it so as to avoid injury.
If you already suffer an existing injury to your rotator cuff that is not so major as to require surgery then you should definitely be doing some specific rotator cuff exercises to speed recovery and help to strengthen the injured joint.
As with any exercise program you should see your physician before you begin and get the okay to go ahead and exercise first. Rotator cuff injuries can be very persistent and easily aggravated if you do the wrong kind of exercise or too much. Once you’ve got your doctor’s okay to go ahead then it’s very important that you find a program that has been put together the right way with the correct rotator cuff exercises in the correct combination. The program I recommend is featured in our sidebar.
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One of the things I suggested in my previous post to help avoid injuring your rotator cuff was to “Do the best you can to avoid activities or movements that place undue stress on your shoulder joints and so involve a high risk of injury to the rotator cuff.”
While that may seem like simple and common sense advice it does bear thinking consideration. In reality, avoiding or minimizing activities and movements that put alot of strain and stress on the rotator cuff can be easier said than done for some people.
For instance, athletes in sports such as baseball by necessity do a lot of throwing which is very stressful to the rotator cuff. It’s not really practical for a baseballer to either avoid or minimize throwing so the recommendation would be to include specific rotator cuff exercises into his/her regular workouts to strengthen the cuff and make it more injury resistant.
For the rest of us it should be somewhat easier in every day activity to avoid placing undue strain on the rotator cuff. And for most of us, if we’re able to do this and have no existing injury to the rotator cuff, there is no real need to incorporate rotator cuff exercises into our normal exercise routine.
The main key to avoiding excessive strain on the shoulder joint is to listen to your body. Try to keep your movements within your body’s natural range of motion. Everyone will be different here as some are more flexible than others. If an activity or movement gives you pain or makes your shoulder feel uncomfortable or slightly strained then don’t do it – chances are you are putting the joint and muscles at risk. This same principle goes for not just isolated movements but also for repetitive movements. In fact, it is especially true for repetitive movements.
While you may feel fine performing a movement or activity for a little while - if after repetition you get pain or discomfort then your body is telling you to take a break and if you want to avoid injury you should heed its warning! The rotator cuff can be vulnerable to repetitive strain injury and those kind of injuries can take a long time to heal. Rotator cuff exercises can still help with the recovery but in the later, less acute stage. Repetitive strain injuries are something you really want to avoid at all costs.
One other point worth mentioning here that I’ll try to go into more detail on in a later post is that weight trainers and bodybuilders must be very careful with their exercise selection and, of course, always follow strict form.
Certain common weight training exercises can place the shoulder joint in very vulnerable positions at certain points in the movement. Although some seem to perform them with no ill effect many folk who do them, especially with sloppy form, are courting disaster. Without going too in depth now, one exercise I do not recommend is the upright row. The movement alone is very unnatural and it can place a lot of stress on the shoulder joint at the top of the movement. More on this another time…
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