Sebastian Brosche · 5 min · 968 words
Previously titled: Shoulder Rotator Cuff Strengthening Part 1
Hey guys, Joel Kreska, sport physiotherapist back here again. We're going to continue on working with the shoulder today and we're going to go through some very, very basic shoulder rotator cuff strengthening exercises. Now we've already talked, hopefully you've seen some of the videos where we've talked about loosening up the back of the shoulder in a sleeper stretch and we've talked about some of the scapular retraction or with or without rotation. That's the IR reach back and now we're going to look at how to properly strengthen the rotator cuff.
You can look online, there's lots of different options here, but I want to make sure that no matter what we do with the rotator cuff strengthening, the fundamental thing that has to happen is we have to have the shoulder sitting back. We want to think about this gentle scapular retraction or gently sticking out your sternum like you're proud. If we're not doing that, the rotator cuff is at a significant disadvantage and it will not develop. It actually encourages poor movement patterns.
A good example of this is if I go to do a reverse fly, the only thing that I should be thinking about is shoulders back. I should not be thinking about what my hands are doing and that's a really common mistake that I see in rehab setting. So when we have an injured shoulder, as someone goes to stress the shoulder, rotator cuff, mid traps, lower traps, the first thing that they end up doing is dumping the shoulder forward like the pec muscle is trying to help stabilize the shoulder when in fact what we should be doing is trying to encourage the mid traps, lower traps, serratus, all these power muscles that help us hold a proper posture where power can be developed. So from this position, all we're going to focus on is elbow squeeze, shoulder back, and then I'm going to pull from my essentially where this hand pulling from my belly button to just past my elbow.
I don't need to come way out this way. One because there's no functional reason why I would ever be coming out this far and pushing into external rotation. But secondly, it actually encourages the glenohumeral joint to come forward again. And so we're spending our whole effort trying to keep our shoulders back.
And then if I go too far, it wants to bucket forwards. So in the neutral position, we're going to focus on elbow squeeze, shoulder back, and we're going to pull out just past elbow and then right back again. And again, as I do a couple repetitions of this, I might have to stop and reset my shoulder back before I continue because if my default position lends us to be dumping the shoulder forward, we're going to basically be wasting our time. Now the same can be said for when we're getting up into this position up here, this sort of 90 degrees of abduction.
This is a really important strengthening exercise, but we've got to make sure that we've developed strength down here before we start to get up into this 90 degrees of abduction position. Just like in jiu jitsu, if the elbow is pulled away from the body, it's significantly weaker. And the same rule applies when we're trying to strengthen either in rehab or just from going to the gym and getting stronger perspective. So make sure you spend the time getting strong down here before we start to get up into this position.
So when I'm up in this position, again, you can either anchor it to the wall or just use your foot. It really doesn't matter. But the only thing that does matter, as I've mentioned many times before, is we're going to be nice and tall with our shoulders back and then our elbows at shoulder height and we're pulling backwards up to sort of like a stick up position. I would recommend that if we're working on this position for the first time and you're not used to it, make sure that your elbow is supported.
Set it on a table, set it on the top of a chair or get someone to help you out. Because for some people who have never done this strengthening, to be having your arm up in this position and shoulder back and rotating, it's too much. Let's take away some of these possible error notes and we can support the elbow so we can focus on the most important thing, which is shoulder back as we get the rotational aspect going. And then as you improve, you can start to then take away the support, maybe have your elbow just float above the table and then you can get rid of it completely.
As long as you're making sure that when I'm pulling backwards, I've got a nice pivot on my elbow. I'm not kind of scooping my arm underneath. That's one, not strengthening what we're trying to strengthen, but it also, again, encourages this weird movement of the shoulder that's going to put the rotator cuff at a disadvantage. I'm going to get into some sort of higher level rotator cuff exercise in a bit, but this is a great place to start.
If you have any pain or discomfort, make sure you stop and check and see is my shoulder back? Do I have good posture? If it is, especially if it's sore up here, then you need to come back down to this region and start down here and get strong here before we get up into this position. I hope you enjoyed that.
I hope it helps you out and I'll see you back on the mat soon. Thanks again.
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