Don’t Forget the Little Things- The Rotator Cuff

Sounds like the lyrics to a popular song to me, but how can forgetting the little things in the gym come back to haunt you later?

Being a man, I love training chest, I want bigger arms and think traps are a great “showoff muscle”. However being a trainer, and experienced in the iron game I know there has to be more to it then that. Like chest training, when most people think of training the chest they think of the bench press. In fact; go to any given gym across the country on a Monday and see what most people are doing, bench press of course! I used to be the same way; getting 300 bench press was cool for a while, and always impressed my friends when they asked

“How much ya bench?”

Then when I got over 300lbs and closer to 350lbs , I noticed lasting shoulder pain The pain would come and go, keep me up at night and always hurt after a heavy bench session. Nevertheless, what was the problem? I forgot a little thing of course … in fact a very little thing…my rotator cuff.

Compared to the large muscles around it, the rotator cuff is very susceptible to injury and especially weakened if untrained. The bench press itself puts the shoulder and rotator cuff in a dangerous position, especially during liftoff from the rack with heavy weights. Your shoulder blades themselves cannot move freely either, which further complicates the problem. However bench press addicts are not the only ones susceptible to rotator cuff injuries, anyone who bases a lot of weight training on their chest or Lat work can also cause the muscle imbalance which leads to the danger. Alternatively, athletes like swimmers and baseball players will also experience the imbalance because of the high repetitions used in their sport.

However, how can you combat this muscle imbalance? Being NASM trained one thing pounded into my head is to correct muscle imbalances strengthen the weaker muscles around the issue. You see most shoulder pain is simply a muscle imbalance caused by tight internal rotators and weak external rotators. Because overworking the internal rotators with all the chest movements still leaves the external rotators weak.

But you may be thinking ” I don’t have shoulder pain NOW so who cares?” well there are many other benefits to improving your muscular balance and training the rotator cuff.

The rotator cuff is a powerful stabilizer muscle and it is very common that once someone trains his or hers, the athlete’s bench press will immediately rise as much as 20-30 pounds. Do not expect to handle a huge amount on any movement easily if you have weak stabilizer muscles. As the famous quote goes, “You can’t shoot a cannon from a canoe.”

Luckily for us strengthening your rotator cuff is relatively easy , you will not need crazy equipment, risk further injury or even have to go far out of the way. Just be sure you do not work your rotator cuff prior to an upper body workout, as pre fatiguing such an important muscle is never a good idea.

ROTATOR CUFF STRENGHTENING EXERCISES

Barbell Cuban Press or Cuban Rotation

The Cuban Press is one of the best exercises for the rotator cuff if performed correctly. Performing a fuller variation then shown in the video always seems to help more in my experience however. Starting with the weight hanging relaxed in front of you, first pull it to the starting position as in the video, then do the rotation upwards as shown and finally press the weight. Next lower the weight back down and rotate it before allowing your arms to straighten out again.

Perform 3-5 sets of these with higher repetitions (8-12) and lightweight.

Cable or Dumbbell External Rotation

Another great choice, which may be performed with a lot of variety based on the equipment available to you.. You can do it with a mid pulley, low pulley or even seated as shown. The important part is the external rotation of the upper arm. You could even do it with a dumbbell like this.

Charges Poliquin , a world famous strength coach recommends you rotator cuff strength be at least t 9.8% as strong as your bench for optimal performance . For example when I was having pain myself, I benched around 340, therefore I aimed for a 35lb dumbbell on the above external rotation movement. Increasing my strength over a short period of time and slowly adding weight until I used a 35lb dumbbell 8 reps with each arm. After following those guideline my pain went away, plus I immediately increased my bench 10 pounds with no specific bench training (I switched to dumbbells to avoid the locked in position of bench.)

Doing the same with many clients and training partners, they always ended up with about the same results. The rotator cuff work explained above directly helped their barbell bench press and relieved shoulder pain if it existed.

Conclusion

Take this as a reminder to pay attention to the little things in your training. Building a lean muscular physique is not just about moving heavy iron, but moving it as effectively and safely as possible to eventually create the body of your dreams.

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Brad Kelly writes a weekly article every Tuesday. He is a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer, Performance Enhancement Specialist, and Corrective Exercise Specialist out of Panama City, Florida. Driven by a passion to help others he not only trains locals, but also performs online personal training and writes fitness articles to reach as many fellow fitness enthusiasts as possible.

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