How Best To Work On Rotator Cuff Muscles

[Spiderlounge]

Hi all, I'm working on getting my rotator cuffs ready for a busy season to prevent any recurrence of my regular injuries to them from overloading them. I'm not sure exactly the best way to work them - I know I don't need to use any great force, but should I be trying to do lots of fast repetitions or move them very slowly and gradually?

 

[Liz Ward]

The RC needs endurance so we are after high reps not high resistance. They are instigators so only really need to be worked to about 30 degrees. However, watch the big, superficial muscle exercises, such as pressing. Although these are not designed to work the RC, any deficit in technique can kill them.

Interval training would be great; some slow movements, some fast movements... but make sure you have warmed them up first. I do not tend to write in specific RC work; more incorporating/integrating them into any bar/cable work as a warm up.

 

[Spiderlounge]

The RC needs endurance so we are after high reps not high resistance. They are instigators so only really need to be worked to about 30 degrees. However, watch the big, superficial muscle exercises, such as pressing. Although these are not designed to work the RC, any deficit in technique can kill them.

Interval training would be great; some slow movements, some fast movements... but make sure you have warmed them up first. I do not tend to write in specific RC work; more incorporating/integrating them into any bar/cable work as a warm up.

Thanks Liz, at the moment I'm not trying to increase my general overall muscle, I just want to work on these particular muscles as they've been very fragile in the past. My main gym work is aerobic, when the season starts proper I should be bowling in the nets often enough to hopefully build up whatever strength I need.

At the moment I do about 10 mins aerobic stuff as a warm up, then go over to the cables and do three different exercises, all with my elbow at right angles - first: with my elbow at my side pulling my hand towards my body, second: the same but pulling away from my body, third: with my upper arm out to the side of and level with my shoulder and my forearm pulling forward from a vertical position to a more horizontal one. I hope those are the right ones, are there any more you'd suggest I try? I do each of these 15 times with a very low load, quite quick, then go through them each again. I then go back to aero work, then the cables again, then warm down and finish, go home (it's a very short journey), stretch and have a hot shower.

 

[Liz Ward]

These exercises are fine Spiderlounge, although you should be doing three sets... 15 reps is fine.

However, I am more worried about '...when the season starts proper I should be bowling in the nets often enough to hopefully build up whatever strength I need.'
It's not going to happen. The reason you suffer from RC issues is your failure to engage the shoulder stabilisers during your action, putting too much stress on the shoulder mobilisers. If you do not get this sorted, you will always suffer from RC niggles due to incorrect force management, which could lead to surgery.

As you have access to a cable, I seriously recommend the Standing Cable Press as it is a great, reduced stressful way of loading the shoulder by spreading the load over more components of the kinetic chain. REMEMBER: technique is key. Any self respecting PT will be able to ensure you are doing this right; retracting the scapular with thoracic rotation. This will activate the stabilisers.