Tough Cuff: Bullet-proof Your Rotators for Pain-free Power
by Bill Starr
Page 3
One of the best exercises for the rotator cuff is long pulls on the lat machine from the low position, a.k.a. seated cable rows. Use a V-bar attachment, keep your torso perfectly erect throughout the exercise, and don't cheat at all. In the beginning keep the weights light and concentrate on making the movement smooth. At the finish of the pull, as you bring the V-bar into your chest, pull your elbows past your body and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Keep the reps high, 15s or 20s, for three or four sets. When you know you're getting stronger, drop the reps and make it a strength movement. A rowing machine is also beneficial for rehabbing and strengthening the rotator cuff.
Any type of overhead lift, such as military presses, push presses and jerks, is most useful, since the act of holding a weight overhead hits the rotator cuff group directly. Start with pressing and use dumbbells, not the bar. Dumbbells force the shoulders to work a bit harder, and they also allow you to hold them without placing the injured area in a hurtful position. Do standing or seated presses, three sets of 15 or 20. As your strength improves, lower the reps, add some sets and move on to the bar.
Dumbbell lateral and front raises are helpful. Experiment with a variety of hand positions to find the one that doesn't bother you'at least not as much. Try palms down, palms up and in between, with your thumbs up. If it hurts to do lateral raises, go more to the front. Do both front and lateral raises, either at the same session or on alternate days, three sets of 20 on each. I've discovered that most people who have some sort of shoulder or rotator cuff problem can find some angle on the incline bench that doesn't bother them. Again, I recommend dumbbells in the beginning, since you can find a way to hold them that doesn't irritate the injured area. Start with four sets of 15 or 20, and gradually lower the reps and increase the poundages until you can work with a bar.
Dips are absolutely one of the best shoulder and arm exercises of all. If you're able to do them, add them to your program. You've probably noticed that I haven't mentioned flat-bench presses. I'm not anti-benching, but if you're having rotator cuff problems, you should drop them and substitute inclines or overhead presses. I realize that many trainees feel lost without flat benches, and in those cases I suggest relegating the exercise to an auxiliary role, using dumbbells and staying with fairly high reps, 20s. In the event that the dumbbells also hurt, eliminate the bench and put all your effort into inclines, overhead presses or dips.
Quite often people with rotator cuff injuries can do only one exercise for the shoulder girdle: dips, inclines or presses. One is better than none, so if that's your situation, make that your primary exercise until the injury heals.
The traps are most critical in supporting the shoulder girdle, and since they lap over the rotator cuff area, they're important to those groups as well. Eventually, you'll want to do heavy shrugs in the power rack, although that might not be possible right away. If that's the case, use dumbbells and do the shrugs while sitting on a bench with your feet up on the bench. John Grimek showed me that trick, and it really does help to isolate the traps. Stay with 20s for three or four sets, and steadily work the weight upward until you can do power shrugs.
High pulls, done with a close or wide grip, are most beneficial for building upper-back strength. One reason I like high pulls is that they hit the rear deltoids dynamically, and the rear delts are hard to strengthen. You may have to wait until your injured area gets stronger before you do them, but add them as soon as possible. The stronger you make your traps, the better.
When you don't have powerful traps, you put too much stress on the smaller supraspinatus, which runs along the top of the shoulder blade. Strong traps act like suspensions on cantilevered bridges. Any exercise that works the traps involves the teres minor and infraspinatus as well.
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