Last Update On November 22, 2011
Rotator Cuff Work - Is It Necessery?
by Rusi
Simple answer: No
Rotator cuff work has become pretty fancy these days. More and more overpaid personal trainers are stressing how important it is to do rotator cuff isolation but guess what they can all go to hell and bring with them the pink dumbbell used for direct cuff training. Direct rotator cuff work is not necessary. Why? Keep on reading...bro.
The muscles of the rotator cuff are extremely small and yet very important for shoulder health. However in order to make them stronger you don't have to use the pink dumbbell and perform funny looking exercises. If you had a shoulder injury and you are doing rehab it may be ok but if your shoulders are in good condition you would benefit much more from a different approach.
Reason number one why you see so many rotator cuff injuries is the barbell bench press. Since it's the most overused exercise and usually done pretty heavy for pure ego reasons you may end up with a hurt shoulder. Imagine the following situation: a teenage boy sees two hot girls in the gym and tries to bench 225 instead of 200 because two plates look cooler. He tries to complete the lift in any way possible but due to lack of attention and stability he flares his elbows too much and his rotator cuff is now damaged.
"Ok..bro. Got some good rotator cuff exercises?"
Yes. The best exercise you can possibly do for your shoulders and rotator cuff is the overhead press. You can use dumbbells and barbells it doesn't matter. Just make sure you do it if you are prone to rotator cuff problems. All small muscles in your shoulder have to work isometrically during the overhead press. The exercise requires a lot of stabilization and will also improve your flexibility faster than the stupid stretches you do at the studio of your personal trainer. However make sure that you design your routine in a way that won't overtrain your front deltoids since they are working extremely hard during the bench press.
"Is this everything.. just overhead press?"
Yes, bro. It doesn't have to be complicated. The legendary coach Bill Starr recalls that in the days when the bench press was not as popular and the main upper body lift was the overhead press rotator cuff problems were a taboo.
Another great exercise for shoulder health and rotator cuff work are ring push-ups. Due to the nature of the exercise your rotator cuff will have to work extremely hard in order to stabilize your shoulder and will get quite strong. Also switching to dumbbell bench press will have a similar effect.
"Bro but my personal trainer says I should stick to isolation when it comes to rotator cuff work? U MAD?"
Your personal trainer is most likely an idiot. There are approximately 640 muscles in the human body if I do an isolation exercise for each of them I would need a week to finish a workout. You should always try to do as little exercises as you can while keeping everything in balance. Success is not measured by the number of exercise you do.
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