The Rotator Cuff. A lot of guys have
questions. First of all they call it the rotary cuff, the rotar cuff,
it's the Rotator Cuff. And they want to know: What is it? What does
it do? Do I need to stretch it? Do I need to train it? Well, first
thing, the rotator cuff is not a single muscle group. It's
made up of 4 muscles, 3 of which are going to externally rotate your
shoulder. And that's going to be a really important thing when it
comes to your training. We have the supraspinatus,
the muscle above the spinae scapulae. The infraspinatus right below
the spinae scapulae, then we have the teres minor. And then on the
other side here, you can see, we have the subscapularis. This is one
that runs right on the underside of the scapula and attaches to the
inside of our upper arm bone. So, what that will do is internally
rotate the arm. So, that's one's not actually doing us any favors
because it's only contributing to the problem that we already have as
anybody that does, that trains with weights consistently, and that is
internally rotated shoulders, the imbalanced shoulder posture usually
dominated into this internal rounded shoulder posture. So, we only
have those 3 muscles on the back side. and only those 3 that will
externally rotate the shoulder. And that's important because you're
going to need proper posture whether you're setting up for a Lat Pull
Down, whether you're setting up for even a Bench Press, you need your
shoulders back and down, whether you're setting up for a squat and
you need your shoulders back and down.
The only thing that's going to
help you are these little muscles right here, and you've got to make
sure that you have them trained properly. And that's a problem
because most programs never even address the rotator cuff. with Bebeko.org, I understand the rotator
cuff is extremely important to what we do, so we program it into your
regular training so that you're not missing that important step. So
you can unlock a lot of other areas of strength that are being held
back by your tight or weak rotator cuffs at the moment. So, what do
we do if you have to stretch your rotator cuff? Well, I have a couple
stretches. Now, number 1, you shouldn't have to stretch the external
rotation component of it. Why? Unless you're suffering from trigger
points in your muscles like the supraspinatus and the infraspinatus,
which can happen, you're never going to really deal with tightness in
your external rotators because remember we talked about, they're
usually on stretch, just weak and on stretch. The one that is going
to cause you problems is going to be your subscapularis. So, we can
do that with a golf ball, or a broom handle, anything. You basically
take a golf club or a broom handle, whatever you have. You hang it
right over your shoulder as if you're carrying a jacket, ok. Then you
take your arm, you put it at 90 degrees with the club still in your
hand.
Ok. From here, it should be almost dissecting your bicep. You
grab on to this club from underneath, and you pull up and back. And
you're now pulling your shoulder right into external rotation. So,
you can stretch the internal rotator of the rotator cuff which would
be again, that subscapularis. So, this is a great stretch to get in
there. I can really, really feel it. And if you should need to
stretch your external rotators, you have to remember to do that,
you've got to go the opposite direction. You've got to get into
internal rotation. And we can do that by taking our hands, as I'm
going to show you here in this stretch, putting them right on side of
your hips, ok, the backs of your hands. Now you can see, I'll just
kind of move my elbows forward. ok, as much as I can. Once I hit a
limit here, I've actually hit the limit here of my internal rotation
of my shoulders. Now, to get this even more intense, I can squat
down. And you can see I'm now putting those elbows, if I can, inside
my knees. And once I've got them inside the knees, I can use my knees
to actually drive the elbows in a little bit more, a little further
into passive internal rotation that can give me a pretty good
stretch. Again, you're only going to feel this if you're somebody
that tends to carry a lot of stress in through your back, trigger
points that will reside in that infraspinatus and supraspinatus and
teres minor, it'll feel good and you're going to want to address
that. But I can tell you, long term, the big thing you're going to
want to do is strengthen these.
I can tell
you, most workout programs, never address the rotator cuff. As a
Physical Therapist, I realize the importance that these muscles play.
And the fact that these are the only 3 friends we've got. These are
the only 3 allies we've got to combat against all this internal
rotation that we're creating with the rest of our upper body pushing
and pulling workouts. So we need to make sure that we don't overlook
these. And of course guys we don't do that. At ATHLEANX, we make sure
we address it all. It's what training like an athlete is all about.
If you haven't already, guys, and you're looking for balanced
shoulders, and you're trying to develop upper body strength without
creating imbalances that are really hard to overcome, I would head to Bbeko.org right now and check out our Training System.
It's what we do to create balanced bodies, athletic bodies that not
only look great but perform great too. That's what it's all about
guys. If you want to look like an athlete, you've got to train like
an athlete, and it starts right here. And don't overlook any muscle
no matter how small it is. They're all important or they wouldn't be
there in the first place. See you soon.
