Rotator cuff exercises are an essential part of bodybuilding, especially if you perform heavy lifting exercises such as the bench press or military press. While the rotator cuff muscles are very small, they play a large role in stabilizing your shoulder joint during pressing motions. A weakness in this area could result in injury or a plateau in your bench press. Check with your doctor or trainer before doing new exercises.
Rotator Cuff
The four muscles that collectively make up your rotator cuff are your teres minor, infraspinatous, supraspinatous and sucscapularous. When these muscles contract, they pull on tendons, causing your shoulder joint to rotate. Shoulder pain while bench pressing can be from weakness in your rotator cuff muscles, which may lead to rotator cuff impingement syndrome and associated rotator cuff tears. Impingement syndrome occurs when your arm is lifted and the front edge of your shoulder blade rubs the surface of your rotator cuff, causing pain and limited movement.
Training Your Rotator Cuff
Since the rotator cuff muscles are small, they must be trained using light weight with high repetitions and slow, controlled movements. Prior to training these muscles, it is essential that you are warmed up and that you have completed all of your heavy lifting first. Rotator cuff muscles trained prior to heavy lifting can hinder your performance.
Cuban Press Rotation
The Cuban press rotation is an exercise using the wide grip on an EZ curl bar and performing an upright row. When your elbows are at shoulder height, slowly externally rotate the bar toward your forehead then press upward. Once the bar is extended above your head, slowly return the bar to starting position, following the same pattern as you did going up. Repeat for three sets of 10 repetitions. Begin using just the bar with no added weight. If the bar is too heavy, use a broom stick or a lighter bar.
Internal and External Rotations
Internal and external rotation exercises can be performed using a cable pulley system, dumbbells or resistance bands. External rotations are done with your elbow bent at a fixed 90 degrees and held close to your body throughout the entire movement. Your hand is then moved away from your body. Internal rotation is when the resistance is brought toward your body. In both exercises, the weight should be extremely light, and you should do between 20 and 30 repetitions.
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