Exercises to Strengthen the Shoulder Rotator Cuff Muscles

[roman]

I found an excellent article which includes various exercises (including pictures) on strengthening the Shoulder Rotator Cuff Muscles. This is for all you guys with shoulder issues... strengthening the rotator cuff muscles is essential for injury prevention, and also for rehabilitation of an existing injury.

http://www.physioroom.com/experts/askth ... 050225.php

Good Luck!

[tmansfield]

For the last few months I've had a slight ache in the front of my right shoulder, I've always put this down to a stained tendon but could this be a rotator cuff problem?

[roman]

It definitely could be... I had the same issues and these exercises really helped. Even if you're right, strengthening the muscles around the strained tendon should definitely help. Try em out, see how it feels! Also try all of them and see which one targets your problematic area the most!

P.S - Also check exercise no. 4 on this link --> http://www.aafp.org/afp/980215ap/980215a.html

It's not included in the first link I provided, but it's an important one!

[Chris H Laing]

If I am going to be pursuing skills such as planche, iron cross, one arm chin, etc. would it be beneficial to start doing these exercises maybe once a week?

[roman]

Most definitely! Exercises which help with injury prevention are always worth doing! I can say from personal experience that training the cross can really screw with your shoulders, especially if you're working with a full range of motion (i.e. going all the way down to a horizontal cross position). These exercises really helped me personally with my shoulder issues... I just wish I was doing them on a regular basis along with my training the entire time, so that way I wouldn't have had to stop my cross training in order to get over my shoulder pains.

Good luck with your training!

[tmansfield]

Well I've been trying these for a few weeks now and they seem to be helping. Roman, didn't you mean exercise 3 on the second link? This one seemed the target the problem area the most, so it must be internal rotation. I've also added in an isometric internal rotation exercise-just pressing in again a wall. Does anyone know any other internal rotation exercise as most are external?

I've also found my problem shoulder (right) is way less flexible than my left so have been doing lots of stretching, I think this came from the days when I competed in Judo and probely landed on it and strained it with my fav throw :s! As mentioned on the shoulder dislocate thread when I do them my right shoulder hangs lower than my left-i now believe this to be because because I turn my left arm out much more. They equalise when the right arm is forcably turned out, could this also indicate a rotator cuff problem?

And one final question, is holding handstands against a wall a bad idea or can i keep training this as there is no movment? Are skin the cats and muscle ups(just found out I can do them and am keen to get training!) a bad idea to? Or could they help?

Thanks

Tom