Free Article Titled "Rotator Cuff Exercises - Training the Rotator Cuffs For Injury Prevention and Repair"

Rotator Cuff Exercises - Training the Rotator Cuffs For Injury Prevention and Repair

By Gregg Swanson

Why train the rotator cuffs? Most people have probably don't know what makes up the group of rotator cuff muscles, so it's likely they've never bothered to find out why they should training them. These are the 6 key benefits of rotator cuff exercises.

Before I begin in discussing the benefits of rotator cuffs exercises we need to clear up some confusion abut the rotator cuff.

Rotator Cuff 101

The rotator cuff is not a single muscle; they are a group of muscle. The muscles of the rotator cuff are easily remembered by the acronym SITS: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. All of these muscles originate on different portions of the scapula and insert on the humeral head where they converge at the glenohumeral joint capsule to form a tendinous cuff around the joint. In plan English, these groups of muscles help stabilize the shoulders and contribute to its movement.

Most of you have probably never heard of these muscles before, so it's likely you're wondering why you should bother training them.

Why You Should Train the Rotator Cuffs

Strength: Let's put it this way: if you have the stabilizers of a Girl Scout, do you think you're going to be able to handle heavy loads or even medium size loads?

It's not uncommon to see an individual break through a bench, row, pull-up, or Olympic lift sticking point just by incorporating direct external rotator training.

Safety: The rotator cuff is of paramount importance in injury prevention. Strengthening the rotator cuff and the resulting improvements in stability can significantly decreases the occurrences of nagging rotator cuff injuries

By giving the muscles of your rotator cuff the attention they deserve, you can eliminate rotator cuff pain and increase your shoulder longevity.

Size: In addition to all the indirect ways that direct rotator cuff training can lead to size, let's not forget the four muscles of rotator cuff themselves are capable of hypertrophy!

So as you train these group of muscles you'll not only look better, but you'll function better as well.

Posture: Several factors can lead to tight internal rotators. Many people who utilize these muscles extensively without attention to the external rotators can experience a marked shortening effect of the internal rotators due to tightness. You can see many of these individuals simply observing the display of rounded shoulders for evidence of this trend.

This shortening effect is also noticeable in individuals who spend considerable amounts of time hunched over a desk or simply exemplifying poor posture. A combination of internal rotator stretching and external rotator strengthening has proven successful in decreasing the anterior inclination of the thoracic spine.

Improved Range of Motion: Quite simply, exercises performed through complete ranges of motion yield greater improvements in strength and flexibility.

If your internal rotators are tight, your ROM is decreased and you're potential for rotator cuff injuries are increased.

Confidence: Some might debate me on the psychological carryover of a physiological change, but I'm a firm believer that you'll have a lot more confidence when you are standing tall and straight and you can move your shoulders through a full ROM pain-free.

So there you have it, some of the benefits of [http://bestrotatorcuffexercises.com]exercises for rotator cuff injury and rotator cuff strengthening.

About Author

Gregg Swanson has been a personal trainer for over 20 years and owner of Warrior Fitness Training. Please contact him to find out more about training the rotator cuff's and [http://bestrotatorcuffexercises.com]rotator cuff exercises.