CyFitness CyFitness Magazine October - December 2014 | Page 12

WHY YOUR ROTATOR CUFFS HATE YOU

T

he shoulder joint and its
connective muscles, tendons and ligaments, has a
greater range of motion than all
other joints in the human body,
which provides a very wide array
of movement. Thr goup of muscles
and connections that combine to
facilitate this movement is called
the rotator cuff. However, the
extremely complex anatomical
structure that provides so much
flexibility in movement patterns
also unfornately make the shoulder
joint quite susceptible to ijnury,
especially to those who spend a lot
of time in the gym pushing and
pulling heavy iron. Here is a some
reasons why your rotator cuff hate
you.

You are not warming up
This may the most common cause
of rotator cuff issue, as the majority of trainees out there fail to take
the proper time to warm up their
shoulders before even beginnning
the first upper body movement. I
highly recommend everybody put
together a basic series of callisthenic-type exercises such as arm
windmills, shoulder rolls to begin
each workout, followed by high rep
sets of rear, front and side laterals
as well as overhead presses. Then
when you get to your first true
exericse, make sure to perform
several progressively heavier warm
up sets to prepare the joing for the

exact movement pattern it will
soon be e ngaged in under high
loads.
Upright Rows
This is another exercise that can
also be hard on the rotators, but in
a differnet way than the previous
reason. The problem here is when
one performs this movement with
too close a grip and lifts the bar too
high at the point of peak contraction. This can cause impingement
at the joint, which can result in
pain and irritation of the rotator cuff tendons and eventually a
chronic condition. I suggest utilizing a shoulder width grip on the

bar and that you pull it no higher
than the point where the elbows
are in the line of the shoulders.
Behind the neck movements
This type of movements have certainly been responsible for many
an injured rotator cuff. However
for a healthy shoulder joint, neither of these two exercise are bad.
The problem lie in too exaggerated range of motion, improper
technique and use too much
weight. Here is what you can do.
Never allow the bar on pull down
or presses to go below the level
of bottom of the ears to eep from
overstretching the attachments.
Also make sure to move the weight
extra slowly such as 2-3 secondpositive and negative, to keep the
tension on the muscle and not on
the joint.

You dont train your rotator cuffs
directly
Very few people perform exercises
that directly work the various rotator cuff muscles. This is not great
approach to avoid pain because it
will eventually create a strength
imbalance between the upper body
muscle groups which in time will
force the rotators to withstand
loads they are not prepared for.
What you can do, learn the various internal and external rotation
exercises and add them into your
routine.
Your improper technique
Tecnhnique is everything and most
injuries of all kinds occur in the
gym because of the poor lifting
form and technique.

Using momentum, swinging and
not controlling the weight on every
rep can wreak your lower back,
neck, knees, hips wrists, elbows
and without a doubt the rotator
cuffs. Educate yourself how to
make a proper form, if you dont
know if your form is good as your
training partner and the guy next
to you so you can move the weight
under full control by using only
the target muscles.