What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM.
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, let's take a look at what it actually is.
If you look here, in on the skeleton, 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.
It's right here.
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 our ATHLEANX Program, as a Physical Therapist,
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.
We have a video, and I'll link it right over here, about strengthening the rotator cuff.
And a little bit more about the importance of why we want to do that.
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 ATHLEANX.COM right now and check out our ATHLEANX 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.
Alright guys, if you found this video helpful, make sure you leave a thumb's up below and
some comments,
and whatever else it is that you want to see, let me know, and of course I'll make a video
on it in the weeks ahead.
See you soon.