What I am holding right here is a typical upper body workout.
Bench press, lat pull downs, triceps, push-downs, dips, bicep curls, shoulder presses, side
laterals.
But what I am going to tell you is that there is something majorly wrong with this that
I am going to show you today
And make sure that you protect your shoulders.
[Music Intro]
What's up guys? Jeff Cavaliere AthleanX.com
Back with like I said a couple of weeks ago, interrupted by the hurricane.
We all stayed alive and well here.
It was a pretty rough storm but now we are back on track.
Up and ready to keep moving forward
And we are going back a couple weeks to re-address what I told you about then.
Which was how do we protect our shoulders when we are working out.
And there is one major flaw in their workouts that a lot of guys are not doing because I
see it each and every day.
And this would be your typical upper-body workout.
Now I am just grabbing any kind of exercises here.
These are the exercises that you see populating most workout programs.
Bench press, lat pull downs, triceps, push-downs, dips, bicep curls, shoulder presses, side
laterals.
All good exercises, all effective exercises for adding strength and adding mass
But something crucially wrong here, that is:
Everything we see here is internally rotating the shoulders
And what does that mean?
It means that when our shoulders work and function
We know that they can flex forward and back.
They can extend behind our body.
We sort of ignore the whole rotation component when it comes to shoulders.
And I think where we also loose track is what is rotation?
Is rotation just if I go like this?
A lot of guys are familiar with the rotator cuff.
You know, work and exercising this direction.
But it is the same thing if I have my arm straight
And I rotate my arm in and then out.
That's also internal rotation, external rotation of the shoulder.
This internal rotation: external rotation of the shoulder.
Up here internal rotation: external rotation of the shoulder.
So all these major muscle groups-the pecs-are going to internally rotate the shoulder.
The lats are going to internally rotate the shoulder.
The delts are going to internally rotate the shoulder.
so what are your only weapons to create an external rotation balance
That is going to protect your rotation going forward?
Only one small group of muscles called the rotator cuff.
And if you are not directly training external rotation
There is no residual overflow from any other type of workout that you are doing
That is going to get you that strength.
So nothing, let me underscore this one more time, nothing you do in the gym for major
muscle groups
Are ever going to pick up the slack of the rotator cuff
And feed the strength that it needs to counterbalance
All of this rotation if you are not doing it.
Let me tell you right now
If you don't have a shoulder problem
You are going to have a shoulder problem
After years of training this way.
So we need to get some kind of external rotation going on.
And I said there is a lot of options
Because of the way you turn and position your arm is going to change.
So one thing that I like to do is-
We talked about it once before: our No Money Curl.
What I do with the No Money Curl
As I curl up I actually externally rotated the shoulder.
So not only was I curling up, but I was rotating out.
Same thing here.
We can come and rotate-
If I am lying on my left side say on a bench-
Rotate the shoulder out and then down.
And out and down.
Or we can work with bands like you are familiar with.
Rotate in and out--I'll step back.
Here, rotate out.
Now the important thing is always to keep this elbow tucked into your side
Because I started doing that and that is not rotation anymore.
Now I am working just a side lateral from my shoulder.
So you got to keep it out so you are actually rotating in the joint.
You'll notice that this band
Which is not a lot of resistance, is probably already too much for me to overcome.
So one thing about rotator cuff: very light weights are usually enough to get the job
done.
But the point of the matter is, you have to be able to implement this stuff into your
workouts.
Guys that are already following Athlean-X know that rotator cuff training is an integral
part of the program.
And not just because I am a physical therapist and I am trying to protect your shoulders.
That is one of the main reasons why.
But also it is actually going to improve the way you look.
OK? People tell you to squeeze your shoulder blades back, to get better posture.
That's not really the way they work.
You actually want to rotate the shoulders back.
So if I rotate it back what I get immediately is broader shoulders, a broader chest, and
I actually have better posture.
I actually look better than having that look.
That's the look you are going to get if you continue to train that way.
So dual purposes here guys.
Not just to protect our shoulders, but also to look better and get better posture.
Because you can get much more strength out of all those major muscle groups: the chest,
the shoulders, the lats-If your shoulders are in the right position and balanced correctly.
So guys if you haven't already, if you don't have any rotator cuff training involved in
your workout program right now, you have got to start doing it.
Not only will you get stronger in all your other muscle groups, but you are going to
look better.
You are going to get bigger looking obviously of the posture changes.
And you are also going to protect those shoulders going forward.
So go over and grab the Athlean-X training program.
I lay it all out for you.
I tell you exactly when to train a rotator cuff, when not to and how much to do, how
many sets, it is all laid out for you.
Become part of Team Athlean
Start training the way you should.
Start training the way to protect all of your joints, and start getting better results.
Guys I will see you here next week with another workout.
I will see you guys here in 7 days.