The Best Rotator Cuff Strengthening Routine (BULLETPROOF YOUR SHOULDERS)

Performing the best rotator cuff exercises are crucial for shoulder health, injury prevention, and they can even help increase your strength. In this video, you'll learn how to perform three simple and effective rotator cuff exercises. Nothing will set you back more than injuries on your quest to build muscle and lose fat. Shoulder injuries are one of the most common injuries lifters experience. Shoulder injury tends to be the worst for your gains as it prevents you from doing any upper body exercises.

The first step is to choose the right shoulder exercises, and more importantly, perform them correctly. There are also four muscles surrounding the shoulder joint, which collectively comprise the rotator cuff. It’s important to train these rotator cuff muscles directly with a rotator cuff routine in order to prevent shoulder imbalances over time. 

Here are three rotator cuff exercises I recommend incorporating into your routine for rotator cuff strengthening:

The first rotator cuff exercise in this routine is called the full can. The full can targets the supraspinatus muscle of the rotator cuff. This exercise is perfect for strengthening this muscle, as shown in a 2007 EMG analysis of various common exercises for the supraspinatus. The full can elicits a high amount of EMG activity of the supraspinatus with the least amount of deltoid activity.

This next exercise is going to be used to target the 2 posterior rotator cuff muscles at once; the infraspinatus and the teres minor. This rotator cuff with dumbbells is a convenient option to do at your gym as well, requiring minimal equipment. According to a 2004 EMG analysis of the rotator cuff muscles, this exercise elicits the highest infraspinatus and teres minor activation when compared to several other rotator cuff exercises. This exercise also has the lowest strain on the shoulder joint.

For the last exercise, we’re going to move onto something called the external rotation press. This exercise is going to challenge and strengthen all 4 rotator cuff muscles to a certain degree.

While the prior two exercises are great at strengthening the various rotator cuff muscles, many of the movements lifters perform in the gym take place above shoulder height in positions where the shoulder joint becomes more vulnerable to injury. This is where the external rotation press comes in handy.

The above exercises can be performed as a routine 2-3 times per week, and are summarized with tutorials in the below PDF.

Download your FREE PDF rotator cuff routine:

It’s key muscle groups like the rotator cuff that are overlooked, but really are what’s going to protect you from injury. That’s exactly why within my Built With Science programs there’s a high priority placed on training key muscle groups like the rotator cuff, which is integrated into your weekly weights routines so that you can effectively transform your body without developing imbalances in the process. 

To join today, simply head on over to and take the starting point analysis quiz to discover the best program for you.

GRAPHICS: Vector art from Vecteezy.com

STUDIES:

EXERCISES FOR SCAPULOTHORACIC MUSCULATURE


EGM ANALYSIS OF SUPRASPINATUS MUSCLES


EGM ANALYSIS OF ROTATOR CUFF DURING EXTERNAL ROTATION


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