Anyone Got a List of the Rotator Cuff Exercises? (or links)...

…along with the recommended number of reps/sets?

I’ve had this ongoing problem with the left shoulder, I used to do a lot of upright rows in the late 80’s/early 90’s, I remember some pain back then, and I stopped lifting altogether for the rest of that decade.

Anyway, I’ve found nowadays I can’t do upright rows without pain during and after the workout, severe enough to make me pull faces. I’ve cut them out completely, as with all benching/dips, and I work around the pain - quite successfully.

However, there’s still the ghost of that pain, I’ve done some reading and although don’t believe I have a tear, maybe I have some scarring/impingement.

I won’t ever do upright rows again, but I would like to hit the bench and dips again. I’ve tried the RC movement where you lie sideways and slowly lift your forearm, that seems to help, but I find I can only do 6 -8 reps on the left, and at least a dozen on the right.

Anyway, any practical advice on the shoulder, barring, “See a GP” (I did, she’s useless) would be welcome. A link detailing ALL the excercises, preferably in descending order of effectiveness, would be even more welcome!

Cheers,

Jaybee.

Search Eric Cressey.
Read.
Learn.
Repeat if necessary.

You should see an ortho or sports medicine specialist, not a GP. I thought I only had tendonitis, but it turns out I have a full-thickness supraspinatus tear, so it’s hard to self-diagnose.

Look up Cressey’s Shoulder savers.

Learn to love face pulls, cuban presses, and external rotations (DB’s and cables).

Make sure your form is correct on the benching (ie not twisting or pushing shoulder up)

Balance pushing with pulling exercises

Do the broomstick stretch (a la Doggcrap) and foam rolling with a tennis ball around your traps and shoulders.

I don’t know if you know all of this stuff or not, but these are the things that will definately help.

Deffinately see an Ortho or Sports Medicine specialist. I am just getting over a partial thickness tear of my supraspinatus. An MRI is really the way to go… You could actually do more damage if you do exercises and don’t know what exactly is wrong.

[quote]justinb19 wrote:
Deffinately see an Ortho or Sports Medicine specialist. I am just getting over a partial thickness tear of my supraspinatus. An MRI is really the way to go… You could actually do more damage if you do exercises and don’t know what exactly is wrong.[/quote]

Know what you’re saying mate, but the exercise I described above reduced even that faint twinge to nearly nothing, I can’t help feeling it’s going to work. Also, that soft-tissue work where you lie on the bench, I remembered the part where you unrack and get the feel of the bar before lowering, THAT felt good, I didn’t know why then, but that’s actually one of the soft-tissue strengtheners.

I’ll go to the GP tomorrow and complain her exercises didn’t work, and I need to get an MRI done

Benching used to be so hard on my rotators that I stopped altogether. In the past year, I was able to strengthen them and resume benching (almost) pain free.

What worked for me was YTLW light dumbbell raises off an incline bench. First learned about the exercise reading Core Performance where they advocate using a physioball. I prefer using an adjustable bench inclined ~35 degrees - I think Cosgrove does it this way. Good luck

Pick up a copy (out of print) of “The 7-Minute Rotator Cuff Solution”.

An entire book dedicated to the care, feeding, rehabbing, and prevention of injury for the rotator cuff.

Tons of info, exercises, etc.

[quote]bulldog24 wrote:
Benching used to be so hard on my rotators that I stopped altogether. In the past year, I was able to strengthen them and resume benching (almost) pain free.

What worked for me was YTLW light dumbbell raises off an incline bench. First learned about the exercise reading Core Performance where they advocate using a physioball. I prefer using an adjustable bench inclined ~35 degrees - I think Cosgrove does it this way. Good luck[/quote]

I’ll give that a go too. In keeping with the ethic of, “Drop what hurts”, it seems like the logic to determining which RC movement is most effective is, “Do that which hurts least”.

Also read excellent things about SLA’s.

Subscapularis
-Prone internal rotations
-Standing band resisted internal rotations

Teres minor/infraspinatus/posterior delts
-Seated External rotation with elbow on knee
-Cuban Press
-Standing External rotation (upper arms parallel to the ground, elbows bent, dumbbells in hand and active external rotation)
-Dumbbell Power Cleans
-Face Pulls

Supraspinatus
-Lateral raise with strict form for first 15 degrees of motion

Update…

Tried a few RC exercises, they all hurt like bitches for a day. Not sure if this means the shoulder has improved yet but I’m sure I’ll find out when I do the push stuff tomorrow.

Also, I went to the quack, and bitched and moaned about the pain, sobbed about Ibuprofen/Ice packs etc, and now she is sending me for an X-Ray tomorrow. Not as good as an MRI of course, but at least I’ll get to see a Physio if the pain doesn’t go away completely.