need westside help

Diet and Nutrition
1

this is my 3rd week ever on the westside program. here is my current ME bench day. my question is, what can i do to bring up my paltry rotator cuff strength. I am 5/9 and weigh 220lbs. i know eric cressey has a workout for the cuff on this site, has anybody used it and if so do you recommend it as a good extra workout to bring my cuff strength up?
mike shank 3/8/04 ME bench
2 board press
45x2x5
95x2x5
135x1x3
185x1x3
225x1x3
275x1x3
315x1x1
345x1x1
365x1x1 new pr
375x1x1 new pr
385 bombed out

lying triceps ext. with olympic bar
105lbs x 6 x 10
straight bar pushdown
85lbs x 3 x 10
cheap guys shoulder horn
12.5lbs x 3 x 15
weighted neck flexions (to help with forward head posture) 3x15lbs x 12

2

thats a preety good 2-board for a 220 pound dude…i have to ask why do you think your rotator cuff is your weak link??..do you have pain there??..bm

3

shank pretty good numbers.

The rotator article you mention is pretty helpful. I used it for a month or so and it brought me to a point where I have no pain and now I do it once a week as a maintenance.

4

big martin, i do have pain there and that is why i think it is my weak link. I noticed that when i “tuck my shoulders under” by bringing them together to get more of my body on the bench, that my shoulder feels better. i figured this was because the tighter i kept the shoulder joint the less pressure there was on the cuff to stabilize it. I also thought that because my 2 board press was 375 and i could only do 12.5 pds for 15 reps on the external rotation that it was a poor ratio of strength in the external rotators to the pecs. however, any feedback you could give me would really help.
sincerely,
mike cruickshank

5

Neck flexion exercises will not help a forward head condition, you need to focus on neck extension.

6

I think any rotator cuff circuit will work…i still use the same one i have from my high school baseball days…its like 5 exersices for 1 set of 25 reps…i do it once at the begining of my work out and once at the end…any one of the rotator cuff programs will work in my opinion…also pay very very very close attention to your warm up processes…99% of all people i see with shoulder and rotator cuff problems it is cause by a shitty warm up…make sure oyu ahve your own personal warm up to fill up the upperbody with blood and get it ready to handle heavy weight…a little bit of lat work and shoulder before a bench session will really lubercate the area and really help with keeping you injury free.bm

7

Check out this article.

Cressey’s article makes for good reading but his depiction of the cuban press where you start holding the bar with elbows high, hands in front of sternum, is just asking for an inflamed acromion process due to contact with the humeral head, and should be avoided. It can lead to impingement…you think you have pain now.

I also find low pulley external rotations are difficult for most people to do correctly. They typically want to go too heavy and end up turning it into something completely different.

Otherwise, I love the cuban roll as shown in the attached article, and the superset depicted has made us all feel like total wuss bags…heh.

I am sure this is not a revelation for you, but make sure you are spending adequate time training your rear delts, too. A strength imbalance could also be contributing to this.

Good luck.

8

thanks alot guys. i will really warm up before my DE day on sunday. i am very confused by the forward head posture statement. i thought forward head posture was caused by long weak cervical flexors and short tight cervical extensors. according to that logic, won’t extension exercises just make things worse?