Saturday, March 12, 2011

Exercises To Strengthen Your Rotator Cuff

By Tom Nicholson


We perform a myriad of tasks due to the wide range of motion that our shoulders allow us. Lifting objects, scratching our back or even throwing a spin ball are some of the tasks that we can accomplish due to the mobility of our shoulders. Nevertheless, this mobility also causes the shoulder to become vulnerable to a host of injuries. Aging, stress and other factors can cause a number of problems in the rotator cuff of the shoulder which is the most susceptible part of the shoulder. Therefore, the only way to prevent any kind of shoulder injuries is to toughen the rotator cuff with the help of rotator cuff exercises.

You can't just jump right into exercising. Like any other exercise program, you need to develop the rotator cuff muscle with a purpose. You need to stretch, tone, train, and strengthen the muscle.

Follow the directions carefully to ensure proper execution of each exercise and prevent any exercising injuries.

Here are some rotator cuff exercises which can be done to strengthen and tone this muscle.

Start With A Warm up

Any time you plan to exercise, you need to warm up and stretch out. Failure to do this can result in sprains or injury. To warm up the rotator cuff, simple exercises like arm circles are ideal. Do 20 reps of each of the following movements per set, and do three sets altogether.

* With your arms at your side, lift them slowly. * Bring your arms up over your head. * Lower your arms behind your back slowly. Then return to the original position. * Repeat for 20 reps per set.

If you're familiar with doing arm circles, this is the basic concept with this warm up. Simply make slow imaginary circles by rotating your arms at the shoulders. Warm up exercises like these are designed to get the blood flowing to your muscles and get them ready to exercise.

Rotations Of The Shoulder Cuff

Bring your arms up so they are at shoulder height, parallel to the surface on which you are standing. Then bend the forearms, making a right angle at your elbow. Begin to rotate your shoulders and rotator cuffs slowly. Complete 20 reps to make a set and do three sets. If desired, add weights gradually as you build your muscle strength.

Lateral raises

This is one of the most well know rotator cuff exercises. You can hold a weight in either hand and then lift your arms sideways to the point where they are parallel to the floor. This exercise is generally done in three sets of twelve reps.

There are also additional exercises that will work well to strengthen shoulder muscles like the rotator cuff group of muscles. These are a good beginning workout. When you finish, don't forget to cool those muscles down. Simply repeat the exercises you did for the warm up.

Start slow and build up your endurance with these exercises. Don't race through them or it defeats the purpose and actually increases your chance of injuring the muscles instead of building them up. Use a steady, calm pace to maintain muscle control and build strength.




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