How to improve shoulder and rotator cuff conditioning (e.g. Cuban rotations)

[luke]

@dawn16 https://goo.gl/images/wn4G8a

 

[dawn16]

@luke Wait you try to fall asleep 90 degree arms up?

 

[luke]

@dawn16 Yes. Right now I just lie that way for a while before changing positions so that I can fall asleep, but it is becoming more comfortable and I think I’ve fallen asleep a time or two like that. My infant son sleeps like this all the time, and if there is one thing I’ve learned from having small children (there are many things I’ve learned but this is one) it’s that we should be mimicking their movement patterns.

I spend most of my day with closed internally rotated shoulders (holding a baby, reaching forward to play with whatever little toys my daughter is playing with on the floor, etc), so if I can spend most of my night open and externally rotated then maybe I’ll be balanced, haha. A few nights of this has fixed a tweaked shoulder more than once recently for me lately.

 

[khuleman]

@bibbigo I made a post about this a day or two ago. Could you check it out?

I just started trying to make things like this a routine, something I’m trying to address in 2019, as well as stretching regularly.

I don’t worry too much about isolated internal rotation exercises as I feel they get worked sufficiently. I’ve had a history of long he’s bicep tendonitis, so I’m finally trying to truly address it with some direct and consistent external rotator work, and high volume-slow eccentric curls.

 

[bibbigo]

@khuleman Your post was removed by the Mods.

 

[khuleman]

@bibbigo Damn, I’ll paste it here.

I perform this on off days before stretching. Just one set of each. Should I perform a couple of sets of each?

Couple minutes of one of GMBs animal patterns for general warm up.

Floor Angels: 10

Scap Push Up: 10

YTWL: 10 each, rest in between

10 Scap pull

I also recently began doing:

Seated External Rotation: 20x2

Bicep Curl w/slow eccentric: 20x2

 

[promachos]

@bibbigo I do banded external and internal rotations which were prescribed by my sports medicine doctor after acute rotator cuff tendonitis. After the pain went away, I kept doing them at the end of my workout. I'm not sure if that's the best place for them, but so far so good. I just do 3 sets of 10 reps with a light band, and I'm tired enough by then that it feels hard enough.

 

[rj786]

@bibbigo Is there any resistance on exercise 1? Gravity would be pulling the plate down but you are moving it horizontally. Thus, the only force you're overcoming is inertia. But since you are moving slowly there's almost no inertia.

If you're doing to do these, I'd do them lying on my side so gravity pulls the weights down (and you are externally rotating to move the plates up.)

 

[bibbigo]

@rj786

Is there any resistance on exercise 1?

Only at the end of ROM for external rotation when my arm is at 180 deg or past that at say 210 deg. I feel contraction and tension in the shoulder and also in the scapula and/or other back muscles. I consider this quick and easy takes less than 1 minutes to do 20 reps on each side in my warm-up.

 

[jun_za]

@bibbigo That's not the best way to train rotations - I assumed when I read the post that you were doing them lying on your side. It really should be done with a band or cable so that you actually are resisting force the whole time through the ROM. Sure you're feeling a contraction but it's definitely not what it should be.

 

[bibbigo]

@jun_za No. I do them standing up, so the picture in the original Post shows the movement and ROM (somewhat). Both exercises (horizontal and vertical) were shown to me by someone who is a certified trainer but I agree that doesn't make that person the authority on such things. That why I've been wondering about how to improve my routine.

 

[rj786]

@bibbigo My PT had me doing them standing up but with band so there was resistance. When I could do that well I graduated to lying on my side with a weight. Again, the idea was to increase resistance.

 

[jun_za]

@bibbigo Yeah, I try to not be too cynical about certified trainers, but the standards in the field are pretty much derelict. The force is simply directed the wrong way when you're standing - there's nothing directly resisting your rotations, the muscles actually fighting gravity are your elbow flexors. If you're going to be standing, you need a band or cable.

 

[dawn16]

@rj786 Yeah i see people doing these all the time and i'm always connfused, surely the only thing getting any sort of work would be the biceps here.

 

[fallenorange]

@rj786 Agreed.

Standing there's no resistance on internal or external rotation, it's just a really light static curl.

Works really well well with a band. I like a cable machine even better.

 

[ayeesha]

@bibbigo I agree that modern-day living already has a bias towards IR. More often, people have trouble with ER and proper scapular stabilization, and need to be extra mindful of that (this is a very common theme that physios work on with patients). I do both IR and ER band work, but I do more ER.

I don't know if you left this out because you only wanted to focus on rotator cuff, but a big part of ER also involves mid/low traps and serratus anterior, which I also incorporate a lot of warmup for. My warmup looks something like:

1. SMR: foam roll t-spine and lats, peanut pec attachment and upper/mid/lower trap (and also other areas like legs & hips but I won't get into that here)
2. band work:

• dislocates with full internal to external rotation as I pass overhead
• ER and IR, similar to yours
• scapular retraction (I hook the band around my foot while seated)
• stepping on one end of the band, bring the other end overhead with shoulders fully elevated, make small/rapid circles both ways; also do 'snow angel' shape with my arms from here
• grab onto both ends and push bands as far out as I can from midline

1. other warmup/prehab: floor & wall exercises to warm up deep core, serratus, mid/low traps

Then I finish with whatever other warmup to suit what I'm planning on doing.

 

[anonymouswife]

@bibbigo Did these a lot as a pitcher in HS and College. Resistance bands work well, but we used surgical tubing for more resistance. Go slow.

 

[jah138]

@bibbigo I made good experience with Cuban rotations without weights or with 0.5-1kg for 1-2 sets x 5-10 reps before the work and ring face pulls (one arm and both arms) and LYPTs with 5, 10 and 20 reps after the workout as a prevention training. I recommend do to the prev work after workout to not exhaust your rotator cuff before the workout and increase the risk of injury. But light prev work with little resistance and few to moderate repetitions and way before to failure, with few sets works well. Hope this helps.

 

[cbsmel]

@bibbigo I do a few reps of trap 3 raises or the LYTP circuit as warmup

 

[peacefulrestlessness]

@bibbigo I'm mostly doing this routine, with some slight modifications - most people here probably already get enough horizontal pulling work. Rather than as a warmup, they recommend a dedicated section of the workout 2x a week, i.e. it's really strength work rather than warmup.

Dan Pope has some other really great material on shoulder rehab, like this one and this one. Even if you're not rehabbing there are lots of good exercise ideas there, with some guidance about their level.