Tuesday, December 8, 2009

How To Strengthen Your Rotator Cuff With Exercises

By Tom Nicholson

Our shoulders are the key to our range of arm motion. They enable us to lift, throw, raise our arms, scratch our back, swing our arms, and more. We use them a lot! As a result, our shoulders are vulnerable to injury-and stress, age, and other factors contribute to these injuries, as well. The rotator cuff is the muscle in the shoulder and is the part most susceptible to injury. But you can strengthen your rotator cuff muscles with exercises to help safeguard against potential injuries.

All muscles need proper training and stretching to develop strength and rotator cuff is no different. The rotator cuff exercises help in toning and stretching this muscles which help in building up its resistance to all kinds of wear and tear. These exercises are also great to prevent all kinds of aging effects which can damage the rotator cuff.

All exercises involving the rotator cuff have some very stringent ground rules which can prevent exercise related injuries.

These exercises will give you a good starter workout for your rotator cuff muscles.

Warm up

Warm ups are essential to a good exercise routine-with the rotator cuff as with any other muscle group. You need to stretch the muscles slowly to help prevent injury or muscle strain. Warm ups for your rotator cuff muscles are simple. Arm circles are a great way to start. Complete 20 reps of each movement to make a complete set. Perform three sets.

* With your arms at your side, raise them until they are at shoulder level. * Continue to raise them until they reach above your head. * Then lower them slowly behind your back until your arms are back down at your side in the starting position.

Alternately, you can simply make imaginary vertical circles with your arms. Begin with your arms at your side and take it slow and easy. Warm up exercises help improve blood circulation, particularly to the muscles, and prepare them for additional exercise.

Doing Rotations

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

Using small weights in each hand, raise your arms up straight out from your sides until they are parallel to the surface you are standing on. Then lower your arms slowly. Complete 20 reps to make a set and do three sets.

There are a number of other exercises that can strengthen your rotator cuff and shoulder. Once you are finished with the exercises, you also need to do some gentle stretches in order to cool down. You can simply repeat the warm up stretches.

Last but not least slowly build up on the rotator cuff exercises since rushing will only cause injuries!

About the Author:

0 comments: