What Is the Best Rotator Cuff Exercise?
I've treated a lot of shoulders in my time as a physio. CrossFit athletes who've made the Games. Everyday swimmers. Masters swimmers winning 10km open water events. If there was one rotator cuff exercise I'd pick above all others, it would be this one. Except, there isn't one. And that's the whole point.
Why isn't there one best rotator cuff exercise?
You've probably noticed the video doesn't show one exercise. It shows plenty. That's deliberate.
The misconception is that rotator cuff work means one thing: a band, internal rotation, external rotation, done. Those have their place, but there are heaps of good options, and I don't believe there's one great exercise for the rotator cuff.
What works for a 55-year-old open water swimmer will look completely different to a 20-year-old walking into the gym for the first time, and different again to a mum returning to push-ups after having a baby. Same muscle group, three very different shoulders, three very different starting points.
Finding your exercise is exactly what the assessment is for.
How do I know if my shoulder exercise is actually working?
Whatever exercise you've been given, run it against these two rules. This is what we coach in the clinic every day.
Rule 1: Discomfort during is fine. Pain hours later is not. A shoulder exercise is allowed to feel uncomfortable while you're doing it. But it shouldn't leave you sore two or three hours afterwards. If it does, the exercise or the load needs adjusting.
Rule 2: If you could do 50, it's not hard enough. By the last few reps you should be genuinely working, and when the set finishes you should be very happy to have a rest. Fatigue in the shoulder is the goal. An exercise you could repeat all day isn't building anything.
Get those two dials right, and almost any well-chosen rotator cuff exercise will move you forward. Get them wrong, and even the "perfect" exercise won't.
How do you work out which exercise is right for my shoulder?
We measure, rather than guess.
In a shoulder assessment we look at how mobile your shoulder is and exactly where your strength deficits sit. We use a handheld dynamometer (a device that measures your muscle strength in precise numbers) so we're not relying on feel alone. Those numbers tell us which part of your cuff needs the work, how hard to load it, and give us a baseline to track your progress against.
That's how we land on the most targeted, specific exercise for your shoulder, rather than handing you the same banded routine as everyone else.
What should I do next?
If you've got a niggle in your shoulder when you go overhead, reaching behind your back is getting awkward, or you can't sleep on that side anymore, it's time to stop guessing at exercises.
Book a shoulder assessment and we'll measure exactly where your shoulder is at and build the exercise plan that fits it. And if you've got questions, reply to this email and I'll happily give you a hand.
🎥 Didn’t catch the video earlier? Watch the video here.
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