I had a conversation with an athlete recently on whether or not I thought it was beneficial to do isolated rotator cuff work. I thought this might be a common question many of you had so this article will outline my answer!

First off, we must understand the function and general anatomy of the rotator cuff muscles.

Collectively, this muscle group helps stabilize the shoulder joint but compressing the humeral head into the shoulder socket. And then as a secondary function,  they rotate the shoulder joint into either internal or external rotation (depending on the muscle).

It is also important to understand that the rotator cuff is actually a group of 4 muscles- subscapularis, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor. 

 Due to the function of these muscles providing stability to the shoulder joint via active compression, there is some degree of rotator cuff work being done with any upper body exercises. So long as your shoulder joint is being held in the socket when you do a pullup, pushup up, bench press, farmer carry etc... you can assume the rotator cuff muscles were doing their job. 

So then is there a need to do isolated rotator cuff exercises?  

My answer is YES but the reasoning and prescription of exercise will be different depending on if you are currently uninjured and just want to  maintain joint health versus if you are currently suffering from shoulder pain/injury. 

Whether your shoulder is currently injured or not, it is important to maintain shoulder internal and external range of motion. The ability for the ball to rotate in the socket ensures that the joint capsule remains healthy, the cartilage inside the joint receives nourishment, and the receptors in the joint that communicate with your brain stay stimulated. 

What this means, is that you should have rotational shoulder movements in your regular routine. 

For healthy shoulders, my recommendation is at minimum a few reps of shoulder CARs (controlled articular rotations) regularly as either part of your warm-up or cool down on upper body workouts. 

Additionally, it is important to resistance train the shoulder in all of its movements- include internal and external rotation. To neglect these movements, leaves a lot of shoulder tissue and muscle that is under trained. What I typically do for my own workouts and for my healthy athletes, is utilize shoulder CARs as a rotational warm-up and then towards the end of the workout, do some lighter weight, higher rep sets of resisted rotational work (in varying positions). 

If you are currently injured or experiencing pain and dysfunction in the shoulder joint, we are likely going to want to be a bit more specific about what tissues we are targeting in the shoulder and how much force/load we are directing to those tissues. 

Clinically, when we are rehabbing rotator cuff pain, tendon tear, dysfunction etc.. we are likely going to begin  with frequent but low intensity isometric contractions where we will ask the rotator cuff to hold the arms position for time. These isometrics can not only help reduce pain, but they also introduce a low threat force to the injured tissue which sparks the healing process. 

As the rehab process continues, the isometrics are progressed to full range movements and the load and velocity are increased over time. 

For shoulder instability, labral tear or long head bicep dysfunction, I am usually a bit more aggressive about targeting the rotator cuff early on in rehab. Remember that the rotator cuff aides in shoulder stability. So if there is a labral or bicep injury we NEED the rotator cuff functional at 100%. These injuries can typically tolerate more advanced rotator cuff exercises earlier in the rehab process. 

In summary, yes I believe there is absolutely benefit to training the rotator cuff in isolation. And while it is true that these muscles are working with any upper body movement, it is also true that we don't want to neglect shoulder rotation. And from  a rehab perspective we absolutely need to. maximize the strength and durability of this muscle group. 

If you are currently. navigating shoulder pain, injury, or dysfunction and looking for a structured program to follow that will get you back in the gym and moving some weight around? Make sure to check out my 4-Phase Performance Shoulder Program which is self-paced and online giving you my rehab blueprint that you can complete form anywhere. 

To learn more or get started, click HERE. 

Feel free to email me at [email protected] with any questions/comments. 

Yours in health, 

-Jamie