Rotator Cuff - A must work muscle

A lot of people performing shoulder, chest, back or even tricep and bicep exercises don't realise the importance of their rotator cuff muscle in their shoulder. The rotator cuff is the local muscle in your shoulder which provides stability and damage or injury to this muscles can affect any type of lifting exercise. The most common types of injury are impingement or eve tears of the rotator cuff. These tend to happen in athletes that throw like baseball pitchers, cricketers, American football quarterbacks or athletes that use a lot of shoulder work like swimmers. Without protection though these injuries can happen to weightlifters and bodybuilders or even general gym goers because of the general wear and tear to the tendons without strengthening the area. If you are ever unlucky and do get an injury to this muscle you will lose strength and may not even be able to perform some exercises like bench presses, pull ups, rows and of course shoulder exercises. To safeguard your shoulders you need to strengthen the rotator cuff. The best exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff are any exercise where you externally rotate the shoulder. The best examples are side lying external rotations or standing cable external rotations so get yours in for lifelong healthy shoulders.