The Weight On Your Shoulders

   Giving proper attention to strengthening the rotator cuff muscles may save you from severe shoulder injuries down the road. 

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   For those who may not be aware of my football and NFL career, I was forced to retire due to shoulder injuries. 

   For a linebacker, having bad shoulders is a death sentence to be able to play the position. Over the years, I spent a lot of time lifting heavy weights, bench-pressing, overhead pressing, etc. It wasn’t until I tore both shoulders over time, and then became a trainer, that I looked back on my career and noticed something I wish I’d known earlier: If you don’t STABILIZE the shoulder joint by purposely training the four rotator cuff muscles when doing heavy lifts with your big primary muscles (Pectorals, deltoids, Traps, and lats), then you are leaving yourself vulnerable to potential injury as the years progress on.

   If I could go back, I would spend a lot of time building up those muscles. When the primary muscles flex, the four rotator cuff muscles make sure the joints stay stable to handle the load. These muscles are the infraspinatus, supraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. An unstable joint moving heavy weight is a recipe for disaster.  

   So how do you make sure you are doing the right exercises to keep the shoulder joint stable and healthy? By following these steps.

   >> Warm the muscles up in the shoulder by doing small movements with VERY light weights. My clients and I get 2.5- or 5-pound weights. We do arm lifts front and side, bent-over reverse fly’s, bent-over arm kick backs, and standing tall-arm circles forward and back.

   >> Mimic the movement with minimal weight or body weight (over head press, push ups, band rows, etc.) prior to doing the movement fully weighted.

   >> Use bands to isolate the individual rotator cuff muscles to make sure they are all firing and one isn’t doing less work than others.

   So before you run yourself into the ground and wind up with life-long shoulder pain and regret, take the time to make your shoulders safer and more stable.