Have you ever had trouble with your shoulder? If you haven’t yet, you more than likely will within your lifetime. Anyone who does any kind of physical activity regularly like running or sports is at high risk for having a rotator cuff injury. The more activity you do, the more risk you have for this problem. You are still at risk even if you never shoot a basketball or workout.

By regular daily activities, the rotator cuff gets stretched, pulled, and beaten. Over time, the wear and tear can limit your shoulders’ range of motion and cause you chronic shoulder pain. It’s okay though. Most of these injuries can be prevented by only a few minutes of work.

When trying to prevent rotator cuff injury or rehabilate an already injured one, three things need to be done. Strengthening the muscles around the rotator cuff reduces the risk of injury and restores function in an injured shoulder. Stretching the shoulder also helps decrease your risk of injury, but also increases range of motion. The right form must be used on some exercises to prevent cuff injury.

Even if only 1 shoulder is injured, you should still work BOTH shoulders. By building strength in the healthy shoulder, you reduce the risk of an injury. We want to make sure you build balanced strength across the body. There is evidence of training a healthy muscle on one side of the body will positively affect the corresponding muscle on the other side.

Lets talk about some common exercises that could cause a problem on the shoulder.

• Side Delt FlyesAt the top of the movement, your palms should be facing downward and the dumbbells should be at the same height as your elbows. Do Not tilt the front of the dumbbell down like a pouring water motion. This will increase the impingement on the tendons and cause inflammation.
• Behind the Neck AnythingPerforming exercises like pull ups, lat pulldowns, or shoulder press behind the neck can be very dangerous on your shoulder. Doing exercises like this require a lot of flexibility in your shoulders. Over time, the rotator cuff can’t handle the stress of the weight in the behind the neck position.
• Upright RowsIf you have problems with your shoulder already, this exercise should be eliminated completely. This position pinches the tendons accelerating rotator cuff degeneration. Doing this exercise, may cause developing tendinitis.

Here is a good routine to add to your normal exercise at least 3 times per week.

• 3 sets of 12 reps Cuban Rotations
• 3 sets of 12 reps “L” Flyes
• 3 sets of 12 reps Internal Rotators

Here are some final notes on these exercises. Build up your strength slowly on these exercises. Start with a very light weight and gradually increase. These exercise should be added to your workouts 3 times per week. They can be performed as a warm up for your workouts.

You can read more of Travis Petelle's articles at www.gohealthyfitness.com.