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Shoulder External Rotator Isolated Activation
Shoulder External Rotator Isolated Activation is a stretching and strength training exercise that focuses on activating and strengthening the external rotator muscles of the shoulder. This exercise requires the use of an exercise band to activate the targeted muscles which are responsible for externally rotating and stabilizing the shoulder joint. This exercise is ideal for athletes of all sports who want to improve their shoulder strength and stability as well as injury prevention. It is also a great way to help relieve shoulder tension and stiffness from everyday activities
Transcript
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This is Brent of the Brookbush
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...blank
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Institute. In this video we're doing our
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variation of a very common exercise,
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which is activation for the external
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rotators of the shoulder which have a
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propensity to become underactive in
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those with shoulder or upper body
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dysfunction. I'm going to have my friend,
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Brian, come out. He's going to help me
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demonstrate. Now, the common exercise we
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like to use, because it's bilateral, it
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doesn't take a lot of equipment, and it
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just happens to be very convenient is
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chest out, thumbs out. So, if Brian
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takes this band here and he just
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does one of these things, you guys can
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kind of see that's bilateral
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external rotation. Now on top of this, we
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just have to figure out how we
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optimize this. At the Brookbush
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Institute, the first thing we think about
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when we do our activation exercises is
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what are our overactive synergists? So,
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anytime we have an inhibited group of
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muscles, in this case, the external
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rotators being the infraspinatus and
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teres minor, we have muscles that are
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going to try to take over that job. In
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the case of the external rotators, the
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supraspinatus and posterior delt start
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trying to do the job of the
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infraspinatus and teres minor. We have
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to start thinking, how do I reciprocally
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inhibit my overactive synergists? Well,
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the supraspinatus is easy. My
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supraspinatus is an abductor. So what am
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I going to do to reciprocally
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inhibit? Adduct a little bit. I'm just
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going to squeeze the elbows into the
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ribcage. As far as my posterior delt, my
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posterior delt does extension. So to
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reciprocally inhibit, I'm going to do a
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little bit of flexion. So if he, rather
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than gets back here, hugging back on the
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side of his rib cage, goes to the front
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of his rib cage and just hugs the front,
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kind of like where this little angle
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is right here, or the little corner of
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your ribs stick out. If he keeps his
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elbows touching there, we should be good
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for reciprocally inhibiting his supraspinatus and posterior delt. And I think what
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Brian's about to find out is as soon as
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he goes back to try to externally rotate,
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this isn't going to feel as easy as it
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did the first time you did it. So, go
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ahead and give that a
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shot. Deep breath. A little harder? Yeah.
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Yeah, you guys will find that people
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can do all sorts of weight when they
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bring their arms back, because
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they're using those big posterior delts
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to try to get a lot of force in
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external rotation, and then all of a
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sudden you reciprocally inhibit those
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overactive synergists, and they don't
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have nearly as much strength as they
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used to. And, generally speaking, they'll
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start feeling it where they're supposed
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to. Remember, your infraspinatus and teres
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minor are kind of on the back of your
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scapula here. I can actually feel,
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palpating is infraspinatus, I can
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feel it just go "szoof" puff up.
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Yeah, it does. It actually makes that
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sound. He's going to have jacked infraspinatus.
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You think you can get 12 to 20
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repetitions? That was at least 10 right there.
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That was 10? Good, because I want you a
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little slower on the tempo. So, remember,
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guys, your tempo for these activation
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exercises are either 4-2-2, being a 4
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second eccentric. Or, if you
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wanted to concentrate on range of motion,
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you can go 2, 4 second hold, 2, 3, 4
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and then a 2 second eccentric. Now,
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we're going to even take this up another
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notch, because this dysfunction of the
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shoulder and the upper body is often
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very related to cervical dysfunction as
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well. We have a couple muscles of
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the scapula, being our upper trap and our
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levator scapulae that connect our
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cervical spine and our upper body
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dysfunction real quick. I'm going to go
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ahead and place Brian up against this
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wall here. And now on top of all of the
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stuff that we just did- his
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shoulders being a little bit into
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flexion, keeping his scapula down and back,
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good, and he's hugging his rib cage, I can now
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have him head back, chin tucked, putting his
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external occipital protuberance back
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against this pad, helping to stimulate his
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deep cervical flexors while I have him
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do this.
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Oh, man, we're getting good
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bang for our buck on this exercise now.
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We've reciprocally inhibited our
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overactive synergists, we're activating
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our external rotators, which we wanted to,
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and we're even getting a little bit of
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deep cervical flexor activation, keeping
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his head back against that wall.
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Is it getting hard? You've only
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done about 25 reps so far. Guys, generally
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we'd only do 12 to 20 reps. Now, the last
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thing Brian is going to show you is
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we're going to do this one arm at a time.
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Occasionally, you do have somebody who
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has unilateral dysfunction, right, they're
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only dysfunctional on one side. It is
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important that if you have dysfunction
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on one side that you correct dysfunction
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on that side alone. Something I find
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myself repeating often lately is you
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can't fix asymmetrical dysfunction with
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a symmetrical intervention. So, if he only
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had dysfunction on his right side, and I
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only want him to do right-sided external
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rotator activation, all I'm going to do
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is wrap my band around some solid
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object and follow all those same cues. This
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one is where the towel comes in handy.
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Some of you guys have probably seen
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external rotator activation where they
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put a towel under here. Why he has that
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towel is if I have him adduct and
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just hold the towel- you don't have to
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squeeze the towel- just hold the
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towel on the front of his rib cage, it'll
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help keep his shoulder girdle where
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it's supposed to be. It'll help me keep
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reciprocally inhibiting those overactive
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synergists, once again, being his supraspinatus
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and posterior delt.
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For some reason, the chest out, thumbs out
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tends to keep us where we're supposed to
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be, and then we go to one arm and it's a
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little easy to get flailing around. How
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does that feel? Good. Good, like terrible.
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Yes, like it hurts so good. You guys know
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the feeling. Now, with all exercises, one
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thing I want to remind you guys of is
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this isn't the end. Although this is
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convenient, that chest out, thumbs out
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exercise, especially against the wall
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makes a wonderful warm-up, you can do it
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with a huge group of people in a
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classroom setting or a team setting, you
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do have to progress exercise. There is
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going to be a point in time when this
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exercise is going to be too easy for
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Brian. We need more than just up the
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weight of the band, up the weight of the
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band, up the weight of the band. Remember,
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the goal with activation exercises isn't
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hypertrophy. I'm not trying to get him
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the most jacked infraspinatus that
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anybody's ever seen. That actually sounds
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a little ridiculous just saying it.
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There is another video after this
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called External Rotator Activation
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Progressions where we show several
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progressions to this exercise. You need
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to check it out. Start here. Let me know
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what your outcomes are. As I've said in
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all the videos up to this point, if I
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have Brian doing this, it's because I
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found something that was indicative of
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external rotator inhibition in his
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assessment, whether that's arms fall on
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the overhead squat or a lack of external
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rotator flexibility. So, if I did my
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goniometry, maybe he lacks a
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little bit of external rotation. Or,
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if I was going to directly test this, an
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external rotator manual muscle test. Do
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your assessments. Do your intervention.
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Reassess. Let me know what your outcomes
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are. If you have any questions, please
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feel free to leave them at the bottom of
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this video.
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