Thank you for joining me once again this evening for another podcast. I Dr. Harrison Campbell owner and chiropractor and Restoration Health a premier sugar land chiropractors office. In tonightÃs podcast we will be discussing internal and external rotation exercises and a follow up to the previous shoulder exercise podcast of Is Ys and Ts.
The internal and external rotation exercise targets a group of muscles called collectively by sugar land chiropractors as the rotator cuff. This is due to the fact that internal and external rotations are achieved by these muscle rotating the arm. See pretty unique naming convention right there.
There are two ways to achieve internal and external rotation exercises, either an exercise band or free weights. Free weights internal and external rotation are more cumbersome and thus using an exercise band is the preferred method by sugar land chiropractors and Restoration Heath in particular.
One of the more common brands of exercise band is the Theraband brand but this is not the required brand for doing these exercises. At the end of the day an exercise band is an exercise band. The only difference is the color and strength of the band. At Restoration Health the goal is not to have you buy a bunch of different and potentially expensive exercise equipment. It is to return to a healthy and happy lifestyle as quickly as possible. To this end if you have free weights at home we can created the routine around using those or if you have a different brand of exercise band then we will absolutely use those bands. No reason to buy something different.
We will begin these exercise by attacking the band to the door. Most sugar land chiropractors will have a strap with hook inside the door frame but alternatively you can loop it around a door handle just make sure it is secure. Either way will be okay as long as the exercise can be performed safely.
You want to band to be level with the hand with the arm resting at your side and the elbow flexed up to ninety degrees like a handshake. For internal rotation begin with the arm closest to the door and bring your hand to your stomach without raising the elbow from the side of the body. Keep the elbow tucked in as this is the single most common mistake I see at my sugar land chiropractors office.
Once done with the sets and repetitions switch the band to the hand farthest from the door and bring the hand away from the body will keeping the elbow tucked into the side. This is external rotation. Typically external rotation is the more difficult aspect of these exercises. This is due to a variety of factors including the muscle responsible for internal rotation is incredibly strong normally as well as the fact that the most commonly injured rotator cuff muscle performed external rotation.
Now that we are done with those sets and reps rotated your body to facing the opposite direction and repeat these motions again performed the internal and external exercises.
After these exercises have been achieved to success I will progress my patient sat Restoration Health a premier sugar land chiropractors office to the more advanced version of internal and external rotations. This involves the arms being raised to ninety degrees at the shoulders and rotation the arm up to the sky for external rotation and lower the hands towards the ground for internal rotation. The purpose for the advanced version of the exercise is to increase the difficulty for the rotator cuff. With the arms at the side for the exercise, the shoulder is protected, this stage is important for shoulders healing from injuries or someone starting out on the exercises path. To push the strength and the shoulder we move the arm to the ninety degrees position as these no longer protects the shoulder and required increase effort form the stabilizing muscles in the shoulder such as the teres major.
It is important to remember for this advanced exercises to maintain the elbow and shoulders at ninety degrees each, often called ninety ninety by sugar land chiropractors who perform rehabilitation.
Since we have covered the exercise itself is depth, let us look at the rotator cuff more in depth. There are four muscles which form the rotator cuff. They are as follows: the supraspinatus, the infrapsinatus, the teres minor, and the subscapularis. Each of these muscles has its own function in the shoulder and its own quirks.
For instance the only muscle of this group which internally rotates the shoulder is the subscapularis muscle. The muscle which most likely will have a knot in the muscle fibers is the teres minor muscle in conjunction with a muscle not in the rotator cuff the teres major. Another fun fact is that teres in latin means round and if you have seen the teres major or minor they are cylindrical muscles at the posterior or back part of the shoulder.
The supraspinatus is the most commonly inured muscle in the rotator cuff, which means that more often than not when someone stated they tore their rotator cuff the muscle which was damaged was the supraspinatus. This also means that most shoulder rehabilitation programs target the supraspinatus in particular. What this does not mean is that you can ignore the other three rotator cuff muscles since only one is usually injured. As stated in the previous podcast the arm and by extension shoulder is only as strong as the weakest link and should a less common rotator cuff muscle or even a stabilizing muscle be weak or injured it will affect the entire shoulder.
Thank you for joining me once again this evening. I hope you continue to find these podcasts educational and you continue to implement these practices into your daily routine. And as always should you or someone you know require a sugar land chiropractors services please do not hesitate to call Restoration Health today to schedule an appointment. Thank you once again and please join us next time for the podcast discussion on blood pressure.