Up to date Could 31, 2026 09:45AM
Yoga Journal’s archives collection is a curated assortment of articles initially printed in previous points starting in 1975. This text about rotator-cuff workout routines to forestall (or assist get well from) damage first appeared within the December 2003 difficulty of Yoga Journal.
We are inclined to skinny of the usage of our fingers—to put in writing, to play the piano, to carry out surgical procedure—as uniquely human. However with out the shoulder joint, our use of the fingers can be severely restricted. With out the shoulder, our arms can be caught at our sides. We wouldn’t even be capable of get our fingers to our mouths. And we’d lose a lot of our yoga apply. We use our shoulders in just about each pose, whether or not the arms are stretching out to the perimeters in Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), reaching up in Vrksasana (Tree Pose), bearing weight in Salamba Sirsasana (Supported Headstand), or supporting the physique in Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand).
Contemplating the significance of the shoulders, it’s stunning that they’re comparatively unstable, susceptible joints. The shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint, just like the hip, however not like the hip socket, the shoulder socket is sort of shallow. This shallow socket and the relative looseness of the joint enable great freedom of motion. When you have regular shoulder mobility, you’ll be able to sweep your arm left and proper in entrance of you in addition to circle it up and again. You possibly can’t make a circle like that along with your leg until you’re a contortionist.
Anatomy of the Shoulder
With its inherent instability, the shoulder may be very depending on its comfortable tissues to assist maintain the joint collectively. These comfortable tissues embrace ligaments, which be part of bone to bone; tendons, which connect muscle to bone; and the muscular tissues themselves, which each transfer and stabilize the bones. Of explicit significance in stabilizing the shoulder are the 4 muscular tissues which are collectively referred to as the rotator cuff. They wrap deep across the joint from the again, from the entrance, and excessive.
Stabilization of the shoulder is a posh course of shared among the many 4 muscular tissues, whose names may be remembered with the mnemonic SITS: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. Though all of them act collectively to carry the top, or ball, of the humerus within the shoulder socket, which is definitely a part of the scapula, or shoulder blade, every muscle produces its personal distinct motion within the shoulder.
The supraspinatus originates on the higher scapula, simply above the backbone of the scapula, and inserts on the better tuberosity of the humerus, a small lump on the outer higher a part of the bone. The supraspinatus initiates shoulder abduction. When you stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) along with your arms by your sides after which carry your arms as much as a T form for Virabhadrasana II (Warrior 2 Pose), the supraspinatus begins that carry. In its stabilizing operate, the supraspinatus helps preserve the top of the humerus from slipping down and partially out of the socket, a painful situation referred to as subluxation.
The infraspinatus originates just under the backbone of the scapula; the teres minor originates close to the infraspinatus on the again of the scapula. Each cross the again of the shoulder joint to insert close to the supraspinatus on the better tuberosity of the humerus, and each are robust exterior rotators. When you stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose), palms going through your physique, after which flip your elbow creases ahead (the palms will naturally flip ahead too), you’ve externally rotated your shoulder—and also you’ve simply used the infraspinatus and teres minor.
Apart from being exterior rotators, the teres minor and infraspinatus are essential in positioning the top of the humerus as you flex the shoulder (whenever you carry your arm ahead and up overhead) and abduct the shoulder whenever you carry your arm straight out to the aspect and up). The 2 muscular tissues truly pull down on the top of the humerus because the arm elevates, to forestall the ball from crashing up into the acromion- the projection of the scapula that, like a carport roof, protects the highest of the joint.
If the teres minor and infraspinatus are too weak to do their jobs or there are different issues with the motion of the scapula, you’ll be able to develop impingement syndrome, wherein comfortable tissue will get compressed between the top of the humerus and the acromion. If the broken and infected tissue is a bursa, one of many cushioning pads between tendon and bone, you have got bursitis. If it’s a tendon (generally the supraspinatus tendon), you have got tendonitis.
The subscapularis is the toughest a part of the rotator cuff to find, and its actions are the toughest to know. It originates on the entrance floor of the scapula and runs ahead, forming a part of the posterior fold of the armpit. It then wraps round to the internal higher shaft of the humerus and inserts there. The subscapularis is a really robust inner rotator of the shoulder, so its motion opposes the actions of the infraspinatus and teres minor. Together with the remainder of the rotator cuff muscular tissues, the subscapularis helps stabilize the ball of the humerus within the shoulder socket.
Rotator Cuff Workout routines to Assist Forestall Accidents
Sadly, it’s not unusual for the muscular tissues of the rotator cuff to be underworked and subsequently weak. This weak spot can lead not solely to impingement syndrome but additionally to tears within the rotator cuff muscular tissues themselves, normally close to the place three of them insert on the better tuberosity of the humerus. These tears are fairly painful and might severely restrict your skill to maneuver your arm. Rotator cuff tears can happen throughout vigorous shoulder actions for which you’re not conditioned—throwing a Frisbee for the primary time in years, as an example—however are most typical in aged deconditioned of us, particularly ladies, and youthful, lively individuals who fall whereas biking, working, or enjoying a sport.
When you have an acutely injured rotator cuff, or one which hasn’t absolutely recovered from an damage or surgical procedure, it’s finest to depart the train prescription to a well being care skilled. Delicate to reasonable rotator cuff tears may be handled conservatively with medicine and punctiliously chosen train, whereas extra extreme tears could require surgical procedure.
However given the challenges of therapeutic a torn rotator cuff or recovering from impingement syndrome, it’s clearly higher to construct and keep the power of the rotator cuff muscular tissues to forestall these issues within the first place. Practising yoga, wherein you typically bear weight on the arms, is a superb method to do that. When you come to yoga with weak rotator cuff muscular tissues, nonetheless, it’s finest to not instantly put huge masses on them, as you’d in Surya Namaskar (Solar Salutation A) or inversions. So in case you are new to yoga, are weak in your higher physique, or have a beforehand injured (however now healed) rotator cuff, start constructing power with postures wherein you bear solely mild weight in your arms.
To start out, merely get down in your fingers and knees and carry your rib cage up towards the ceiling so that you’re not sagging weight down into your shoulder joints. Then carry one arm up subsequent to your ear, which is able to put just a little extra weight onto the opposite arm and shoulder. When you find yourself prepared for a much bigger problem, you’ll be able to progressively add to the load on the shoulder muscular tissues by doing variations of the traditional push-up. As an alternative of pushing up from the ground, begin in a standing place going through a wall along with your fingers on the wall at shoulder top. As you achieve power, you’ll be able to carry your physique nearer and nearer to horizontal: First transfer your fingers from the wall to a tabletop, then to a chair seat, and at last to the ground.
If you’re beginning with deconditioned shoulders, be affected person; it could take a number of weeks and even months to work your approach to the ground. You too can regularly strengthen your rotator cuff with one other train: going from Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Going through Canine Pose) to Plank Pose (the “up” place within the push-up) and again once more.
These transitions may be practiced along with your fingers on a desk, a chair seat, or the ground, relying on how robust your shoulder muscular tissues are. This work is great conditioning not just for the rotator cuff however for the triceps muscle (on the again of the higher arm) and the pectoralis main (throughout the chest and the entrance of the shoulder) as effectively.
In nearly all yoga postures with the arms ahead, as in Plank, or overhead, as in Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Going through Canine), Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand), and Sirsasana (Headstand), the shoulder is finest stabilized with reasonable exterior rotation. This may activate and strengthen the teres minor and in-fraspinatus. Whenever you externally rotate in Plank, your elbow creases flip ahead considerably; in Sirsasana, your triceps face the identical route as your nostril, not out to the aspect. Do not forget that the mandatory exterior rotation is reasonable: You might be overdoing it when you really feel pressure in your elbows or when you can’t preserve the bottom of your thumb and index finger on the ground in Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Going through Canine) or Plank.
As for the opposite rotator cuff muscular tissues, the supraspinatus will get exercise whenever you apply a protracted collection of standing poses. Every time you are taking your arms out of your sides as much as shoulder top, the supraspinatus works and will get stronger.
It’s just a little more durable to make sure which yoga poses and rotator cuff workout routines strengthen the subscapularis. For one factor, the muscle is difficult to isolate; inner rotation of the shoulder is a posh motion that makes use of a number of totally different muscular tissues. For one more, we merely don’t internally rotate our shoulders all that always in yoga. A number of the positions wherein we do internally rotate embrace the place of the arms in Parsvottanasana (Facet Stretch Pose), that of the decrease arm in Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose), and that of the arm that wraps across the knee in Marichyasana III (Pose Devoted to the Sage Marichi 3). You additionally internally rotate the shoulder whenever you attain each arms up, interlace the fingers, and stretch the palms up towards the ceiling.
To keep up the well being of your rotator cuff, it’s vital not solely to strengthen the muscular tissues however to work on opening the chest. When the chest drops as a substitute of opening and the fronts of the shoulders roll ahead and down, your shoulder blades tip ahead, which facilitates pinching between the top of the humerus and the acromion. On this place, the rotator cuff is extra prone to be impinged on and strained, finally changing into infected and extra susceptible to tears.
As you’ll be able to see from the big selection of postures that profit the rotator cuff, maybe the very best yoga prescription for rotator cuff well being is to take care of a well-rounded yoga apply. Practiced recurrently, quite a lot of standing poses, chest openers, arm balances, and inversions can act as rotator cuff workout routines and enable you to shield this complicated and essential a part of your anatomy. All the time seek the advice of with a doctor prior when experiencing shoulder ache or immobility earlier than beginning an train program.
