What is the external rotator cuff and how should I train it?
A. The external rotator cuff is a term used to describe the group of muscles responsible for rotating the shoulder externally (duh?!). Basically, if you hold your upper arm to the side of your body, and bend your elbow so that your forearm makes a 90 degree angle with your upper arm, then rotate your upper arm so that your hand moves from pointing directly to pointing to the side. The muscles in the shoulder responsible for this rotation are called the external rotator cuff muscles. These muscles tend to be the culprit in most shoulder injuries. This is due to several things. One is the fact that most weight trainers do not directly attempt to strengthen the external rotators. The internal rotators (primarily the pectorals) are worked extensively by most (bench press). The combination of very strong internal (and very often, very inflexible) rotators and very weak external rotators causes a major muscle imbalance that leads to injury. To fix this, one needs to increase the flexibility
