Shoulder Stability Exercises

Shoulder stability allows you to put on and remove a sweater, carry grocery bags to your car, lift luggage into the trunk or safely carry a child piggy-back. The shoulder joint is an extremely critical element in human movement, and stabilizing rotator cuff muscles is critical to maintaining the mobility of shoulders.

What are the Muscles of the Rotator Cuff?

• The rotator cuff has several elements, including the subscapularis, supraspinatus, infraspinatus and teres minor. These muscles wrap around the the shoulder joint.
  To stabilize the shoulder, you can do movements such as holding a basketball (or small medicine ball) with straight arms, then sweep the ball left, center and right. That lengthens and strengthens all the rotator muscles equally.

Cable Rows Stabilize the Shoulder

• A cable machine at the gym will help stabilize the shoulder. Set the cable at shoulder height with a low weight. With your feet about a hips-width apart, hold the cable with both hands and with a small bend in the elbows and with your abs engaged, draw the cable straight across your chest from left, then center and then right, moving slowly. Do 10 repetitions for two sets. Rest. Stand facing the other direction and repeat.
  Don't swing or jerk the cable. Moving slowly means you are engaging all the rotator cuff muscles safely and not stressing the more vulnerable tendons that attach these muscles to the bone.

Standing Double Cable Skull Crushers

• Using a double cable machine, set the left and right cable at a foot and a half above your shoulder. When you grasp the handles and extend your arms fully, you will look like a large "Y" shape. Standing in the center, hold the left cable in the left hand, right cable in the right hand, extending the arms straight with a small bend in the elbows. Draw the abs in. Keep the feet hips-width distance and knees a little bent. Pull down the cables simultaneously to the front of your chest so your wrists cross and the cable handles are below your waist. Resist the cable smoothly to return to the starting position with arms extended fully straight.
  Do 10 repetitions for two sets. Rest.