Rotator Cuff Exercises
Forward Raise- Stand with arms at the sides and palms facing back. Keeping your arms straight, slowly raise your hands forward to
shoulder height with palms down.
Lateral Raise- Stand with your arms at the sides and palms toward the body. Keeping your arms straight and palms down, slowly
raise your hands to shoulder height.
Shrug- Stand with your arms at your sides and palms toward the body. Keeping your arms straight, slowly raise (shrug) the shoulders
to about ear level. May be performed with DBs.
Fly- Lie on your back with your arms straight up in the air about shoulder-width apart. With palms facing each other and a slight bend
at the elbows, slowly lower your hands straight out to the sides. Do with a light weight and slow pace in order to stretch through
range of motion.
Seated Row -
Internal Rotation- Lie on your back with arms down by your sides. Flex (bend) your right elbow to 90 degrees and hold your elbow
against your right side. Keeping your elbow against your side, slowly lower (externally rotate) your and away from your side as far
as you can. Pause and bring it back across the chest.
External Rotation- Lie on one side with your knees bent. Bend the elbow of the top arm to 90 degrees and let your forearm and hand
rest across your stomach. Keeping your elbow against your side rotate your forearms outward until the thumb is pointing up, then
slowly raise (externally rotate) the forearm until the hand is straight up in the air.
Empty Can- Stand with both arms down by your sides and hands rotated inward as far as possible with thumbs pointing down.
Keeping your arms straight, slowly raise your hands forward and slightly out to the sides, as if pouring water out of a can. Do not
lift higher than 60 degrees.
Upward Rotation- Lie prone on a bench or flex your knees slightly and bend forward at the waist until your chest is parallel to the
floor. Pull your elbows back until your upper arms are even with our back. Bend your elbows and let your hands hang straight
toward the ground with palms facing each other and thumbs up. Slowly raise both hands straight up (upward rotation) until they are
even with your shoulders.
Shoulder Extension- Lie prone on a bench or flex your knees slightly and bend forward at the waist until your chest is parallel to the
floor. Pull your elbows back until your upper arms are even with your back. Rotate your arms outward as far as you can (palms
forward and thumbs away from your body) and slowly pull (extend) your hands back as far as possible.
Forearm Exercises
Wrist Flexion – Sit with your forearms resting on a bench, palms up, and elbows about six inches apart. Hold a bar or a DB. Slowly
flex your wrist and curl the bar or DB.
Wrist Extension – Sit with your forearms resting on a bench, palms down and elbows about six inches apart. Hold a bar or DB with
your wrists and fingers flexed. Slowly extend your wrists. Because you have less muscle mass in your wrist extensors, you can’t
use the same load in flexion and extension.
Wrist Twist- Sit with your elbow against your knee holding one end of DB or hammer in your hand so that it is pointing straight up.
Brace your elbow with your other hand. Rotate the forearm as far as you can in one direction. Hold this position and then slowly
rotate it in the other direction.
Wrist Roller – Stand with your elbows bent and down against your sides with your forearms parallel to the ground. Hold a bar in
each hand using an overhand (palm-down) grip. Slowly roll the bar forward until the weight rises up to meet the bar. Pause
briefly and then slowly roll the bar backward until the weight reaches the end of the rope. Keeping your elbows bent puts most of
the stress on your forearms. Holding your arms out straight puts most of the stress on you shoulders.
Scapula Exercises
Push-up Plus- Assume a standard push-up position with hands about shoulder-width apart and fingers pointing forward. From the up
position, retract (pull) the shoulder blades toward the spine and hold. Then protract (push) them as far away from the spine as
possible. This is a scapula exercise, not a chest and triceps exercise. Work from a bent-knee position or while leaning into a wall
if you lack sufficient strength to do a regular push-up.
Reach Back- From the top of a push-up, shift your weight to your right hand and slowly raise your left hand straight out to the side as
you rotate away from the support hand. Continue to raise and rotate the trunk until the left hand is straight up over your body.
Slowly return to a two-hand support position and reach back with the right hand.
Scapular Dip- Do this exercise either on a dip bar or off the edge of a bench. Use your scapula, not your triceps. From a normal dip
position, with your chest up and elbows straight, lower your body toward the floor. Don’t lean forward. Pause and then raise your
body upward by pushing toward the floor. Your dip is only about 6 inches, you are not to dip to the floor, it is a very short
movement.