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Have you ever thought about how much we use our shoulders? Without them, we couldn’t throw a ball, scratch our back, swing our arms, or even raise our arms up and down. Our shoulders get a pretty good workout day in and day out. But all of this use also makes our shoulders susceptible to injury-and that susceptibility increases even more with stress and age. The primary set of muscles in the shoulder-the rotator cuff-is where most shoulder injuries occur. By performing exercises specifically selected to strengthen these rotator cuff muscles, you can help reduce your chances of shoulder injuries.

All muscles need proper training and stretching to develop strength and rotator cuff is no different. The rotator cuff exercises help in toning and stretching this muscles which help in building up its resistance to all kinds of wear and tear. These exercises are also great to prevent all kinds of aging effects which can damage the rotator cuff.

All exercises involving the rotator cuff have some very stringent ground rules which can prevent exercise related injuries.

Begin with the following exercises for the rotator cuff muscles.

Start With A Warm up

Warm ups are essential to a good exercise routine-with the rotator cuff as with any other muscle group. You need to stretch the muscles slowly to help prevent injury or muscle strain. Warm ups for your rotator cuff muscles are simple. Arm circles are a great way to start. Complete 20 reps of each movement to make a complete set. Perform three sets.

* With your arms at your side, lift them slowly. * Bring your arms up over your head. * Lower your arms behind your back slowly. Then return to the original position. * Repeat for 20 reps per set.

If you’re familiar with doing arm circles, this is the basic concept with this warm up. Simply make slow imaginary circles by rotating your arms at the shoulders. Warm up exercises like these are designed to get the blood flowing to your muscles and get them ready to exercise.

Rotations Of The Shoulder Cuff

Bring your arms up so they are at shoulder height, parallel to the surface on which you are standing. Then bend the forearms, making a right angle at your elbow. Begin to rotate your shoulders and rotator cuffs slowly. Complete 20 reps to make a set and do three sets. If desired, add weights gradually as you build your muscle strength.

Lateral raises

With your arms relaxed by your side, pick up a small hand weight in each hand. Keeping your arms straight, slowly raise your arm up and away from your side until your arm is parallel to the ground. Slowly lower your arm. Repeat for 12 reps on each side and do three sets altogether.

There are a number of other exercises that can strengthen your rotator cuff and shoulder. Once you are finished with the exercises, you also need to do some gentle stretches in order to cool down. You can simply repeat the warm up stretches.

Start slow and build up your endurance with these exercises. Don’t race through them or it defeats the purpose and actually increases your chance of injuring the muscles instead of building them up. Use a steady, calm pace to maintain muscle control and build strength.

Tom Nicholson spends his time helping sufferers of carpal tunnel syndrome. Please follow this link to find out more regarding somerotator cuff exercises.