Exercise Highlight 22: Seated or Kneeling Shoulder External Rotations
Your shoulders and neck take a daily beating, especially if you are seated for much of the day using computers and or mobile devices. They get continually strained in poor posture situations such as looking down at our phones for endless hours while holding the arm up as if it was designed for this. Here is a great exercises to assist in correcting and combating against the imbalances developed from the daily abuse to our shoulder & neck complex.
There are many variations of external and internal shoulder rotator work but we like to progress our clients from a standing or side lying shoulder rotations, to a seated, kneeling and then eventually standing Shoulder External Rotations in an L Raise position.
Take your time with this exercise to practice the positioning. Make sure your elbow is just below your shoulder and it is inline with your head and neck, which are in a neutral position. Use light weight at first, such as 1-8 lbs dumbbells. You do not need to use a lot of weight, as it will then begin to call upon the stronger prime movers such as your deltoid, traps, etc.
The exercises intention here is to work your deep rotator cuff musculature that includes your Infraspinatus, and Teres Minor, while your Serratus and Rhomboids stabilize your shoulder blades throughout the set.
