A Little Work on Some Small Muscles Can Make a
Big Difference in Your Upper-Body Development

By Charles Poliquin

The monster whirlwinds in Twister destroyed cities, made pigs fly (along with other farm animals), and gave Helen Hunt some really bad hair days. The aliens in Independence Day, who looked like giant squids, attempted to exterminate the human race with their mile-long war machines. Not unlike mainstream America's obsession with action movies that blow everything out of proportion, some bodybuilders obsess with adding jaw-dropping special effects to their physiques in the form of slab after slab of rock-hard muscle. With all due respect to the aesthetics of a Frank Zane physique, in the bodybuilding world, some people equate bigger with better. Unfortunately, our obsession with developing big showy muscles often results in our neglecting important smaller muscles. Included in this neglected group are the muscles that externally rotate the shoulders.

When I speak about external rotation of the shoulder, I'm referring to the motion of moving the biceps away from the body or simply backwards. The follow-through on a blistering Pete Sampras backhand is an example of external rotation. Although many muscles are involved in this motion, the two most important muscles are the teres minor and the infraspinatus. These muscles lie adjacent to each other and originate on the scapula (shoulder blade) and insert in the humerus (the long bone in the upper arm) and comprise two of the four muscles known as the rotator cuff. From a biomechanical perspective, the teres minor and the infraspinatus help stabilize the shoulder and are therefore crucial for protecting this area from injury.

Who Should Train the External Rotators?

Dan Pfaff is the trainer of Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Donovan Bailey. Bailey underwent Active Release Techniques just prior to the Atlanta Olympics. Pfaff knows the importance of such treatments, stating, "There is a very fine line between physiotherapy and the training of the elite athlete." What he means is that when training high-performance athletes, special attention must be given to keeping the body healthy. When I design off-season workouts for athletes, my first priority is to correct the muscular imbalances that develop from all the specific training that occurs within the athlete's particular sport. Take the example of an alpine skier: the top priority in the off-season would be to have him or her perform exercises for the hamstrings to balance the quad strength developed from skiing.

Some caution here: this is not to be confused with "crosstraining," a term that has become a popular buzzword in athletics. One of the claims of the crosstraining philosophy is that by participating in a variety of activities, athletes will help prevent muscle imbalances and therefore prolong their competitive careers. Unfortunately, most athletes who crosstrain participate in sports that are biomechanically very similar, thereby perpetuating muscle imbalances rather than correcting them. This mistake, plus the fact that few sports work the external rotators extensively, makes this an area of concern. The following are people who probably need to pay special attention to the external rotators:

Bodybuilders who do a lot of work for their pecs or lats.
Almost any exercise you perform for the pecs or lats places a lot of pressure on the internal rotators, so the people who always begin their workouts with the bench press (you know who you are) are prime candidates for external-rotator work. And, because their "gym egos" often discourage these same individuals from performing exercises with anything other than heavy weights (throw another 45-lb plate on there, Hans, and let's get serious!), they seldom work the external rotators and thus commonly complain of shoulder injuries.

Bodybuilders striving for the ultimate in back development.
When the infraspinatus (the muscle on the shoulder blade) and teres minor (the muscle under the shoulder blade) are fully developed, the contrast between these muscles and the lats is amazingly amplified. When the bodybuilder hits a back double-biceps pose, the deep etches between these muscles are visually stunning and give the look of muscle built on muscle.

Individuals who want to increase their bench press.
If the external rotators are weak, the prime movers of the upper body will shut down when exposed to high levels of tension. When I design workouts to improve the bench press, the first area I emphasize is the external rotators—sometimes I even start workouts with these exercises! As for the effectiveness of this strategy, I've seen many athletes improve their bench-press and chin-up performances by as much as 15% in less than a month.

Individuals with rounded shoulders.
Strengthening the external rotators will help improve posture, thereby reducing stress on the skeleton. Often, such poor posture is the result of working long hours hunched over a desk, especially one that is not ergonomically sound. Rounded shoulders also seem more prevalent in tall individuals, who often fall into the habit of rounding their shoulders to help them look down at the... um... vertically challenged.

Athletes in sports where the lats or pecs are the prime movers.
These sports include rowing, canoeing, and swimming, as well as sports like baseball, tennis, and volleyball which involve throwing or hitting implements overhead. After many years of training, the bodies of these athletes adapt by progressively shortening the length of these major muscle groups. For these athletes, part of their training must also include specific stretches for these muscles.

Based on the above prerequisites, the most likely candidate for supplementary work on the external rotators is a tall bench-press fanatic who plays volleyball and is employed as a computer programmer. (There's one in every crowd, you know.)

Email:     hbiomechanics@yahoo.com