How Does One Avoid Rotator Cuff Injury?

[Legion Kreinak2]

How could I go about avoiding injury to my rotator cuffs?

So far I've heard the following can mess them up (and actually, I'm concerned with my other joints too):

Bench Press (BB Style) - How would I minimize the effect, and how does it happen in the first place?

Military Press - I've heard that it can screw you up if you don't have the right form. Do you hold the bar shoulder-width, wider, or in closer?

Wide-grip Pull/Chin-ups - I really feel is big time if I go too wide with these. My only guess is to do them shoulder-width and not any wider... yes?

As for my elbows, I feel skull crushers are insanely unforgiving on them. I want to get big and if there's no way around it I'll do skull crushers as part of my routine.

Just want to see if anyone has any tips on how to prevent injury. I notice some people never have problems. Just a guess but, maybe alot of calcium? I drink milk likes its water.

 

[danielson]

i switched to PL form for BB bench. no more shoulder pain

i also tend to ujse dumbells for shoulder presses too

 

[michaelcoutts]

make sure that your rotator cuffs are strong enough to support the delt muscles. Dont overtrain the delts without paying attention to the rotator cuff muscles.

And yeah PL bench form puts less stress on the front rotator cuff muscle than the normal style.

 

[JOKER47]

Work your cuffs on a regular basis. Light wieghts, high reps.

Up the weight, sets/reps slowly. After several weeks, you should start to feel a difference.


Joker

 

[DrBones]

I think one of the biggest things is to make sure you dont develop any muscular imbalances...
Make sure you make your back just as much a priority as your chest...
Do rotator cuff work EVERY week.

I've had terrible cuff problems in the past, I think due to never working back when I started in my late teens.. and doing a ton of chest/bis/tris.. lol

Live and learn

 

[Legion Kreinak2]

Alright well, when should I do rotator cuff work? As of now my split looks like this:

We: Chest/Calves
Th: Back/Shoulders
Fr: Off
Sa: Off
Su: Bis/Tris
Mo: Legs
Tu: Off

 

[DanielBishop]

The key is to keep your shoulders retracted and depressed. In other words, pulled back and down. Bench is such a dangerous exercise because people have their shoulders rounded and are putting unnatural stress on the rotator compound, and then they go and shove a heavy load on top of it....

In a natural standing position, pull your shoulders back.... now drop them down. That's how they should be. Same when you're on the bench.

 

[tzan]

Alright well, when should I do rotator cuff work? As of now my split looks like this:

We: Chest/Calves
Th: Back/Shoulders
Fr: Off
Sa: Off
Su: Bis/Tris
Mo: Legs
Tu: Off

Your splits are very similar to mine and on my back/shoulders day, I begin with 3 sets of rotaor stretching with the big ball, followed by 3 sets of light weighted db exercises(sorry I don't know the name of this exercise).