The rotator cuff is a group of 4 neighboring muscles that surround and work together to stabilize the glenohumeral joint. They are: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis.
The supraspinatus lives in the supraspinous fossa, the little valley directly above the horizontal ridge, or “spine” of the scapula. The supraspinatus initiates abduction of the humerus. The infraspinatus, is a flat triangular shaped muscle that lives in the infraspinous fossa, on the back of the shoulder blade, below the spine of the scapula. The infraspinatus laterally rotates the humerus. The teres minor is a diagonally shaped muscle that lives just south of the infraspinatus. It assists in lateral rotation of the humerus. All 3 attach to the greater tubercle of the humerus. Finally, the subscapularis, another triangular shaped muscle spans the entire front surface of the scapula. It medially rotates the humerus. The subscapularis attaches just below the head of the humerus.
When balanced, the rotator cuff muscles work together to stabilize the head of the humerus. However, due to repetitive movement patterns of the arms associated with everyday activities such as working on computers, driving, picking up children, carrying bags, the humerus bones are often chronically in internal rotation. As a result, the rotator cuff can easily become imbalanced. If the rotator cuff muscles are unused or injured, other accessory muscles then take over, causing further movement compensations. Extreme cases of overuse cause adhesions in rotator cuff muscles, which can lead to limited range of motion, pain, or injuries like frozen shoulder. These common issues interfere with activities of daily living making simple tasks like washing your hair and getting dressed challenging and very painful. The good news is, this can be prevented with Yoga Tune Up®!
Thanks for the post. I’ve realized through yoga that I need to pay particular attention to my rotator cuffs because of exactly the types of things you are referring too – e.g. typing on a keyboard all day. Articles like yours, in addition to texts like Ray Long’s The Key Muscles of Yoga which is a YTU teacher’s reference help to break this down. I find so many yogis that come to me talking about potential rotator cuff problems.
I am currently dealing with rotator cuff issues and is not pleasant at all. I would like to learn how to identify the weakest muscle that causes this imbalance so that I can target it more specifically, so if anybody has any tips, please share. Looking forward to learning some YTU new exercises that can help with the overall balance.
About 10 years ago I fell off a bike, landing on my shoulder, tearing my rotator cuff. Unfortunately, it took one year for a variety of doctors and other healers to properly diagnosis it – - and that was from an MRI. By the time of my operation, the surgeon told me that all 4 muscles had shredded and atrophied so much that he wasn’t even certain how effective his surgery would be. Despite long and intensive PT my shoulder never regained its strenght nor full mobility.
I’m currently in Jill’s Level One Teacher Training and have an even greater respect for the importance of including a variety of YTU shoulder exercises.
its amazing to me how rampant rotator cuff muscle injuries are, and yet no one wants to put the effort in to really work them. i always tell my students that if they worry less about what they are trying to look like and more about getting their bodies to work properly, they will look a million times better without even having to focus on it. once the rotator cuff muscles are awakened and invigorated, you can build a beaitiful deltoid or whatever superficial muscle you’d like, and it will always look better if its actually attached to your body! that said,i struggle to keep my own rotator cuff muscles strong. i think that i too am definietly guilty of the “if i cant see it, it can wait” thought process. such fascinating things we do to hurt ourselves….inside is as important as outside! thanks!
I suffered a RC injury about 3 years ago and it took about 6 months to recover … I was told that it was the attachment of Infraspinatus that had been ‘comprimised’ and that it wasn’t a seriously traumatic injury, for which I was thankful. But I could feel that the injury affected the work of all the other muscles in the group & the shift in dynamics was profound. Ever since then I’ve had a healthy respect for these muscles and wanted to learn them inside out. The YTU training put them back on my radar, and I will learn them from the inside out!
Wow, my shoulder injury has been a research project that is still going on after 40 years. Back then tho only thing i was instructed to do was wear a sling for a couple of weeks and I took it on myself to pretend it was ok after that, but it was very painful for about a year and “healed” with a very limited range of motion. Yoga and massage have become my treatment for the last 20 years. I have had good results and still the research project continues.Thanks for the information.
One thing I have heard people reporting that repetitive motion can cause injuries. I believe it is better stated as Repetitive motion out of alignment that is the cause.