Updated on May 31, 2026 at 09:45 AM
Yoga magazineQ archives The series is a curated collection of articles originally published in previous issues beginning in 1975. This article on rotator cuff exercises to prevent (or aid recovery from) injury first appeared in the December 2003 issue of Yoga magazine.
As unique human beings, we tend to underuse our hands—to write, play the piano, or perform surgery. But without the shoulder joint, our use of our hands would be very limited. Without the shoulder, our arms would be stuck at our sides. We won’t even be able to put our hands over our mouths. We will lose a lot of our yoga practices. We use our shoulders in almost every pose, whether the arms are extended out to the sides Trikonasana(Triangle position)arrive in Vrksasana (Tree pose)bearing weight Slamba Sirsasana (Supported headrest)or support the body in sarvangasana (Shoulder holder).
Given the importance of the shoulders, it is surprising that they are relatively weak and unstable joints. The shoulder is a ball and socket joint, like the hip, but unlike the hip socket, the shoulder socket is very shallow. This shallow socket and relative laxity of the joint allows for great freedom of movement. If your shoulder movement is normal, you can move your arm left and right in front of you as well as up and back. You can’t make a circle like this with your leg unless you’re an acrobat.
Shoulder anatomy
Because of its inherent instability, the shoulder relies heavily on its soft tissues to help hold the joint together. These soft tissues include the ligaments that connect bone to bone. Tendons that connect muscles to bones. And the muscles themselves, which move and stabilize the bones. Of particular importance in stabilizing the shoulder Four muscles Which are collectively called the rotator cuff. It wraps deeply around the joint from the back, front and top.
Shoulder stabilization is a complex process involving four muscles, whose names can be remembered through the mnemonic SITS: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. Although they all work together to stabilize the head or ball of the humerus in the shoulder socket, which is actually part of the scapula, or scapula, each muscle produces its own distinct action in the shoulder.
The supraspinatus arises from the upper scapula, just above the spine of the shoulder bone, and inserts into the greater tuberosity of the humerus, a small mass on the top outer part of the bone. The supraspinatus begins with shoulder abduction. If you stand in tadasana(Mountain pose) With your arms at your sides, then raise your arms up in a T shape Virabhadrasana II (Warrior pose 2)The supraspinatus begins this lift. In its stabilizing function, the supraspinatus helps keep the head of the humerus from sliding down and partially out of the socket, a painful condition called subluxation.
The infraspinatus originates just below the spine of the shoulder; The teres minor originates near the infraspinatus region on the back of the scapula. They both cross the back of the shoulder joint to insert near the supraspinatus on the greater tuberosity of the humerus, and both are powerful external rotators. If you stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose), with your palms facing your body, and then turn your elbow bends forward (your palms will naturally face forward as well), you’ve rotated your shoulder outward, and you’ve just used your infraspinatus and teres minor.
Besides being external rotators, the teres minor and infraspinatus are very important in positioning the head of the humerus during shoulder flexion (when you bring your arm forward and upward) and shoulder abduction (when you bring your arm straight out to the side and upward). In fact, the two muscles pull down on the head of the humerus as the arm rises, to prevent the ball from hitting the acromion — the protrusion of the shoulder blade that protects the top of the joint, like the roof of a garage.
If the teres minor and infraspinatus muscles are too weak to do their job or there are other problems with movement of the shoulder blade, you may develop impingement syndrome, in which the soft tissue between the head of the humerus and the acromion is compressed. If the damaged and inflamed tissue is the bursa, one of the cushions that connects the tendon to the bone, you have bursitis. If it’s a tendon (usually the supraspinatus tendon), you have tendinitis.
The subscapularis is the most difficult part of the rotator cuff to locate, and its actions are the most difficult to understand. It arises on the anterior surface of the scapula and extends forward to form part of the posterior axillary fold. It is then wrapped around the inner upper shaft of the humerus and inserted there. The subscapularis muscle is a very powerful internal rotator of the shoulder, so its action opposes the actions of the infraspinatus and teres minor muscles. Along with the rest of the rotator cuff muscles, the subscapularis muscle helps stabilize the ball of the humerus in the shoulder socket.
Rotator cuff exercises to help prevent injuries
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for the rotator cuff muscles to be weak and therefore weak. This weakness can lead not only to impingement syndrome, but also to tears in the rotator cuff muscles themselves, usually near where three of them enter on the greater tuberosity of the humerus. These tears are very painful and can severely limit your ability to move your arm. Rotator cuff tears can occur during vigorous shoulder activities for which you’re not conditioned, like throwing a Frisbee for the first time in years, for example, but they’re more common in unconditioned older people, especially women, and younger, active people who fall while biking, running, or exercising.
If you have an acute rotator cuff injury, or have not fully recovered from injury or surgery, it is best to leave your exercise prescription to your health care professional. Mild to moderate rotator cuff tears can be treated conservatively with carefully selected medications and exercise, while severe tears may require surgery.
But given the challenges of healing a torn rotator cuff or recovering from impingement syndrome, it’s clearly better to build and maintain rotator cuff muscle strength to prevent these problems in the first place. Practicing yoga, in which you often support your weight on your arms, is a great way to do this. If you come to yoga and your rotator cuff muscles are weak, it is better not to immediately load them with large loads, as you do in surya namaskar (Sun salutation a) or Coups. So, if you’re new to yoga, weak in your upper body, or have a previous rotator cuff injury (but now healed), start building strength with poses in which you bear only light weight on your arms.
To start, simply get down on your hands and knees and lift your ribcage up toward the ceiling so the weight doesn’t fall back into your shoulder joints. Then raise one arm next to your ear, which will put a little more weight on the other arm and shoulder. When you’re ready for a bigger challenge, you can gradually increase the load on your shoulder muscles by doing variations of the classic push-up. Instead of pushing up from the floor, start in a standing position facing a wall with your hands on the wall at shoulder height. As you gain strength, you can bring your body closer and closer to the horizontal position: move your hands first from the wall to the surface of the table, then to the seat of the chair, and finally to the floor.
If you are starting with unconditioned shoulders, be patient; It may take several weeks or even months to reach Earth. You can also gradually strengthen your rotator cuff with another exercise: the jump Adhu mukha svanasana (Downward facing dog position) to Plank position (the “top” position in push-ups) and back again.
These transitions can be practiced by placing your hands on a table, chair seat, or the floor, depending on how strong your shoulder muscles are. This work is great conditioning for not only the rotator cuff but also the triceps (at the back of the upper arm) and pectoralis major (across the chest and front of the shoulder) as well.
In almost all yoga poses with the arms forward, as in Plank Pose, or an overhead pose, as in Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog), Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand)In Sirsasana (headstand), the shoulder is best stabilized through moderate external rotation. This will activate and strengthen the teres minor and internal spinae muscles. When you externally rotate into a plank, your elbow flexors point somewhat forward; In Sirsasana, your triceps face the same direction as your nose, not to the side. Remember, the necessary external rotation is moderate: you’re overdoing it if you feel strain in your elbows or if you can’t keep the base of your thumb and index fingers on the floor in Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward-facing dog) or plank.
As for the other rotator cuff muscles, the supraspinatus gets a good workout when you do a long series of standing poses. Every time you raise your arms from your sides to shoulder height, the supraspinatus works and becomes stronger.
It’s a bit difficult to ascertain which yoga poses and rotator cuff exercises strengthen the subscapularis area. For one thing, it’s difficult to isolate muscles. Internal rotation of the shoulder is a complex movement that uses several different muscles. For another, we simply don’t turn our shoulders internally much in yoga. Some of the positions we rotate internally include the position of the arms Parsvottanasana (Lateral stretch position)the lower part of the arm Gomukhasana (Cow face pose)The arm that wraps around the knee Marishyasana III (Custom mode for Sage Marichi 3). You can also internally rotate the shoulder when you raise your arms up, interlocking the fingers, and extending the palms toward the ceiling.
To maintain rotator cuff health, it is important to not only strengthen the muscles but work on opening the chest. When the chest drops rather than opens and the fronts of the shoulders roll forward and down, your shoulder blades lean forward, facilitating pressure between the head of the humerus and the acromion. In this position, the rotator cuff is more likely to be impacted and strained, eventually becoming inflamed and more susceptible to tearing.
As you can see from the wide range of postures that benefit the rotator cuff, perhaps the best yoga prescription for rotator cuff health is to maintain a good yoga practice. A variety of standing positions, chest openings, arm balances and inversions can be done regularly as rotator cuff exercises and help you protect this complex and important part of your anatomy. Always consult a physician if you experience shoulder pain or inability to move before starting an exercise program.
