Shoulder External Rotation (With Cable)

Strengthening the muscles that support your shoulder will help keep your shoulder joint stable.

Stand, hold the cable (or resistance band), bend the elbow upward to 90 degrees, and hold your upper arm at the side of the body.
Place the body such that the cable pulls sideways toward the inactive arm.
The target muscles are the shoulder external rotators.

What muscles does external rotation work?
In red we can see how the infraspinatus muscle externally rotates the humerus. In pink we see the posterior deltoid and teres minor that assist in shoulder external rotation.
The load on the shoulder rotators varies throughout the movement. When the cable is 90 degrees to the forearm (and the forearm is vertical to the body), the load on the muscles is maximal. In other positions, the load is lower.

One of the common mistakes is scapular protraction and retraction at the expense of full shoulder rotation. The cause of this mistake is usually compensation for excessive weights or lack of awareness.
Be sure to stabilize the scapula and to move only the arm!

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The Muscle and Motion team

[ps]

This is the visual I always wanted to see and know what actually happens inside. I m extremely grateful for your videos.

[LionHrodgari]

These are some really good videos for visual learners

[mhayato]

Thank you for the video, it clarified my doubt, I was doing incorrectly standing with a band and when I did the exercize lying down with a 1kg dumbbell it targeted the correct muscles.

[taylormoultrie]

During weight training the weight coach was having us do this but wanted me to rotate farther out to work on mobility but I don’t think that is the what the movement is actually intended for. He wasn’t correcting people when they were moving their whole shoulders and when they were lifting their elbows far from their side. I’m not sure he knows what he is doing.

[miloqu]

Best video ever about this exercise! Thank you a lot!

[afriking]

I’ve been trash form on this forever 🤦🏾‍♂️ thank you for the vid

[cinmac]

Thank you for this explantion, but, raising my arm also causes tension in my back shoulders and this video diagram doesn't help me figure out why, even thought this was good for other movements of the arm shoulder .

[apeape]

I think I did too high a weight with my nondominant shoulder and have injured it. It hurts very bad and can't seem to keep proper positioning. Thinking of lowering weight but I'm already only at 20. Any suggestions for strength targeting the injured area? Or is lowering weight the best option?

[Blabla]

Great video! I am just wondering. My range of motion is awful. I do have forward rounded shoulders, but even when focussing on squeezing my shoulder blades together and keeping my shoulders back and down, it’s still bad. What could this most likely be? (Even without using weights)

[joshuaw]

I have badly torn my right infraspinatus muscle for years, it's further confirmed when i do outward rotational pulls theres no bulging or contracting of the infraspinatus muscle both visually and sensationally. Then how do i achieve this movement? Is it the rear delts and lats working together to rotate my shoulder outwards?

[Robertsond]

I recently broke my scapula and got surgery which involved plates and screws. I’ve been in pt for probably over a month and everything is going pretty well, except external rotation. External rotation is taking much longer to loosen up and I feel like I’ve been stuck with little progress. Do you have any advice on how I could improve this?

[larrywelch]

My arm will not do this, I have to use the other to push it. Is this a torn muscle?

[slai]

how does one force scapula to remain not moving?

[ReNCaTzZz]

ppl who do this with a dumbbell ahahahhah