Lifting Weights to Strengthen the Upper Back & Rotator Cuff

Strengthening the muscles in your upper back and rotator cuff will help you maintain proper posture and keep your shoulder joints stable. The muscles in the upper back need to have adequate strength to prevent hunched shoulders. Your rotator cuff, which includes four separate muscles in each of your shoulder joints, keeps your upper arm bone safely and securely held into the joint.

  1. Upper Back Muscles

    • The muscles in your upper back include your trapezius, latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, posterior deltoid and teres major. The upper and middle trapezius, at the back of your shoulders, elevates your scapula, as when you shrug your shoulders. Your latissimus dorsi, posterior deltoid and teres major adduct and extend your shoulders, which means they pull your arms in toward your body and back behind you. Your rhomboids sit between your scapulas, adduct them, which means they pinch the two bones together.

    Strengthening the Upper Back

    • Exercises to strengthen the muscles in the upper back involve pulling movements, such as the lat pulldown and seated row. To perform a lat pulldown, sit at the lat pulldown pulley unit and grip the overhead bar with your hands wider than your shoulders and palms facing forward. Pull the bar down to your upper chest, bringing your elbows to the sides of your torso, and then control the back up to starting position. Seated row is done from a rowing cable pulley unit. Sit tall and grip the cable attachment in front of you. Pull the handles to your chest, driving your elbows back behind you, and then extend your arms to return the handles to where they started. Complete two to three sets of eight to 12 repetitions. Choose a weight that makes it challenging to complete each set.

    Rotator Cuff Muscles

    • The four rotator cuff muscles include your infraspinatus, supraspinatus, subscapularis and teres minor. When you move your arm around in different directions, these four muscles keep the shoulder socket stable. The infraspinatus and teres minor externally help by externally rotating the upper arm bone. The subscapularis internally rotates the arm, and the supraspinatus abducts the upper arm, which means that it helps to lift the arm away from the body.

    Strengthening the Rotator Cuff

    • Strengthen the infraspinatus and teres minor with an external rotation exercise and the subscapularis with an internal rotation exercise. Both exercises are done while lying on your side on a bench. To perform external rotation, hold a single dumbbell in the hand of your top arm. Bend your elbow to 90 degrees, and position it against your torso. Start with the dumbbell down in front of you, and then externally rotate your shoulder to lift the weight toward the ceiling, while keeping your elbow in to your side. For internal rotation, hold the weight in the hand of your bottom arm and with your elbow in to your side, lift the dumbbell toward the ceiling. To build strength in your supraspinatus, perform the open-can exercise. Stand and hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms down by your sides and your palms facing your legs. Keep your elbows extended with your arms out and in front of you to create a V-shape. Once your arms are level with your shoulders, lower them back to starting position. Complete two sets of eight to 10 repetitions of each exercise with extremely light weights.