Band external rotation
Elbow tucked at your side, turn the forearm out against a light band.
Strengthens the rotator cuff muscles that keep the ball of the shoulder centred in its socket.
Starting dose: 3 × 12–15, resting 45 seconds between sets. Each side.
You need a light resistance band.
No pull-up bar? See all the shoulder drills that need none.
How to do it
- Tie a light band at elbow height. Stand side-on to it with the working arm furthest away.
- Elbow bent to a right angle and tucked against your side — a rolled towel between elbow and ribs helps.
- Turn the forearm outwards, away from your belly, keeping the elbow at your side.
- Return slowly.
Think about
- Elbow glued to the towel
- Slow both ways
- Wrist straight
Watch for
- The elbow drifting away from the body
- Leaning the body to move the band
Easier: No band: lie on your side and do the same movement with no weight.
Harder: A stronger band, or a three-second return.
What it works
See all of them on the body model →
Checking it on camera
Facing the phone, two metres away, from the hips up in frame, so the forearm can be seen turning out from the body. See it in the filming guide.
A phone camera cannot follow this one well enough to count it, so you type in the count. Film it anyway and the movement the camera saw is kept with the set as proof.
The pain rule
- 0–3 out of 10 during the drill: fine, carry on.
- 4–5: do less — a smaller range, fewer reps, or the easier version.
- 6 or more: stop that drill for today.
- Worse the next morning than before the session: that session was too much. Step back.
- 6 or more on waking, any morning: rest the shoulder that day.
Sharp or catching pain, or pins and needles, means stop regardless of the number.
Where it is used
- Phase 1 — Set the shoulder blades — Shoulder: kipping works, strict pull-ups do not
- Phase 2 — Own the top and the way down — Shoulder: kipping works, strict pull-ups do not