The Cuban Rotation

- by Ido Portal

"I first read about the concept of Structural Balance years ago from an article written by Charles Poliquin.
Poliquin described a certain relationship that should be achieved between various upper body movement patterns (notice I am careful not to say 'muscles' here) but more importantly educated me about the need for specific shoulder stabilizers conditioning.

While trying to apply some of these concepts I became a big fan of the 'Cuban Rotation' as one of the most 'bang for your buck' exercises for upper body structural balance.

The Cuban Rotation entails an external rotation motion of the upper arms in an upright, 90-90 degrees both in shoulder and in the elbow joints. (Some of you may know the Cuban Press, but I find it a waste of time to include the Upright Row and the Press motion where the weight is basically held back by the Rotation portion of the lift).

A good long term goal with the Cuban Rotation is to aspire for a HALF BODYWEIGHT lifted for 5 reps with at least 3 sec eccentrics.
Some of you may laugh, but this is no crazier than doing a One Arm Chin Up and will keep your shoulders healthy and strong while allowing further development of the internal rotators as well, as balance sets in.

Training with the Cuban Rotation should be performed 2-3 times a week for 3-7 sets at a time. Rep ranges can vary as you should start with lower intensity and work your way through to lower rep sets.

If you can have one goal out of 5 to balance all your upper body strength training I would put the 50%BW Cuban Rotation as that goal. Try it and you will be surprised how good your shoulders feel and how the rest of your strength training is effected. Enjoy!"