5 Major Muscles groups for pickleball - Part 1

The Rotator Cuff 

There are 5 smaller muscles and muscle groups that if strengthened properly will help you play the game of pickleball much longer, keep you out of pain, and make you a savage on the court.

One of the most important muscle groups that need to be targeted are the shoulders. General strength training of the shoulders will help you have better overheads, a more steady and consistent dink, and better overall play. But it isn’t just the large muscles of the shoulders (deltoids) that need strengthening, it’s also the smaller muscles.

 The Shoulder Muscles

These smaller muscles, also called the rotator cuff, are composed of: teres minor, subscapularis, supraspinatus, and infraspinatus. When you typically think of the muscles that compose the shoulder, most immediately think of the deltoids because those are the muscles that you can see. We all know somebody that has shoulders looking like pumpkins.

Biomechanics of the shoulder

The rotator cuff muscles on the other hand are the muscles that really contribute to stabilizing the shoulder. Let’s dive deep into the shoulder for a minute: 

The shoulder is a ball-in-socket joint which is a type of joint that can rotate close to 360 degrees. These types of joints have the most mobility. When compared to your elbow joint, which just moved in one plane of motion, the ball in-socket joint is much more superior in range.

This ball in socket joints’ main movement is abduction. Abduction, think about the lever moving away from the body where it’s counterpart is adduction, think moving closer to the body (ADDing to the body). So a DB Front Raise, lateral raise, or bent over lateral raise is abduction which is where the deltoids are working to raise the arms. The deltoids attach to the scapula and clavicle and insert about a third of the way down the humerus. When this muscle is contracted, the humerus lifts. Boom! A DB Lateral Raise!

the shoulder Girdles Job

So what do the rotator cuff muscles do? Get to the point Connor! So, the rotator cuff muscles have two major roles within the shoulder: 1) Keep the ball in the socket and 2) internally and externally rotate the humerus. Their main role is stabilization! Keeping the joint safe as well as rotating the arm.

The major muscles of the shoulders (deltoids) can’t do their job if the ball isn’t in the socket. Let’s do an activity. With your right hand, make a fist. With your left hand, make the letter “C” open and spread your fingers wide. Now, place your right hand (fist) in your left. Lastly, curve the fingers of your left hand around your right so that it is almost touching. Now move your right fist around your inside your left. That is a ball in socket joint and rotator cuff muscles work to stabilize and keep the head of the humerus in a good place at all times.

Training the shoulders

Now let’s think about internally and externally rotating your humerus. This is important because every time you go to hit an overhead, you get into max external rotation of the humerus. If you are limited in motion here or if you aren’t strong enough to handle the weight of your paddle (Yeah I am talking to you with a 10 ounce paddle and constant shoulder pain) these muscles will suffer.

When thinking about training the shoulders, don’t just think about training the deltoids in the basic exercises that you see on Instagram. Those are probably great and you need it BUT you should also consider training your rotator cuff muscles as well. Strengthen the muscles that help stabilize the joint so that you can stay healthy and exactly what we all want… to play more pickleball!

Above is a video where I go into detail explaining how to keep your shoulder healthy, hit better overheads, and give some advanced shoulder and rotator cuff exercises you can do with minimal equipment. Overall shoulder strengthening is great, but having a strong rotator cuff will keep you healthy and playing better pickleball!