The rotator cuff is a common structure of injury in the shoulder. The “cuff” itself is composed of four different muscles and a few connective tissues which make a continuous connection around your shoulder joint (Asghar, Ghosh, and Narayan 2020). The four muscles are:

I get this question even more so now that I am a practicing clinician, but often struggle while trying to cram hundreds of hours of technical training into a short and relevant explanation. So I’ll try to explain my experiences here. The full explanation behind this technique involves baby pictures, Czech instructors, and a ruptured patellar tendon.