By RealJock Staff

This exercise provided courtesy of Billy Polson, founder and co-owner of DIAKADI Body training gym, voted best personal training gym in San Francisco by CitySearch in 2006.

Benefits
This shoulder warm-up exercise puts your rotator cuffs through a full range of motion, prepping them before you workout to help prevent injury. You can use a dumbbell or a weight plate, but either way the challenge is to keep a consistent motion.

Muscles Worked
Shoulders (rotators)

Starting Position
Stand with feet roughly shoulder-distance apart. Take a light dumbbell in one hand, holding the dumbbell by the end cap. If your dumbbells only have large end caps, then use a weight plate instead. Keeping your arm straight, lift the arm holding the weight until it held out at shoulder level (see Photo 1).

Exercise

1. From the starting position, begin moving the weight in a large forward circle, using the shoulder as the pivot point. Your arm should remain extended throughout your movement, and your body should turn as little as possible (see Photos 2 and 3).
2. Do 10 large forward circles, and then reverse the movement and do 10 large backwards circles.
3. After you have completed the forward and backward reps with one arm, switch the weight to the other arm and repeat (see Photo 4).

About Billy Polson: Billy Polson is the founder and co-owner of DIAKADI Body training gym, which was voted the best personal training gym in San Francisco by CitySearch in 2006. A competitive swimmer and triathlete in his own right, Polson has over 15 years of experience working as a coach and trainer, and was recently named by Men's Journal Magazine (December 2005) as one of the Top 100 Trainers in America.