Yoga Glossary · Muscles
Rotator cuff
Four small shoulder muscles that keep the ball of the arm bone centered in its socket.
The rotator cuff is a team of four muscles — supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis — whose tendons wrap the head of the upper arm bone. They do not produce big movements; they stabilize. Every time the arm lifts, reaches or bears weight, the cuff keeps the ball centered in a very shallow socket.
That stabilizing job is under constant demand in yoga: repetitive Plank-to-Chaturanga transitions, weight-bearing in Down Dog and Side Plank, and deep shoulder stretches in binds all load the cuff. Teachers cue alignment partly to protect it — elbows tracking back rather than splaying, shoulders set before lowering — because cuff irritation is one of the most common yoga shoulder complaints.
In practice
- If shoulders feel pinchy in Chaturanga, the cuff is usually part of the story — lower halfway and keep elbows close.
- External rotation of the upper arm (corkscrewing the hands in Down Dog) recruits the cuff to center the joint.
- Small muscle group, big consequences: it stabilizes rather than steers, so it fatigues quietly.
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The Yoga Glossary is an educational study reference. Definitions are standard yoga and anatomy knowledge in plain language; nothing here is medical advice.