The rotator cuff of our shoulder consists of 4 muscles and has not as the name might suggest only the task to rotate our shoulder joint. Rather, the main function of the rotator muscles is to compensate for translational forces on the humeral head that occur during movement. In this case, the cuff has direction-specific asynchronous activation. This means that different parts are activated dominantly depending on the direction of movement. In pushing movements, the rear parts work primarily, while in pulling movements, the front parts work more to compensate for the translational forces.
Here you can see 4 examples of exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff. In the chest press, as mentioned, we tend to hit the posterior portions, while in the bent-forward rowing we dominantly hit the anterior portions. Isolated external rotation is also a good stabilization exercise, and side raises are one of the best rotator cuff strengthening exercises anyway because they hit pretty much all parts.
Conclusion: To train the rotator cuff, you do not necessarily have to perform a rotation
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