Pre season exercise recommendations for baseball and other throwing athletes

Given the subzero temperatures and 2+ feet of snow on the ground, many of us are dreaming of 80 degree sunny days at the ballpark in July.  For those of you with a history of shoulder or elbow pain with throwing activities, or anyone who wants to prevent missing out on a perfect game day in 3-4 months, the time is now to get your arm ready for the season.

With the relatively short baseball/softball season that our Minnesota weather allows, it is important that we do our preseason preparation to have our arms ready for the season during times when being outside playing catch is the furthest thing from our minds.  Thankfully the basic preventative shoulder exercises require very little space, and minimal equipment.

Overuse and under-preparation for throwing activities is the #1 factor that brings baseball/softball players into PT clinics in the spring and summer.  Typically these injuries are 100% preventable by only a 10-15 minute exercise routine 3-4 times per week and some common sense about how much throwing we do early in the season.  It is important to note though, those preventative exercises must start 6-8 weeks prior to the onset of throwing activities.  With the typical season starting in mid-late April, that start date is now.

The two important sites for throwers to strengthen in the preseason are the rotator cuff and the small muscles around the elbow.  A simple program of 4 rotator cuff exercises and 3 elbow exercises are a great starting block for throwing athletes.

The 4 rotator cuff exercises are sidelying ER, scaption, shoulder extension and shoulder horizontal abduction.   The elbow exercises are pronation/supination, wrist curls, and radial deviation.  The pictures below show the 7 exercises, with both starting and ending positions.  It is important to do the exercises with correct form as shown, with low weights (1-2 lbs max) and high repetitions (we often recommend 3 sets of 30).

sidelying ER

scaption

shoulder extension

shoulder horizontal abduction

radial deviation

wrist curls

pronation/supination

 If you have pain with these exercises, or note pain with throwing there may be a more serious injury and we recommend consulting with a health professional.  At OSR, we offer free injury screenings and can guide you in what is the correct next step for your thrower’s shoulder or elbow pain.

This article was written by Ryan Koepp, DPT. He is the clinic director and treats patients at our Eden Prairie location.