THE 25 MINUTE SHOULDER SOLUTION: How To Maintain a Healthy Pitching and Throwing Shoulder with In-Season Baseball Strength Training By John Furia Xceleration Sports Training It s like clockwork three weeks into spring practice here in the northeast and some of my baseball players/pitchers come rolling in one after the other with complaints of my shoulder is killing me. It drives me crazy because we put such an emphasis and care into designing and implementing our programs to avoid this kind of stuff but its almost inevitable. Until we get some cooperation with the weather not gonna happen here in New York and some cooperation with our baseball coaches not gonna happen either, this pattern will surely continue. Common sense would tell you that long toss at 200 feet the first day of practice in 39 degree weather and high throwing volumes too soon may have a negative effect? It does, and trying to get kids and coaches to understand that a steady throwing progression and arm strength development needs to take place first to keep arms healthy for the upcoming season can be difficult. Baseball coaches always see themselves behind when spring hits here in the northeast. Our kids spend 8 months outside and 4 months inside. So when March hits its like gangbusters, but arms suffer! Strength training for baseball all to often is also seen as an off season activity, especially for pitchers. It shouldn t be. The key is to: manage throwing volume, pitch counts, rest, recovery, and strength maintenance in season. I tell our kids they need to take what they learn here from our program and use it as in season maintenance in lower volumes. I make it mandatory that anyone who actively trains with us inseason follows our in season strength maintenance protocol. After years of tinkering with it I have come up with a really effective formula for our kids. For the purpose of this article I will share the upper body component. One of the biggest things I try to emphasize to our baseball kids is the importance of developing and maintaining muscle balance in the shoulder. Developing it is much easier than maintaining it and in-season is where things usually go horribly wrong. Getting them to understand the pathomechanics of shoulder dysfunction is usually outside of their focus, they just want to know how to fix it, what to do, and how to get better results. Throwing is a shoulder internal rotation dominant activity. The rotator cuff muscles in the front (anterior) side take a beating as well as become predominant over the muscles on the back (posterior) side. This is where problems can arise. When the muscles of the front of the shoulder like the subscapularis and pectoralis major begin to over control the humeral head (upper arm bone) it can excessively internally rotate the humerus and cause a host of dysfunction. Biceps tendonitis,
biceps impingement, supraspinatus impingement, and SLAP tears of the labrum become more prevalent. So, how do we prevent this from happening? The human body has about 15 plus periscapular muscles depending on which ones you count including the rotator cuff. These muscles actively move, fixate, and stabilize the shoulder girdle. The key to maintaining shoulder health in-season and in general is strength and balance of the periscapular muscles in particular the infraspinatus, teres minor, rhomboids, middle and lower trapezius, and the commonly overlooked serratus anterior. Keeping these muscles strong and balanced is the key to maintaining and increasing velocity, reducing injury, and adding longevity throughout a long season. Here are some basic but effective exercises you can use twice per week. This will takes about 25 minutes to keep and maintain a healthy shoulder: Order of Exercises: A1 Prone Mid Trap 2-3x 8-10 A2 Incline Superman 2-3x 8-10
B1 Kneeling Cable Scarecrows 2-3x 10-15 B2 Standing Cable Reverse Scarecrows 2-3x 10-15
C1 Serratus Anterior Punch Ups 2-3x 15 C2 Dumbell Ext Rotation On Knee 2-3x 20,15,12 Start with two sets and move to three as your body acclimates. This is the less is more approach. Six exercises in about twenty five minutes twice a week as per your throwing schedule. This basic but effective remedial shoulder program will realign
the scapulas, improve posture, and most important will counteract the pattern overload of internal rotation from the throwing motion and work the decelerators (infraspinatus, teres Minor) of the posterior musculature of the shoulder. John Furia is the President and founder of Xceleration Sports Training, a sports performance and fitness training center located just east of New York City. John is a highly sought after coach who specializes in the sports performance enhancement of athletes from the youth, high school, collegiate, and professional sport levels. Using his extensive knowledge of human physiology, formal education in sports science and athletic training coach Furia specializes in developing training programs for ALL sports, for both healthy and injured athletes alike.