We’re excited to welcome physical therapist Mike Reinold to this week’s podcast. Mike has extensive experience working with baseball players. In this episode, we take on two controversial topics in the world of managing throwers: the sleeper stretch and weighted baseballs. Mike and I collaborate to discuss whether they belong in your training and rehabilitation programs, and if so, how?

In lieu of a sponsor for this podcast, we’re instead going to highlight our Functional Stability Training sale that’s ongoing. Through this Sunday at midnight, you can get 25% off on this popular series with coupon code ALLSTAR2022 at www.FunctionalStability.com.

Show Outline

• Why baseball players lose internal rotation in their throwing shoulder
• Why professionals should care more about total range of motion at the shoulder as opposed to just ER vs. IR
• How Mike teaches professionals to assess shoulder range of motion and what common mistakes are being made when testing for this information
• How clinical research has progressed our understanding of the loss of IR in throwing shoulders and how previous notions (such as a thickening of the posterior capsule) could not be further from the truth
• Why giving baseball players more internal rotation may not be the answer for building healthy arms and why this strategy may cause more harm than good in throwing populations
• What Mike’s thoughts on the sleeper stretch are and how his perspective on the drill have evolved since the beginning of his career
• What is happening mechanically at the shoulder joint during the sleeper stretch
• What the true occurrence of internal rotation deficit cases in Mike’s practice is and how he goes about resolving the issue
• Why there is so much hype about weighted balls and how can we implement them safely in athletes’ throwing programs
• What Mike’s research demonstrated with respect to weighted balls and what insights can we gain from Mike’s breakdown of the study and its execution
• What specific physical adaptations throwing weighted balls creates and how the weight of the balls thrown impacts these outcomes
• What immediate physical changes throwing weighted balls creates and how these changes may increase the risk for injury
• Why athletes need to be well-trained and prepared to withstand the stress of throwing weighted balls before looking to push the limits of their physiology
• How injuries in baseball have evolved from repetitive to traumatic and why the next generation of baseball is in danger
• Why the answer for the abuse of arms across baseball calls for the education of coaches and how we can continue to find the right balance in throwing volume, frequency, and intensity for our athletes

You can follow Mike on Twitter at @MikeReinold and on Instagram at @MikeReinold, and learn more about Functional Stability Training at www.FunctionalStability.com. Again, the coupon code for 25% off is MLB2020EC.

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