As you probably already know, I see a ton of baseball players on a weekly basis. And, the majority of them come in with some pre-existing perceptions on what good arm care really is. These ideas relate to exercise selection, coaching cues, frequency, timing, load, and a host of other factors. I'm a firm believer that just about everyone does some things that are appropriate, and some things that are wrong.
This may be "right vs. wrong" in a general sense. An example would be that it's always right for baseball players to strengthen their rotator cuff and scapular stabilizers. And, it's always wrong to do so many arm care exercises before throwing that the cuff is actually fatigued before a thrower picks up a ball.
There are, however, specific cases of right and wrong. For instance, if someone has a ton of congenial laxity (joint hypermobility), it's wrong to stretch their shoulders out, as you're making unstable joints more unstable. However, if it's a very stiff individual, stretching may very well be completely indicated and productive.
To that end, I want to kick off this series to educate my baseball audience on how to evaluate arm care options so that you can ensure that they're the best fit for you. Here's our first mistake:
Assuming all shoulder blades start in the same position.
There are tens of millions of throwing shoulders around the world, and each one of them responds slightly differently to a throwing stimulus - and this has been well documented. The problem, however, is that when creating arm care programs, not a lot of people take into account that scapular (shoulder blade) position is going to differ - sometimes dramatically - from one throwing athlete to the next. As examples, check out these two resting scapular positioning photos:
On the left, you have an anteriorly tilted, abducted, and depressed scapular presentation. This is what we often expect to see with throwers (usually with a bit more asymmetry, though). On the right, though, we have a very adducted scapular posture; the shoulder blades are almost touching the spine (the medial border of the scapula should be roughly three inches away from it).
The classic "down and back" cue that gets thrown out to just about everyone for every exercise could give both of these guys issues, but for different reasons. The left example would potentially preferentially recruit lat (which is already cranking the shoulder girdle down) over lower trapezius, so we'd get more scapular depression instead of the posterior tilt and adduction we're seeking. The right example would yank aggressively toward the spine with the rhomboids and "fight" the shoulder blades as they try to upwardly rotate. Down and back isn't a good cue for this scapular presentation because he's literally as far back as he can possibly go.
This goes to show you that resting posture governs function, and function (or lack thereof) governs whether or not you're going to get hurt. If you don't take resting posture into account, how can you be sure that you're creating the type of movement that you seek?
Thsi is just one more reason why I don't believe in "organizational arm care programs." If every posture presentation and subsequent functional performance is different, why are we painting them all with the same broad stroke instead of giving them the individual attention they need? Check out this video example, where I talk about how different folks might need different cues for the prone 1-arm trap raise, a commonly prescribed arm care exercise.
Looking for more insights like this? Check out one of our Elite Baseball Mentorships, where we discuss scapular posture and movement evaluation techniques (along with many other topics) in great detail. We just announced our next Phase 1 (Upper Extremity) event: June 14-16.
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The prone 1-arm trap raise (also known as the prone Y) is one of my favorite arm care drills. Unfortunately, it's also a drill that can be performed incorrectly in a number of different ways. Additionally, as with most exercises, there's a big difference between "decent" and "optimal," and when it comes to taking care of throwing arms, even the most subtle adjustment can reduce injury risk or take away someone's pain. A key part of being able to adjust on the fly is to appreciate how an athlete's resting posture looks.
With all these important considerations in mind, check out this detailed video tutorial so that you can make the most of this awesome exercise.
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Today, I'm going to tackle one of my biggest pet peeves in the baseball world: people saying that throwing builds arm "strength." Sorry, but it doesn't.
What I'm going to write below might seem like wordplay, but truthfully, it's a very important differentiation to make. If young athletes believe that throwing builds arm strength, they'll quickly convince themselves that year-round throwing is safe and acceptable, when it's actually one of the worst things they can do for long-term health and development. Here's what you need to know:
1. Throwing builds arm speed - which is power. Power is heavily reliant on muscular strength. If you can't apply much force, you can't apply much force quickly.
2. Throwing also builds muscular endurance in the arm. Muscular endurance, too, is heavily reliant on muscular strength. If you don't have strength you can't have strength endurance.
If you enhance muscular strength, power and endurance will generally improve. That's been shown time and time again in the research, both in throwers and other athletic situations. However, if you train power and endurance, strength almost never goes up. Otherwise, we'd see loads of athletes stronger at the end of seasons than they were at the beginning. In reality, if you check rotator cuff strength and scapular stabilizer proficiency at season's end, it's generally much lower. As physical therapist Mike Reinold describes it, managing arm strength during the season is a "controlled fall."
This underscores the importance of using the off-season (including a period with no throwing whatsoever) to improve rotator cuff strength and optimize scapular control. Simultaneously, athletes gain passive stability at the shoulder as the acquired anterior instability (secondary to increased external rotation from throwing) reduces.
Now, we need more research to see if it's the case, but I think that one of the hidden benefits of throwing weighted baseball is that doing so essentially helps us blur the line between arm strength and speed, as I outlined in this presentation a while back:
Of course, it depends heavily on the volume, frequency, load, and type of weighted ball drills utilized, as well as the time of year at which they're utilized. However, as I mentioned, it is somewhat of a noteworthy exception to the rule of throwing a 5oz baseball. Weighted balls surely still take a toll on arm strength over the course of time, but that might be a "slower fall."
Regardless, when you're talking about a throwing program, feel free to say that you're building "arm speed" or "arm endurance," but let's all appreciate that you definitely aren't building "arm strength."
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It's been a while since I updated the free bonus I give to all my baseball-specific newsletter subscribers when they sign up for this free mailing list, so I figure now is as good a time as ever. With that in mind, by entering your name and email in the opt-in below, you'll be emailed access information so that you can watch my 47-minute seminar presentation, Individualizing the Management of Overhead Athletes. I've given this presentation to more than 10,000 coaches, players, sports medicine professionals in the past 18 months, and it's been a big hit.
In this free presentation, you'll observe a lot of our Cressey Performance athletes training and learn:
Why different athletes need different approaches to power development
Why it’s essential that you learn to train outside the sagittal plane
Which medicine ball and plyometric variations I use with baseball players
Why not all throwers have identical deceleration patterns or training needs
How your arm care programs can be improved to reduce the risk of injury and improve throwing velocity
Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for your continued support - and please don't hesitate to share this page to those who you think might be interested in and benefit from the information I present.
*Note: We respect your privacy and won't share your information with anyone. Instead, we'll deliver you awesome content on a regular basis!
With the off-season at hand, I thought I'd type up some random thoughts that have come up in conversations with professional, college, and high school players over the past few weeks as they've wrapped up their seasons and transitioned to off-season mode.
1. Arm care drills don't really provide arm care when you do the exercises incorrectly. When you do eight exercises for three sets of 15 reps each every single day, but you do all the exercises incorrectly, you’re really just turning yourself into 360 reps worth of suck.
2. Piggybacking on #1, if you think you need 360 reps of arm care exercises per day, you really need to educate yourself on how the arm actually works. Also, when you eventually realize that you probably don’t even need ¼ of that volume to keep your arm healthy, you should definitely pick up a new hobby with all that newly discovered free time. Maybe you’ll even wind up kissing a girl for the first time.
3. In the battle to increase pitching velocity, all anyone seems to talk about is how to increase arm speed, which is a function of how much force can be produced and how quickly it can be applied. So, we focus heavily on long toss, weighted ball programs, and mound work to try to produce more force. The inherent problem with this strategy is that it ignores the importance of accepting force. I'll give you an example.
Imagine two people side-by-side holding slingshots, each of which has the same thickness rubber band. They both pull the band back with the right hand and hold the other end with the left. One guy has a limp left hand and his left forearm "gives" as he pulls the band back, and the other guy keeps the left side firm. They both shoot the rock; which one goes farther? Obviously, it's the one with the firm front side; that stiffness enables the arm to accept force.
This is a common problem with many young pitchers who haven't built a foundation of strength, as well as advanced pitchers whose velocity dips over the course of a season, usually when they lose body weight. If your lower-body strength and power diminishes, you'll collapse on that front side and leak energy. And, you'll commonly miss up and arm side.
Basically, you need to be strong eccentrically into hip flexion, adduction, and internal rotation - which is why the glutes are so important for pitching (check out this post from a while back for more information on the functional anatomy side of things). Think of pitching with a weak landing leg as throwing like a guy with a slight hamstrings strain; in order to protect yourself, you flop instead of planting.
4. Has an accomplished marathoner every thrown 95mph? Actually, has an accomplished marathoner ever done anything athletic other than running?
5. We definitely need to get John Clayton to cover MLB instead of the NFL.
Baseball hasn’t seen this kind of talent in a non-player since this Fenway Park security guard put the Terry Tate on this deserving schmuck:
6. It amazes me how many baseball players don’t take care of their eyes. They are your livelihood, people! Yearly check-ups are a good start, but if you’ve heard some of the stories I’ve heard about how terrible guys are with taking care of their contact lenses, you’d be astounded. Example: I once had an athlete come in with terribly red eyes, so I sent him to see my wife, Anna, who is (conveniently) an optometrist. He informed her that he’d been putting his contacts in the same solution at night for two weeks. That’s like reusing the same bath water for 14 days – except the eyes are worse because they’re more prone to infection.
7. Why do professional teams spend anywhere from $484,000 to $30,000,000 per year on a single player, yet try to save money by letting clubbies feed all their minor leaguers pizza, fried chicken, PB&J, and salami sandwiches on white bread?
8. This kid has a full scholarship to train at Cressey Performance whenever he opts to pursue it.
See what I just did there? It wasn’t baseball-related at all, but I just tied it in.
9. Strength and conditioning has “changed the game” with respect to early sports specialization as it relates to baseball development. Kids can get away with specializing earlier if they’re involved in a well-rounded strength and conditioning program because these programs afford as much and, sometimes, more variety than playing a traditional sport. This approach to development does, however, depend heavily on the self-restraint of players, parents, and coaches to get kids 2-3 months per year without a ball in their hands. And, they need to seek out opportunities to play pick-up basketball, ultimate Frisbee, and other random games.
10. If you’re already taking 150 ground balls per day during the season, do you really need to do extra agility work? This is like a NASCAR champ hitting up the go-karts on the way home from the race track.
11. The other day, I read a review in the International Journal of Athletic Training that focused on the different biomechanics and pathology of various pitching styles. The authors (Truedson et al) made a strong case for modifications to training programs - particularly with respect to core stability - based on trunk tilt angles at ball release. Overhand and three-quarters guys tilt away from the throwing arm, sidearm guys stand upright, and submarine guys tilt toward the throwing arm. Folks have long discussed the concept of posture from a mechanics standpoint, but I haven't seen anyone who has utilized this information to modify an intended training outcome from a strength and conditioning standpoint. Obviously, you could easily make the case that submarine pitchers need more rotary and lateral core stability than all other pitchers.
Lateral core stability exercises teach you how to resist lateral flexion; in other words, your goal is to avoid tipping over. These drills may start with basic side bridging drills and progress all the way up through more advanced TRX drills and 1-arm carrying variations. Rotary core stability exercises educate folks on how to resist excessive rotation through the lumbar spine. Examples include drills like landmines, lifts, and chops.
Sidearm pitchers are much more upright with the torso, so they likely need more anterior core than rotary/lateral core stability. Of course, you're still going to train all three.
Anterior core stability exercises teach the body to resist excessive lumbar spine extension, and encompass a variety of drills, starting with dead bug, curl-up, and prone bridging activities. In prepared individuals, they progress all the way up through more advanced exercises like reverse crunches, stability ball rollouts, and TRX flutters and fallouts.
Finally, the overhand and 3/4 guys - which are obviously the largest segment - likely just need an equal dose of the three approaches.
That concludes this little glimpse into my mind as we enter the off-season. I'll probably wind up doing this again every 4-6 weeks as I have discussions on various topics with our pro guys as they return.
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Here's this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:
Elite Training Mentorship - In this month's update, I contributed two exercise demonstrations, an article, and two in-services. The in-services were "What is the Sports Hernia?" and "Arm Injury Mechanisms in Throwing Athletes." This latest update also featured some great contributions from Tyler English.
Hudson Training Facility Expands Footprint, Market - This was a story in the local newspaper about the expansion of Cressey Performance, which gives rise to a new offering (morning bootcamps) in our business model. If you're in our area, definitely check it out.
The HRV Roundtable - I thought this was an excellent article at T-Nation, as it draws on the experience of a number of very bright guys in the industry to highlight some forward-thinking concepts.
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Here's this week's list of random tips to make you more awesome, in collaboration with Cressey Performance coach Greg Robins.
1. Optimize your strength training program's warm-up sets.
Too often, I see people make the mistake of moving a ton of weight before they reach their top sets for that day. Many strength training programs are based on hitting a certain “top set” or sets in a given lift for that day. While this number may be a good distance from the first weight a person touches that day, it is important that you work to this set in a fashion that has you prepared to attack the weight, but not exhausted to a point that you cannot give that weight a true effort.
I often get asked how should one work up to these top sets. The answer is really dependent on the person asking; over time, a person will learn what works best for them. Here are a few things you should keep in mind:
“Treat the light weights heavy and the heavy weights light.” Move everything fast, be methodical in your approach, take advantage of every set as repetitions in good form. By doing so, you will set up for successful top sets, prime your CNS to deliver more powerful, coordinated efforts, and be more confident under heavy loads.
Keep your weight jumps consistent. How many pounds each jump should be will depend on how dictate how many warm-up sets you’ll take on the way from A to B. Just make sure to keep the jumps consistent, 10, 20, 30lbs, etc.
Just because the top sets call for multiple reps doesn’t mean the sets leading up to them need to be the same. I often take singles and doubles at the heavy weights that land near my top sets, and recommend you do the same. I advocate any additional volume (work done) you need to add be done via drop down sets, or via supplemental lifts.
Here are two examples of how to work up to the top sets in a program:
Deadlift 3 x 3 (Assuming my top sets will be between 475 and 505lbs)
135 x 3, 225 x 3, 315 x 1, 405 x 1, 455 x 1, 475 x 3, 495 x 3, 505 x 3
A1. Squat 3 x 5 (Assuming my top sets will be between 365 and 405lbs)
135 x 5, 185 x 3, 225 x 2, 275 x 1, 315 x 1, 365 x 5, 385 x 5, 405 x 5
You'll notice that the sets that "count" toward my working total follow the 90% rule that Eric outlined HERE.
2. Understand How to Modify Total Work as a Fat Loss Diet Progresses
You will be more successful with your fat loss dieting when you understand a simple concept: the harder you train, the hungrier you get.
The most important thing in losing fat is, has been, and will continue to be your nutrition. Your strength training program should be the priority in training when dieting. You want to maintain as much lean mass as possible, and what made the muscle (resistance training) is what’s going to keep it on you. However, you can’t just continue to strength train, add more conditioning, and eat less. It just doesn’t add up. Either you’re going to fail on the diet or get super weak. Neither of those sounds good to me.
So what’s the solution? Lower the volume as you lower the calories. Whether that comes in the way of shorter strength training workouts (focus on the top sets of big lifts and keep the accessory work limited), or you do less conditioning, you have to do less somewhere.
People are really into metabolic resistance training protocols nowadays, but in reality, all training is metabolic; your diet needs to come first, and these programs are just basic better management of total work done. Base your training around your diet, and as you eat less, do less. Pretty simple.
3. Make Kale Taste Better.
Kale by itself does not taste good. Fortunately, I have a simple recipe to make a delicious dressing to spice it up. I must admit that I am not the originator of this, so thank you to the person who showed me the recipe!
In a bowl, mix the following to “dress” four cups of uncooked kale:
4. Make all Reps Quality Ones When You’re a Beginner.
When teaching a new athlete or client an exercise, trainers and coaches must understand the importance of using lighter loads. From a safety and development standpoint, it just makes sense. Moreover, a novice lifter can make gains from loads far below their estimated one-rep maximum.
In order to achieve technical proficiency with the exercise, make sure that you are also keeping the rep ranges low - even when the weights are light. While the person in question may very well be able to move the given load for 12 reps (as an example), you are better off splitting that into 3 sets of 4 reps. Even if that means they are doing 12 sets of 4 instead of 4 sets of 12 overall. Keep the rest a bit shorter, get quality reps, and don’t set them up to fail.
5. Make Sure Your Arm Care Program Includes Upward Rotation Training (from Eric)
I speak a lot to our staff about the importance of training scapular upward rotation to prevent and correct upper extremity problems (especially shoulders) in our clients, and one of my most prominent points is to consider not just "front to back" shoulder balance, but also "top to bottom." This point was verified yet again by research from the Musculoskeletal Research Center at LaTrobe University in Australia. Investigators found that "The major difference between groups was that the shoulder pain group displayed a significant downward rotation of the scapula in almost all shoulder positions. There were no differences between the two groups for training factors, range of motion, or in clinical test results."
Below are a few exercises we regularly include in our warm-ups to address these issues. Forearm wall slides at 135 degrees stops short of full upward rotation and gives us a chance to train the lower trapezius in its line of pull.
Wall slides with overhead shrug and lift-off gets us to near full upward rotation of the scapula and recruits the upper trapezius more. Remember, while upper trapezius recruitment has gotten a bad rap, the upper traps are actually tremendously important, as they elevate the scapula and directly oppose the depressive pull of the latissimus dorsi, which is heavily overrecruited in most folks. As a heads-up, I generally teach this with the hands a bit closer together throughout the movement.
The upper and lower traps work with serratus anterior to get the scapula upwardly rotated (serratus recruitment is already optimized because we are slightly protracted and above 90 degrees of humeral elevation).
Summarily, remember the importance of scapular upward rotation when you see arm care programs where all the exercises are done with the arms at the sides. Assuming folks can get there pain-free, get the arms up and start training upward rotation functionally.
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