As with the shoulder muscles, the forearm muscles do a tremendous amount of work during an overhead throw. This is why it is also important to MAINTAIN not GAIN strength in your forearm muscles during the season to prevent injury to your elbow and also your shoulder if compensation occurs. For the first 1-2 weeks start with 1 set of ten repetitions and progress to 2-3 sets after that. 2-3 times per week is enough for the non-professional level of competition.
One minor modification to the video below is of benefit. Instead of going from one side all the way to the other as in the first two exercises shown, just go half way and then back to the starting position. This makes your forearm muscles work throughout more of the motion and prevents gravity from taking over. Do one half, for say ten repetitions, and then the other half before moving on to the next exercise.
Don't be put off by the massive forearms below. I had to do this video myself. These are just some simple wrist curl and wrist extension exercises. The weight used is again dependant on many things, but as a rough guide: the first exercise use between 2kg and 7kg and with the second exercise use between 3kg and 10kg. Remember these are rough guides for training in-season.
As with stretching, we are looking to MAINTAIN arm strength and prevent injury during the season and NOT GAIN arm strength via strengthening exercises. The below videos by mark verstegen contain exercises that have been confirmed as the best shoulder exercises for throwers by several journal articles including ones from Mike Reinold and Dr. James Andrews. However, there a couple of slight modifications that are needed to these videos as well as comments.
The exercises are called the T, Y, W and L exercises because that's the position your body forms when performing the exercises. The T, Y and L exercises have good research to back them up, but the W exercise doesn't. However, there is no research saying that it causes any adverse effects so there is no problem if you chose to perform that one as well.
If you are just starting these exercises during the season then be slow and cautious with your approach. I would recommend only performing these exercises one set of 10 repetitions each two times per week with no more than 1.5Kg of weight. That may not feel like much but it's enough for the first 2-3 weeks (you can add a extra set each week). Depending on your size and general strength, you may progress to 2-3 sets of 2.5Kg for the next 3-6 weeks. Anything much higher is not necessarily going to give you any extra benefit and may cause you injury especially if you had no pre-season training.
There is no great evidence as to when to perform these exercises between each start. Often pitchers will perform these either the first or second day after they pitch and at least one or two days before the next start as well, sometimes an extra one in the middle.
On the Y, T, and W, keep the thumbs up towards the sky as shown.
You can also do these exercises on a flat gym bench or a physio ball as shown below, which i prefer. I also prefer to have the body more parallel to the ground, which also replicates the research more closely.
Hi Everyone! I just thought i might be able to help out a few of the boys and girls in the Cronulla Baseball Club, both juniors and seniors, with some advice on baseball. The information on the site will be primarily of an evidence based approach, with information from some of the leaders in the game of baseball and the health science team behind them. Hopefully we will all learn a little from this site, and i'll try and use as many videos as possible so there is no much reading involved.
What you will find on this site
At this stage the information on throwing/pitching will be based on several pitching coaches and information from the National Pitching Association in America with the leader of the NPA and long time Major League pitching coach and player, Tom House, as well as many others.
The injury prevention and rehabilitation aspect of baseball will be based on the research from the famous Dr. James Andrews and his research team. He has long been regarded as the leader in orthopaedic surgery for the shoulder and elbow of the baseball player. If you happen to live in America for at least a couple of weeks during baseball season you will be sure to see his name at the bottom of the screen on ESPN when a baseball player is on his way to see him, which is never good news.
Two researchers and physiotherapist’s work along with Dr. Andrews, Kevin Wilk who is a Physiotherapy rehabilitation consultant for the Tampa Bay Rays MLB team and Mike Reinold who is a physiotherapist for the Boston Red Sox MLB team. I have been lucky enough to have taken courses under these guys and will be basing the information on prevention/conditioning of the shoulder from their research. I will also post information on the latest sports and physiotherapy journal articles as they get published.
Another aspect of the baseball player is the general conditioning and strengthening for both off-season and in-season workouts. The information will be again from multiple sources, but one will be from Mark Verstegen, Author of the famous collection of books including “Core Performance”. Mark Verstegen has been one of the leader’s in the field of strength training and conditioning and is the founder of three “Performance Institute” gyms (great website to look at) in America that host several of baseball's greatest players during the off-season to provide players with the best balance in flexibility, power, speed, and agility. I strongly recommend that anyone remotely interested in their health, regardless of being a baseball player or not, to buy his main book "Core Performance". It is currently selling for only $13 US on Amazon.com. It is honestly one of the best books i have ever bought including all the expensive physiotherapy books I've purchased. The book is shown below and the link is attached to Amazon.com. Although i wish i did, I have no monetary benefit with the sales of this this book. You will also notice many of the video's on this site will be from Mark Verstegen's website. Most of his exercises are current with the evidence, with only a few modifications needed.
Please feel free to comment on any subject and ask as many questions as you like. If i don't have the answer for you i usually will be able to find out from one the super smart guys listed above. Also please propose a post topic that you would like to discuss, the more interaction the better. I have information that i plan on posting for at least the next few months about once a week, but i will check it regularly for questions or comments. The site is new, so bare with me as there might be a few errors along the way. Just let me know if you do find something that isn't working properly or if there a few spelling mistakes so i can fix them ASAP.
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