It’s certainly a challenging time for all of us. With home isolation and social distancing effecting all of us in some way or form, exercise is really important for everyone; not only for our physical health but our mental health as well. Personally, I’ve set up my garage as a gym. The car no longer lives in there and it’s been replaced with yoga mats, exercise bike boxing equipment and some weights. Everyone in the house has to spend at least an hour in the “gym” or go for a walk every day. It could be a while that we are spending in hibernation, so it’s important to get into a routine. In time it will become something to look forward to for everyone. Put some music on and work out the current frustrations and problem solve your issues away whilst raising a sweat.
If you want to be a little more baseball focussed, there are things you can do which will keep you in shape for when play resumes. For some, the break may be the first you’ve had in years. Not such a bad thing for overworked shoulders, however it’s really important that you keep strong in this period and return to throwing gradually. “Arm Shock” is a syndrome where the shoulder or elbow can get injured or feel dead when a return is ramped up too quickly.
To prevent this you need to maintain arm strength and also return to throwing in a gradual and systematic process. Common exercises such as J Bands are great for keeping the arm healthy and using patterns for throwing. Also, adding exercises that work the muscles around the shoulder blade is important to assist the shoulder in controlling the throwing action. Exercises such as rows, waiters walk, Y Lifts, T Lifts and Bear Crawls are excellent ways to strengthen the Peri Scapular Muscles. Deceleration drills such as the Reverse Catch teach the arm to control the shoulder.
Most of the Baseballers power comes from the legs. Skater jumps and sprinting are great ways to facilitate this power. Medball throws are also another great way to develop power in rotary athletes. Then there’s the old favourites dead lifts, RDL’s and squats – there are many variations of these. A final favourite of mine is the Pallof Press; it’s a great bang for your buck exercise and harder than you think.
So get into the gym and give it a go. You’ll not only feel better for it now, but it will improve your game whenever Baseball resumes. If you want a more detailed program designed specifically for your needs and the equipment you have, email me at matt@informedica.com.au and discuss options.
