4 Exercises for Healthy Shoulders

As the high school season comes to an end, summer travel teams are ramping up. In order to keep your throwing shoulder healthy throughout the season, you must be PROACTIVE, continuing to keep your shoulder loose and strong before and after you pitch. In my last post, I demonstrated self-massage exercises that you can do if you have two tennis balls and a softball. In this week’s video, I give you my 4 favorite exercises to prevent shoulder injuries in softball players.

Heel Sit Thoracic Rotation – Bad posture will cause your upper back to round and become tight, when it needs to be able to extend and rotate during the pitching motion. This stretch is designed to improve extension and rotation. Place the PVC into the hip crease and sit back, applying pressure to the PVC as you rotate. This ensures you’re moving through your upper back and not your lower back.

Floor Slide and Press – This exercise is harder than it looks. Press down into the PVC as you slide it above your head. If you are really tight, you will not be able to extend your arms completely. This really hits the “Refresh” button on posture.

Bench L – The PVC does a good job of guiding this exercise. Keep the elbows in the same place as you rotate your arms.

Bench Y – Don’t progress to Y’s if you struggle with Floor Slides and L’s (it’s ok).

Perform these exercises in a circuit as I demonstrate in the video. Begin with the Thoracic Rotation, making sure to rotate to both sides. Complete 10-15 repetitions of each exercise, 2-3 times through the circuit. This routine can be performed at home, before or after workouts, games, and practices.