Arm care after pitching: Here's what to do
When it comes to pitching, we know that baseball and softball players need to invest in an arm care routine to keep their shoulders and elbows healthy during the season. After you pitch in a game or in a high-rep practice, you want to make sure you spend time going through post-throwing arm care routine, which includes active mobility, ice, compression, and dry needling and other manual therapy techniques like scraping, cupping, and massage if you choose seek out a physical therapist for treatment, which can be highly effective for long term shoulder health and recovery.
In this article, we'll chat about the need for an arm care routine after pitching, what a typical arm care routine may look like, and how investing in professional care intermittently to stay ahead of any injuries is a great idea if you're a pitcher.
What is an arm care routine?
Arm care routines can be "recovery" in nature or they can be "preparatory" in nature.
When we talk about preparation, we're mostly focusing on strengthening our muscles to tolerate the force that needs to be put through our arm while pitching.
Now, as you likely know, pitching mechanics incorporate a whole-body sling pattern, not JUST your arm, so it's not like we need you to rely solely on your shoulder. But, when we strengthen the muscles accordingly, we know that mass moves mass and more muscle isn't ever really a bad thing.
The other part of that preparation component is motor control and coordination. Ideally, your movement pattern is very efficient and you are able to maintain full control of your arm from shoulder to finger tips while pitching.
When we think about having poor control, a very dramatic example are the super tall advertising balloon people in front of a car dealership that sway in the wind and have absolutely zero coordinated movements.
Preparatory arm care routines focus on addressing motor control, stability in the joints, and strength. If you want to see a great arm care routine for pitchers, check out this blog.
When we think about recovery arm care routines, which are mostly utilized on recovery days and after games/high-rep practices, we are focusing on giving the joints and muscles a break/giving them some love.
Pitching is a repetitive motion that can lead to arm injuries and excessive stress on the arm over time as well as decreased range of motion. Arm care for pitchers and arm recovery for pitchers is essential for injury prevention.
Your pitching arm is your biggest asset for your game. Let's take care of your arm so that we can avoid any injury in the future.
A typical arm care routine for after pitching
As this article focuses on our recovery arm care routine, let's talk about what to do after pitching so that you're able to recover for your next game day or practice and have peak performance as well as reduce your risk for injury.
Rest: It goes without saying that if you pitch a full game or even just a couple of innings, you must rest once you're finished. Rest doesn't mean do absolutely nothing, we just want you to not go throw more balls around or max out your lifts at CrossFit.
Active recovery exercises: think of these as simple exercises that are not meant to strengthen you, but just keep your joints and muscles moving.
Shoulder circles with arms at your sides: with your arms at your side, move your shoulders around in a slow circle: think about shrugging upward, then forward, back down to center, and then backward. Go both forward and backward. 10-15x is typically enough
Big shoulder circles: using your full arm, draw circles in the air at your side. Start with you hands down at your sides, lift your arm up forward until it's over your head, slowly downward on the back side of you, and then back to neutral at your sides. Go both forward and backward.
Wrist circles: the wrists are so often forgotten about. Do some wrist circles, both ways.
Shoulder stability compressions: Get on all 4's with your palms on the ground. Rock over your wrists while keeping your knees on the ground, elbows straight. Feel compression through your shoulder, elbows, and wrist. Rock forward, sideways, backward while keeping your hands and knees on the ground.
Ice and heat: without any injuries present, you can choose whether you want to ice or heat your arm/shoulder. You can do this as needed, but it's great to ice directly after you finish pitching and then heat before performing the above exercises if you are able to. Heat will improve blood flow, while ice will typically decrease any inflammation in the area.
Compression: if you have access to anything like a normatec compression sleeve, you can add that in.
Working with a physical therapist for your arm care strengthening and recovery (highly recommend)
If you are looking to work with a physical therapist like myself, I can help you on all recovery fronts.
Manual therapy, dry needling, and exercise/recovery routines are all a part of treatment for my throwing athletes.
While it is an investment to work with a professional, it's also ideal as you're able to work on mechanics, strength, and optimal mobility, which can decrease your risk for injury and overuse in the future.
What not to do when it comes to arm care
It goes without saying, but if you're wondering "what not to do", understand that the worst thing you can do is just assume you need to do nothing.
As a young athlete, college athlete, or adult athlete, taking the time to go through both a preparatory and recovery arm care routine will put you in a better position when it comes to avoiding injuries, excessive soreness, and pain.
Book a free discovery call and get started with arm care in Kennewick
If you’re local to the Tri-Cities area, my clinic is in Kennewick and I’d be happy to work with you to create an arm care routine that is specific for you as well as help you with professional arm care recovery including manual therapy, dry needling, scraping, cupping, and more.
Schedule your free discovery call here.
I provide sports-specific strengthening, agility training, recovery, rehab and more for throwing athletes and would love to help you.