I wanted to talk about stretching the shoulder of a baseball pitcher.
As you know, their external rotation (ER) adapts and increases because they’ve thrown a baseball their entire lives.
Some adaptations involve the anterior shoulder capsule and an increase in humeral retrotorsion.
Because of that, the shoulder develops more lay back and can contribute to a pitcher’s ability to throw a baseball with such velocity.
Most pitchers do not increase their ER over a season which means they rarely need to get stretched too much into ER.
As I’ve mentioned this week, they tend to lose IR and need that stretched out to maintain their total ROM.
When I’m ‘stretching’ their ER, I’m looking to bring them back to their R1 (1st resistance) and R2 (2nd resistance with slight overpressure) position but not far beyond. If we go beyond that, we tend to impart a valgus stress to the elbow and can irritate that joint.
I always get feedback from my pitcher to make sure the stretch is comfortable for them and not too stressful on their medial elbow.
Use these concepts when measuring ER bilaterally to determine your pitcher’s total ROM and to monitor their mobility.
