Throwing repeatedly and for long periods without having adequate arm strength can cause injuries to the shoulder, arm or wrist. You can prevent this damage by strengthening your muscles in different ways. Follow these tips.
Steps
Step 1. Plan an ad hoc workout
Throwing involves many small muscles in the arm. A good exercise plan focuses on these muscles and allows you to throw harder, farther and faster.
- Do your research and copy the programs of successful players. Usually such a routine involves shoulder abductions, external rotations and lateral external rotations.
- Use dumbbells when doing these exercises. Use weights of 1.5-4kg maximum if you are starting out. If you start with heavier dumbbells, you can get hurt.
- Use a resistance band to strengthen your arms. This is a large elastic band that resists your movements and builds muscle mass. It is a very useful tool for your purpose. One exercise that can be done is the cross-pull. To do this you must remain standing with one end of the resistance band fixed to the ground near the feet and the other end in one hand. Raise your arm while holding the band to strengthen the shoulder.
Step 2. Strengthen the forearm
It allows you to have greater control of the ball and to impress it with your wrist.
- Wrist extensions and flexions. You can do them with dumbbells. Rest your forearms completely on a bench, letting your hands dangle from the edge. The palms should be facing up, raise and lower the dumbbells using the strength of your wrists as many times as you can.
- Do some plate pinches. Plates are flat, circular discs that are used as weights on bars and dumbbells. To increase wrist strength, hold a plate in your hand by grabbing it only with your fingers to prevent it from falling.
Step 3. Do long throws with a partner
This way you can tell how far you can throw the ball. Basically, training to throw farther will help you develop the right arm muscles and obviously improve your speed.
Step away gradually during this exercise. At first, stay at a reduced distance from your partner, then increase the throw range as your muscles warm up
Step 4. Launch regularly
Do it often, even if you won't always try to do it very quickly and decisively. The simple exercise will maintain the strength of your arm. Taking long periods of rest between one throwing session and the next continues to set you back in your progress.
Step 5. Perfect the mechanics of the movement
Depending on your build and the type of pitcher you want to become (fast, throwing sideways or from below, etc …) the execution of the movement can change. Ask someone with an experienced eye to evaluate your performance and help you improve. You will not be able to develop your arm strength to the fullest if the throwing technique is wrong.
Advice
- Learn from former professional players or college players how they developed arm strength. If you can't get in touch with them, read their books which focus on the strategies and activities they have done for this purpose.
- Do not try to lift the disc weights too vigorously, otherwise you risk injuring your arm or face.
- Throw the ball to the catcher as if you were just playing throwing.
Warnings
- Always do some stretching before throwing or exercising. If you don't, you could seriously injure the muscles you want to strengthen.
- Doing a very heavy weight workout or doing exercises like bench press or dumbbell curls won't help you strengthen your arms for baseball. They will obviously increase overall upper limb strength, but will prevent you from throwing harder, farther and faster because they slow down the speed of movement of the arms.
