Upper Body Plyometrics: The Secret Weapon for Arm Care

What is Traditional Arm Care Missing?

Arm care means many things in the current baseball world. It can refer to using a lacrosse ball to roll your forearm muscles or lifting 300 pounds over your head. I went into some detail about arm care for baseball coaches in my last blog post. I covered soft tissue mobility, joint mobility, and muscle activation. I was focused on the recovery side of arm care, which is very important. Part of taking care of your arm means helping it feel better as quickly as possible after throwing so that you can throw again.

Another part of arm care involves preparing your arm for the stress of throwing a baseball. There are many schools of thought when it comes to strengthening the body, especially the arm, for throwing. Some advocate for light weights and higher reps, some preach heavy weights and low reps, while others say the secret is slower movements or isometric holds. The answer is shockingly you need a mix of all types. However, many coaches, trainers, and physical therapists often overlook plyometrics. Let’s discuss what plyometrics actually entail and how we can use them to prepare your arm for throwing.

What are Plyometrics for Baseball Players?

Before we talk about plyometrics for baseball players, let’s talk about plyometrics by themselves. Plyometric training involves the use of the stretch-shortening cycle to promote muscular power by increasing the speed and strength of your muscular contraction. Power is calculated by dividing work over time. Therefore, you can increase your power by doing more work or taking less time. Plyometric training targets both, but it is unique in targeting the time component.

I am all about lifting heavy weights. Strength is crucial for improving your work capacity and it is fundamental for increasing your power. However, lifting a 300 pound barbell slowly has only so much transfer to throwing a baseball. Throwing requires the use of fast-twitch muscle fibers. It also requires the use of rapid stretch and contraction. Your shoulder is the easiest visualization. Think about initiating a throw. Your arm reaches the point of maximal external rotation or layback. Your shoulder is a rubber band that has reached the end of its range. The force through your shoulder comes from your pelvis and thorax accelerating towards the plate, but it is transferred through the rebound of your shoulder from the layback position. The faster you can make this energy transfer, the harder you will throw.

Your shoulder reaches a speed of approximately 7,000 degrees per second with throwing. You need to train to prepare for such rapid movements. It is impossible to create this speed with traditional weight training, which leaves the fast-twitch muscles undertrained for the unique needs of throwing. Instead, we want to incorporate plyometric training of the upper body to prepare for rapid movements and train the body to utilize as full of a range of motion as possible. Going back to an earlier example, we want to teach the shoulder to contract quickly, but we also want them to contract from the end range position. You want to maximize the range of motion to simulate throwing a baseball and needing to generate force from some very stretched positions.

How to Program Plyometrics for Baseball Players

Plyometrics carry a heavy load. You are contracting all of the muscle fibers quickly and through a large range of motion. I believe in alternating stimuli for pitchers. If you have a heavy intent throwing day, I recommend you include plyometrics after throwing. This consolidates the stress for your body so that you can attack recovery without constantly providing spikes in stimulus to your body.

When designing a lifting program after throwing, you should include plyometrics first. They are the most technical and stressful movements, therefore you want to complete them when you are the freshest. Save the simple movements such as biceps curls for the end of your workout because they require less coordination.

Some Examples of Plyometrics for Arm Care

I want to go over some simple examples of plyometrics for different body parts. The first joint that I want to talk about is the wrist. I have previously discussed ball tosses, but they are a wonderful exercise to teach the muscles of your wrist and forearm to absorb force at the end range, simulating the stress right before ball release when pitching. You can play around with different ball weights, I like starting with heavier balls to feel the sensation of stretch and shortening. The lighter balls are a good progression because you should be moving faster once you reach them.

Targeting wrists: Ball Tosses

Similarly, finger push-ups on a barbell are a way to target the wrist flexor muscles through a different range. You can isolate specific fingers if you just want to utilize the index and middle finger to simulate a pitch. It is important to maintain speed with these movements to highlight the plyometric and fast-twitch muscles.

Targeting wrists: Finger Push-Ups

Moving onto the elbow, we can discuss hanging drops. These involve you being comfortable in a hang type movement and catching your body weight as you drop towards the ground. This stresses the biceps which are crucial for throwing. Another movement is a plyometric push-up, which targets the triceps. The rapid eccentric force with the catch, the plyometric movement to convert that energy into concentric force, and the concentric force to launch yourself into the air as far as you are capable. Once again, part of the training needs to focus on rapid absorption of force, so we want to target 5-10 repetitions and then take a break. This prevents your body from slowing down the movement.

Targeting elbows: Hanging Drops

Targeting elbows: Plyometric Push-Ups

The final body part that is affected by plyometrics is the shoulder. Medicine ball throws are an easy way to target the shoulder and the rest of the arm. You can try for quick movement back and forward or have someone throw you a medicine ball, which you can slow down and accelerate. A more traditional plyometric involves the use of a plyoball for reverse throws into the air. This emphasizes shoulder external rotation mobility and stability. You can also lie on your stomach and toss a ball into the air and catch it. All of these options are easy ways to start plyometrics in your workout!

Targeting shoulders: Medicine Ball Throws

Targeting shoulders: Prone Reverse Throws

Final Thoughts on Plyometrics in Baseball

This was a brief summary of an overlooked training tool for baseball players, especially for arm care. If you have any questions, send me an email at danny@eclipsewellnessnova.com or comment below.

Once you understand plyometric training, then you can create your own exercises. As long as a movement takes advantage of the stretch-shortening cycle, then you should be good to go. Keep your pre-season training routine, but add in some upper body plyometrics after pitching so that you can recover.

We still have many injuries in baseball. However, we want to keep pushing as it relates to training so that we can better understand the training required to decrease injuries and improve performance. Give these plyometric exercises a try and see what you think!

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