Baseball Shoulder Injuries How to Prevent Them? Let's Start Thinking New School Shoulder Health! Time and time again, I've been approached by baseball players complaining of shoulder pain. In most observations a player will either point to the anterior or middle deltoid region. Before I ask any questions, I'll step back and observe for any postural abnormalities. Low and behold I'll see big Pecs, wide lat dorsi and bulky biceps. Nine out of ten times they'll have a hunched posture like a silver back gorilla. If you don't know what one looks like, follow the trail of banana peels then look for someone with King Kong type features. The famous Czech manual therapist Vladimir Janda, MD, BSc described such postural disproportion as Upper Cross Syndrome (UCS). He proposed that UCS leads to postural misalignments that can create chronic tightness of the upper traps, levator scapulae, and pec major and minor, while longus coli and capitus, serratus anterior, middle traps and rhomboids become inhibited or weak. Such dysfunction may lead to subsequent joint dysfunction and pain that may manifest throughout the body. Janda's findings have opened new doors about muscle weakness and the etiologies behind such phenomena. First we have to break from conventional definitions of weak to truly understand this concept in order to apply it to athletes with baseball shoulder injuries. First we must define weak. Is weak not being able to bench press 400 lbs? Is it not being able to curl 60lb dumbbells? Is it the muscle that's weak or is there a neurological deficit present caused by a pinched nerve? As you can see weak is an umbrella term in the strength and Performance field. In orthopedic testing, weakness is present, for example, when resistance of a muscle on the left is not as great as on the right or vice versa. The main muscle I would like to focus on today is the supraspinatus. The supraspinatus is probably one of the most common muscles to exhibit dysfunction and baseball shoulder injuries in athletes, particularly baseball players. It is a relatively small muscle that is part of the rotator cuff and acts as a dynamic stabilizer to help elevate the shoulder and hold it in the socket.
Its function among baseball players is to also help decelerate the throwing arm towards the end of the range of motion. Just imagine the stress that it undergoes from just one game! Often it's a primary pain generator in the shoulder for athletes and non athletes alike. It is often assumed in the strength and condition world that to make the supraspinatus stronger, we must load the muscle. WRONG!! That's old school. This is a resilient muscle that requires fine tuning like a race car engine. Let's think new school people!