Flexibility
January 13, 2011 | 
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If you know me, you know I love the sleeper stretch. Here are some variations to make the stretch even better and even more beneficial to your shoulder and elbow health.
The 11 Essential Lower-Body Stretches is a packet that I provide to my clients when they want to stretch on their own time to improve their flexibility. It contains descriptions and color pictures of each.. You can download the PDF file for free here: 11 Essential Lower Body Stretches, but it will not open without a password.
If you sign up for my newsletter today, you will get the password in your confirmation email. You’ll be able to open the file immediately – Just one of the perks for letting me keep in touch with you.
Thanks for reading, and happy stretching!
Need to get stretched out and ready to go in a hurry? Don’t have time for a big, full-body stretch? You’re in luck; I have a video for you with 5 great stretches that are ideal for baseball players, and can be done with comprehensive flow in a short time.
I don’t do a lot of videos, partly because I don’t have an omnipresent assistant and partly because I prefer to lay things out in writing. But, my friend and strength coach Nick Tumminello and I made a little how-to before I left the city for my flatter, more opportunistic midwestern town.
So check this out, and hopefully you learn a few things about the sleeper stretch, hip mobility, thoracic mobility and a few things you might have been doing incorrectly.
I’ve been getting some questions about pitchers stretching routines, so I’m gonna share what I use as a pretty straightforward top to bottom stretch. In about 20 minutes you can hit all of your major muscles and joints, and be ready to go. I like to start with the lower body, and move between stretches as fluidly as I can.
First, get some blood flowing. 5 minutes of moving around at a good pace to build some muscle and joint warmth will improve all of the stretches.
I am listing these exercises in the most fluid and logical sequence, so do them in this order and they will flow together nicely.
1. IT Band
IT Band Stretch
The IT band is an aponeurosis, or flat tendon band, that stretches from the lateral hip to the knee. This is tight on many athletes, and can restrict the thigh in multiple planes of movement, as well as cause knee problems.
To stretch, straighten one leg and cross the other in front. Lean into a wall while keeping the stretching leg straight, and you will feel a stretch down the outside of the leg.
2. Hip External Rotators Read the rest of this entry »
Hips flexibility is crucial in not just baseball, but all sports. Here are two great dynamic stretches that will get your hip external rotators on the road to a normal ROM.
Performing these stretches 1-3 times a day in sets of 12-20 will really help to break open those tight hips.
Here are three more shoulder stretches, that when done in addition to the sleeper stretch, will help keep one’s arm nice and loose.
Posterior Deltoid and Infraspinatus Stretch
Pull the arm across the chest to feel a stretch in the back of the shoulder. This will get the infraspinatus (a rotator cuff muscle) and the posterior deltoid.
This stretch can also be done at different angles across the body to get the muscles in a new direction.
Middle Deltoid Stretch
With the arm at 90°, grab the forearm and pull the arm across the back. The range of motion won’t be very long, but you will feel a stretch in the middle aspect of your shoulder.
Anterior Deltoid Stretch
Keep your arm straight and pull directly down the middle of the back.
The key to this stretch is keeping good posture – maintain a high chest and keep your shoulders square.
You don’t want your shoulder to sag or rotate backward as you pull. This would take the muscle out of proper position to stretch.
Notes
In addition to standing, these three can also be done laying face down on the floor.
The perfect time to do them is right after sleeper stretches, as you can just stand up or roll over onto your stomach and complete your shoulder stretching circuit.
I’ve been familiar with foam rolling and myofascial release for a few years now, starting when I was told I had a lot of inflexibility that needed to go away. If you’re unfamiliar with myofascial release, check out this article. It’s from wikipedia, but it gives a pretty thorough overview. Basically, though, you maneuver yourself over a foam roller, which compresses the tissues beneath, allowing for connective tissue (fascia) restrictions to loosen. This includes trigger points, which gives a lot of people chronic pain.
I hadn’t done much of it recently, but felt motivated to get back into it. And having experienced good things with it in the past, I made some time after a workout.
Are you a chronic sufferer of hip external rotator tightness. You are not alone. The good news? There is help.
Pitching is a rotational activity, and the hips and core are the chief couplers of power to the arm. As the stride foot lands the internal rotators of the hips, along with the core, rotate the midsection to face the plate. The hip external rotators, if tight and inflexible, will impede this rotation. (Remember that the hip internal and external rotators are antagonist muscles, which means they oppose each other and that one must stretch while the other contracts.)
So while the internal rotators fire, the external rotators relax and stretch. If the external rotators are tight and do not stretch to their full and normal range of motion, the whole kinetic sequence is impeded. This, in turn, makes the arm bear an extra burden by being in the valgus position longer while trying to catch up and get in the proper position to deliver the pitch. Dr. Morgan and others told me that they believe this leads to elbow problems, including UCL tears.
Ed Bach's arm laying back in the valgus position
Pitchers are weird people, mostly because of the physical act of throwing. The motion is so violent and powerful that it throws a pitcher’s body out of whack and causes major asymmetries in strength, size, flexibility and range of motion, bone structure, etc.
One major adaptation of the pitcher is in shoulder range of motion (ROM). Pitchers have incredible, otherworldly external rotation. The average person couldn’t dream of contorting his arm in such a way.
My buddy Andrew Germuth showing off his external rotation
My buddy Andrew Germuth showing off his external rotation
And what price do we pitchers pay for enjoying such lavish external rotation? You guessed it! A tight rotator cuff and a subsequent deficiency of internal rotation. (there is always a catch!)
So what? Does it matter if a pitcher has poor shoulder range of motion internally?
The answer to this question is unequivocally “yes.” Any trainer or physical therapist will tell you that a lack of ROM in any joint is pathological and indicative of underlying problems. Normal ROM should exist in all one’s joints, and if not, there is a probably a problem as to why. In many populations these imbalances in flexibility might not impair day-to-day functioning, but for athletes and especially pitchers, inflexibility poses major problems.
Dr. Craig Morgan and colleagues are researching the link between elbow pain (up to and including full blown ligament tears requiring Tommy John surgery) and internal rotation. What he is finding (as he found in me) is that a huge amount of pitchers coming to him have significant GIRD (glenohumeral internal rotation deficiency), and once that GIRD is reduced to an amount within 20 degrees of the internal rotation of the non-throwing shoulder, the pitchers very often return to throwing without pain. Internal rotation deficits are caused by posterior shoulder capsule tightness, which can be alleviated using the sleeper stretch. Restore your internal rotation ROM and you will be throwing healthier and harder. Read the rest of this entry »
As previously mentioned, I spent a fairly good amount of time in the studio of Bikram Yoga Baltimore both before and after my elbow surgery. Eddie and Emily, the owners, are wonderful people are were super supportive of me. The other instructors as well were terrific and I felt at home there.
Bikram Yoga makes a lot of health claims, some of which may or may not be true, but overall I think it’s a great practice and will improve the health, flexibility, and recovery time of those who might bring a chronic injury into the studio.
The Basics
My sister wrote a nice piece for school explaining the Bikram phenomenon, and it’s a good read. But the class is relatively straight-forward : 90 minutes in a 105 degree, 40% humidity room which consists of 26 postures, each repeated twice. If it sounds difficult, that’s because it is. However, nothing worthwhile is easy and Bikram is no exception.
To class one brings a large jug of water, a yoga mat and towel to cover the mat, and a scant outfit to allow ease of movement and a cooling effect. One class costs about 14-20 dollars depending on the studio, which is actually pretty reasonable considering the length of the class (most yoga classes are an hour) and the intensity of the workout. Buying class cards brings down the cost per class down even more. Read the rest of this entry »