How Bench Pressing Can Ruin A Pitcher’s Shoulder

by Dick Mills on January 04, 2010

Conditioning the baseball pitcher for power and explosiveness does not require much time at all in the weight room.  In fact, after some general strength is built over 4-5 weeks, there is no need to go back to the weight room.  General strength is only required to condition the body to do explosive exercises such as lower body plyometrics, upper body medicine ball plus lots of functional exercises such as multi-directional lunges and various push-ups for the shoulder.

Baseball pitching is not a strength activity since the only thing a pitcher must overcome is his own body weight and a 5 oz. baseball.  Building explosiveness and speed of movement is far more beneficial for pitchers plus there is far less risk of injury. 

We know that strength is not much of a factor when it comes to throwing an over-powering fastball. Tim Lincecum, the two-time Cy Young award winning pitcher with the Giants is just 5'10" and 170 lbs.  His father, basically his only coach,  never believed in weight training for Tim.  What he believed was teaching Tim how to have an explosive delivery.  Tim now routinely throws fastballs from 95-100 mph and is one of the smallest and maybe weakest starting major league pitchers.

Be Careful Of These Excercises - They Can Cause Arm Injuries 

There are certain exercises that pitchers should not do with heavy weights to even build up general strength.  They are simply too dangerous.  One is bench pressing with a bar on a flat bench.  There are others such as hang cleans...even squats that put too much stress on the spine especially when done incorrectly. Actually any excersise where the pitcher cannot see his hands are dangerous. That advice came from an orthopedic surgeon many years ago at a baseball injuries convention in Alabama.

The bench press is an exercise that pitchers should not do.  In doing some general full body general strength training they would be far better off using light dumbbells and doing chest presses off of a physioball which is like an over-sized beach ball that athletes can lie down on. This allows the scapula or shoulder blades to gain a full range of motion which they cannot do while doing bench presses.

Bench pressing can create a lot of stress on both the rotator cuff and the labrum.  Surgery to either from heaving bench pressing can end careers very quickly.

Please check out this article about a top 15 year old pitcher who tore his labrum under the guidance of a high school coach who forced pitchers to do heavy bench pressing. This could have ended his pitching career. http://tinyurl.com/yeznb9e

Our conditioning program....Power Conditioning For Pitchers emphasizes full body explosive and functional exercises that teach the body how to be explosive and prepare the body for the real stresses of throwing a baseball at high velocity.  http://tinyurl.com/mt89mh 

Remember..."pitchers are made in the off-season."   What are you doing right now to improve your pitching skills?

These are some of the important aspects I have been focusing on in our Explosively Pitching DVD program since 2004.  We teach parents how to help their sons use their bodies to pitch instead of just their arms. Not only does this improve velocity but reduces the risk of arm injuries.

See our Off-Season New Year Discounts on our instructional DVD's:  http://www.pitching.com/products/

"I had spent several hundred dollars on a pitching coach who was leading my son down the path to ruin. He embraced every failed philosophy and technique you've identified - long toss, towel drills and more drills ad nauseum. My son's skills were deteriorating. When I found your website and read your report, I sense intuitively your words had merit and deserved further study."    Mark Smith, Downers Grove,IL