1. Midday Snacks

When athletes reach for a midday snack, they usually choose a high carbohydrate or fat option from a vending machine. These snacks are quick and easy but leave much to be desired in the nutrition department.

A cheaper and healthier alternative is to pack snacks to take with you to school. My favorite option is hard-boiled eggs, but foods like deli meat and canned tuna are also great. These snacks are super quick and easy, while offering 10-20 grams of protein per serving.

2. Cook in Bulk

After a long day of school and practice, few athletes have the time or energy to thaw, prep and cook a healthy meal. Most of the time, instead, they go for the quick takeout option or a “ready in 15 minutes” box meal. Both of these options tend to be less than ideal for your nutritional needs.

A good way to get your protein at dinner without spending an hour in the kitchen is to cook in bulk ahead of time. By cooking in bulk one to three days a week, you can have food readily available whenever you need it. Simply warm up your protein, add a side and you have a healthy meal ready in only minutes.

3. Daily Shake

In a perfect world, we would get all of our nutritional needs from the foods we eat. In reality, this is not always practical. Adding in a shake to your daily routine is a fast, safe, and effective way to up the amount of protein you are consuming. There are many options out there, but it’s important to find a quality brand with a good amount of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) per serving.

RELATED: 

• 5 Protein-Packed Recovery Shakes
• Why Protein Is Important for Athletes

Train Explosively

Baseball is a highly anaerobic sports, and it requires minimal aerobic and muscular endurance. This, of course, excludes pitchers and catchers, but even they have long breaks between action. (The average time between pitches in Major League Baseball is over 18 seconds—not exactly blood pumping.) What baseball players do need is speed and power, and their training should reflect that.

Before baseball athletes can produce force quickly (speed/power), they must first be able to produce force slowly (strength). The beginning of the off-season is an ideal time to begin developing “raw” strength. Once adequate strength levels are reached, focus should begin to shift towards power and ultimately speed.

During this period, movement quality and speed should be emphasized. The goal is no longer how much or how many, but how fast. This is not the time to add fancy new exercises, but to increase the quality of the current ones. To do this, simply reduce the load on the bar, decrease the target number of reps and increase the speed. Exercises during this period may include explosive Squats, Deadlifts, Presses and medicine ball training. This is also a good time to add explosive linear and lateral movements.

Integrate Don’t Isolate

Put down the resistance bands. Seriously.

In spite of their portability and convenience, resistance bands are of little use to throwing athletes. First, resistance band exercises are incredibly hard to perform correctly, usually resulting in shrugging of the shoulders and hyper-extension of the lower back. These compensations during an exercise are actually more harmful than no exercise at all. Second, the level of resistance is opposite the force curve of the muscles (muscles get weaker in end-range positions, where the resistance is greater with bands.) The combination of the two makes resistance bands the absolute last resort for athletes training their shoulders.

Another reason I do not recommend isolated band work is because of how time-consuming it is. Two or three sets of 15 reps on all four of the rotator cuff muscles can take upwards of 30 minutes to complete. This is valuable time that could be used to train more beneficial movements.

Finally, isolated rotator cuff exercises do little to reduce injuries. The arm during the overhand throwing motion—the most violent motion in sports—can internally rotate well over 7,000 degrees per second. Do you honestly think the small muscles of the rotator cuff can decelerate this motion all by themselves? If you answered no, you must acknowledge that the scapula stabilizing muscles of the upper back also play a large role in decelerating the arm. Only when these muscles do not function properly does excessive stress shift to the rotator cuff and cause injury.

If bands are not the answer, what is?

Working with throwing athletes, I prefer an integrated approach where the scapula and shoulder joint work in unison, as in the motion used for throwing. Because every movement in sports is an integrated pattern, training individual muscles for hypertrophy does not necessarily improve their function or strength when put back into specific movement patterns.

Two of my favorite movements are crawling patterns and kettlebell press and carry variations. With these exercises, no specific muscle is being targeted; instead, the movement itself is being trained.

With all this being said, the throwing motion is extremely violent and repetitive, and special attention should be paid to injury prevention of the rotator cuff. Whenever possible, this should be in the form of manual resistance instead of resistance bands.

Train the Core for Stability

Before I begin discussing the core, I want to make one thing clear: the static plank is not a core stability exercise; it is an isometric muscular strength/endurance exercise. The static plank may have a place for beginners learning body positions, but once it can be held for a handful of seconds, it is time to move on.

If planking is not stability, what is?

In its simplest form, stability is the ability to prevent motion in one place while motion happens somewhere else. This is the basis for how the body creates force. When the body cannot stabilize the torso, energy/force is dissipated and less energy/force is put into what you are trying to move (i.e., a baseball/softball).

To exemplify this, consider the pectoralis during the throwing motion. The pectoralis originates on the ribcage and connects to the upper arm. During the throwing motion, the pectoralis pulls on the ribcage and upper arm. If the ribcage is not stabilized by the core, it will elevate up toward the arm and reduce the force being applied to the baseball/softball. Core stability is also pattern-specific; thus, training the core in a static plank position does not translate into dynamic stability required for the throwing motion.

Another common mistake in training the core is thinking of the oblique muscles as movers/rotators. While the obliques do have the ability to produce rotation, athletes who rotate the least through the mid-section produce the greatest amounts of force, whether for throwing a ball or swinging a bat.

The obliques must be thought of as anti-rotators or connectors. Essentially, their role in baseball is to help connect the right glute with the left latissimus dorsi and vice versa. This is most evident in the swinging motion. Force originates at the athlete’s back foot and works its way up to the glute. With a rock solid core, the powerful glute can fire and transfer a larger amount of energy through the latissimus dorsi, down the arm, and finally to the bat. Any weak links in this kinetic chain will rob the athlete of crucial power.

Training the obliques for anti-rotation is as simple as incorporating single-leg or split stance variations of exercises. Other great options are the forward and lateral Bear Crawl. During these exercises, the body will want to twist, lean, and bend. When done correctly, the obliques (as well as the rest of the core musculature) will be forced to fire to prevent these motions.

Final Thoughts

Contrary to what many experts would lead you to believe, off-season training for baseball is not much different from any other sport. Early in the off-season, all athletes regardless of sport should strive to improve their strength. Only as the season nears does more sport-specific training come into play, and even then, only minimally for youth athletes. The number 1 priority for youth athletes is to build raw strength. As the athlete matures, more sport- and positioning-specific training can be added to his or her off-season routine.

Read More:

• Top 5 Explosive Med Ball Exercises for Baseball Players
• Complete Off-Season Baseball Workout, Part 1: Rebuild
• Why Shoulder Injury Prevention Programs Are Failing

This push by coaches and parents for athletes to focus on a single sport allows for more training, practice and games in that given sport, but it also increases the likelihood of over-use injuries. A study from the University of Wisconsin found that high school athletes with a “high specialization classification” had an 85-percent higher incidence of lower extremity injuries than high school athletes with a “low specialization classification.” Essentially, athletes who specialized were found to be at a much higher risk of lower extremity injury than athletes who play and train in multiple sports.

STACK is firmly in favor of the multi-sport athlete for a variety of reasons, but we do understand that some young athletes will only play one sport, whether it be their own decision or the decision of their parents. No matter what your situation, it’s your right to know how to make the most of your athletic career. With that in mind, here are four tips to help single-sport athletes reduce their risk of overuse injury.

1. Schedule Time Off

For many, it’s easy to fall into the “the more, the better” trap. Many parents are in a race to get their child to the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice Malcolm Gladwell popularized. But the truth is that continual year-round practice can quickly lead to burnout and injury.

For all athletes, but especially single-sport athletes, it’s important to schedule time off throughout the year. This does two things. One, it gives the body a chance to repair any damaged tissue, which can occur from repetitive motions, like throwing a baseball. Secondly, it gives athletes a chance to “recharge their batteries,” ensuring they do not feel burnt out from the non-stop practice and games.

Four months off might be a good starting point for single-sport athletes, as a 2016 study published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine found athletes who competed in one sport eight or more months a year were three times more likely to experience an overuse injury in the knee or hip.

Single-sport athletes should also have a couple days off from their sport each week. The UCONN School of Sports Medicine recommends a youth athlete should not spend more hours than their age on a single sport in a given week. For example, a 9-year-old kid should be at soccer training/practice/games no more than 9 hours per week.

2. Strengthen Antagonist Muscles

Athletes who continually perform the same action in their sport, such as hitting a volleyball, build strength in the muscles used in that motion. This is no surprise to anyone. However, what many people do not take into account is the imbalance it creates with the antagonist muscles of the body, meaning the muscles on the other side of the joint. This imbalance can eventually create unstable joints and lead to injury.

To prevent these imbalances, athletes should not neglect these antagonist muscles in their strength program. For most sports, these are the muscles of the upper back and posterior shoulder. An easy rule to follow is to perform two antagonist muscle exercises for every one exercise that mimics the motion of the sports.

3. Maintain General Fitness

Perhaps the most important thing a single-sport athlete can do is maintain an adequate level of general fitness. It may be tempting for a soccer player to only train their legs or a pitcher to only strength their throwing arm, but this only amplifies the imbalances many of these athletes have.

The early offseason is the ideal time to work on this general fitness. With the use of circuit training and basic bodybuilding methods, athletes will be able to strengthen areas of their bodies that are neglected during more specialized training near the season.

4. Embrace Play

Organized sports aren’t the only way to play. Young athletes who choose to specialize can benefit tremendously from participating in a variety of pick-up games and play activities like rollerblading, bike riding, swimming, tag, capture the flag, etc. Every sport and activity challenges the body differently, providing a welcome change from their sport and helping build more versatile and resilient athletes.

Photo Credit: RBFried/iStock

READ MORE:

• 5 Reasons College Coaches Love to Recruit Multi-Sport Athletes
• Why You Shouldn’t Specialize in One Sport Too Soon
• Why J.J. Watt Doesn’t Want You to Play Just One Sport

According to these posts, hip flexor tightness is the cause of virtually all postural and movement-related issues. Their prescription is generally three sets of 60 seconds of static stretching, which they believe will loosen the hip flexor muscles and correct the issue at hand.

The problem with this thinking is that it does not take the true function of the hip flexors into consideration. Secondly, if the hip flexors are truly tight, this static stretching will not address the underlying cause of the tightness.

What do the hip flexors actually do?

The hip flexors, which are actually a group of multiple muscles, originate on the lower back and hip girdle and run down to the inside of the femur. They have two very important roles in the body—core stability and gait.

Together, these muscles add support to the lower back and hips. When functioning properly, these hip flexor muscles help keep the back and hips “connected,” preventing excessive rounding or arching of the back and anterior or posterior tilting of the hips. When they are not functioning properly, it can have a cascading effect of reduced power and an increase of injury in regions above and below the hips.

The second, and most obvious, role of the hip flexors is hip flexion. Any time you take a step or walk up a set of stairs, your hip flexors pick up your leg. When these muscles aren’t functioning properly, people will often compensate with other muscles of the hips and leg to produce hip flexion. This may work in the short-term, but will lead to reduced performance and an increase in the likelihood of injury over the long term.

Why strengthening your hip flexors is often better than stretching them

The problem with constantly stretching the hip flexors is that it weakens the muscles and hurts their performance. Granted, a muscle that is too short doesn’t function well, either, but that’s rarely the case for these hip flexor muscles. Instead of stretching them, we should be looking to strengthen these muscles. Strong hip flexors can improve speed, explosiveness and even increase your Squat max. A simple test can help you examine whether your hip flexors may need strengthening:

If you know your hip flexors do need strengthening, there are a number of excellent exercises (including the one shown in the video player above) that can do the trick.

If the hip flexor muscles are truly tight, we should first look into the cause of the tightness before deciding that stretching them is our best option. Nine times out of 10, tightness in the hip flexors has nothing to do with the hip flexor muscles themselves. Most often, there is some sort of compensation going on. The body will always protect itself, so if one muscle is not functioning properly, others have to pick up the slack. For example, weak core muscles can cause the hip flexors to be chronically “turned on” in order to help the body stabilize itself. In these situations, simply activating some key core muscles can cause an instant relaxation of the hip flexors.

While stretching “tight” hip flexors has become a common practice in our society, strengthening the hip flexors and the muscles that can cause them to feel tight is often the smarter approach and one that results in improved sports performance.

READ MORE:

• 4 Hip Flexor Stretches to Relieve Tight Hips
• 3 Exercises to Finally Fix Your Tight Hip Flexors for Good
• Hip Flexor Strengthening Exercises for Sprint and Jump Performance

1. ACL Injuries

Female athletes are 3.5 times more likely to have an ACL injury than their male counterparts (1). There are multiple theories to explain this large discrepancy between the genders, but no definitive cause. Likely, it is a combination of several things. Regardless of the cause, females need to prioritize ACL injury prevention.

Most ACL injuries occur while landing from a jump or cutting. Both of these actions require large amounts of eccentric muscular strength to absorb the force of the athlete. Inadequate strength or improper positioning greatly increases the likelihood of experiencing an injury.

When females perform lower-body exercises, it is crucial they lower their body under control without bouncing out of the bottom position. Doing so strengthens the body to handle force better when they are making a cut or landing from a jump. Another focus needs to be on knee position. Most ACL injuries occur when the athlete’s knee travels inward to the center of the body. To help prevent this, females need to put extra focus on keeping their knees positioned over their feet during training.

2. Iron Deficiency

It is estimated that over a third of post-pubescent female athletes are iron deficient (2). Poor dietary choices and menstruation appear to be likely causes of this.

Symptoms of an iron deficiency may include fatigue, headaches, fast heartbeat and pale skin.

To prevent iron deficiency, it is recommended to use an iron supplement or ingest iron-rich foods such as red meat, beans and leafy greens.

3. Strength Deficit

It comes as no surprise that females are generally weaker than males. On average, females are about 50 percent as strong in the upper body and 70 percent in the lower body (3) compared to males. Upper-body-intensive exercises such as Pull-Ups and Push-Ups will often have to be modified to accommodate these strength differences.

Females are closer to males in lower-body strength than in upper-body strength. Exercises like the Goblet Squat are much more challenging for females because, although their leg strength is adequate, they often lack the upper-body strength to hold heavy dumbbells. For this reason, it may be appropriate to progress females to a barbell sooner than male athletes, or use other means of resistance, such as a weighted vest.

4. Joint Laxity

Hypermobility, commonly known as being “double-jointed,” is a condition in which one or more joints of the body move beyond the normal range for that particular joint. This excessive motion creates “play” in the joint that can increase the chance of injury. For athletes with hypermobility, joint stability is a priority.

Approximately one in three female athletes are hypermobile, compared to only one in 10 males (4). Because there is excessive passive motion in the joint, hypermobile athletes need good dynamic stability. Secondly, it is recommended not to perform static stretching. Again, because there is excessive passive motion in the joint, static stretching will make this situation worse. Instead, static stretching should be replaced with self-myofascial release techniques (i.e., foam rolling) and dynamic mobility exercises.

5. Body Image

A recent study done at Yale University found that three-fourths of female athletes interviewed currently or in the past had issues with how their bodies looked (5). For anyone who has been around female athletics, this is probably no surprise as they are often their own worst critics. This pressure to maintain a certain appearance could potentially lead to unhealthy nutritional habits. If a female feels she is not thin enough, she may reduce her calorie intake, leading to poor energy and performance on the field. For this reason, female athletes should be educated on the importance of eating enough calories to match the energy demands of their sport.

READ MORE:

• How the Female Athlete Triad Can Ruin Your Sports Performance
• Basic Nutrition Guidelines for Female Athletes
• 3 Essential ACL Injury Prevention Exercises for Female Athletes

But you don’t need fancy training methods to increase your vertical jump. Focus on the following five key points and watch your vertical jump skyrocket.

Get Stronger

It’s not sexy, but the single biggest contributor to a high vertical jump is strength. Strength, which can also be called force, is the most important piece of the power equation:

• Power = (Force x Velocity)

All things being equal, the athlete who can create more force in the same amount of time will jump higher.

The key for developing this strength is to focus on heavy compound lower-body exercises—squat, Deadlift, Lunge, etc.

• Squat – 2-4 sets of 1-8 reps
• Deadlift – 2-4 sets of 1-5 reps
• Lunge – 2-4 sets of 5-8 reps/leg

Perform these strength exercises on separate days, when possible.

2. Get Explosive

The second half of the power equation is speed (velocity). While strength is incredibly important, it means nothing if it cannot be produced quickly.

A typical jump only gives an athlete around 0.5 seconds to produce force. Any force created beyond this period does not contribute to the leap. For this reason, athletes must learn to generate as much force as possible within this time frame.

Plyometrics and high-velocity strength exercises are the best way to develop this rate of force.

• Chain Squat – 3-5 sets of 1-3 reps with medium load, moved as fast as possible on the way up
• Hurdle Hop – 3-5 sets of 3-5 jumps
• Over Head Medicine Ball Throw – 3-5 sets of 5-8 throws

3. Get Lean

As an athlete pushes off the ground, he or she must overcome his/her own body weight. The lighter the athlete, the less force is necessary to do this. Imagine trying to jump as high as you can and then immediately repeating this same test wearing a 20-pound vest. It’s obvious that the second jump will be much smaller. Now, imagine how much higher you could jump if you were 20 pounds lighter.

Any athlete who wants to maximize the height of their vertical jump should look to reduce their non-functional body weight (body fat) as much as possible. Though it’s generally not recommended for youth athletes to go on a calorie-restricted diet, they should look to make healthy food choices. A good starting point for this is 40% of calories from carbohydrates, 30% from protein, and 30% from fats.

Here is a chart from the National Strength and Conditioning Association that estimates the caloric needs for athletes:

4. Improve Technique

Improving technique has two benefits:

1. Increases the height of the jump
2. Reduces the chance of injury

The loading phase of a vertical jump should look very similar to a Romanian dDeadlift—the only difference is the arm position. In this position, the weight is on the toes. The knees and ankles are slightly bent, the chest is leaned forward and the arms are extended just past the hips. In this position, the athlete can generate the most amount of vertical power.

Though improving jumping technique may add a couple inches to an athlete’s vertical jump, good landing technique is even more crucial. The landing is when almost every jumping-related injury occurs, not the jump itself. For this reason, athletes should spend a significant amount of time learning to land in a balanced position that distributes the impact of the jump equally across all joints of the lower body. This position should look almost identical to the take-off position.

Jump Technique Progression:

1. Box Step Off – 2-3 sets of 3-5 reps
2. Step Off Hold to Vertical Jump – 2-3 sets of 3-5 reps
3. Depth Jump – 2-3 sets of 2-3 reps
4. As you are learning these techniques, it is a good idea to practice in front of a mirror to ensure proper body position.

5. Recover

Recovery is often overlooked, but incredibly important for jump training. It’s easy to fall into “the more, the better” mindset, but this can lead to overuse injuries in the lower body and actually a decrease in jumping performance.

Starting out, athletes should always err on the conservative side and only perform 10-20 maximal effort jumps in a training session. Because of the explosive nature of a vertical jump, the body can only perform a handful before performance starts to drop. Training beyond this point will not improve jumping height and will only lead to injury. At the completion of a training session, it is generally recommended to rest 48 hours before completing another intense training session.

READ MORE:

• An 8-Week Training Program for a Higher Vertical Jump
• 3 Tips to Instantly Increase your Vertical Jump
• How to Improve Your Vertical Jump Without Jumping

1. Isometric Holds

This pull-up variation allows an athlete to get strong at the top position of the exercises, which is generally the weakest portion of the exercise. Using a box, the athlete will jump and hold their chin above the bar for 3-5 seconds before lowering down and repeating the exercise. Aim to do 5-10 perfect reps.

2. Eccentric Pull-Ups

This is another great variation of the Pull-Up. Because a muscle is stronger contracting eccentrically, an athlete is able to lower much more weight than they could pull up. This allows the athlete to go through full range of motion, without actually being forced to pull their body up to the bar.

3. Cluster Sets

A cluster set breaks a normal straight set into more manageable pieces. Using this method an athlete is able to do more quality reps in each set. First test to see how many Pull-Ups you can do, without resting. Next, take this number and divide it by 3 (ex. 6 reps will become 2 reps)—this is how many reps you will do in each cluster. After completing a cluster, rest 15-20 seconds before starting a new cluster. Continue with this process until you cannot complete all reps within the cluster.

Photo Credit: Georgijevic/iStock

READ MORE:

• 3 Exercises to Help You Do More Pull-Ups
• How To Do More Pull-Ups and Build a Stronger Back
• Elite Performance With Mike Boyle: How to Do More Pull-Ups

Here are three deceleration exercises that you should add to your training program.

1. Sprint to Deceleration

The goal of this exercise is to learn how to decelerate from a sprint to a balanced stopped position. Start by sprinting as fast as possible through the first cone and attempt to come to a balanced stopped position before reaching the second cone. As you decelerate, you should drop your hips to absorb the force of the sprint, to reduce the stress on the body’s joints. Finish by coming to a balanced position that allows you to move in all four directions.

To progress this exercise, you can increase the sprinting distance and/or reduce the deceleration area. An athlete can also add in a reaction element to this exercise by having a coach or teammate point in a direction for the athlete to sprint in after they come to a complete stop.

2. Step Off

Any sport that requires jumping also requires proper landing mechanics. This exercise is a great tool to teach young athletes proper position as they land from a jump. An athlete should start with a small box (6-12 inches high) and only progress after they have mastered the height of their current box. When the athlete comes off the box, they should add a small “hop,” so they have time to square their feet before they hit the ground. A good landing will be one where the ankles, knees and hips stack nicely on top of each other.

To progress this exercise, you can increase the height of the box, which will create more force to be absorbed.

3. Bounding with a Pause

Bounding can be a great plyometric exercise to increase explosiveness, but adding a pause allows an athlete to focus on the deceleration aspect of the movement. Start by jumping at a 45-degree angle and attempt to land on one foot without touching the other down. Once under control, jump out in the other direction and land on the opposite foot.

To progress this exercise, you can attempt to jump farther out, which will require you to absorb more force, as well as increase the difficulty of balancing on one leg.

READ MORE:

• The 10 Best Plyometric Exercises for Athletes
• 3 Best Plyometric Exercises for Speed
• Deceleration: The Missing Link in Speed Training
• How to Safely Decelerate Faster

1. Landmine Press

The Landmine Press is an exercise that should be included in every baseball player’s strength training program. The great thing about this exercise is the fact that the motion is not fixed, which makes it easier on the shoulder. A secondary benefit is the amount of serratus anterior recruitment that is involved with the motion. The serratus anterior is a major muscle responsible for scapula and shoulder stability.

RELATED: How to Build Arm Strength for Baseball: Throwing Drills

2. Chain Push-Ups

For many experienced baseball players, a simple Push-Up is not enough resistance to cause a proper training effect. For these individuals, adding chains to the exercises keeps it shoulder-friendly, while also creating a training effect similar to the Bench Press.

RELATED: Why Baseball Players Shouldn’t Bench Press

3. Suspension Push-Up

Another way to increase the difficulty of a Push-Up is to elevate the feet of the athlete. By also adding in a suspension trainer, you have the recipe for a very challenging exercise, even for experienced athletes. By using a suspension trainer, there is also the added shoulder stability element that is not involved with most pressing exercises.

RELATED: 2 Bench Press Variations That are Safe for Baseball Players

IPGGutenbergUKLtd/iStock/Thinkstock

By strengthening the muscles on the backside of their shoulders, baseball players are able to better decelerate their arm when throwing, reducing the stress placed on the shoulder. The back also plays a large role in generating power in both batting and throwing.

With the help of a well-designed training program that incorporates a healthy amount of back training, a baseball player can expect to hit the ball farther, throw the ball harder, and stay healthier in the process.

Injury Prevention

Research has shown that a baseball player’s arm can rotate at a velocity of 7,500 degrees per second. To get an idea of how fast that is, if the arm were detached from the shoulder, it would rotate 20 times in one second. With such massive forces on a baseball player’s throwing arm and the repetitive nature of the sport, it is extremely important to have the strength to counteract the violent throwing motion.

While the muscles on the front of the body contribute to throwing velocity, it is the muscles on the back of the body that slow the arm down after the ball is released. That is why all baseball players should prioritize back training, to keep their arms healthy throughout the entire season.

Performance

A less talked about but equally important role played by the back is in creating throwing and batting power. Sometimes referred to as the posterior oblique sling, the back helps transfer power diagonally from the lower to the upper body. For a right-handed thrower, this allows the right glute to “connect” with the left shoulder to create the torque necessary for a hard throw. For a right-handed batter, the same glute and shoulder link allows for a powerful swing of the bat. Without a solid back and core, much of the power generated from the lower body would be lost.

Exercises to include in your baseball training program

Barbell Deadlifts

A staple in any good strength and conditioning program, the Deadlift is a great exercise for developing strength in the entire posterior chain—including the back.

Prone WTY Raise

This exercise helps strengthen the smaller muscles around the shoulder and scapula, while also improving scapulohumeral rhythm.

Single-Arm Bent-Over Row

Because baseball is largely a unilateral sport, it is important to teach the body to move independent of its opposite side