Tips for Baseball Players to Avoid Shoulder Injury

To avoid the wide range of shoulder injuries that are common in baseball players, work to implement these three tips.

Your shoulder is a complicated joint that gives you a wide range of motion. To do that, a lot of different components need to work together.

When you’re a baseball player, it puts extra strain on your shoulder and all of its moving parts. That puts you at risk for injury. The throwing motion can tax the labrum, the ring of cartilage that supports the ball-and-socket joint of your shoulder.

It can cause inflammation in the tendons of your biceps and rotator cuff. It can even cause a tendon to tear, particularly if you don’t take good care of your shoulder.

Karl Siebuhr, MD, wants to help you avoid these issues and more, so he has some tips. As a shoulder pain specialist, he’s seen plenty of injured baseball players. Born from that experience, he and our team compiled this list of tips to help you protect your throwing shoulder.

And if you do ever wind up with a shoulder injury, you can see us at Reconstructive Orthopaedics of Central Florida in Ocala, Florida, for personalized care.

#1: Watch your pitch count

A lot of baseball shoulder injuries — particularly superior labrum anterior to posterior (SLAP) tears — can be traced back to overuse. That makes it important to watch how much you’re throwing and avoid overdoing it.

USA Baseball and Major League Baseball have teamed up to establish pitch count guidelines for players up to age 22. Work with your coach using that information to keep your shoulder safe.

Even if you’re not a pitcher, keep these guidelines in mind. Monitoring how much you throw can help you avoid doing too much at once. You should always aim to gradually increase your activity level — including your number of throws — to avoid injury.

#2: Stretch and strengthen your shoulder

Targeted exercises can help your shoulder work its best, offsetting some of the strain that comes from repeated throwing.

Work with your coach to develop a routine, then stick with it. Stretching is particularly important when you’re warming up for a game, so make sure you carve out time for that.

#3: Never throw through your pain

When you have pain in your shoulder, it’s your body telling you that something is wrong. Oftentimes, some rest is enough to let whatever’s going on heal. But if you just push through the pain, you risk making it worse — and potentially even tearing something.

When you feel pain in your shoulder, tell your coach and take some time away from throwing. Your coach would probably much rather you be out for a week or so to let things heal than months with a more serious injury.

If your shoulder pain doesn’t get better with a week or so of rest, come see Dr. Siebuhr. He can evaluate your shoulder and figure out what’s going on, then apply targeted treatment as needed.

His goal is to get you back to throwing as quickly and safely as possible. For any shoulder care your throwing arm needs, call our office or request an appointment online.