Physical Therapy for Baseball Players
Baseball Physical Therapy
Hitting Home Runs with PT!
Whether playing baseball in a recreational league, for the big leagues or even in little league, players can benefit from having a good physical therapist on the roster. Baseball is a fun sport but even recreational play can stress a players’ bones, joints, tendons, ligaments and muscles as they run the bases, throw the ball and slide into bases.
Understanding the demands a player’s body undergoes during training, practice and play as well as learning about injuries common in baseball players, is an important aspect of a long career in baseball. Whether looking to rehabilitate from an injury or simply prevent one in the first place, working with a sports or orthopedic physical therapist can be a great way to play your best each game.
PREPARING THE BODY FOR BASEBALL
Baseball, like most sports, demands a lot of the body. Understanding the components of movement and exercise necessary to be a successful player and minimize injury risk is important. Each position on the field requires different skills, motions and types of muscle performance. Below is a list of components of fitness and movement that are important for baseball players to develop as a strategy to maximize performance and decrease injury risk:
Strength: Muscle strength refers to the amount of force a muscle can develop, the amount of force or pressure it can withstand or the amount it can move. Whole body strength is important for a baseball player in that it helps with throwing, running, jumping and more.
Power: Power is a component of muscle performance in which strength or muscle force is developed rapidly in order to perform ballistic movements like throwing a ball across the field or sprinting to catch a fly ball. A player that is strong but slow will be at a disadvantage in many situations.
Flexibility: Baseball players move their limbs through large ranges of motion when extending a leg to reach the base, throwing a ball, etc. Appropriate muscle flexibility is essential for players to move through their full ranges of motion without straining muscles.
Joint Mobility: Joint mobility is important for the execution of movements requiring more extreme ranges of motion like externally rotating the shoulder to prepare for a pitch or for a catcher squatting low to the ground.
Proprioception and Coordination: Joint proprioception and neuromuscular coordination are important components of the skills required to be a great ball player.
Muscle Endurance: Strong muscles with poor endurance will have difficulty performing at a high level for the duration of practice or game play and injury risk increases as muscles fatigue.
SCREENING BASEBALL PLAYERS FOR INJURY RISK
Now that you understand how many different components of fitness, movement and muscle performance baseball players need, you may be wondering how to identify impairments that may compromise your success as a player or put you at risk for injury. One role that physical therapists play in the care of baseball players is injury prevention and prehabilitation. Waiting for an injury to occur before you begin looking for potential weak links in the kinetic chain is not the best approach. Good news, however, because physical therapists are movement experts with tools to identify areas you should address if you want to prevent injuries and improve performance.
As part of a comprehensive assessment or screening process, a physical therapist can assess joint range of motion, muscle strength, power and endurance, speed, stability, neuromuscular control, coordination, flexibility and joint mobility and compare your results with values deemed ideal or beneficial for baseball players.
With this information your physical therapist can prescribe a series of treatments and exercises that you can implement in off-season, pre-season and/or during the regular season to support performance and minimize injury risk. By taking this proactive step you can get ahead of potential injuries and you may even see your performance improve.
INJURIES HAPPEN
Despite a good training program and attempts at minimizing the risk for injury, injuries still happen in baseball. Having a good sports and orthopedic physical therapist on hand that you can turn to quickly is an important step to beginning injury rehabilitation on the right foot. Knowing when to rest completely, when to modify activity and when to continue playing is an important skill that physical therapists have developed based on their education and practice. Making the right choices early after an injury can make a big difference in how you recover.
Baseball-related injuries can occur during practice, during games and even in the training room. Some examples of injuries that physical therapists often treat in baseball players are as follows:
Muscle contusions
Shoulder labral tears
Ulnar Collateral Ligament injuries (and post-Tommy John Surgery)
Shoulder instability
Knee and ankle ligament injuries
Wrist sprains or tendonitis
Each of these injuries has a unique timeline for recovery and protocol for rehabilitation and working with a physical therapist that understands baseball will help them tailor your rehabilitation plan of care to support return to sport. Injuries are never fun and sometimes taking a break from sport is necessary to allow for optimal healing, but teaming up with a physical therapist you trust will help make the recovery process that much easier.
CHOOSE EVOLVE PHYSICAL THERAPY
At Evolve PT we want to get you strong and healthy so that you can get back to playing the game you love. We apply an individualized approach to athlete assessment and rehabilitation and our goals are to help you become the best player you can be. If you are a baseball player recovering from an injury or wondering if there are steps you can take to prevent one in the future, call Evolve PT today.
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About EvolveNY-
Brooklyn's Premier Holistic Physical Therapy Clinics- There’s physical therapy, there’s training, and then there’s EVOLVE. We use the science of biomechanics merged with fitness to help our patients get better and stay better!
First we evaluate, then we heal, then we strengthen our clients so they can reach their goals, feel better, and live happier lives. We do so by utilizing a range of core techniques and specialized treatments to reduce pain, improve mobility, enhance physical strength and deal with the underlying issues, not just the pain itself.
Multiple Brooklyn Physical Therapy Locations!
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