What's up softball players, coach Dan Blewett here in today's video.
We're going to talk about how to increase your fastpitch arm strength.
So I've got a fastpitch, arm, strength training routine for you.
We're going to go over the different exercises that can help you, whether you
want to increase your pitching velocity or your throwing velocity across the diamond.
So obviously this is a really important thing.
If you want to play in college, if you want to play high school varsity, you
know, you need to have enough arm strength and you want to prevent injuries as well.
So all these exercises are not only going to enhance your performance.
But they're also going to make your arm feel better and help you
get through some of those long weekends of softball in better shape.
Okay, this video number one thing to know there's timestamps
in the, in the description.
So if you click any of those, you can jump to different exercises.
You can jump to different sections of this video.
So it's kind of organized for you.
So it makes it easier to refer back to number two things to know, I do
have a free trial of my strength training program, which includes.
Not only a softball specific strength program, but an arm
strength program as well.
So if you're interested in that and you don't want to build your own
either, even though I'm going to show you how to do that in this video
here, you can jump in the description below and it'll take you to that.
So today the first thing I want to cover is.
What is important in an arm strength program for fastpitch.
So, number one, we need us, we need to strengthen the decelerating
muscles probably a little bit more than the accelerating muscle.
So the rotator cuff is the prime decek-decelerators-for overhand throwing.
And when you're doing your windmill pitching, there's a lot
more muscles like your lats and more of your back is involved.
But overall, a lot of the stuff is going to start and stop in your rotator cuff.
So if you do have pain in your shoulder, A lot of these exercises
are going to increase the stability and the strength and the deceleration
quality of your throwing motion.
So that's a key part of this program.
Number two, we're going to work on the movement of your
shoulder blades of your scapula.
So your, your shoulder blades should slide up and down in all directions
on your back and they should stay kind of like stuck and flat to your back.
So we don't want to see your shoulder blades like peeling off.
They're going to just glide and move.
And as your arm goes up, your shorter blade goes with it.
So we'll have a bunch of exercises in this program.
That help you develop strong, stable, easily moving scapula.
Third thing to know is that the shoulder needs not only strength, but it also
needs stability and it also needs stamina.
So all the different rep ranges and the different varieties
of exercise in this program.
They're going to improve all those qualities because you know, a fastpitch
arm strength program is only good.
If it hits all those different things, you don't want just strength.
You don't want only stamina.
And then without any strength and you don't want to do a program,
that's only all about stability.
You need all those things sort of factored in to, uh, a holistic program.
And then the last thing I want to cover is, you know, bands, dumbbells, and body
weight, they're all different tools.
And so some exercises have dumbbells in them.
Some have bands in them, some are just body weight.
It doesn't really make a difference.
Our goal is to choose the right tool for each exercise.
And, you know, you might prefer a band version versus a dumbbell version.
You might want to pack your bag with a, with an elastic band rather than a couple
of like two or three pound dumbbells, because it's just easier to carry.
Totally fine.
So I'll give you a couple of different options in this video.
Um, but just know that bands and dumbbells, they just provide resistance.
So your body doesn't really know whether it's a band or a dumbbell
and it doesn't really matter.
It just matters that it fits the exercise.
So some exercises are always going to be body weight.
Some are going to be bodyweight until a point, and then you'll have
to add dumbbells or cuff weights.
Then some are just better suited for bands.
But again, it's all just about what implement fits each exercise.
Okay, so let's jump into the workout here.
So number one, we're going to go back and forth between two exercises.
So the first one is the prone L so this is for your external rotators.
This is for your mid back.
These are really important parts of your body that are going to help
you, not only with your posture, but also your stamina when you're, when
you're pitching, when you're throwing.
They're going to end the external rotators, your arms, that do you know
when you do this, that is what helps slow your arm down after an overhand
throw or an underhand windmill put.
So the rotator cuff is really important and the prone L is a great,
easy to do exercise that hits those.
The next one is the prone.
Why?
And this, it changes the muscle recruitment.
It's different than the L you're still laying on your chest,
which is in the prone position.
But the prone Y is more of your mid back.
It's more of your upper trap or your lower trap.
Sorry.
Um, and it's basically just going to help you in just different ways.
Obviously all the muscle fibers in your arm, the way they line up with different
bones and with different joints is going to help determine what exercises
are going to strengthen them best.
So when you're doing an L-raise where you're rotating back, you're not
going to hit some muscles compared to.
A Y-raise, which different muscle fibers are going to line up, depending
on it's, what's called a force vector.
So we're just going to mix and match the two.
They're both really important.
That's all you really need to know, but it's good to pair those together because
then you're doing them both laying down on a bench or on, um, you know, a training
table or on the floor or whatever.
Uh, and that's where you do those exercises as a pair.
The next exercise is called the push-up plus.
This one's really important because a softball players
need more upper body strength.
You can do these.
If you're strong to do good, push-ups on the floor, you can do them on the floor.
If not, you can do it with your hands on a bench.
You can put your hands on a bar.
Uh, so you have a little more of an incline.
And so it's a little bit easier to do that.
The plus part is when you push and you really extend your shoulder
blades a little bit farther.
And that's where you strengthen your scapula.
So it's called protraction when you're, when you're pushing your body
away, your scapula is protracting.
And so again, we just want to have balance in our, in our arm strength program.
So we want to have some retraction that's when you pull your shoulder
blades back and we also want to have some protraction exercises.
That's when you're.
Your, uh, your shoulder blades roll forward.
So we want to get a mix of both.
So our shoulder blade is how to slide in different directions and it's strong
and stable in all different directions.
So the push-up applause is a really important one.
Plus lots of fastpitch players have what's called shoulder blade whinging, which
is when your shoulder blade kind of peel off your back and it doesn't stay stuck.
Your rib cage surface.
So we don't want your shoulder blade to slide off.
Because it affects your biomechanics and it's just not a good situation.
So when we do those protraction exercises that strengthens the muscles that keep
your shoulder blade from, so it's sliding and staying stuck to your sh your back,
which is kind of just like, as a, if you imagine a rock climber climbing
up a, you know, a wall, they want to stay as close to that wall as they can.
If they start to get far away, they're much more likely to fall and the weight
is hitting them a little bit more.
So.
Easy way to think about it.
But again, protraction is important.
The pushup plus is a great exercise.
The next one is called the sword pool, and this is exactly pretty
much the deceleration pattern of the way you throw overhand.
So this is going to hit, obviously all those muscles as you're going down.
And then as you come back up, it's going to hit the decelerators in
your shoulder, in your rotator cuff.
Pretty much in the exact same way you throw it.
So it's basically like a reverse throw and you can see why it'd
be called like a sword pull.
It's like you're pulling your sword out of your sheath.
And then the last two exercises, the first one is the band external rotation.
So lots of you have bands that you probably throw in your, in
your, in your softball bag and take it to the fuel with you.
So the external rotation is a great exercise that hits your rotator
cuff, external rotators, which again are your decelerating muscles.
It hits them really, really hard.
It's one of the best exercises for strengthening your rotator cuff.
And so obviously we want to include that in the program.
They're very easy to do, but it's, it's really important that you do them,
uh, with a high focus on technique and with us very, very slow tempo.
Because again, we want to strengthen not only, not only strengthen your rotator
cuff, but also give it a lot of stamina.
Lastly, the blackburns set of exercise is really, really great.
We used to use that with all of our teams.
We do it as warm ups.
They're great for coaches where you can give it to your whole team and they
can do it in a big and a big circle.
You can do them one more while watching TV, but the Blackburns,
they build a lot of stamina.
They're great for fixing posture and they help you with that scalp stabilization.
So your shorter blade stabilization.
So there's six different positions of Blackburns and you're going to
go through each one and you can do long holds and then short resets.
So you'd go hold and then pause, hold and pause.
Hold them down, hold them down.
So it's a lot of longer holds, which again helps build some lactic acid tolerance
and also helps build that stamina that you need for long weekends playing softball.
Okay.
So we've gone through all the fastpitch arm strength training
exercises that I wanted to hit here.
And I didn't want to overwhelm him.
And there's a ton of good exercises, but these five or six are, are really,
really solid that if you're just going to say, Hey, I want to get
started with an arm care regimen.
What should I do?
These are some great ones to get started with.
So if you're going to make these into a workout, here's what I would do.
I would pair your prone Ls and your prone Ys together because you're
both laying in the prone position.
And so you can do those.
Back-to-back very easily.
You can take a little breather between each one because they will
work some of the same muscles.
So you'll get tired, but having them as a super set where you do prone Ls and
prone Ys prone Ls and prone Ys is a good way to go about it, maximize your time.
And again, getting a lot of blood pumped into your rotator cuff is a good thing
and it helps build some of that stamina.
So I would do each of those exercises for two or three sets of 12 to 15 reps, the
next to the push-up plus and the sword pull, I would group them together as well,
and they work very different muscles.
So that's going to work excellent as a superset.
So you do a set of 12 to 15 pushup pluses, and then a set of 12 to 15
sword pulls, two to three sets of each go back and forth between them both and
then move on to the next next group.
After that I would take the next two exercises and I would
make them their own groups.
I would do all of your, your band external rotations together,
or just as one sort of shot.
So I would do two or three sets of 12 to 15 reps.
I would do a set.
Wait 30 seconds.
Do another set.
Wait 30 seconds.
And then do your final set and then move on.
That one is just easy just to hit it, just like that.
And then I would move on to your blackburns and make that your final thing.
This is one where you can kind of socialize with your friends, do your
blackburns kind of grit through it together, but you're going to lay down.
So once you're on the ground, it's better just to not get up
and just do them all at once.
So it's typically six minutes.
Six positions one minute, each that's what equals six minutes.
So that's how I would group this whole workout together, pairing
exercises together into super sets and then moving down your list.
All right.
So hopefully this video on fastpitch arm, strength exercises was helpful.
Cause obviously it's a really important thing and I wanted to give you a
good outline of some great exercises.
And again, links are in the description below.
If you do want a ready-made for you arm strength and strength training program,
that's going to be softball specific.
Built by me and, and a good friend.
Who's another expert strength training coach for softball and baseball players.
Then definitely check out the early work program links
are in the description below.
You can get a free trial of it so you can test it out, see if it's right for you.
But obviously I've worked with softball and baseball players for a long time as
has my good friend, coach Andrew Sacks, who's the other creator of this program.
And so if you need something that's, you're ready to go and you can
just dive into it and hit it hard in your own gym or in your home.
Then the early work program is probably going to be perfect for you.
So thanks for watching.
Leave a comment in the, in the description or leave a comment for me below.
Thanks for watching.
And I'll see you here in the next video.