How to Avoid Injury Playing Old Man Baseball: Part Three - Recovery

This is part three of a three-part series on how not to get hurt playing baseball – especially when you have to work the next morning (Part One here, and Part Two here). This installment is about recovery. (FYI - this is not meant to be an article about a specific training plan, I'm speaking in generalities - again.)

Keeping with the theme of relating these posts to my own experiences in amateur baseball, I’ll start by saying this is an area I could definitely be better at. Generally speaking, I’m the type of guy that needs to be in the weight room. I’m a little more on the “loose” side of the tight/loose spectrum and weight training helps me more than not. Only recently have I figured out how to more effectively recover from aches, pains, and injuries. And there IS a difference (more on that later). It’s taken me 8 years of experience as a PT and a lot of school to figure this out. I think learning about yourself and what you need to effectively recover can go a very long way. In order to teach you a bit about being more attune to what you are feeling, here are a few things I tell my patients a fair amount that can be helpful:

That “need to stretch” feeling you have? It doesn’t always mean you need to stretch.

Stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch. Sometimes that approach works OK. But sometimes doing some activation or strength exercises works a bit better. If you’re a pitcher in amateur baseball, it’s unlikely you’ve thrown enough to develop true muscular or capsular tightness over the course of a season. Any changes in ROM or strength you have are likely from playing for a long time, not from playing 2 games in the last week. It’s fairly unlikely you’ve developed any biceps, upper trap, or scapular tightness after a few games or a few times playing catch. The next time you have some shoulder “tightness” maybe try one of a few things:

Isometrics: Get in these positions and push into the wall, hold around :15-30, repeat 4-5 times each.

Wall Slides: Starting in the same position, give good pressure into the wall and slide up as high as you can, reaching with your shoulder blade at the top of the motion.

When you’re sore from lifting or a game the day before – remember – light activity is much better than doing nothing.

Again, I feel like most will want to stretch the day after a hard workout or a game. It’s natural. But try more dynamic mobility types of exercises. These are light load exercises that go through most of the full range of motion through the joint. For instance, let’s say you’re just generally sore from the game yesterday, the typical spots – hips, shoulder, core. A recovery circuit might look something like this: kettle bell swings, lunge matrix, yoga push ups, back to wall flexion, and plank variations. I’d typically try to go through this 3-5 times as a light lift. Personally, I also typically double my warm up from about three minutes to six minutes and add in some foam rolling afterwards.

Stretch after activity because this is when your body is warm and you’ll get the most out of it.

This mostly applies to pitchers, but also to position players too. There are some days when I know I don’t have to stretch, like when I go 0-5 and have one ground ball hit to me. But as a general rule, it’s a good idea to do some specific stretching after the game. For pitchers, this should include some cuff stretching and overhead stretching, along with some glute, hamstring, and quad stretching (handout here).

A little bit of foam rolling can go a long ways.

I used to carry a foam roller for before and after games, but I left it in a dugout once and haven’t gotten around to buying another one.....anyway.....Foam rolling can be really beneficial both before and after a game or a workout. I don’t have any great advice on foam rolling other than to take your time and hit any spots that seem to be sore.

Keep these things in mind when recovering from a game or a hard workout and I think you’ll be a little more ready for the next one. These things can especially become more important as we get older and as it becomes later in the year when you have multiple games in one day or one game per day for 3-4 days in a row. What have you tried to help speed recovery after tough workouts or games?

Brett