Rotator Cuff Strength, The Smaller The Better – Mission Rubber Arm #3

Welcome back to the mission,

Which mission? The rubber arm shoulder building gas throwing mission. Read more about it here

Last post we talked about your shoulder mobility. I even gave you a test to show you the importance of thumb rotation. I hope this opened your eyes to the importance of shoulder placement and mobility.

Now we are going into my favorite part of shoulder development – Strength

Why Get Stronger?

There is a lot of reasons to get your posterior cuff stronger. Some are obvious, some are not so obvious. Either way, after this post you will feel the importance of functional shoulder building. And you will know where to start.

Shoulder Stamina

Stamina – On the pitcher’s mound, everyone has a limited number of throws before fatigue (get tired). What happens when you get tired? You leave the ball up in the zone, you do not finish the pitch, and *bam* someone hits a bomb off you. Screw that.

Posterior cuff strength can increase your overall stamina for each pitching outing. Meaning it can eliminate the shoulder as a limiting factor for your overall performance. Note: Of course if your legs are weak, then the strongest arm in the world won’t keep your fastball blowing and going. But we will discuss that later…

Shoulder Durability

Durability – Do you know a guy who sometimes feels good, and other days he feels terrible? One day he grabs the ball and another day he complains. This type of pitcher has a weak rotator cuff. I knew guys just like this. They were terrified to throw a lot because throwing kept leading to shoulder pain. Here is the deal, if you need a ton of “rest” days on your shoulder, than you are not very durable. This is not a throwing issue, it’s a shoulder issue. You need to gain a robust strong rotator cuff. Especially the posterior side.

Shoulder Health

Health – As you develop a stronger rotator cuff, you will start to forget about shoulder pain and shoulder issues. Here is why – When you begin to add more functional muscle fibers on the back side of your shoulder, you will start to have more mass in the small rotator cuff muscles. This muscle development leads to more balance with your shoulder’s natural resting in the socket (you will rest with your shoulder farther back in the socket, this is a good thing). So if you don’t have a developed posterior cuff, but you still throw and develop push movements, your shoulder will naturally sit in a rolled forward position (Not good!).

Do me a favor, check right now… When you sit at rest does your shoulder roll forward? Probably. This is very common. That is why there is so many shoulder issues out there. It took you a long time to have bad shoulder posture. It will take some time to get it back in the socket naturally. As you build posterior cuff strength, this will happen naturally. After awhile, you will forget you had shoulder problems at all. Awww bliss baby.

Shoulder Velocity

Velocity – Can posterior cuff lead to velocity on the pitchers mound? YES it can. But its not a direct impact on your pitching velocity. Its actually a cumulative reason for velocity gain. Let me explain.

As your strength and stamina increase, you will notice a immediate ability to throw more and longer. The more you throw, especially distance throwing, your overall strength will increase. When before you couldn’t handle that much training, now you can throw way longer and farther. This will have a direct impact on your velocity on the pitchers mound? Does this make sense? If not yet, it will.

Strengthen The Big Shoulder Muscles Too

The strength of your big muscles still matters. Here is my favorite back exercise for large deltoid, lat and trap muscles.  This move is called the 1 arm row.

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I love this exercise for your back. I would do this at least once a week in and out of season training. You should row heavy. I rowed 80 pound dumbells in college. I loved it. This will help develop your big shoulder muscles. Also helping your stabilization muscles as well.

But, this is not the most important exercise to consider for your shoulder health. It’s the little muscle moves that count the most.

Here is an example…

Sideling External Rotation With a Dumbbell

Here is a functional move every pitcher shoulder do. After a long workout or pitching session, you can grab a 5 dumbbell and lay on your side for 10 reps. If you count out 10 seconds for each rep. You will increase the effectiveness of the move.

This move will burn right no your posterior cuff. Especially if you execute a rotator cuff superset before this.

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Think Small To Win Big

You must reprogram your mind. Think about activating the small posterior cuff with small muscles by using light weight exercises. To build this area of your shoulder, don’t increase the amount of weight you lift. Rather, increase the volume of repetitions. Then change the type of movements you do. This type of variety can vastly help your shoulder. Everyone responds different to exercises. For you to maximize your ability, you must introduce many different functional moves.

After some experience, you find what works best for you.

Light Weight Is The Secret To Velocity Success

This is why we progress from super light weight, and movement learning training, to higher reps and more volume. After you have woken up your shoulder to the right movments and seen consistent gains, you then need to move into controlled rep volume increase for your shoulder routine.

You may not be able to train your posterior cuff this hardcore all year. But you can take a dedicated period of time to completely change how your shoulder responds to training, throwing and health.

The Mission Complete In 6 Weeks

I may get some trash talk for promising a complete shoulder in only 6 weeks, but I am willing to bet on this program. Did you read the special bonus at the end? Read more about it here.

I truly believe I can completely change the shoulder building process around the world. And it will only take you a few weeks. This mission, to save arms, shoulders and pitchers around the world, is a big mission. It may even seem impossible. Many people will tell me, it can’t be done…

I believe it can. Will you join me?

Forward this post to 2 friends. I hope this helps you, and I hope you get better each day.

 I cant wait to hear all about your success.

-Zach

PS: Get started on your shoulder building story. To get complete details on the Rubber Arm Series Click Here.