Should Baseball Players Train Shoulders?

Recent question from a HS varsity coach:

“Should we be overhead pressing or “training shoulders” in our team workouts?”

The answer is specific to the population: general population folks can certainly overhead press. Use a hammer grip, which is easier on the shoulder than an overhand grip, perform a good volume of retraction, and you’ll be fine

However, for baseball athletes, I would strongly advise against it

One of the reasons why the shoulder has such great mobility overhead, allowing you to perform tasks like throwing a baseball, is because the acromial space of the shoulder is purely soft tissue

So when a baseball athlete overhead presses, cleans, snatches, etc, the front delt becomes heavily developed as a result

The issue is that then squeezes the acromial space, greatly predisposing a baseball player to impingement-much more so than otherwise

That creates much greater stress on the rotator cuff to fight to stabilize the Glenohumeral joint, which means the “innocent bystander” -the elbow, has to work that much harder in the throwing motion

Part of the unique dynamic that is training baseball players is while they need large increases in size strength and speed, which is what’s holding most back from climbing the levels of the sport, achieving those increases cannot come at the expense of shoulder and elbow health; all the bases have to be covered in training to keep the shoulder as healthy and durable as possible

-Fenske