It’s around this time of year that high school baseball players deal with higher incidents of arm pain
Many have been throwing in tournaments, games and practices nonstop January-September, and now aches, pains and discomforts become common, particularly in the front part of the shoulder
Irritation in the front part of the shoulder is usually diagnosed as “bicep tendinitis”
And while it’s true that the bicep tendon itself is typically irritated, what’s actually causing the issue is G.I.R.D.
GIRD (Glenohumeral Internal Rotation Deficit) is that the athlete has lost enough degrees of internal rotation in their throwing shoulder, that now the gap between their non dominant internal rotation versus dominant internal rotation exceeds 19-20 degrees (13-17 is the optimal range)
It’s the loss of internal rotation in the shoulder that’s causing the irritation; however, because the diagnosis is “bicep tendinitis”, often only the symptoms of bicep tendinitis are addressed
And because the GIRD is never identified and addressed, the shoulder irritation becomes a persistent problem, as so many baseball players unfortunately experience
The good news is GIRD is correctable in typically a short period. In our experience, manual therapy exercises can restore the correct range in as little as a few weeks
It’s important to remember that the aches, pains, and even injuries that arise from throwing a baseball are all so unique to the sport itself that blanket diagnoses often fail to identify underlying pathologies; and many times the ensuing cookie cutter treatments only serve to exacerbate issues that require a focused approach specific to baseball, not general population
-Fenske