Should Overhead Athletes Lift Overhead?

We have worked with overhead athletes for 15 years now and in that time there has been a lot of information come and go about how they should be strength training. Arm care programs have become a marketing sensation to pitching coaches, but results fall short of promises. Other programs believe that weighted balls or underweighted balls are the key for fixing these throwing issues, but even these fall short long term. We spend time seeking the entire answer without understanding who we’re working with and assessing if there are foundational pieces missing. From early on with overhead athletes, I had a very simple approach to their training and it has worked very well. It really comes down to two simple rules:

1- They need to be strong where their sport is played (overhead)

2- They need to be strong in the opposite motions of where their sport is played (posterior)

My job as a strength and conditioning coach isn’t to fix the broken system of youth sports where kids are playing 100+ games in a year. My job is to prepare their body for the demands of the sports they play and equip them with tools to use if/when something begins to feel off. If your coach wants you to avoid lifting for your upper body completely, it may be time to seek new guidance. 

Get Strong where Sport is Played

This is so simple that I think it must slip people’s mind as an option. When I first started working with athletes, many were told to never put a dumbbell overhead. Others had a 10lb limit. What a great universal number to limit someone’s training and not elicit a response which would cause a detraining effect. There is a little more to this. They need to be strong overhead, but this also means from the ground up needs to be strong. Here are some of the ways we look for strength in overhead athletes. 

Pull/Chin Up- Every athlete should be able to do a bodyweight pull up. Our data shows faster sprint times, lower injury risk, higher throw velocity (overhand and windmill).

Overhead Pressing- We will use mostly single arm dumbbell variations for this. This is for armor building/protection for the shoulder area. 

Push Ups- Push ups demand good shoulder health and teaches athletes to use the upper back muscles instead of relying on the front of their shoulders to survive. 

Snatch - The 1 arm dumbbell snatch might be my favorite exercise for overhead athletes. It’s explosive, the produce force vertically, and have to catch and stabilize in a strong athletic position. This teaches the entire body to produce and absorb force. 

Train the Opposite

When you look at baseball/softball pitching and volleyball players, everything is force coming down in front of them. My original thought comes from experience in bodybuilding where symmetry is key. While exactly proportionate isn’t as important in sport, I do think keeping track of balance is important. We look at front/back, side/side, and top/bottom. If overhead athletes have a large discrepancy in one of these, their power output is limited and they’re placing extra stress somewhere in the kinetic chain. Every single softball pitcher we work with has a more difficult time stabilizing on the leg they push off with compared to the leg that they land on. Why? Over time that leg has gotten pushing to produce power, but not stabilizing. This is an easy opportunity to pitch faster while reducing risk of injury to the shoulder girdle. For most of our overhead athletes, they need posterior strength. Not just the lower half, but also in the upper body. An easy way to think about it for pitchers, the front of the body is making the speed. Generally as speed increases, then we see more problems because the posterior shoulder and upper back muscles aren’t developed to slow down the arm in the pitching motion. These muscles act as your brakes. You can do J Band routines but they’re not going to fix a girl who’s already throwing mid 50s and up. Here are some exercises to focus on:

Upper Body

Pull/Chin Up - Yes it’s that important.

Inverted Rows/Horizontal Pulls - A variety of horizontal pulling exercises. 

Lower Body

Box Squat - The best way to teach a squat for beginners. 

Lunge - All variations, but adding weight on these makes a huge difference for athletes. 

Total Body

Deadlift -Any variation. They all have benefits. Some are more specific to different athletes due to mechanics.

Jumps - I would put jumps ahead of med ball throws especially for beginners as they have trouble with proper sequencing due to a low level of strength. Jumps teach them to move their body and create a safe landing. 

This article could be much more in-depth with research and charts, but I wanted to give parents and coaches some peace of mind and something they could apply quickly into their athlete’s training. Like everything else in training, the specifics really come down to the individual when creating the absolute best plan. If this has sparked more questions or interest, feel free to email me at nick@showtimestrength.com to further discuss. 

Nick Showman

Showtime Strength & Performance