When to see a baseball physical therapist
Playing baseball takes its toll on the body. The season is intense and the demand is high. You’re playing in multiple weekend tournaments and have back to back double headers every week, but you’re still expected to show up and perform your best.
It’s common to have aches and pains during the season, but how do you know if you need professional help? Many of us were raised to “just rub some dirt in it” but that advice only takes you so far with recovery and performance in baseball.
What happens when that fatigue or dull ache keeps coming back after every game? Or worse, when it starts impacting your throw?
Knowing when to contact your local sports physical therapist for a consultation can be the ultimate game changer in your recovery.
Many athletes try to wait it out and see whether or not they are truly injured. They’ll continue with the same practice and throwing routine, pushing through the pain to play in games, and praying that the pain will magically go away. And I get it, you’re busy and you don’t have time to be injured.
But what if I told you that seeing a baseball physical therapist isn’t necessarily the death sentence you think it is for your season? Getting treatment when it’s needed can reduce overall recovery time, prevent worse injuries from happening, and help you get back to performing your best as soon as possible.
My goal, as a physical therapist who works with baseball players, is to keep you in the game as much as possible, while promoting your quickest and most effective recovery.
Why Baseball Players Need Physical Therapy
Baseball is a sport that involves a lot of repetition and power. While you might not be involved in every single play, unless you’re the pitcher or catcher, you’ve got to be at your best when it’s your time to shine. Throwing and batting are repetitive in nature and beating out the throw to first means you better have wheels (aka your sprint game strong).
But for all that we recognize that baseball players need to take care of their shoulders, sometimes other areas get neglected, like the elbow, low back, knees, and hips. Or we think that an ankle sprain won’t impact performance when it actually plays a vital role in force production and efficiency with throwing, pitching, batting, and running.
Working with someone who understands the repetitive nature of pitching and throwing and the need for power and explosiveness in a swing is important. Find a baseball specific physical therapist to evaluate what you’ve got going on and find a solution.
Most Common Baseball Injuries
I work with a decent number of baseball players in my clinic. And over the years there are a variety of different injuries that I’ve seen in baseball players. However, some of the most common baseball injuries I see in the clinic are:
Shoulder pain: Impingement, rotator cuff strains, labral tears, and bursitis, to name a few. The biggest culprit is muscle imbalance and overuse, especially if there isn’t a proper arm care program in place.
Elbow pain: From Little League elbow to ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) tears and sprains, this is one thing you want to avoid. A proper arm care program, having a good pitching coach, and strength training all help to reduce medial elbow pain.
Ankle sprains: Running the bases and changing direction or hitting the wrong spot on the base on your turn are common causes of ankle sprains. Make sure you don’t just shrug it off if it’s feeling stiff, sore, bruises, or swells - have your PT take a look!
Low back pain: Talking to you, pitchers. A lot of your force and torque from pitching comes from your core. If there’s weakness in the hips and legs or tightness in your back, you’ll commonly feel some low back pain after or during pitching. This can lead to slower pitching speed and compensation.
Knee pain: This one is for the catchers. You do approximately one million squats in a tournament (ok, not really, but it sure feels like it) and if your knees are hurting you’ll want to get it checked out. It could be a strain, sprain, meniscus tear, bursitis, or muscle weakness - stemming from overuse and repetitive demand.
When to See a Baseball Physical Therapist for Help
My biggest tip: don’t just wait it out. Pay attention to how you feel at practice, during games, and afterwards. Make note of the areas that are sore and observe how you feel. Are you feeling sore but it resolves by the net 1-2 days? That might not necessarily mean you need help yet. Or has the pain been lingering longer than you expected?
If in doubt, schedule a consultation with an orthopedic specialist or a baseball-specific physical therapist. You won’t regret getting on top of your recovery early. It typically leads to faster recovery times.
Signs that you may want to book an evaluation with a baseball-specific physical therapist:
Pain lasts longer than 5-7 days
Pain, or another symptom like stiffness or weakness, is impacting your performance
Performance worsening with increased symptoms - ex. Pitching speed, bat speed
Symptoms are getting worse or staying the same, instead of getting better
Feeling sharp pain, numbness, shooting pain that persists
Instability, popping, or clicking that is new, especially after injury
Experiencing swelling or seeing bruising
Wanting to prevent injury and identify areas of weakness
Returning from injury and wanting to perform your best
How Physical Therapy Treatment Can Help Baseball Players
Physical therapists perform thorough assessments and evaluations for baseball players to identify the root cause of pain, find areas of weakness or vulnerability, and come up with a plan to get the athlete feeling better (and back on the field) ASAP.
Typical physical therapy treatment involves hands on manual therapy to improve mobility of muscles, ligaments, and joints, as well as a variety of strengthening exercises to help reprogram movement. In my practice, I often times help to restructure a baseball player’s strength program and guide them through a return-to-sport sequence in order to get them back on the field.
Programs often include details for strength training, warm-ups and cool downs, recovery, and an arm care program to keep players on track all season long. It’s important to make sure that the program you follow is specific to your needs and aims to prevent further injury.
Book a free discovery call and get started with physical therapy care specific for baseball platers in Kennewick
If you’re local to the Tri-Cities area, my clinic is in Kennewick and I’d be happy to work with you. I specialize in working with baseball players and athletes alike with both injury rehab and recovery care including manual therapy, dry needling, scraping, cupping, and more.
If you’re local to the Kennewick, WA area and want to start with a personalized assessment, call me!