Overhead Athletes Shouldn’t Do Overhead Lifting, Right?

When dealing with overhead athletes, a common myth is that they should not do overhead lifting.  In baseball, for example, we often hear that overhead lifting can hurt the pitcher’s throwing arm.  As the head therapist of Academie Baseball Canada, I hear this idea get thrown around a lot in the baseball world.  

The same myth gets thrown around for other overhead athletes, like volleyball players, tennis players and swimmers.

This seems to revolve around the idea that overhead lifting places “too much stress” on the shoulders.  That is coupled with the idea that because overhead athletes already use their shoulders a great amount for their sport, the added stress of overhead lifting increases the potential for overuse injuries.

While I may understand the noble intention of protecting the overhead athlete’s shoulder, saying that overhead lifting is bad for the shoulders is just like saying deadlifts are bad for your back, or squats are bad for your knees.  And we threw those myths out the window a while ago.  Or at least I hope so.

In training, rehab or prehab, the goal is to improve the physical qualities necessary for optimal athletic performance.  Instead of avoiding categories of things to “protect” the shoulders, we should be thinking in terms of including the right thing that will make the shoulders more robust and resilient.

Overhead lifting is of great importance for shoulder health, especially for overhead athletes.  In fact, we make sure all our athletes at Academie Baseball Canada have what it takes to lift overhead.

So, if you have been in the habit of avoiding these lifts for your athletes, here are the many benefits they are missing out on:

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MASTERING THE BASICS

Any exercise done incorrectly has the potential to result in injury.  That doesn’t mean we should avoid particular exercises.  We just need to make sure they are done right.  Perhaps the stigma around certain exercises is that it is unfortunately easier to just avoid them than to teach them right.  But as you will see in this article, the benefits of overhead lifting far outweigh the risks.  

You’ll often hear that athletes should “earn” the right to overhead press.  I tend to agree with this, and that everyone should, as a matter of fact, earn all it takes to safely and effectively train overhead lifts.

Precision of movement is important for optimal shoulder function and as such, for optimal overhead lifting.  This means that there are many requirements, and I would even say prerequisites.  I discuss these in detail in The Overhead Press: Mastering the Basics.

 

THE ROTATOR CUFF

We know that the rotator cuff is important for shoulder health, this isn’t even something we need to defend anymore.  But 

 

it is unreasonable to think that the shoulder health of overhead athletes can be maintained with light dumbbell and band external rotation exercises

 

Now, by no means am I saying to throw arm care exercises out the window.  Direct rotator cuff work isolates certain parts of the cuff that general strength work might not.  It is especially important in rehab, when the cuff is inhibited due to injury.  

However, the muscles of the rotator cuff work synchronously to stabilize the humeral head within the glenoid. This synchrony and these patterns of muscle activity cannot be replicated by voluntary contraction of these muscles alone, such as in dumbbell and band external rotation exercises.   

In fact, multiplanar movements like PNF patterns resemble more closely the functional pattern of an overhead athlete:

This synchrony of the rotator cuff muscles also needs to occur quickly, meaning that with upper extremity movement, the humerus needs to quickly center into the glenoid.  This adaptation is achieved by manipulating elements like load, tempo, acceleration/deceleration and perturbation.  

And guess what, overhead lifting provides all of these elements.

 

REACHING PATTERN AND SCAPULAR MECHANICS

The scapula is the focal point of shoulder health.  If the scapula is strong and stable and can move optimally, the rotator cuff stands a better chance of doing its job properly and remaining pain-free.  And when the rotator cuff does its job properly, the prime movers of the glenohumeral joint, can do their job efficiently.  

So, while the common perception is that the rotator cuff muscles are most important for shoulder health, I would argue that focusing on the scapulothoracic muscles is a necessary first step to create that fine balance of function.

What does overhead lifting have to do with this?

When scapular stability is disrupted, the serratus anterior and trapezius are commonly affected first, resulting in decreased scapula upward rotation and posterior tilt.  Pushing vertically creates a reaching pattern of upward rotation and protraction and trains the force-couple between the serratus and upper trap.  

This force couple is extremely important in rotating the scapula to maintain the glenoid surface in an appropriate position for the humeral head.  This provides a stable base of support for moving the arm against resistance, or acceleration and deceleration.

 

scap upward rotation image

 

I also discuss the importance of scapular positioning and stability for pushing and pulling exercises in this article

All this said, vertical pushing doesn’t need to be limited to overhead pressing with dumbbells or a barbell.  Kettlebell bottoms-up presses are great for scapular stability, as well as for getting the scap to come up and around the rib cage:

 

OVERHEAD HOLDS

Aside from overhead lifting, moving around while holding weights overhead is another great way to build strong shoulders.  After all, this is the main goal.  

 

If your athletes aren’t strong, how will they be strong at high speeds?

 

You can select exercises that challenge the athlete to stabilize a weight overhead as the torso moves around underneath it.  For an overhead athlete, this increased movement variability is important, as is challenging the shoulder at end ranges of motion.

The concept of moving your body around underneath a weight that you are holding overhead is IMHO the most bang for your buck in terms of strong, stable shoulders.

MAKE SURE YOU WATCH THE MAIN VIDEO OF THIS ARTICLE TO SEE THREE OVERHEAD EXERCISE PROGRESSIONS

Movement Optimization online courseDON’T AVOID EXERCISES

Overhead pressing is bad for the shoulder, deadlifts are bad for the back, squats are bad for the knees.  These are all statements that lack context and lead to stigma and the avoidance of these exercises.  In reality, all of these exercises, when done right, provide real benefits: overhead pressing builds strong shoulders, deadlifts build a strong back and squats build strong knees.

Most of the baseball pitchers I see within the Academie Baseball Canada need stronger shoulders because they are not strong enough for the high speeds at which they throw. And while there is a continuum through which we work on scapular mechanics, arm care, rotator cuff work, we must always find a way to include strength work.  

Once athletes have earned the right to perform overhead lifting, it must be a staple of their training to build stronger, more robust, more resilient shoulders.

 

 


 


Mai-Linh Dovan M.SC., CAT(C)
Certified Athletic Therapist
Founder of Rehab-U

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