Aaron is fascinated with baseball. He loves watching the games, has his favorite teams, and his dream is to play in the Little League World Series. While that might be difficult for him to achieve due to his special needs, he does play in a special needs league. I spent hours researching tips and tricks to do with him to help him increase his strength – which is secretly good for his PT/OT also – and we do pitching exercises. Right now, he can’t get the ball across home plate when he tries to pitch. It’s his dream to be a pitcher, so we have 5 exercises for strength training that will also help him pitch harder.
I know some people don’t think kids should do strength training, but Aaron actually needs it for his therapy, and during my research, I found that when it’s done properly, it can actually help prevent injuries. Here are 5 exercises that we do:
- Stretch doing exercises for the rotator cuff. Stretching and strengthening these muscles will also help prevent injury. We pull out a kitchen chair, he stands back with his knees bent, arms on back of chair and leans over letting his shoulders stretch. He holds it for about 15 seconds, stands straight up, and repeats 4 times.
- Stretch doing exercises for the tricpes. He does 50 pushups each day.
- Stretch doing exercises for the biceps. We use a 3 lb Rubber Dumbbell for him to do Bicep Curls. We increase the weight slowly, as needed. This has made a tremendous difference in his overall arm strength. Previously he couldn’t lift a gallon of milk, and now he can carry one in each hand!
- Do 50 situps and 50 8 count body builders each day. This strengthens his core muscles and gives him stamina. Once this amount gets easy for him, we’ll increase it. It also helps him expel excess energy, so he’s better able to control his pitches and not just throw wildly.
- Throw daily with a partner. Joshua likes playing catch, so they throw together. They stand just beyond the distance Aaron can comfortably throw until he masters that distance. Then Joshua moves back further, and they repeat.
ALWAYS remember to warm up and cool down before pitching or performing any exercise! Also note, these are things we do with my special needs 10 year old son. For someone of a different ability level, this may not be the best process!
This is a sponsored post for Pitch Harder, however, all the points and views are my own.
Leave a Reply