Life in the Fastpitch Lane

Yoga exercises to help prevent injuries in softball players

July 21, 2014 9:14 pm

Following is a guest post by Nathan Friedkin, founder of Maximum Performance Yoga. It presents some ideas for using yoga to help build the strength and flexibility required to play at your peak level. Keep in mind these exercises are best used during off-times or after a game. For pre-game warm-ups you’ll want to stick with dynamic warm-ups.

Crescent Posture

Softball involves quite a bit of twisting, during which the lower body stays grounded and still while the upper body rotates. Twists are involved in batting, throwing, and even trying to steal a base. A stable foundation in the lower body (strong glutes and thighs) and flexibility in the spine are the keys to executing a safe and healthy twist, which are not only important in a strong performance
but in preventing back injury. Yoga postures such as Revolved Crescent Lunge promote leg strength through isometric muscle contraction and spinal flexibility through a sustained twist.
Yoga is also helpful in maintaining both strength and flexibility in the shoulder girdle, which are incredibly important in pitching. A good pitch requires not only a great deal of power, but an extensive range of motion in the shoulder joint. By stretching the shoulders in postures such as a wide legged forward fold with interlacing the hands behind the back, and strengthening them in postures such as Chaturanga Dandasana (essentially a narrow-arm push-up), yoga may be helpful in improving pitching

Chair Posture

performance and reducing incidence of injury.
Here are some key postures for preventing injuries for softball players:

Four legged staff pose (chaturanga)
Standing Bow Pulling Pose
Chair Pose
Half Lord of the Fishes
Standing Head-to-Knee Pose
Seated Head-to-Knee Pose
Eagle
Triangle
Eagle posture
Revolved triangle
Balancing stick
Supine hand to foot
Headstand
Revolved side angle
Prayer twist
Wide legged standing forward fold with bound arms
Cow face pose
Half pigeon
Eye of the needle
Side plank
Boat

Nathan Friedkin is an entrepreneur, yogi, video producer, and proud father of two sons. He is also the founder of Maximum Performance Yoga® MPY crushes convention, smashes stigma and brings the benefits of power yoga training to student athletes.