Tuff Cuff-shoulder routine

[Senators]

Slader's dad here. We recently started the training program and I went through a routine last night on the upper body. How much weight should be used for the shoulder/rotator cuff exercises? I started with 10#'s then dropped to 5#'s and it was tiring. I am still fairly strong and fit and wanted to be sure that 5# wasn't too much for Slade. He is 6'3", 14 yo, 205# or so.

Slade's favorite pre-game song is "Ironman" and I told him he will be an ironman in a few months of following this program.

Any replies on weight suggestions is appreciated. I am thinking 3-5 range? Thanks!

[Bower]

Wow that big for a 14 year old. Three pounds should be fine. Those exercises start off really easy then after you do a few they really start to tire you out.

At 14 try not to push him to hard. Saying that a 14 year old is starting off with 10 pounds seems a little extreme. Remember he has to want to be a good pitcher just as much as you want him too.

[Senators]

Thanks, he is big boy. I, myself, started with 10#, Slade used 5#'s and i think it was a bit too much for him. I'll drop him down to 3#'s.

Thanks for the pitching advice also. I have my wife to keep me in line. He didn't pitch regularly until he was 12, then his coaches started using him more. He's a leftie too. He'll turn 15 in a couple months.

I used to feel that I needed to push him to practice. He usually isn't a "gung-ho" type of kid. When I realized that, I curved my outward show of enthusiasm and gave him opportunities and he started showing me the drive he has. The early growth has helped him on the field. He now wants to get better and wants to learn what he is doing wrong when things don't go well.

Thanks again!

[TropicalJoel]

I've heard that pitchers should never go beyond 8 lbs on the rotator cuff movements so no injuries occur. I do 5 and is sufficient for me. I would also say between 3-5.

[Steven_Ellis]

Even big league pitchers keep it 5 pounds and under. It was always funny to me to see Kyle Farnsworth doing 5 pound shoulder exercises in the weight room when he and I were on the Cubs. Then he'd go squat 500+ pounds. FREAK! (In a good way!)

[Bower]

When I was in 7th grade on JV, I was always ebarassed to do the little 3 pound exercises the coach had for us, until one day I say one of our big bad seniors who was jacked doing a 3 pound weight routine and I'm like ok I'll jump on that and go do it next to him, no one will pick on me lol.

[Spencer]

Haha 500lb squats... I'm a long ways from that.

I wouldn't ever go above 10lbs on shoulder exercises and would recommend keeping them lower anyways. I generally use 7.5lb or 5lb weights.

[qcbaseball]

its better to do at it 3lbs the right way and the right amount of reps then to do 5lbs or even more the wrong way jus trying to get through it

[Spencer]

exactly. What's important is doing it right. After awhile, 3lbs will feel like nothing and 5lbs will feel light also.

[qcbaseball]

even when 5lbs gets light, and it will if you continue on the routine, i still dont think its best do go past 5 lbs becuase then you might start to subconsciously use your larger stronger muscles to help the workout and will b doing nothing really at all for ur cuff

[Steven_Ellis]

Remember what muscles you're trying to strengthen -- the 4 rotators in the shoulder. They're appx 3 to 5 inches long and less than an inch thick. 5 pounds is totally easy ... and that's the point. Do what you want, but I'm serious: even Big League pitchers don't do more than 5 pounds.