Week 1 of the In-Season Restoration Series: The Thoracic Reset and Wall T-Rotation
Each off-season, baseball players go into their training with similar imbalances and dysfunctions. While no two athletes are the same, this series will be aimed toward in-season maintenance of functions and balances that are commonly lost over the course of a season.
This week we are covering the Thoracic Reset and the Wall T-Rotation, as well as using them both simultaneously. First things first:
Why do we need the Thoracic Reset?
Baseball is repetitively rotational. The athlete’s body will be exposed to hundreds and thousands of rotational reps over the course of a season. Typically, this rotation is from the dominant side toward the non-dominant side. Naturally, this strengthens rotation toward their non-dominant side (i.e. a righty typically rotates better to the left, and a lefty typically rotates better toward the right). That strength imbalance leads to biasing thoracic rotation to that side. If you think doing two sets of T-rotations is going to stop this imbalance, you are mistaken. That will have little effect in even slowing this eventual process. It’d be like putting a lawn chair in front of a train and thinking that’ll stop the trains forward motion. It’s insane.
How to use it
The Thoracic Reset passively pulls the athlete into rotation toward our non-dominant side. This allows the athlete to use the musculature of the trunk to strengthen and restore rotation back toward the dominant side. It is a form of Reactive Neuromuscular Training (RNT), and it can be used during warm-ups and throwing drills (we will use it this way), but I really like it’s uses in a post-throwing routine. Just put the band on and go through your normal routine while holding a neutral posture. I detail the set up in the video.
One of the post-throw exercises that I like to do while using the Thoracic Reset is the Wall T-Rotation. The Wall T-Rotation is an active thoracic spine mobilization exercise. All you’ll need is a wall and something to pin against the wall (I use a foam roller in the video). I add a couple adjustments to the exercise to target other areas in common need of restoration. Check it out, and try adding this to your warm-up and post-throw routine.
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