What Does Recovery After Pitching Really Look Like?
- undefeatedptandper
- Jul 27
- 3 min read
By Dr. Carmen Jansante, PT, DPT, CSCS
Undefeated Physical Therapy & Performance
When it comes to recovery after a pitching outing, there’s a lot of outdated advice floating around. Some athletes still believe they should run long distances to “flush out the lactic acid,” while others take the complete opposite approach—throwing on some ice and lying around to let their body recover in total rest.
But here’s the truth: recovery doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
At Undefeated, we teach our athletes a recovery approach that falls right in the middle—a method grounded in movement, soft tissue work, and smart strength training. The goal? Help the body bounce back faster, reduce soreness, and keep building strength and performance between outings.
Here’s how we do it:
Step 1: Warm the Tissue
The first step in recovery is getting the tissue warm. We don’t jump straight into heavy movement—we start by heating the body up gently. This could mean using moist heat (not dry heat or icy cold packs) in the areas that feel tight or sore—like the posterior shoulder, triceps, or even the elbow. Just warm enough to increase circulation and prep the muscles—never hot enough to risk a burn.
Step 2: Active Movement
Once the tissue is warm, we get the body moving. This isn’t high-intensity sprinting or weighted circuits—it’s light, controlled movement that keeps blood flowing and flushes out lingering soreness.
We like to use:
UBE (Upper Body Ergometer)
Assault Bike
Rowers or light cardio tools
We use a simple 1:1 interval structure—20 seconds of moderate work, 20 seconds of easy pace—for a few rounds to elevate the heart rate and get the joints moving without overloading them.
Step 3: Targeted Soft Tissue Work
After warm-up, we shift into tissue-specific recovery. We use massage balls (like a lacrosse ball) to apply deep pressure to the muscles that worked hardest during pitching—usually the posterior shoulder, rotator cuff, triceps, and lat.
Our goal is to:
Find tender points
Apply deep pressure
Actively move the tissue through that pressure
This helps reduce tightness, improve range of motion, and prepare the area for further manual treatment.
Step 4: Hands-On Therapy
At Undefeated, we follow up with manual techniques like:
Instrument-Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (IASTM) (a.k.a. scraping or blading)
Cupping therapy
These techniques help lift the tissue, bring in fresh blood flow, relieve tension, and break up minor adhesions. We often combine them to maximize benefit, especially when dealing with stubborn tightness in the throwing arm or shoulder.
Step 5: Smart Strength Training
Contrary to popular belief, strength training after a pitching outing isn’t off limits—you just have to do it smartly.
We avoid max effort lifts, but that doesn’t mean everything is low intensity. Our athletes will:
Perform 4–5 sets of their main lifts
Keep reps in the 5–8 range
Focus on control, technique, and moderate loads
If the day is scheduled for lower body, we hit legs. If it’s upper body day, we still train it—just not at max intensity. The key is to maintain consistency without pushing to the limit.
Final Thoughts: Recovery Is Not Rest
Recovery doesn’t mean sitting on the couch or icing your shoulder/elbow for hours. And it doesn’t mean exhausting yourself with distance running, either.
The best recovery sits in the middle. It’s about intentional movement, targeted soft tissue work, and smart training.
So don’t be afraid to move after you pitch—just do it right. Use these steps to guide your post-outing recovery and give your arm (and your body) what it truly needs to stay healthy, strong, and ready for the next one. When your body cannot recover from the stress you put it through performance drops and injury spike. We like to say you can only put your body through what it can recover from.
Need help implementing a recovery system that fits your throwing schedule?
📩 Contact us or visit Undefeated Physical Therapy & Performance to learn more about our customized arm care programs for pitchers.
Call or Text (412)627-2131
