Off Season - QB

Good Morning! Sad Monday, football season is officially over, which means officially the off season for all football players. I’d expect the Seehawks and Patriots players will be completely off for the next couple weeks for their bodies to recoup. But for us, I will break down some key buckets for quarterbacks. Next week, will be the final positional breakdown for off season training with specialist (punters, kickers, etc.)

*The injuries discussed in this newsletter are for general educational purposes only. I am not affiliated with the athlete’s medical team, and the information shared does not reflect any insider or team medical details. Specifics about the injury are often unavailable, which can significantly influence the estimated timeline for return to play.

Disassociation of the Scapula

Out of all positions on the football field, besides punters and kickers, disassociation training is the most important for quarterbacks. Disassociation is the ability to move one body part independently from the others. This is a critical skill required for sports or positions that require rotation. We can see extreme cases of the inability to disassociate movements in Parkinson’s patients with en bloc turning where they can not disassociate the bodily movements and turn the head, trunk, and pelvis all simultaneously. (for our neuro PTs)

If we look at the picture above of Sam Darnold, the right scapula is back and retracted with the arm in abduction and external rotation.

In this photo of Darnold during his follow through, the right arm is extending, protracted, and forward. The left arm is now back and retracted. this is an example of disassociation of the scapula and shoulder. We want to mimic these positions in the off season to perform at a higher level on the field.

Some disassociation exercises can include a single arm row, while the opposite arm and contralateral side of the body moves in the opposite direction of the row. We can also do this with single arm dumbbell bench press and half kneeling single arm cable pull down to increase the neuromuscular function of disassociation for quarterbacks.

Thoracic Spine Rotation

Thoracic Spine Rotation in quarterbacks need mobility, strength, and power. This is directly because of the throwing motion. If a quarterback has limits in any of these three, than throwing power will be reduced.

I’ve covered different exercises for all three of these. But to quickly run through one of each, it would include thread the needle, palloff press with rotation, and a lateral medball toss.

Scapular Function, Control, and Mobility

For the quarterback’s throwing arm, scapular function is key. It is important to reduce winging of the scapula or hitches during concentric or eccentric flexion and abduction. If there is winging with that, then that would indicate weakness in the Serratus Anterior (the muscle pictured below). To strengthen this muscle, we can do a supine dumbbell straight arm punch or a push up plus. To increase stability in the shoulder as well, you can also do the push up plus on a medball to increase instability of the now unstable surface.

A hitch would indicate decrease strength in the SAULT muscles (abductors of the scapula). These muscles would include the Serratus Anterior, Upper Trapezius, and Lower Trapezius. To strengthen the upper trap, dumbbell or barbell shrugs could be a good exercise. Doing one single arm dumbbell shrug could be even more beneficial now creating anti lateral flexion which is another bucket quarterbacks need to hit (but not covered in this newsletter). Supermans with a dumbbell is a great exercise to strengthen the lower trap!

*Due to my professional association with the Atlanta Falcons during preseason and my current role with the Florida State Seminoles, I will not provide educational content or commentary on any injuries within these programs during or after the season.

Shoulder Strength

The last bucket I will cover, and one of the most obvious, is shoulder strengthening to increase throwing power and prevent overuse injuries. With the shoulder being a ball and socket joint, it becomes very complex with 18 muscles having a direct affect over the joint.

There as a zillion different exercise to target these muscles and muscle groups to strengthen the shoulder, so I will talk about a few that I feel are important, even though all should be addressed at some point in the off season.

First, is the rotator cuff that helps stabilize the joint in the shoulder. The next is the pectoralis major which is a strong horizontal adductor of the shoulder. We can target both of these muscle groups with a bottoms up kettlebell bench press.

The next muscle I want to emphasize is the Latissumus Dorsi which is an important adductor of the arm. We can of course target this muscle with lat pull downs or a half kneeling cable pull down to also include disassociation.

Lastly, I want to include the anterior, middle, and posterior deltoid. Which does flexion, abduction, and extension of the shoulder. These can be targeted as easily as DB front raises, lateral raises, and with dumbbell prone extension on a table.

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