Having pain in the biceps and triceps when pitching is a sign of overuse or weak muscle development. This can come from a poor strength and conditioning program and or poor mechanics.

I am not a Doctor but I have dealt with pitching injuries my entire career and have studied strength and conditioning science for years. I recommend that when pitching with an annoying pain in the biceps and triceps you should first, take a few weeks off from pitching and then follow a strict diet of good whole food nutrition, along with icing the arm to help  stimulate the healing process.

Ice the arm on top of the bicep muscles for 10 minutes and then remove the ice for 30 minutes and then ice the top of the triceps muscles for 10 minutes. DO NOT ice the ulnar nerve. This is the “funny bone” nerve just under the elbow. Make sure the ice is to the left or right side of the ulnar nerve when icing. Ice once or twice a day for a week and then start to strengthen the arm again initially with light arm curls and extensions. As you grow stronger, try to increase the weight while lowering the repetitions. Within a couple of weeks, work to push the muscles to fatigue within 5 reps of 3 sets. This will force the muscle to grow bigger and stronger.

This pain has more than likely occurred because the biceps and triceps muscles are not big enough or strong enough to handle the resistance of weight generated from the pitch. This also can be a sign of bad mechanics. If you are throwing with more arm than body, then the arm is forced to handle more stress or weight resistance. To prevent this pain from being a constant occurrence in your career, you must follow a core based strength and conditioning program that also builds integrity in the shoulder and elbow joints. Most importantly you must work to correct your bad mechanics of pitching with mainly your arm. There are many articles on this site that can help you with all of these adjustments. It is great that you are listening to your body and searching for answers to this problem but now it is extremely important that you make the proper adjustments so this does not plague your season or career.

If the pain you are experiencing is more than an annoyance, it is more like knives going into your arm, then you could have a tear in the muscle, or ligament. If this is the case, I recommend you see your doctor about this pain.

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