THE THROWER’S TEN PROGRAM: A CLINICAL REFERENCE GUIDE FOR PHYSICAL THERAPISTS AND ATHLETIC TRAINERS

If you’ve spent time around baseball pitchers, competitive tennis players, or overhead volleyball athletes, you’ve probably noticed that shoulder injuries rarely show up as one dramatic event. More often, they surface after many repetitions, once small strength deficits and movement inefficiencies finally outpace tissue capacity.

That’s the problem The Thrower’s Ten Program was built to solve. General shoulder strengthening has its place, but overhead athletes ask more of their shoulders than most athletes do — the rotational velocity and stabilization demands of throwing expose muscular imbalances long before they’d show up on a manual muscle test.

This guide was written to be a reference for clinicians and a handout for athletes, coaches, and parents alike to follow along . The goal is to understand why the program works — not just to memorize the exercise list. You’ll also see references throughout to JAG PT’s downloadable Thrower’s Ten Program PDF, a chairside resource worth saving to your phone or clinic tablet.

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Who Can Use The Thrower’s Ten Program?

The Thrower’s Ten Program can be used by athletes who have full range of motion and strength, as well as coaches and parents looking to support shoulder strength and injury prevention. The program can be incorporated into a regular training routine to help reduce the risk of injury or used as a valuable tool during rehabilitation and return to activity.

The exercise list stays largely the same across these settings, what changes is dosage, resistance, and where the program fits within the broader plan of care. That distinction matters for newer clinicians: rehab and performance training often draw from the same movements, just prescribed differently.

What Kinds of Athletes Can Use The Thrower’s Ten Program?

Although developed originally for baseball pitchers, the program translates well across any sport with repetitive overhead loading:

Baseball and softball

nearly as-written; the diagonal patterns and posterior cuff emphasis mirror pitching mechanics directly.

Tennis

benefits from added posterior cuff and scapular endurance work for long serving sessions.

Learn How to Prevent & Treat Tennis Elbow.

Volleyball

athletes rack up high-volume overhead contacts rather than max-effort throws, so muscular endurance (lower resistance, higher reps) is often the more useful target.

Swimming

already high overhead volume, so the program functions as a supplement to swim training, not the primary shoulder workload. Coordination with coaches matters here.

The Thrower’s Ten Program Breakdown

The Thrower’s Ten consists of ten exercises using elastic resistance and light dumbbells, performed for 3 sets of 10 reps each, prioritizing movement quality over load.

Order in Video	Exercise	Primary Muscles	Equipment	Out-Season Sets x Reps	In-Season Sets x Reps

1	Diagonal Pattern D2 Flexion	Deltoid, Rotator Cuff, Trapezius, Serratus Anterior	Elastic Band	N/A	1×10
1	Diagonal Pattern D2 Extension	Latissimus Dorsi, Teres Major, Pectoralis	Elastic Band	N/A	1×10
2	Shoulder Abduction to 90 Degrees	Supraspinatus, Middle Deltoid	Dumbbell	N/A	1×10
3	Scaption with Internal Rotation	Supraspinatus, Anterior Deltoid, Subscapularis, Trapezius	Dumbbell	N/A	1×10
4	Prone Horizontal Abduction	Middle and Lower Trapezius, Posterior Deltoid, Rhomboids	Dumbbell	N/A	1×10
5	Prone Horizontal Abduction with External Rotation	Posterior Deltoid, Infraspinatus, and Teres Minor	Dumbbell	N/A	1×10
6	Press Up	Pectoralis Major, Triceps Brachii, and Anterior Deltoids	Table or Chair	3×10	1×10

Order in Video	Exercise	Primary Muscles	Equipment	Out-Season Sets x Reps	In-Season Sets x Reps

7	Prone Rows	Rhomboids, Middle Trapezius, Posterior Deltoid	Dumbbell	N/A	1×10
8	Push-Ups	Pectoralis Major, Triceps Brachii, Anterior Deltoids	N/A	3×10	1×10
9	Biceps Curls	Biceps Brachii	Dumbbell	N/A	1×10
10	Overhead Triceps Extension	Triceps Brachii	Dumbbell	N/A	1×10
11	Wrist Extension	Extensor Carpi Radialis Longus, Extensor Carpi Radialis Brevis, Extensor Carpi Ulnaris	Dumbbell	3×10	1×10
12	Wrist Flexion	Flexor Carpi Radialis, Flexor Carpi Ulnaris, Palmaris Longus	Dumbbell	3×10	1×10

Order in Video	Exercise	Primary Muscles	Equipment	Out-Season Sets x Reps	In-Season Sets x Reps

13	Wrist Supination	Supinator Brevis, Biceps Brachii	Dumbbell	3×10	1×10
14	Wrist Pronation	Pronator Teres, Pronator Quadratus	Dumbbell	3×10	1×10
15	Shoulder External Rotation	Infraspinatus, Teres Minor	Elastic Band	N/A	1×10
16	Shoulder Internal Rotation	Subscapularis, Latissimus Dorsi, Pectoralis Major	Elastic Band	N/A	1×10
17	Shoulder Internal Rotation at 90 Degrees of Abduction	Subscapularis, Pectoralis Major, Latissimus Dorsi	Elastic Band	3×10	1×10
18	Shoulder External Rotation at 90 Degrees of Abduction	Infraspinatus, Teres Minor	Elastic Band	3×10	1×10

Dosage by phase:

In-season maintenance:2–3x/week, post-practice or competition, maintenance-level resistance, ~20–25 min/session.
Off-season rehab:3–5x/week, progressive resistance, integrated with mobility and kinetic chain work.

Learn more about Improving Mobility with Physical Therapy.

Return to sport:frequency secondary to objective findings — strength symmetry, cuff endurance, scapular control, and successful interval throwing progression.

The Thrower’s Ten in Practice at JAG PT

The Thrower’s Ten has stayed a staple in sports medicine not because it’s novel, but because it consistently targets the muscle groups overhead athletes rely on every day. It’s not a standalone protocol — it works best alongside thoracic mobility work, kinetic chain strengthening, manual therapy, and interval throwing progressions, guided by ongoing communication between PT, ATC, and coaching staff.

For clinicians, students, athletes, and parents alike, save the Throwers 10 PDF as it will be applicable to your practice. The value isn’t in memorizing ten exercises — it’s in understanding why each one is there.

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