Posts Tagged ‘Sports’
January 12, 2010 | 
Author Grip strength is critically important, and I have been harping on it for some time. EVERYONE can use increased grip strength, and the implications it has on throwing harder, swinging harder and preventing injury are huge. Grip, or hand strength can be classified in many different ways, but today we are going to focus on just open and closed hand strength, the differences between them and their implications for pitchers and hitters.
Closed Hand Strength
This is just what it sounds like, holding things with a closed fist. This is the most important type of strength for a hitter to have, as gripping the bat is done with closed fists. This isn’t meant to be groundbreaking info, but I want you to see the carryover from the weight room to the field for both pitchers and hitters.
Closed Hands Gripping a Bat
I jotted down notes about my bullpen or general throwing sessions from months 7-9.5 of my recovery. I discovered it while cleaning my place. I’m just rewriting what I had down, so I may or may not be able to clarify if you have any questions.
March 22 – Good, not sore
March 24 – Good, not sore
March 26 – 7 months – Good, not sore
March 28 – 15 Changeups; good, but not perfect
March 30 – 10 changeups, discomfort on 1/3 of them
April 1 – 3/4 speed; no changes, no pain, 66-71 mph. felt ok, not perfect next day
April 3 – felt good, not perfect; 45 pitches @ 3/4 (speed)
April 6 – 1st two digits had pain when pressure applied
April 9 – mid to upper 70s, little pain; felt good after 4 days off prior
April 17 – no pain! 65 pitches at 3/4
April 19 – long tossed to 240 no pain
April 21 – felt good. into low 80s maybe
April 23 – gun read 75-77. TIRED! but no pain
April 25 – 8 months – Hit 81, consistent 76-79 50/30 pitches
April 28 – long toss to 270, 45 pitches at 85%
April 30 – 30 + 45 vs hitters. 82-84. Felt good
May 2 – VERY tired from April 30. Arm achy and slight pain, very dead. threw 70 at 2/3 speed
May 4 – flat ground, 15 curves at 50 ft. pain still, arm not recovered from previous.
May 7 – Hard pen, felt good. 80 pitches at 90%
May 9 – good long toss, felt great.
May 11 – 100% from mound, 100% changes, 50% curves (15). felt good, no pain, but knotted up on forearm after.
May 14 – 100% fast + cu, no curves. Still knot in forearm but no pain
May 16 – 45 fast-curve-change, 75-75-50% respectively. less tightness, no knot next day.
May 18 – Light pen, 30 curves
May 20 – In game, 28 pitches. 30 curves beforehand. Bicep Dead, big knot afterward. No throw 21-24.
May 25 – In game 35 pitches, no knot after, felt good
May 27 – 70 pitch pen, 30 90% curves, felt good, bicep better
May 29 – 50 pitch, 70%, curves getting sharper!
May 31 – 60 in game; arm felt slow, but great after. 55 fb/ 5 curves. No tightness at all.
June 2 – Long toss, hard but not too many throws. Need to get intensity up and let go. Felt good next morning.
June 4 – Bullpen 20 max effort, 85-90. Arm felt achy, some occasional pain twinges, and very dead. Decent next day. Fatigue in bicep/tricep still, but not terrible.
Thats the whole log. Wish I had done more of that during it all, but I was more interested in getting after it than writing it all down. Hindsight…
The human body adapts to common stimuli over time. In psychology, we call this habituation. In training, we combat this with periodization. What is periodization? It’s breaking a long period of training into different phases so that one’s muscles don’t habituate, which would stall progress.
The Phases
As an athlete, the period after completing a competitive season is known as the active recovery period. This is the time when one doesn’t perform specified training, but rather keeps his or her body in motion by recreational activities, done at a low intensity. Playing pick up basketball twice a week would be an appropriate activity for this phase.
Once active recovery is complete (generally just a couple of weeks, depending on season length), one moves into the hypertrophy phase. In this phase the goal to replace the muscle size that was lost during the season. The athlete needs to restore his body mass by resistance training at a high volume.
One ideal body mass is achieved, the strength phase is next. This is typified by lower volume but higher intensity resistance training, designed to develop increased muscle strength, but not to pack on any more size. Lifting for size and lifting for strength differ in the rep schemes and loads used. Naturally, the strength phase will use lower rep sets with near-maximal loads.
Get As Big As You Need To BE
The final phase of the off-season is the competition phase, which takes all the size and strength the athlete has built and peaks it for maximum performance right as the season starts. In powerlifting, this would mean training at 95-100% of one’s max lifting ability, yet for other sports this would vary. The competition phase for high-velocity, low-load sports like tennis, baseball, softball, lacrosse, etc. would consist of high-velocity, low-load activities like plyometrics and other dynamic, ballistic exercises.
Then Make all that muscle DO things
Once your body peaks and the season starts, you enter a maintenance phase, in which you lift only to keep your off-season gains, which means not trying to build more strength. Attempting to make gains in the weight room during the season would detract from in-game performance. Game performance is the ultimate goal, after all, so nothing should be done during the season to negatively impact it.
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This model discussed above is the linear model of periodization, meaning that phase progression follows uniformly. There are other methods as well, such as the undulating model, in which one might perform one day of each phase each week. The type of periodization used is subject to the athlete’s physical makeup, time constraints, abilities, etc.
The simplest way of thinking about periodization is this: Rest after your season, then get back to work. Build muscle, make that muscle strong, then make that muscle move fast. Once the season starts, maintain what you worked hard for, then repeat. Sensible, right?
As I was in there, it suddenly dawned on me: Pitchers are just unlike everyone else in the sense that what they do is so physically violent, that they have to do what is called “prehab” just to reduce the likelihood (or in reality, delay) injury.
Its pretty much a fact that if a pitcher doesn’t do regular rotator cuff, scapula, and forearm work (basically the whole pitching arm), he is doomed to inevitable, catastrophic arm injury. Doing prehab doesn’t guarantee health by any means, as tons of diligent pitchers still injure themselves regularly, but its our insurance policy, and at the very least gives us a better chance of not being injured. Read the rest of this entry »
The chin up v. pull up debate has been mulled over by the baseball community for quite some time now. We all know that performing either or both of these exercises is the key to developing strong, wide back. Yet, some say pull-ups are harmful for throwing athletes, and it’s hard to know what to believe.
First off, the difference: a chin-up is done with a supinated (palms facing) grip, as opposed to the pronated (palms away) pull-up grip.
The baseball fitness community seems to be accepting of chin-ups just fine; the issue is with pull-ups, which are supposedly the cause of too much rotator cuff stress, hypertrophy, and tightness.
Why are pull-ups associated with such negatives for throwing athletes, whereas chin-ups are not?
The noteworthy difference between the two, as far as rotator cuff stress is concerned, is in the arm placement. On pull-ups, especially with wide grips, the arms are externally rotated, which causes more recruitment (and stress) of the rotator cuff. I agree with avoiding wide pull ups because of the high amount of rotator cuff strain.
A wide pull up - note the externally rotated arms
Chin up; note the arms are tucked close to the body, keeping the focus on the back
Because of the supinated grip on chin-ups, the arms track closer to the body, resulting in far less rotator cuff recruitment. The arms simply cannot flare outward as easily on chin-ups, until the grip gets extremely wide. Yet, the arms can stay tucked on close-grip and neutral grip pull-ups as well… Read the rest of this entry »
One of my favorite pieces of specialty equipment are my Metolius Rock Rings, which are a free-hanging climbing holds. These also happen to be a companion of one of my favorite exercises of late, the chin-up.
The only thing I really dislike about chin-ups (aside from everyone in the gym doing them half-assed) is that they feel stressful on the elbow, due in part because of the way the arm articulates as the body ascends. The hands tend to want to pronate on the ascent, which is rendered impossible by holding a straight bar. Is this catastrophic? No, but I prefer individual, free holds for each arm to allow my joints to move comfortably in whatever path they choose.
The Rock Ring
These are made for climbers to functionally train for their sport. What do climbers have that everyone else does not? Crazy strong backs, forearms and fingers. We could all use a little more of that…
These hanging holds have 4 features(descending from the top, increasing in difficulty):
-a sloper (type of open palm hold)
-4 finger deep edge
-4 finger shallow edge
-3 finger 3/4 inch pocket (very, very tough to do chins with)
Metolius Rock Ring
One of my readers here wanted to share his throwing program with everyone. It’s unique; I haven’t seen one like his and like I have said before, every player and doctor are different and it’s always interesting to see how the same surgery is handled in different ways. He left this to me as a comment, but I figured I’d do one better and post it.
This is actually a really nice idea, sharing each person’s surgery information. If anyone out there is interested in doing any writing, or sending me anything that they think would benefit the tommy john community, please hit me with an email. I’ve posted my thoughts, maybe we can post yours…
*Understand also that this, and any program posted here, is for reference only, and one should always consult a doctor before starting or altering a rehabilitation protocol*
The following is all courtesy of Steve Eagerton, so I want to send a big thank you out to him for providing this to all of us. I wish him all the best in his recovery, and it’s easy to tell that he is strongly in control of his rehab, which is great.
I thought I would leave my throwing program on here my Dr was Dr. Jordan out of Tallahassee, FL FSU team doctor has well as several other team doctors. I have been following this and am starting week 5’s throwing this week. I don’t follow this to the letter more than anything just listen to your arm. The first 6 weeks are not about velocity at all the DR has stressed just tossing. The Dr actually cleared me to start tossing @ 16 weeks and not at 4 months. My 1st day of throwing was August 16th. I am a 21yrs old RHP pitcher at Jacksonville University redshirt sophmore.
Week 1 @ 4 months
Tossing 50ft 25 throws every other day
Week 2
Tossing 50ft 25 throws daily Read the rest of this entry »
Ever sprinted away from a stinging, furious, vindictive swarm of bees?
If you have, (likely with wet pants) then you know that there is an extra gear deep down that kicks in when the adrenaline is pumping.
This isn’t news; we have all experienced something like this in our lives, and as such we know that the body’s dormant physical potential is pretty amazing.
Thing is, in sport it is often difficult to summon this sort of extra-maximal (yes, I’m aware that term is senseless) effort, especially in situations when no one is watching and the game is not on the line. Read the rest of this entry »
Time makes fools of us all.
At 8.5 months I thought I was ready to pitch in games. I thought I was ready to get back in front of scouts at 10.5 months. Not so fast.
I don’t know where the time went, but my smooth and swift cruise through rehab got choppy, eventually slowing me down to an idle this summer. Read the rest of this entry »
Here are three more shoulder stretches, that when done in addition to the sleeper stretch, will help keep one’s arm nice and loose.
Posterior Deltoid and Infraspinatus Stretch
Pull the arm across the chest to feel a stretch in the back of the shoulder. This will get the infraspinatus (a rotator cuff muscle) and the posterior deltoid.
This stretch can also be done at different angles across the body to get the muscles in a new direction.
Middle Deltoid Stretch
With the arm at 90°, grab the forearm and pull the arm across the back. The range of motion won’t be very long, but you will feel a stretch in the middle aspect of your shoulder.
Anterior Deltoid Stretch
Keep your arm straight and pull directly down the middle of the back.
The key to this stretch is keeping good posture – maintain a high chest and keep your shoulders square.
You don’t want your shoulder to sag or rotate backward as you pull. This would take the muscle out of proper position to stretch.
Notes
In addition to standing, these three can also be done laying face down on the floor.
The perfect time to do them is right after sleeper stretches, as you can just stand up or roll over onto your stomach and complete your shoulder stretching circuit.
Unilateral leg training is great for you. Plain and simple.
For the athletic population, and especially one-side dominant athletes like baseball players, a big differential can develop between legs. Pitchers will often have increased tightness in their stride leg, especially in the hip joint (from rotating on it with each pitch), yet higher strength in their balance leg (chiefly from balancing, loading, and pushing off with it 100 times per game).
The disparity can be in flexibility, mobility, or strength, but no matter the symptom, unilateral training is always a big part of the cure. And, if you have a weak leg your regular bilateral lifts (squats, deadlifts, etc.) are needlessly suffering. Big strength gains can happen in those regular lifts from strengthening the weak link.
The two most prevalent uni-leg squats are the Pistol Squat and the Peterson Step-Down, but I’m also going to throw the rear-reaching uni-leg squat into the mix, which is a better variation of the pistol squat for a few reasons.
Pistol Squat
Take a close look at the above video. It’s important to notice two things about the pistol squat:
1. The back is very rounded, which might not cause problems if done with bodyweight, but would be a serious injury risk if additional weight is used.
2. Weight shifts way back on the heels, which puts more force on the knee than if the weight was more centered.
For the above reasons, I am not a fan of pistol squats. If the off-knee is bent it allows better weight distribution, but even then I think there are better options. Read the rest of this entry »
The following six exercises are prescribed to any ballplayer with elbow pain. Be it tendinitis, UCL strains, sprains, or surgery, these forearm exercises are the ones that strengthen the whole forearm and ward off future elbow problems. To the untrained thrower doing this prehab can also add a few MPHs, as the forearm and hand are the last mechanical parts in the delivery of a throw. Today is the perfect time to start doing these exercises regularly.
These exercises can be done with dumbbells or a flat or tubular Thera-band (Flat is preferred). You can find Thera-Bands here: Thera-Bands 6 Yard Box (6 in. wide)
Pronation, supination and ulnar deviation are best done with a ban, mini-sledge hammer or baseball bat (though they are shown below with a dumbbell).
Update: Watch the following video as a supplement to this article. It clearly explains all the exercises shown in both band and weighted implement versions:
Forearm Flexion
With palms facing up, curl the weight toward you using your wrist.
Forearm Extension Read the rest of this entry »
Novelty in the weightroom isn’t always a good thing, but sometimes can provide a fun pick-me-up when routines get stale.
The following are two of my favorite exercises that aren’t very well known, both of which, ironically, start with a Z. These were introduced to me by my strength and conditioning coach at UMBC, Fred Cantor.
The Zercher Squat
The Zercher Squat is a front squat in which you carry the bar in the crux of your elbows. Yeah, you could put a pad or towel there, but that takes the fun out of it.
It’s a great exercise because it easily allows proper and deep squatting form, and it requires more core recruitment to prevent forward lean.
And, it is fun to do with a partner because you can laugh as you both grimace in pain. You can also compare pain tolerances and find out which one of you is the soft one.
The Dreaded Zercher Squat
The Zottman Curl
This is a cool exercise because it combines a concentric bicep curl with an eccentric reverse curl. Gives a nice blast to the brachioradialis and the forearm extensors.
A special thanks goes out to Andrew Sacks, the bad mofo demonstrating in the video. Without an intact ACL or a working pancreas, he still had the courage to do the video . Commitment.
Some pitching instructors like Dick Mills claim that long toss is a waste of time, as it doesn’t replicate the mechanics used when throwing from a mound. This anecdotal argument is actually the reason long toss is effective – because it gives the arm a different stimulus: while throwing at max distance it stretches, reaches and works at peak efficiency all at the same time, which when compressed into a 60 foot throw requires the arm to move faster than it ordinarily could.
The Long Toss Benefits
1. Stretches the arm out while under tension
2. Utilizes a slightly different motion compared to mound throwing, allowing for a new muscle stimulus
3. Teaches one to reach out and really extend toward the target
4. Allows the body to find peak arm slot efficiency in throwing the ball as far as possible (i.e if you pitch over the top, but throw farthest at 3/4, maybe it’s time to pitch at 3/4)
5. Develops synchrony in the body’s movements, which helps cure mechanical timing issues
6. Teaches to pull the arm down hard when coming back in, developing more arm speed and even more forward reach Read the rest of this entry »
Picture this: You set a goal to bench press 200 pounds. To accomplish this goal, once or twice a week, (maybe three times) you go into the gym and bang out 5 hard reps of bench press and call it a day. Would this manner of training get you to your bench press goal? No way. Why? Because your muscles aren’t getting enough of a stimulus to grow or get stronger. Duh.
Throwing is the same way: throw sparingly and you won’t develop your arm to its potential. Throw often and your arm will be strong and durable. Ever see an infielder, especially a catcher, go down with arm problems? Probably not too often. But if you’ve been around baseball long enough, you’ve surely noticed that outfielders complain about their arms hurting as much as anyone. The reason for this is that outfielders infrequently throw, both in practice and in games, and when they do it is often with maximum effort.
Why, physiologically, does throwing a ton make you throw harder? Your body just recognizes the need to build strength because the muscle group is consistently stimulated. This is why climbers have incredible hand strength, and cyclists have monster calves and thighs. They’re both just doing what they do for hours a day, and their bodies respond by sending the muscular reinforcements.
Pitchers should not consistently go hard and rest on alternate days. It’s stressful, the arm doesn’t learn to recover quickly, and the repetition needed for growth isn’t there with too many off days. Off days are needed every week, but limiting them to 1 or 2 is ideal, and the other days should be filled with high volume, low intensity throwing to keep your muscles working. Read the rest of this entry »