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

Training this type of strength is extremely easy, and yet produces noticeable results, especially to the untrained.  After just 3 weeks of dedicated sessions with grip training intermixed, one of my third baseman clients remarked how much harder he would hit the ball at showcases, and how much longer he could swing in the cage without fatigue.  The big major league hitters who seem to just flick the ball over the fence?  Big, powerful forearms with a crushing grip.

Training Closed Hand Strength

As I mentioned, this is easy and allows for a lot of creativity.  The root of all of this is holding something that you can get your hands completely around, such as a chin-up bar, barbell, towel, dumbbell, etc.  Then with that weight in hand, you hang or hold while you stand still or walk.  Vary your weights, sets, time, etc. to maximize your training effect.  Grip training is something that you in most cases want to do to failure… making the weight fall from your fingers.

Hangs

Towel Hangs

Pretty easy.  Grab something overhead and hold on with closed fists.  Chances are, you won’t last nearly as long as those people in movies do, and you would absolutely drop off that building before help arrived.  The grip work involved in performing chin and pull ups is an additional huge benefit of doing them (and if you know me, you know I love me some chin ups).  A weak grip is also a limiting factor for many novices with poor chin up numbers.

Farmers Walks

-Grab heavy things and walk with them.  Repeat until you’re tired or preferably, can’t.  There are many ways to vary this such as with dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, towels, etc.

Towel Farmers Walks

"Blob" Farmer's Walks

Lift Heavy Weights

Do you push yourself when doing deadlifts, bent-over rows, RDLs, etc?  If you do, then your grip has been improving as a side effect.  My forearms transformed one summer when I used  a program from school that had me deadlifting twice per week, sometimes with a straight bar and sometimes with a trap bar.  If you have strong legs and push yourself to get stronger, you might find yourself holding 450 pounds in your hands, which will get you a crushing grip in no time.

Open Hand Strength

This is, again, just what it sounds like: holding onto things while your fist isn’t completely closed.  This type of strength is most important for pitchers and those who want to improve throwing velocity, because the force is applied to the ball from the tips of the fingers.  Having a strong fist isn’t going to help as much here, because closed fist exercises build more strength in the more proximal digits of the fingers.

Fingertips Transmit Power to the Ball

Training Open Hand Strength

I keep talking about rock climbing, but it’s just a fact that those people have freaky strong fingers.  I see the parallel to throwing, and I try to adopt their training methods (within reason).  Loading the fingers should be a gradual process, as the lever arm is really lengthened, which further increases the stress on the forearm muscles.  Point being, don’t just jump into 10 minutes of 2-finger hangs from your door moulding – you’ll have tendinitis or a popped flexor in no time.

Strong fingers

Use An Open Hand Grip…

Rock Rings Open-Hand Grip

Open-hand grip dumbbell

Top of Dumbbell or "Blob" hold

Weight plate farmers walks

Squeezing the life out of a Medicine ball

Final Thoughts

As you probably realize, grip training is something that never has to get boring; it can be varied a thousand different ways.  I just want people out there to start thinking about what their goals are, and how their training is preparing them for their sport.  In baseball, I think it’s clear that grip strength is huge.  Yet, an even more narrow focus (open vs. closed) should yield maximum carryover to the field.

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 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.

——————-

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.Other athletes don’t do this.  Soccer players play soccer, and when they get hurt, they do rehab and return to action.  Lacrosse, football, tennis, you name it, these sports all allow their athletes to play, with nothing intrinsic in the sport that injures them.  Sure, football and martial arts are violent and injurious, but the injuries are general and not caused by any specific physical act.

Baseball position players are also allowed to play.  Sure, they come down with the occasional arm problem, but with not nearly the regularity as the pitchers. 

No, pitchers are the only athletes that aren’t just allowed to just play their sport.  They simply can’t show up at the ballpark and leave when they are done.  They have to spend extra time strengthening and stretching their throwing arm just so it’s less likely to rip itself out of the socket.  Ever seen a pitcher’s arm lay back, parallel to the ground in external rotation?  Try replicating that in your living room, and you’ll start to understand…

The pitching motion is just ungodly stressful and unnatural for the human body.  Its  interesting how in the entire athletic community, this one position in one sport is so different from the rest.  Sure, all athletes have to strengthen their bodies to compete at a high level, but none but the pitcher are at such an injury risk where they must go above and beyond just to have a chance at longevity, and even then it’s often a losing battle.  

The only other trends like this are in knees of female athletes and football linemen.  Women are predisposed to ACL injury due to their natural body shape and unique biomechanics, and have an ACL injury rate something like 10x that of men.  A good friend of mine just tore hers for the second time.  Football linemen are so heavy and get pushed around so much that they suffer a similar fate.  

I, for one, am ready for titanium ligament replacements.  Maybe one day that will be possible.  I’ll gladly call myself a cyborg if it allows me 20 more good years.  

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…

Close-grip Pull up; Notice the arm position - a carbon copy of the chin up

So, if the salient difference between pull ups and chin ups is arm position (externally rotated or not) then anyone who accepts chin ups into their training program (hopefully everyone -they’re a crucial strength builder for ALL athletes) should accept close-grip pull ups as well, as long as they are done with a focus on keeping the arms tucked to the sides of the body.

Neutral grip pull up - also a great choice

Mix up your overhead pulling exercises to challenge your grip strength.  A chin up grip will work the biceps and forearm flexors of the arms more, while a close or neutral grip pull up will help beef up the forearm extensors, including the brachioradialis.  The verdict: use chin ups and pull ups, but keep those arms out of external rotation.

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

The first thing you’ll notice about using these is that you can’t do very many of them.  Join the club.  I can bang out 10 perfect, dead hang chins on a bar, but only about 8 of these on the deep edge or sloper.  I can do 6 right now on the medium edge, and about 4 on the 3 finger edge.  All about the fingers…

Gripping the "sloper" hold

Gripping the 3-finger pocket

Yeah, try pulling up your bodyweight on the tips of only 6 fingers.  Not easy and not for beginners, or people with current injuries.

But Rock Rings are a really great training tool if you’re healthy and into grip strength. My forearms get blasted from doing 4 sets of these, and it makes regular chins a breeze in comparison.  It’s a nice little grip drop set to go to failure on the rock rings, then jump up to the straight bar and finish out until your lats are done.

Finger strength is one of those things that is crucially important to a pitcher and there just aren’t that many ways of building it.  I’ve gotten into climbing for the finger strength (and fun). But if you don’t climb, try to swing the 30 bucks for a set – I love and definitely recommend them.  Check out the video for some more possible uses…

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

Weeks 3-4
Tossing 50ft 25 throws daily and 100ft 10 throws every other day

Week 5-6
Warm up 50ft 25 throws to and 100ft daily and 150ft every ohter day for 10 throws

Weeks 7-8
Same long toss regimen but allowed to finish up the daily throwing with 10 throws at 50ft at 75% effort like a flatground.

Weeks 9-10
Same long toss begin bullpens @ 50ft 90% effort

Weeks 11-12 this is the (8 month mark post surgery)
Full length bullpens 60ft @ 90%

Checkup after this and then cleared to pitch 100% velocity. Dr didn’t say when I was cleared to throw different pitches so I will wait and call him or just slowly work them in once i start flat grounds.

*STEVES UPDATE*

I also wanted to add on to this. First my program is a little bit accelerated I am hoping to be back in a game at 10 months with the Dr’s blessing and normally Dr. Jordan waits until the 12 month mark. Each of the steps mentioned above is normally about an extra week added to what I am doing. Currently I have a little tendinitis, which I think is more from working out too much too quick, than throwing. Either way I am taking 2 weeks off and am taking prednazone.

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.

Most pitchers probably throw a solid 3-4 mph slower in the bullpen before they jump into the game.  Do I have stats on this? No, but it’s just so hard to get your arm moving at that top speed that sits you at your game velocity.

It’s especially difficult when you haven’t pitched in a while, such as when recovering from injury or a long off-season.  You might swear you’re throwing with everything you’ve got, and for that moment you, in a way, do, but that last gear isn’t engaged.

I know when I am getting there when I start to tremble slightly, and feel that electric tension all over my body.  I get aggressive, angry, and my movements speed up while my perception of them remains the same.  This surge of adrenaline and switch into a barbaric, primal mode is what gets an athlete to his power threshold.

Some of the best strength athletes seem to have an uncanny ability to summon this extra power, and you can see the personality secede from their eyes as they become flooded with power.

So how does one manually shift into that last, hidden gear, without a stimulus like a gunman, bees, or a sellout crowd?  It’s visualization – taking your mind to that place where you have to put everything you have into this next pitch, or it’s over.

It takes practice, and it takes some real life experience.  Sometimes its taking out frustrations on the ball, pretending that your career is on the line, or simply just telling, screaming at yourself that you can throw harder.

While recently discussing this topic, my pitching coach Tim O’Brien conjectured how “reckless” it must feel to throw 90mph, how it must just take full abandon of the physical toll it could take on the body.  That thought sticks with me, and when I am trying to charge up, I think about that.  Am I really, really letting it go, such that my body could explode on any pitch?  If not, then throw the damn thing harder.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “pitchers aren’t supposed to throw all out on every pitch.”  Well, you’re right.  But you have to get there first, then back it down just a tick, to a comfortable level, the level at which you are the most effective pitcher you can be.  This backed off level of effort may not even slow you down, but it’s the level to one at which you can focus on more than just velocity.

So, ask yourself, is your arm going to fly out of the socket on the next pitch?  If not, dial it up a notch at your next long toss and see what you’ve got left in the tank.

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.  

Yes, at 9 months I could throw within 4 mph of my old best velocity, but those last 4 were apparently on backorder, and I really needed them at tryouts.  They just took more time.  My curve and change were there, but not like they once were.  These last “little” details are actually quite huge in determining the effectiveness of a pitcher, and I just had not anticipated how long it would take before they came back.  Before I knew it, what looked like a very fast recovery turned into a very average recovery.  I wasn’t going to receive any medals for it anyway, but it was still surprising.

One of the biggest problems was the every other day throwing schedule.  It’s just too little throwing per week to really get a feel for throwing offspeed pitches.  I think most need a few hundred reps a week with each the change and the curve to get them consistent, but that is just not possible throwing every other day.  Once I was cleared to throw as much as I wanted (around 10 months) things started to get better in the offspeed and location department.

But even then, these last little bits of what makes a successful pitcher eluded me.  Is 10 months a realistic recovery time?  Physically, yeah.  However to be your old, finely-tuned self (or your new, better self) its likely gonna take more than that. Probably 12-15 months, give or take a few.

Throw in a little bout of tendinitis (I battled the forearm variety last month) and the recovery time can keep on growing.  It’s not always smooth sailing all the way through, and when exactly the finish line is, may be very uncertain.

But, all in all, it can extend that optimism that comes along with this, that the best is still yet to come.  Glass half full, right?

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.