Posts Tagged ‘Shoulder Workouts’
January 5, 2010 | 
Author 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 »
By Steve Eagerton, Pitcher & Tommy John Patient @ Jacksonville University
The most painful part of coming back from my experience with Tommy John was restoring my range of motion. I was removed from a semi hard cast at two weeks post op., and the next day I started range of motion exercises. It took me about 5 weeks to get full range of motion with my therapist moving my arm and almost 8 weeks to get full range of motion on my own. I literally thought my elbow would explode some days- it hurt so bad. Of all the people I know who underwent Tommy John, I seem to have had the most pain. I think maybe it was because I had a lot of scar tissue, or maybe I am just a sissy (just kidding!).
Full range of motion for me, using my left arm as a guide, was 0-147 degrees. I think the first day I reached 20-88°. We tried to increase the ROM about 10° a week. I got full extension pretty quick, within about 3 weeks, but I made shorter strides in gaining flexion.
For TJ patients, I recommend making sure you keep it moving outside of rehab because if not you won’t progress as quickly. For the first week or two I was so sore that I would just keep my arm immobile on non-rehab days. Eventually I realized I needed to move it, even if just a little, to keep it from stiffening up.
I just want those who think they are hurting a lot while trying to reach full ROM just to know you aren’t the only one, and to grind it out.
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
I’ve been familiar with foam rolling and myofascial release for a few years now, starting when I was told I had a lot of inflexibility that needed to go away. If you’re unfamiliar with myofascial release, check out this article. It’s from wikipedia, but it gives a pretty thorough overview. Basically, though, you maneuver yourself over a foam roller, which compresses the tissues beneath, allowing for connective tissue (fascia) restrictions to loosen. This includes trigger points, which gives a lot of people chronic pain.
I hadn’t done much of it recently, but felt motivated to get back into it. And having experienced good things with it in the past, I made some time after a workout.
I figured I would write a post of milestones of post-surgical activities, as that is a pretty common question people have. I asked other guys all the time when they could do this or that, so here you go. Some of these I can’t remember exactly, so bear with me.
Out of sling: 2 days
Stopped taking painkillers: 1 day
Started forearm rehab: 1 week
Full Range of motion: 3 weeks Read the rest of this entry »
In all of the baseball training manuals hand strengthening seems to be ignored. Some of the games greatest hitters would always comment on how having strong hands made them good at their craft, but what about pitchers? And what about that part of the body that actually delivers the baseball? Sure, everyone knows a strong shoulder is required to throw hard, but the hand and the fingertips are the ones who have the last say in what the ball does. That being said, I want my hands and fingers strong.
Easy In-Home Strengthening
In this post we will go into some of the immediate and easy things one can do at home to start developing stronger hands and fingers. Grip strength can be developed in a tremendous amount of ways, but we will just focus on a few today that worked for me and will get you started in the right direction. Read the rest of this entry »