Baseball Injuries: What to Expect in the Next Few Months

Written on February 7, 2012 at 9:04 pm, by Eric Cressey

With football season now officially over, loads of sports fans are now turning their attention to the day that pitchers and catchers report in a few weeks, signifying the start of spring training and a new Major League Baseball season.  Truth be told, many college programs will have already started their seasons – and many high school programs will be playing official games before the big leaguers start having regular season contests.

Unfortunately, with the start of a new season comes injuries…and lots of them. In fact, according to researchers who examined MLB injury statistics from 2002 through 2008, professional baseball players are 10.6 times more likely to get injured in April than they are in September.  In other words, they are far more likely to get hurt because they haven’t prepared adequately for specificity than because they’ve had too much specificity.

Think about that for a second.  By the time September rolls around, most MLB players have logged 150 games between spring training and regular season play.  On a regular basis, they’ve fouled balls off their feet, gotten hit by pitches, made 100 slides, attempted dozens of diving catches, and sprinted full-tilt when they aren’t warmed-up thoroughly after standing around doing nothing for a few innings.  Pitchers have logged hundreds of innings, in some cases, and catchers are sick of squatting for hours on end.  Yet, guys are dropping like flies in April, when they’re supposed to be the most fresh.

Huh?

There are three legitimate reasons that this is happening.

First, the weather is colder – which means it’s tougher for guys to stay warm and loose during early season games.  This doesn’t explain the high injury rates we see in spring training, though, as all games take place in Arizona and Florida.

Second, guys may be ramped up too quickly.  Too many swings or throws in a short period of time may be the problem – but this really isn’t something that can be changed, as guys need to become game ready, getting their timing, coordination, and mechanics down cold while they’ve got proper coaching at hand.

Third (and this is the main message of this article), guys simply aren’t preparing correctly in the off-season with their baseball strength and conditioning programs.  They may not be showing up with the right mobility and stability in the right places, or they may simply be waiting too long to start throwing, hitting, or sprinting.  This happens all the time at the high school, college, and professional levels.

In the high school ranks, kids may be winter sports athletes, and not pick up a ball until a week or two before tryouts.  Or, they may have just lifted weights all winter, but not done enough sprinting or mobility work.

In the college ranks, some athletes will skip throwing and hitting altogether over winter break – and then wind up with issues when they return to campus and ramp up quickly to prepare for the start of the season.

Finally, in the professional ranks, many players simply wait too long to start baseball activities.  You can lift all the weights you want, throw medicine balls, sprint, take yoga classes, and participate in any of a number of other general training modalities, but nothing prepares you for being in baseball cleats and hitting, throwing, taking ground balls, or shagging fly balls for hours on end – and doing so every day of the week.  It’s why I encourage our professional baseball crew to always get started on these things well in advance.  Guys might start playing catch as early as Thanksgiving, start hitting off a tee in early December, and start working on defensive drills when January rolls around.  And, we’ll do movement training – sprinting, change of direction drills, ploys – throughout the off-season.  We don’t add everything at once; instead, we gradually introduce a more and more baseball-specific stimulus as the off-season progresses so that nobody gets surprised when they show up to spring training; it should feel like a breeze.

So, with anywhere from a few weeks to a few months of your off-season remaining, make sure you’re not just getting bogged down in the weight room.  Keep in mind that you lift weights to stay healthy on the field and improve performance, not just for the sake of lifting weights.  Look for more and more specificity in your programming with increased participation in baseball activities – but not so much that it becomes a “too much, too soon” scenario.  And, keep an eye out for the media reporting on loads of hamstrings, hip flexor, adductor, and oblique strains in the months to come, as it’s a sign of the season!

Related Posts

Oblique Strains in Baseball: A 2011 Update
Hip Injuries in Baseball

Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive a Copy of the Exact Stretches used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!

Pitching Injuries: It’s Not Just What You’re Doing; It’s What You’ve Already Done

Written on May 18, 2011 at 6:22 am, by Eric Cressey

Three weeks ago, this article on pitching injuries became the single-most popular piece in EricCressey.com history:

Your Arm hurts?  Thank Your Little League, Fall Ball, and AAU Coaches

In that feature, I made the following statement:

We can do all the strength training, mobility work, and soft tissue treatments in the world and it won’t matter if they’re overused – because I’m just not smart enough to have figured out how to go back in time and change history. Worried about whether they’re throwing curveballs, or if their mechanics are perfect?  It won’t matter if they’ve already accumulated too many innings.

While athletes might be playing with fire each time they throw, the pain presentation pattern is different.  You burn your hand, and you know instantly.  Pitching injuries take time to come about. Maybe you do microscopic damage to your ulnar collateral ligament each time you throw – and then come back and pitch again before it’s had time to fully regenerate.  Or, maybe you ignore the shoulder internal rotation deficit and scapular dyskinesis you’ve got and it gets worse and worse for years – until you’re finally on the surgeon’s table for a labral and/or rotator cuff repair.  These issues might be managed conservatively if painful during the teenage years (or go undetected if no pain is present) – but once a kid hits age 18 or 19, it seems to automatically become “socially acceptable” to do an elbow or shoulder surgery.

Sure enough, just yesterday, reader Paul Vajdic sent me this article from the Shreveport Times. The author interviews world-renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews about the crazy increase in the number of Tommy John surgeries he’d performed over the past decade.

A comment he made really jumped out at me, in light of my point from above:

“”I had a kid come in, a 15-year-old from Boca Raton, (Fla.), who tore his ligament completely in two,’ Andrews said. ‘The interesting thing is when I X-rayed his elbow with good magnification, he has a little calcification right where the ligament attaches to the bone. We’re seeing more of that now. He actually got hurt with a minor pull of the ligament when he was 10, 11, 12 years of age. That little calcification gets bigger and, initially, it won’t look like anything but a sore elbow. As that matures, it becomes more prominent. It turns into an English pea-size bone piece and pulls part of the ligament off when they’re young.’”

In other words, it takes repeated bouts of microtrauma over the course of many years to bring an athlete to threshold – even if they have little to no symptoms along the way.  Injury prevention starts at the youngest ages; otherwise, you’re just playing from behind the 8-ball when you start training high school and college players.

In addition to walking away with the perspective that young kids need to be strictly managed with their pitch counts, I hope this makes you appreciate the value of strength and conditioning programs at young ages, too.  For more information, check out my post, The Truth About Strength Training for Kids.

We can’t prevent them all, but I do think that initiatives like the IYCA High School Strength Coach Certification in conjunction with pitch count implementation and coaching education are a step in the right direction.

Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive a Copy of the Exact Stretches used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!

“The Physics of Pitching” Review

Written on May 17, 2011 at 6:07 am, by Eric Cressey

I just wanted to quickly mention that a book to which I contributed will be out shortly. The Physics of Pitching will be released on June 6 and can be pre-ordered at Amazon.

Len Solesky, a local pitching instructor who works with quite a few of our athletes, co-wrote the book with James Cain. The Physics of Pitching also features contributions from orthopedic surgeon Dr. Scott Silverberg, physical therapist Rob Ackerly, former MLB pitcher Rusty Meacham, and some schmuck named “Cressey.” My chapter is, of course, focused on strength and conditioning for baseball.

This is an excellent read for parents and kids alike. It won’t appeal quite as much to higher level players and coaches, but if you’re looking to learn the basics of pitching and become a better teacher (or student), it’ll help you to do so. I especially like the fact that the guys went to great lengths to focus on the mental side of pitching.  In all, it’s 192 pages with loads of photographs and an accompanying instructional DVD…not too shabby for a resource that only costs $16.49.  Check it out HERE.

Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive a Copy of the Exact Stretches used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!

Stuff You Should Read: 3/7/11

Written on March 7, 2011 at 3:46 am, by Eric Cressey

For this week’s list of recommended reading:

Final Phase Fat Loss: An Interview with John Romaniello – I did this interview with John Romaniello just over one year ago, but the information is still very applicable.  And, given that John is just “re-launching” his product with new additions and a big price discount (starting next Monday at midnight), the timing is very good.  For more information, check out Final Phase Fat Loss.

Band Work After Pitching? – With the baseball season about to get going, I thought this would be a good time to reincarnate this post I wrote a while back.

Act Small to Grow Big – When I read this article by Pat Rigsby, I immediately sent it to my business partners, Pete and Tony.  While I think we are doing a lot of things correctly in this regard, it seemed like a good reminder.  If you’re a fitness professional reading this blog, I’d call it a must-read for you.

Sign-up Today for our FREE Newsletter and receive a deadlift technique tutorial!

Lose Fat, Gain Muscle, Get Strong, and Laugh a Little – Installment 2

Written on March 2, 2011 at 7:48 am, by Eric Cressey

Time to learn and laugh – and hopefully lose fat and gain muscle in the process.

1. Here’s a great study that shows that scapular dyskinesis in swimmers is magnified as training duration increases.  I think that we all assume that you either have a scapular dyskinesis or you don’t – but the truth is that you may not have it at rest, but it can kick in with activity as you fatigue.  This is often why pitchers’ mechanics change (e.g., elbow drops) as they get tired later in an outing.

It’s a perfect example of how managing a pitcher – building up throwing volumes, charting pitch counts, and preparing the body – is much more important in terms of long term health than simply teaching pitching mechanics.  A pitcher might have great mechanics in a 15-30 pitch bullpen, but that can change dramatically if he is asked to extend his pitch count.

2. I woke up this morning to an email from two CP pro guys, Matt Kramer (Red Sox) and Chad Rodgers (Braves), and it included this video thank you/tribute from the off-season.  Not a bad supplemental skill set for a couple of guys who throw 95mph!

3. My wife and I have been doing more and more cooking from Dave Ruel’s Anabolic Cooking.  He’s got a ton of great (and healthy) recipes in this cookbook that have been a nice change of pace for us, as we seemed to have gotten in a rut when things got busy and we just kept preparing what was quick, easy, and familiar.  I’ll write up a thorough review of the product sometime soon, but for now, you can find out more information HERE.

4. On Monday, my wife and I returned from four days in Iceland.  It was an awesome trip; people there are so hospitable and we were treated fantastically.  I could go on and on about our experiences there, but a travel guide could tell you much more than I ever could – so I’ll just make an interesting observation…

On average, Icelandic folks live two years longer than those in the U.S.  This is in a country that a) gets far less vitamin D due to minimal sunlight and b) has very few resources when it comes to growing fruits and vegetables because almost the entire country is lava fields.  What do they have that we don’t? Portion control at meal time.

Speaking of meal time, I ate whale blubber, rotten shark, and ram’s testicle.  Not surprisingly, none of them were very good.

5. I saw this advertisement with Mick Jagger on it in a clothing store at a Reykjavik mall and just had to snap a picture.  Apparently, Jagger has 20-inch biceps in Iceland.

This was definitely one of the better Photoshop jobs that I’ve seen.  They really made it believable.  The only thing missing from the picture is the purple unicorn that Mick rode to the show.

6. My buddy John Romaniello was on Good Morning America the other day.  I was hoping he’d talk about the time that we ate moose meat sloppy joes together, but instead he talked about fat loss.  I think the sloppy joe story would have come out better, but his appearance still went pretty well.  Check him out.

Sign-up Today for our FREE Newsletter and receive a deadlift technique tutorial!

Stuff You’ll LOVE to Read: Valentine’s Day Edition

Written on February 14, 2011 at 7:09 am, by Eric Cressey

Sappy title, huh?  Well, the truth is that people around the world will spend loads of money on flowers that will die in the next week – so we’ll carry that theme forward with today’s list of recommended reading.  Check these out:

White Sox, Brewers Lead Injury Prevention Parade – A big thanks goes out to Mike Stare, DPT for sending this article my way.  It’s always good to see quantifiable evidence of just how bad injuries in major league baseball have gotten.  One really important thing to consider is that man games (and money) lost to injuries doesn’t always paint a true picture of how effective a team’s medical staff is.  Teams with good medical staffs are more likely to sign better players in spite of pre-existing injuries (the 2009 Red Sox signed John Smoltz, Billy Wagner, and Brad Penny when they were all coming off surgery, for instance), so they’ll understandably have higher rates in spite of the fact that they’re doing a lot of things really well.  Muddy waters, indeed.

Smith Machine Salaries – Speaking of wasteful spending, this post is about two years old and is very, very sad, but true.  I’m sure it’s even worse nowadays.

Baseball Showcases: A Great Way to Waste Money and Get Injured – This is timely on a number of fronts, as there are loads of showcases going on right now.  Many of the participants are kids who haven’t even picked up a baseball since last August, yet they’re throwing full speed in front of radar guns.  Sad.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone; try not to think about all the money you spent on flowers!

Sign-up Today for our FREE Newsletter and receive a detailed deadlift technique tutorial!

Long Toss: Don’t Skip Steps in Your Throwing Program

Written on January 16, 2011 at 2:19 pm, by Eric Cressey

My good buddy Alan Jaeger has gone to great lengths to bring long tossing to the baseball world.  I discussed why I really like it and what some of the most common long toss mistakes are in two previous posts:

Making the Case for Long Toss in a Throwing Program
The Top 4 Long Toss Mistakes

However, one thing I didn’t discuss in those previous blogs was the status quo – which is essentially that long toss distances should not exceed 90-120 feet.  These seemingly arbitrary numbers are actually based on some research discussing where a pitcher’s release point changes and the throwing motion becomes less and less like what we see on the mound.  Alan looked further into the origins of the “120 foot rule,” and informed me that these programs began in the late 1980s/early 1990s and were based on “post-surgery experience” of a few rehabilitation specialists.

Yes, we’re basing modern performance-based throwing programs for healthy pitchers on 20+ year-old return-to-throwing programs that were created for injured pitchers.  It seems ridiculous to even consider this; it’s like only recommending body weight glute bridges to a football player looking to improve his pro agility time because you used them with a football player who had knee or low back pain.  It might be part of the equation, but it doesn’t improve performance or protect against all injuries.  Let’s look further at how this applies to a throwing context, though.

A huge chunk of pitching injuries – including all those that fall under the internal impingement spectrum (SLAP tears, undersurface cuff tears, and bicipital tendinosis), medial elbow pain (ulnar nerve irritation/hypermobility, ulnar collateral ligament tears, and flexor/pronator strains), and even lateral compressive stress (younger pitchers, usually) occur during the extreme cocking phase of throwing.  That looks like this:

It’s in this position were you get the peel back mechanism and posterior-superior impingement on the glenoid by the supra- and infraspinatus.  And, it’s where you get crazy valgus stress (the equivalent of 40 pounds pulling down on the hand) at the elbow – which not only stresses the medial structures with tensile force, but also creates lateral compressive forces.

In other words, if guys are hurt, this is the most common spot in their delivery that they will typically hurt.

So, logically, the rehabilitation specialists try to keep them away from full ROM to make the surgical/rehab outcomes success – and you simply won’t get full range of motion (ROM) playing catch at 60-120 feet.

Effectively, you can probably look at the “progression” like this:

Step 1: 60-120 ft: Low ROM, Low Stress
Step 2: 120+ ft: Medium ROM, Medium Stress
Step 3: 240+ ft: High ROM, Medium Stress
Step 4: Mound Work: High ROM, High Stress

In other words, in the typical throwing program – from high school all the way up to the professional ranks – pitchers skip steps 2 and 3.  To me, this is like using jump rope to prepare for full speed sprinting.  The ROM and ground reaction forces (stress) just don’t come close to the “end” activity.

Only problem?  Not everyone is rehabbing.  We’re actually trying to get guys better.

Long Toss.  Far.  You’ll thank me later.

Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive a Copy of the Exact Stretches used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!

Lose Fat, Gain Muscle, Get Strong: Eric Cressey’s Best Articles of 2010

Written on December 31, 2010 at 4:46 am, by Eric Cressey

Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better – This was obviously my biggest project of 2010.  I actually began writing the strength and conditioning programs and filming the exercise demonstration videos in 2009, and put all the “guinea pigs” through the four-month program beginning in February.  When they completed it as the start of the summer rolled around, I made some modifications based on their feedback and then got cracking on writing up all the tag along resources.  Finally, in September, Show and Go was ready to roll.  So, in effect, it took 10-11 months to take this product from start to finish – a lot of hard work, to say the least.  My reward has been well worth it, though, as the feedback has been awesome.  Thanks so much to everyone who has picked up a copy.

Optimal Shoulder Performance – This was a seminar that Mike Reinold and I filmed in November of 2009, and our goal was to create a resource that brought together concepts from both the shoulder rehabilitation and shoulder performance training fields to effectively bridge the gap for those looking to prevent and/or treat shoulder pain.  In the process, I learned a lot from Mike, and I think that together, we brought rehabilitation specialists and fitness professionals closer to being on the same page.

Why President Obama Throws Like a Girl – A lot of people took this as a political commentary, but to be honest, it was really just me talking about the concept of retroversion as it applies to a throwing shoulder – with a little humor thrown in, of course!

Overbearing Dads and Kids Who Throw Cheddar – This one was remarkably easy to write because I’ve received a lot of emails from overbearing Dads asking about increasing throwing velocity in their kids.

What I Learned in 2009 – I wrote this article for T-Nation back at the beginning of the year, and always enjoy these yearly pieces.  In fact, I’m working on my 2010 one for them now!

What a Stressed Out Bride Can Teach You About Training Success – I wrote this less than a month out from my wedding, so you could say that I had a good frame of reference.

Baseball Showcases: A Great Way to Waste Money and Get Injured – In case the title didn’t tip you off, I’m not much of a fan of baseball showcases.

Cueing: Just One Piece of Semi-Private Training Success – Part 1 and Part 2 - These articles were featured at fitbusinessinsider.com.  I enjoy writing about not only the training side of things, but some of the things we’ve done well to build up our business.

Three Years of Cressey Performance: The Right Reasons and the Right Way – This might have been the top post of the year, in my eyes. My job is very cool.

How to Attack Continuing Education in the Fitness Industry – Here’s another fitness business post.

Want to Be a Personal Trainer or Strength Coach?  Start Here. – And another!

The Skinny on Strasburg’s Injury – I hate to make blog content out of someone else’s misfortune, but it was a good opportunity to make some points that I think are very valid to the discussion of not only Stephen Strasburg’s elbow injury, but a lot of the pitching injuries we see in youth baseball.

Surely, there are many more to list, but I don’t want this to run too long!  Have a safe and happy new year, and keep an eye out for the first content of 2011, which is coming very soon!

Sign-up Today for our FREE Newsletter:

Weight Training For Baseball: Best Videos of 2010

Written on December 30, 2010 at 4:55 am, by Eric Cressey

I made an effort to get more videos up on the site this year, as I know a lot of folks are visual learners and/or just enjoy being able to listen to a blog, as opposed to reading it.  Here are some highlights from the past year:

The Absolute Speed to Absolute Strength Continuum – Regardless of your sport, there are valuable take-home messages.  I just used throwing velocity in baseball pitchers as an example, as it’s my frame of reference.

Should Pitchers Overhead Press? - This was an excerpt from Mike Reinold and my Optimal Shoulder Performance seminar (which became a popular DVD set for the year).

Shoulder Impingement vs. Rotator Cuff Tears – Speaking of Mike, here’s a bit from the man himself from that seminar DVD set.

Thoracic and Glenohumeral Joint Mobility Drills – The folks at Men’s Health tracked me down in the lobby at Perform Better in Providence and asked if I could take them through a few shoulder mobility drills we commonly use – and this was the result.

Cressey West – This kicks off the funny videos from the past year. A few pro baseball players that I program for in a distance-based format created this spoof video as a way of saying thank you.

Tank Nap – My puppy taking a nap in a provocative position.  What’s more cute?

Matt Blake Draft Tracker – CP’s resident court jester and pitching instructor airs his frustrations on draft day.

1RM Cable Horizontal Abduction – More from the man, the myth, the legend.

You can find a lot more videos on my YouTube page HERE and the Cressey Performance YouTube page HERE.

Sign-up Today for our FREE Newsletter:

Weight Training for Baseball: Featured Articles

Written on December 29, 2010 at 7:24 am, by Eric Cressey

I really enjoy writing multi-part features here at EricCressey.com because it really affords me more time to dig deep into a topic of interest to both my readers and me.  In many ways, it’s like writing a book.  Here were three noteworthy features I published in 2010:

Understanding Elbow Pain - Whether you were a baseball pitcher trying to prevent a Tommy John surgery or recreational weightlifter with “tennis elbow,” this series had something for you.

Part 1: Functional Anatomy
Part 2: Pathology
Part 3: Throwing Injuries
Part 4: Protecting Pitchers
Part 5: The Truth About Tennis Elbow
Part 6: Elbow Pain in Lifters

Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture – This series was published more recently, and was extremely well received.  It’s a combination of both quick programming tips and long-term modifications you can use to eliminate poor posture.

Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture: Part 1
Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture: Part 2
Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture: Part 3
Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture: Part 4

A New Paradigm for Performance Testing – This two-part feature was actually an interview with Bioletic founder, Dr. Rick Cohen.  In it, we discuss the importance of testing athletes for deficiencies and strategically correcting them.  We’ve begun to use Bioletics more and more with our athletes, and I highly recommend their thorough and forward thinking services.

A New Paradigm for Performance Testing: Part 1
A New Paradigm for Performance Testing: Part 2

I already have a few series planned for 2011, so keep an eye out for them!  In the meantime, we have two more “Best of 2010″ features in store before Friday at midnight.

Sign-up Today for our FREE Newsletter: