In Part 1 of this series, I outlined the first three reasons that I'm opposed to baseball pitchers using year-round throwing programs. Here are the next four:
4. They need to get their shoulder and elbow range of motion back.
As I noted in Part 1, throwing a baseball is the single-fastest motion in sports. With the crazy arm speeds one encounters, you have to keep in mind not only the muscles trying to accelerate the arm, but also the ones trying to slow it down. This "braking" challenge is called eccentric stress - and I'll talk more about it in a second.
What you need to know now, though, is that when left unchecked, significant eccentric stress can lead to tissue shortening. If you need further proof, Reinold et al. reported that immediately after a pitching outing, pitchers lose an average of 9.5° of shoulder internal rotation and 3.2° of elbow extension - and that these losses persisted at 24 hours post-throwing.
Now, imagine these acute range of motion losses being left unchecked for an entire season - or a season that simply never ends because pitchers are always throwing. That's how elbows wind up looking like this:
Fortunately, we can prevent losses in range of motion during the season with appropriate mobility exercises, manual therapy, and breathing exercises - but the truth is that not everyone has access to these initiatives in terms of expertise, finances, or convenience. So, while we work to educate the masses on arm care, emphasizing time off from throwing programs is also a key component of an overall strategy to reduce injury risk.
One last thing on this topic: it is a nightmare to try to improve shoulder or elbow range of motion in a pitcher during a season, as the very nature of throwing works against everything you're trying to achieve. The off-season is "where it's at" in terms of optimizing range of motion in throwers.
5. They need to “dissipate” eccentric stress.
Okay, here's where I take #4 and geek out a bit. I apologize in advance.
Sometimes, you have to get away from the baseball world in order to learn about the baseball world. To that end, I need to think Mike Reinold for bringing this great 2004 study from Tomiya et al to my attention.
These researchers created eccentric stress in muscle tissue of mice using an electrical stimulation model, and monitored blood markers of muscle damage for a period of time thereafter. What you'll see in the graph below is that myofiber disruption really peaks at three-days post-exercise, then start to return down to baseline, yet they still aren't even there at seven days post-intervention.
Source: Tomiya A, et al. Myofibers express IL-6 after eccentric exercise. Am J Sports Med. 2004 Mar;32(2):503-8.
Now, let's apply this to the world of pitching. Every single pitcher who throws more than once every 7-10 days is surely pitching with some degree of muscle damage. And, I can tell you that the two toughest challenges pitchers have reported to me are:
a) moving from starting to relieving
b) going from a 7-day high school or college rotation to a 5-day professional rotation
I'm firmly believe that pitchers need to throw in-season to stay strong, but I also know that we can't trump physiology. Sure, we need to have optimal nutrition and regeneration strategies in place, as we can't just baby guys and expect them to get better. However, make no mistake about it: high-level pitchers simply have to get good at pitching at 90% capacity (at best) if they are going to succeed.
If I already have a guy whose arm is working at a deficit for 8-9 months of throwing, the last thing I want to do is beat him up for the other three months with the same kind of volume and stress.
6. They need to allow any undetected low-grade injuries to heal.
As I discussed in an old blog, Pitching Injuries: It's Not Just What You're Doing; It's What You've Already Done, most injuries (especially ulnar collateral ligament tears) come from the accumulation of chronic, low-level stress. Maybe you get some calcification on your ulnar collateral ligament or a low-level rotator cuff tendinosis, and it takes a few years and hundreds of innings before something finally "goes."
Old, low-level injuries are less likely to reach threshold if you give them some downtime and work on redistributing training stress. By strengthening the rest of your body in the off-season, you're dramatically reducing the demands on your rotator cuff with throwing.
You can't teach other joints to share the burden if the burden is never removed temporarily.
7. They need a chance to prioritize other competing demands.
Throwing is a good 20-30 minute endeavor each time you do it - and possibly even more. When I think about all the things that pitchers can be doing to get better in the off-season from a strength and conditioning standpoint, I have a really hard time justifying giving away that much time and recovery capability. There are other things that need to be prioritized at this time - and year-round throwing is an especially tough pill to swallow when you know that throwing is working against many of the very qualities - rotator cuff strength, scapular stability, mobility, and tissue quality - that you're trying to establish.
Closing Thoughts
The lack of downtime from throwing is especially problematic in younger populations, as they are skeletally immature and weaker. I’d argue that a really weak 15-year-old kid throwing 74-76 mph does far more damage to his body on each throw than a moderately strong professional player throwing 90-92 mph, especially given that the pro pitcher’s mechanics are more optimized to protect the arm. This underscores the importance of "syncing up" mechanics, throwing programs, and the overall baseball strength and conditioning program.
Last, but certainly not least, remember that two weeks doesn't constitute "time off." Rather, I firmly believe that pitchers need the ball completely out of their hands for at least two month per year, preferably continuously. In other words, eight one-week breaks throughout the year is far from ideal, as it doesn't really allow for positive adaptations to occur.
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When Thanksgiving rolls around, many of our professional baseball players at Cressey Sports Performance will start up their winter throwing programs after a full 10-12 week break from throwing. They're always a bit rusty in the first week of tossing after the layoff, but every single one of them always "figures it out" in a matter of a few weeks - and still has plenty of time to get in a solid throwing program prior to heading off to spring training. And, because they've been working hard in the gym on their strength, mobility, and soft tissue quality, they're always better off in the end.
Still, there are those who insist that baseball pitchers don't need time off from throwing.
I couldn't disagree more.
I'm sure this will rub some folks the wrong way, but I can't say that I really care, as most of those individuals can't rationalize their perspectives outside of "guys need to work on stuff." I, on the other hand, have seven reasons why baseball pitchers need time off from throwing:
1. They need to lose external rotation to gain anterior stability.
Having external rotation - or "lay back" - when is important for throwing hard, and research has demonstrated that simply throwing will increase shoulder external rotation range-of-motion over the course of a season. This does not mean, however, that it's a good idea to just have someone stretch your shoulder into external rotation, as I wrote previously: Shoulder Mobility Drills: How to Improve External Rotation (if you even need it).
You see, when you externally rotate the humerus (ball) on the glenoid (socket), the humeral head has a tendency to also translate anteriorly (forward). In a well-functioning shoulder girdle, the rotator cuff musculature should prevent anterior instability, and it's assisted by adequate function of the scapular stabilizers, which offer the dynamic stability to reposition the scapula in the right place to "accommodate" the humeral head's positioning. For the athletic trainers and physical therapists out there, this is really what you're testing with an apprehension/relocation test.
The apprehension comes about because of either anterior instability or actual structural pathology (SLAP tear, rotator cuff impingement, or biceps tendinosis). The relocation component is just the clinician posteriorly directing the humeral head to create the stability that should otherwise be created by the rotator cuff and scapular stabilizers.
The take-home message is that while just going on year-round throwing programs in hopes of increasing external rotation seems like a good idea on paper, it's actually a terrible idea in the context of injury prevention. Pitchers should actually lose a few degrees of external rotation each off-season intentionally, as it affords them an opportunity to improve their stability. This leads us to...
2. They need a chance to get their cuff strength and scapular stability up.
Baseball pitching is the single-fastest motion in all of sports, as the humerus internally rotates at velocities in excess of 7,000°/second. So, it should come as no surprise that at the end of a season, the strength of the rotator cuff and scapular stabilizers is significantly reduced. Having dealt with many of our players for up to five off-seasons now, I have a unique appreciation for how they each respond differently to not only the stress of the season, but also to arm care programs that we initiate at season's end.
It's important to remember that improving rotator cuff strength is no different in terms of adaptation than improving a bench press or squat. Adding 10% to a guy's bench press might take three months in an intermediate population, or 12 months in a high-level lifter! Adaptation of the rotator cuff and scapular stabilizers is comparable. I need every minutes of those three months without throwing to get guys back to at least baseline, and hopefully a bit above it.
Can you imagine if some clown trying to improve his bench press went out and benched an additional 4-5 times a week on top of his regular strength and conditioning program?
His progress would be minimal, at best, and he'd be at a dramatically increased risk of injury. Throwing during a dedicated, appropriate structured early off-season arm care program is no different.
3. They need an opportunity to do dedicated manual resistance rotator cuff exercises.
Ask anyone who has worked with throwers for any length of time, and they'll always tell you that manual resistance exercises are the single-best option for improving rotator cuff strength. This rotator cuff exercise approach allows you to emphasis eccentric strength better than bands, cables, and dumbbells allow. It also keeps athletes more strict, as the one providing the resistance can ensure that the athlete isn't just powering through the exercise with scapular stabilizers or lower back.
The only downside to manual resistance rotator cuff exercises, though, is that because they generally prioritize eccentric strength, they will create more soreness. With that in mind, we use them much more in the off-season than in the in-season, as we don't want a pitcher throwing with added soreness. They're a great initiative in a comprehensive off-season baseball strength and conditioning program, but guys just don't seem to like them as much in-season, presumably because both throwing and manual resistance rotator cuff exercises can be too much eccentric stress when combined. As such, we used them a lot during the September-November periods, and then hold back in this area the rest of the year.
Of course, if you throw year-round, then you can forget about getting these benefits, as the last thing you want is to be sore while you're "working on stuff" in the off-season. That was sarcasm, in case you weren't picking up on it.
In Part 2, I'll be back with four more reasons baseball pitchers shouldn't throw year-round.
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In part 1 of this series, I discussed an overall approach to the categorization of core stability exercises. Here, in the second installment of this series, I'll be talking about how to incorporate various core stability exercises into your strength and conditioning programs.
To recap, the categories we'll be dealing with are anterior core, posterior core, lateral core, and rotary core. In reality, though, in my eyes, we only really need to specifically program for three of these categories. You see, the posterior core seems to take care of itself, as we are already training the ability to resist flexion with various strength exercises like deadlifts, squats, pull-throughs, kettlebell swings, and a host of other strength. Some folks may benefit from some birddogs in the warm-up period to help learn the anti-flexion patterning a bit better, but most folks are ready to rock and roll with a comprehensive strength and conditioning program that emphasizes the other three.
With that "exception" out of the way, I think it's important to appreciate three different factors when programming core stability exercises:
1. An individual's training experience - A true beginner can typically work on low-level core exercises like dead bugs and prone and side bridges on a daily basis to establish motor control. Conversely, these exercises may be too basic for a more advanced lifter, so he/she would need to focus on more advanced exercises, but do them less frequently (1-3x/week).
2. An individual's weaknesses - A young athlete with a raging anterior pelvic tilt would need to prioritize anti-extension core stability exercises over the other categories, as you want to master the sagittal plane before getting "too sexy" in other planes. Sure, you can train the other ones, but you're better off working on the most pressing issue first.
3. An individual's training frequency - Obviously, if someone is training 4-6x/week, you can do more in terms of core stability exercises with his strength and conditioning programs than you could if he was only training 2x/week. When they train less frequently, you often have to make some sacrifices in terms of core stability exercise volume in order to make sure the big-bang strength exercises (which can serve as indirect core training exercises) still get the attention they deserve.
With these three factors in mind, let's look at a few examples. Keep in mind that in each of these examples, I've removed the compound exercises, mobility drills, foam rolling, and metabolic conditioning just so that you can see how the core training exercises exist in isolation.
Example 1: 4x/week Strength and Conditioning Program
Here, you have all the flexibility in the work to prioritize the areas that are lagging the most. This example emphasized anterior core, but it could have easily been lateral or rotary core stability with some quick and easy substitutions.
Example 2: 3x/weekStrength and Conditioning Program
Day 1: Challenging Anterior Core (e.g., Rollouts), Low-Level Lateral Core (e.g., Side Bridges)
Day 2: Challenging Rotary Core (e.g., Landmines), Low-Level Anterior Core (e.g., Reverse Crunches)
Day 3: Challenging Lateral Core (e.g., 1-arm Carries), Low-Level Rotary Core (e.g., Pallof Presses)
You can still get in two versions of each of the "big three" core stability exercise categories over the course of the week - and that doesn't even include the "accidental" benefits you get from your compound strength exercises.
Example 3: 2x/week Strength and Conditioning Program
Day 1: Lateral Core (e.g., 1-arm Carries), Anterior Core from loaded push-up variation
Day 2: Rotary Core (e.g., Split-Stance Cable Lift), Anterior Core from overhead pressing.
You can see that this is far from "optimal" in terms of covering everything you want to cover in a comprehensive core stability exercise program, but when you can only get in two sessions a week (as might be the case for an in-season athlete), you make sacrifices and do what you can. This athlete might be able to complement this program with some low-level prone bridges, reverse crunches, and get-up variations on off-days.
Hopefully, this gives you a little glimpse into what a few sample weeks of core stability exercises look like in Cressey Sports Performance strength training programs. For more information and another perspective, I'd encourage you to check out our Functional Stability Training of the Core resource, which is on sale for 25% off this week (discount automatically applied at checkout). Click here to learn more.
Several of our other products are also on sale; you can learn more HERE.
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A while back, Mike Reinold and I presented our Functional Stability Training of the Core seminar to an audience of about 60 rehabilitation and strength and conditioning specialists at Cressey Sports Performance. In today's post, I wanted to touch on a topic we covered collaboratively: how to categorize various core stability exercises and incorporate them into your strength and conditioning programs.
Both Mike and I are in agreement that your four general categories are anterior core stability, posterior core stability, lateral core stability, and rotary core stability.
Anterior core stability exercises teach the body to resist excessive lumbar spine extension, and encompass a variety of drills, starting with dead bug, curl-up, and prone bridging activities. In prepared individuals, they progress all the way up through more advanced exercises like stability ball rollouts, and TRX flutters and fallouts.
Posterior core stability exercises are designed to train the body to resist excessive lumbar spine flexion. Your drills may include everything from the birddog all the way up through more conventional strength training exercises like deadlift variations.
Lateral core stability exercises teach you how to resist lateral flexion; in other words, your goal is to avoid tipping over. These drills may start with basic side bridging drills and progress all the way up through more advanced TRX drills and 1-arm carrying variations.
Rotary core stability exercises educate folks on how to resist excessive rotation through the lumbar spine. Examples include drills like landmines, lifts, and chops.
To be candid, this classification of core stability exercises isn't anything new to those of you who have been paying attention over the past few years. However, introducing these categories really wasn't my intention in this blog; rather, I had three key points I wanted to highlight:
1. It's not just what you do; it's how you do it.
You may be able to hold a prone bridge for 25 minutes, but if you're doing so in terrible positioning and just relying on your hip flexors and lumbar erectors to do the work, you're doing more harm than good. You'd be amazed at how many high level athletes can't do a simple prone or side bridge correctly.
2. A core stability exercise rarely fits into one category, especially when you add progressions to it beyond the initial stages.
Take a kettlebell crosswalk, for instance.
In this exercise, you have different loads in each hand, which makes it a lateral core stability exercise. With each step, the athlete goes into single-leg stance, which makes it a rotary core stability exercise. With the load in the bottom hand, there is a tendency to be pulled into flexion, so you have a posterior core stability exercise. Finally, with the arm overhead, one must prevent the rib cage from flying up and allowing the arm to fall backward, so you have an anterior core stability exercise as well. This example demonstrates the role of synergy among all the muscles (and fascia) around the core in achieving multidirectional core stability simultaneously.
Taking it a step further, how you control one plane of movement impacts the benefit you derive from a core stability exercise in the intended plane. In this half-kneeling cable lift, for instance, the primary goal is to work on rotary and lateral core stability, as the pull of the cable back toward the column is the primary destabilizing torque. You will, however, often see athletes perform the entire exercise in lumbar extension, as evidenced by a rib flair in the front, a backward lean, and loss of the packed neck. I execute the first two reps with the incorrect positioning, and the subsequent reps in neutral spine with adequate anterior core control.
3. When you consider the overlap among the various core stability exercise categories, it can be challenging to determine how to appropriately sequence them in a strength and conditioning program.
This will be the focus of part 2; stay tuned!
If you're looking for a great core stability resource right now, I'd encourage you to check out Functional Stability Training of the Core (as well as the rest of the Functional Stability Training series). And, to sweeten the deal, you can get 25% off through Monday (discount is automaticaly applied at checkout).
Several of our other products are also on sale; you can learn more HERE.
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Here is this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:
A House Divided - This was a great guest blog by Kellie Hart Davis for Tony Gentilcore's site. It homes home for those of us who have certain family members who don't embrace the healthy lifestyle like we do.
Using Soft Tissue Therapy to Enhance Stress Resistance - This great piece from Patrick Ward discusses the role of manual therapy in stress tolerance.
Optimizing the Overhead Squat - I thought this was an excellent article from Eric Auciello at T-Nation and teaching and moving through appropriate progressions of the overhead squat in strength and conditioning programs.
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Today's guest blog on Metabolic Resistance Training comes from Joe Dowdell, co-creator of the Peak Diet and Training Summit DVD set.Metabolic Resistance Training has received a lot of attention over the last few years, especially for fat loss. However, the reality is that many strength coaches have been using this technique with their clients and athletes for a very long time.
Before we go any further, and so we are all on the same page, my view or definition of metabolic resistance training is any strength training session that employs a series of 4-8 exercises (which are predominantly multi-joint in nature), while utilizing little (i.e., under 30 seconds) to no rest between sets. In other words, these metabolic resistance training sessions incorporate things like the Olympic lifts, squats, chin-ups, push-ups, kettlebell Swings, medicine ball throws, etc. in order to call upon as many muscle groups as possible in a single training session. In addition to the shorter rest periods, one may see “timed sets” as another variable, where the client performs as many reps as possible in a given time frame.
The overall training effect of metabolic resistance training is a greater metabolic disturbance in the body’s physiology, which in turn can elevate your caloric expenditure for a greater period of time following your workout. Compared to a traditional strength training session, this style of training can be very effective for body composition changes as well as an increase in one’s work capacity.
All of this sounds pretty great, especially if a client’s goal is fat loss, right? Well, yes and no. You see, the problem is that some people just aren’t ready for metabolic resistance training, especially when they first come to see you (or at least not to this degree). Many people, especially sedentary individuals, have underlying muscle imbalances that can lead to faulty movement patterns.
And, I’ve also found that some people are too weak to even get a proper metabolic training effect. So, in both of these cases, wouldn’t these people be better served by doing some structural balance work and maybe just some overall strength training? And, if we wanted to get some conditioning in with client, perhaps it might be better to use a Airdyne, VersaClimber, or Prowler after the strength training program wraps up for the day. This way, we can still get them a bit of a sweat, but the learning curve is pretty low. Just a thought.
So, you may be asking yourself, what should you do instead? Well, you can actually still set up a strength and conditioning program that will improve someone’s body composition without using metabolic resistance training. In fact, I often use more of a German Body Comp style of training for client’s in the early stages of training, especially for beginners or sedentary individuals. In other words, I may pair up a lower body exercise (like a split squat) with an upper body exercise (like a flat, neutral grip DB bench press) and allow the client 60 seconds of rest between each set of the two exercises. Or, I may use agonist-antagonist sequence, like a TRX high row followed by a push-up while employing the same protocol for the rest period. This type of training program will allow me to get quite a bit of work done while also giving me the flexibility to target a client’s weaknesses, develop better overall strength and stability while also giving me the opportunity to teach them how to move more effectively.
On the other hand, if I just fast tracked them into a more metabolic style of training like I see many trainers doing with their clients, I’m not allowing that client the opportunity to develop the kind of solid fundamental movement patterns that I want them to have. And, I may be just building strength on top of a dysfunctional foundation, which could lead to a setback further down the road. So, next time, you sit down to design a new client’s fat loss program, ask yourself the following question:
Is this client ready for Metabolic Resistance Training or do I need to first progress them to that point?
Joe covers more on this, as well as proper periodization models, energy systems training, how to structure and sequence a training session, and a lot more in our new Peak Diet & Training Design Home Study Course. Grab a copy before Friday at midnight and you'll save $100, get a handful of other goodies and bonuses, and earn 2.0 NSCA CEU credits.
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Last Saturday night, the power went out at our house thanks to a rare October snowstorm in New England. Expecting it to come back on pretty quickly, I went to bed Saturday night assuming I’d wake up to a normal Sunday morning.
Instead, I woke up and it was 49 degrees in my house. And, that wound up being par for the course through Tuesday at about 4pm. No hot showers, no refrigeration, no coffee in the morning: it makes you realize how much you take some things for granted.
It’s not all that different than what you’ll hear from injured and sick athletes. We always just believe that we’re going to be healthy – and it’s that assumption that leads us to put too much weight on the bar and lift with poor technique, have the extra beer, go to bed an hour later, or make any of a number of other small, but crucial decisions that interfere with our short- and long-term health, and the continuity in our workout "routines."
I wish I’d foam rolled even when I wasn’t in pain.
I wish I’d eaten my vegetables even though I was just trying to shovel in as much calories as I could in my quest to get strong and gain muscle.
These are all things I've heard from injured people. Hindsight is always 20/20.
Some of these decisions are made out of negligence, but often, they’re made simply because folks don’t know about the right choices. I mean, do you think this guy would really continue doing this if he thought it was good for his body?
Nobody is immune to ignorance; we’ve all “been there, done that.”
Almost a decade ago, I had no idea how much soft tissue work, high volumes of horizontal pulling, and thoracic spine mobility drills could do to help my shoulder. It’s why I stumbled through fails attempts at physical therapy with that shoulder back in 2000-2003, only to accidentally discover how to fix it with my own training in time to cancel my shoulder surgery.
Back in that same time period, nobody ever told me how eating more vegetables would help take down the acidity of my diet, or that Vitamin D status impacted tissue quality and a host of other biological functions. I never knew most fish oil products you could buy are woefully underdosed and of poor quality. Now, I crush Vitamin D, fish oil, and Athletic Greens on top of a healthy diet that’s as much about nutrient quality as it is about caloric content and timing.
In short, I didn’t know everything then, and while I know a lot more now, I still don’t claim to have all the answers. Nobody has all of them. So what do you do to avoid taking important things for granted?
Get around people who have “been there, done that.” Ask questions. Follow workout routines they’ve followed, and consult resources they’ve consulted. I touched on this in my webinars last week.
I also discussed this topic in a blog about strength and conditioning program design a while back. The best way to avoid making mistakes and taking things for granted is to be open-minded and learn from other people.
With that in mind, let’s use this post as a starting point. What mistakes have you made when it comes to taking things for granted? And, what lessons have you learned? Post your comments below.
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Here's this week's list of recommended reading:
If You're Not Growing Your Fitness Business, Here Are Some Fixes... - This was an awesome "choose your own adventure" type of post from Pat Rigsby, as he provides options for fitness professionals facing challenges on the business side of things. Pat's ability to find opportunity in any fitness is unparalleled, and one reason why I was stoked to collaborate with him on the Fitness Business Blueprint.
Get Strong Using the Stage System - This was a guest blog I just wrote last week for Men's Health. In it, I highlight one of my favorite strength and conditioning program strategies, the stage system.
The Importance of Hip Flexion Strength - This was a great guest contribution from Chris Johnson at Mike Reinold's blog.
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That said, if you were on the fence, check out this feedback I received from the father of a college pitcher who took a shot on Show and Go this past summer:
"Eric,
"Just wanted to shoot you a breakdown on how my college son took to your Show and Go program with some modifications for baseball specificity. He followed your strength and conditioning program to the “T” and this is where he is after the first seven weeks:
May 16 – Start
Bodyweight: 163lbs
Body fat: 10.0%
Lean mass: 146.68 lbs
July 7 (52 days later)
Bodyweight: 169lbs
Body fat: 9.25%
Lean mass: 153.3 lbs
-Front squat for reps went from 155 lbs to 235 lbs for reps
-Deadlift went from about 205 for reps to 335 for a single
-Dumbbell bench presses for reps went from 55lb dumbbells to 80lb dumbbells
"To me, an untrained eye, it looks like this is great progress and he measurably benefited from it! He looks pretty damn good, too.
"He is about to return for his senior year as a starting left-handed pitcher and plans to continue this workout routine for the entirety of the 16 weeks. We used the Alan Jaeger long toss throwing program and mechanical training from Paul Reddick and Brent Strom and his velocity improved from 78mph to 84-85mph and his breaking stuff are now plus pitches. In my opinion, none of this would have happened your strength training program and mobility drills that allowed him to physically carry his momentum down the bump longer. All-in-all, it was a very productive summer; thanks!"
-Darrell Drake
Don't miss out on this chance to take your game to the next level. Click here to pick up a copy of Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better!
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