This is an article exerpt taken from themedpagetoday.com on how conditioning & strength training can play a role in injuries. Please visit the link above to view the full article.
In combination with overuse, poor conditioning and a lack of focus on strength training contribute to the increasing occurrence of injuries that need to be corrected by Tommy John surgery, according to David Altchek, M.D., of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
“The most important thing is this issue of adequate preparation from an athletic point of view,” he said. “We see a lot of kids who are talented pitchers because they have natural talent but haven’t trained into athletes.”
They don’t spend enough time focusing on strengthening the core muscles of the back and abdomen, he said, leaving them vulnerable to fatigue, poor mechanics, and injury.
“Their mechanics get altered while they’re pitching through fatigue and that overloads the elbow specifically,” said Dr. Altchek, who is also the medical director for the New York Mets.
Shawn O’Driscoll, M.D., Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., also emphasized the importance of preparing the body sufficiently for the rigors of pitching.
He described the elbow as a link in the kinetic chain transferring energy from the contact of the foot on the ground to the release of the ball. Poor mechanics caused by insufficient conditioning or an injury to another part of the body could lead to an elbow injury.
“If there’s a disturbance anywhere along that kinetic chain, then the links in the chain are exposed to risk of injury,” he said.
