Lessons to My Former Self (Part 1)

Notlong ago, I was a pitcher in college and thought I knew everything aboutstrength and conditioning.  Oh, how wrongI was.

Sincemy career change, I’ve often thought back to my high school and college careerand how I would have tweaked my own training to be tailored topitching.  It should go without sayingthat I know a lot more now than I used to, but by no means am I the “know-it-all”I was before.

Now,before I go on, I need to preface by stating that some of what I’m going to saywill fly in the face of baseball traditionalists – many of whom believe thatlifting weights will get a pitcher bulky, and that running in between starts isthe best way to “stay in shape.”  Detailsabout hypertrophy and metabolic demands aside, I hope you can keep an open mindif you’re among this traditional baseball crew.

Also,if you haven’t noticed by now, I tend to like lists, as it makeseverything *appear* more efficient.  Thatsaid, here are my first two lessons to my former self:

Stop Running and LiftMore –Every season tends to have its ebb and flow, but looking back, every season ofmine from high school to college had the same peaks and valleys.  I’d start off the season really well andthrowing with good velocity for myself, but then I’d end every season withbarely any strikeouts and getting bounced around in my last few starts.  Now, there’s a ton of variables that could beresponsible for falling apart as the season wore on.  For one, I may have just been gettingfatigued with each start, and there’s been studies that illustrate thatthe number of pitches thrown will incrementally increase their ERA throughout the season.  Another reason could simply be that hittersget better as the weather warms up and they receive more and more exposure to live pitching.  But, I venture to say that it was running for25-30 minutes the day after every start for why I was becoming less and lesseffective.

“Wait,I thought pitchers were supposed to run? Doesn’t it flush out the lactic acid in your shoulder?”

Thistheory and common misperception among baseball traditionalists is flawed inevery single way.  First off, lactic acidis not responsible for muscle soreness. In fact, lactic acid is actually fuel for your body, and the only reasonit was once thought to cause soreness has to do with some crazy scientist thatexperimented on frogs by shocking them and taking blood samples…and no, I’m notjoking.  While I won’t bore you with thedetails, here’s a nice little article that explains it in more detail.

Next, let’s touch on the SAID principle (specific adaptionsto imposed demands).  If you compare longdistance running and pitching, they are completely different animals.  One requires short, 2-3 second repeatedbursts of high intensity with recovery of 15-20 seconds, and the other requireslow, steady intensity of 20-30 minutes. When put this way, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of carryover, doesit?  Running will sap your power as your body adapts to it.

The five worst words you can say to a pitcher: ​"Okay guys, go run poles."

In a study that came out a few years ago, 16Division 1 college baseball players were divided into a cardiovascularendurance training group (ahem, running) while the other half were placed in aspeed group.  During theseason, those that were in the cardiovascular endurance group saw significant decreases in power, while those thatparticipated in speed training saw immensely improved power production.  While no study should be treated as fact, it can be theorized that speed trainingand weight training would definitely improve (or maintain) levels of power...which is what you want if you’re a pitcher!

No Overhead orBarbell Lifting – While I was lucky to never really be affected by anyshoulder problems, I was in the minority on my college team. Many of my teammates were often performing military presses, upright rows, barbellbench pressing, and a few others.  Ofcourse, we knew nothing about glenohumeral instability, or how our body hadadapted from throwing a baseball for 18 years.

The problem with many of these exercises is that it requiresa ton of shoulder mobility, and those that play overhead sports often haveasymptomatic shoulder issues.  This studyfound that 79% of asymptomatic professional pitchers had abnormal labrumfeatures.  It doesn’t take a fancy degree to tell youthat if you have instability in this region, the risk/reward of overheadpressing is not in your favor.

Plus, exercises such as upright rows require thoracic spinemobility, and great control of your rotator cuff to prevent shoulderimpingement.  While I’ll dig into thistopic in a few more weeks, the picture below illustrates that if your rotatorcuff isn’t preventing superior glide of your humerus, it will impinge on yoursupraspinatus (one of your 4 rotator cuff muscles), causing you pain.

As you can probably tell, I had a lot of fun writing thisone, and I’ll be back in a few days with Part 2….which hopefully won't be as long!