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In this episode, we discuss all things “throwing injuries”. We explore:
- Load management and the bodies response to load
- Signs of overload/fatigue vs development in athletes
- Acute:Chronic Workloads
- Balancing performance and injury risk
- Programming a modern throwing program
- Avoiding acute loading spikes in elite sport
This episode is closely tied to Mike’s case study he did with us called “UCL injury in a Baseball Athlete”. With case studies, you can see how top clinicians manage real-world cases and apply their strategies to get better results with your patients.
👉🏻 Watch Mike’s case study here with our 7-day free trial: https://physio.network/GabRei-CaseStudy
Dr. Mike Reinold is a globally recognized expert in physical therapy, sports medicine, and performance, specializing in rehabilitation and injury prevention for athletes, particularly baseball pitchers, while also helping people of all ages return to activity. He is co-founder and president of Champion Physical Therapy and Performance in Waltham, MA, and has extensive experience with Major League Baseball, including the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, and Chicago White Sox, where he developed programs to prevent injuries and optimize performance.
Professor Tim Gabbett has over 30 years experience working as an applied sport scientist with athletes and coaches from a wide range of sports. He holds a PhD in Human Physiology and has completed a second PhD in Applied Sport Science, with special reference to physical demands, injury prevention, and skill acquisition. Tim has worked with elite international athletes over several Olympic Games cycles and continues to work as an advisor for several high performance organizations around the world.
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Our host is @sarah.yule from Physio Network
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播客笔记 🔗
文字稿 🔗
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What constitutes an appropriate response to loading in a throwing athlete?
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How do you assess whether a thrower is genuinely adapting to load versus beginning to accumulate fatigue or move towards maladaptation?
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And what are the key signs a throwing athlete is adapting well, and perhaps the early red flags when they're not?
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Today we explored all of this and more with two world-leading voices.
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Tim Gabbitt is an internationally recognized applied sports scientist with a PhD in human physiology and a second PhD in applied sports science, with over 30 years' experience working with athletes and coaches across elite and professional sport.
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Tim is known for his practical, common sense approach to high performance, translating complex research on training load, adaptation, and injury risk into coach-friendly strategies that work in real-world environments.
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Tim has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and continues to consult globally across sports, including baseball, American football, rugby, basketball, cricket, and Olympic programs.
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We're also joined by Mike Reynold, who worked as a physical therapist, athletic trainer, strength and conditioning coach, and performance enhancement specialist for over 20 years.
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Working with organizations such as the Boston Red Sox, the American Sports Medicine Institute, and Massachusetts General Hospital, he co-founded Champion Physical Therapy and Performance in Boston and is widely regarded as a leader in throwing athlete rehabilitation and performance.
00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:34.239
In addition to his clinical work, Dr.
00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:53.040
Reynold has made significant academic contributions through laboratory and biomechanical research and global clinical education, teaching thousands of clinicians worldwide, and publishing over 50 journal articles and book chapters in leading journals, including the American Journal of Sports Medicine and the Journal of Sport and Health Science.
00:01:53.200 --> 00:02:07.599
Across this conversation, we'll unpack what appropriate adaptation really looks like in throwing athletes, how to interpret common changes like range of motion loss and fatigue, how to manage load in unpredictable seasons, and how to learn to read the signs an athlete is adapting well.
00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:09.439
You're going to love today's episode.
00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:11.599
It's packed with clinical gems.
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I'm Sarah Yule, and this is Physio Disgust.
00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:20.000
Well, welcome to you both, Tim and Mike.
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Thanks so much for joining us on the podcast today, talking all things throwing injuries.
00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:31.759
What we might do is get straight into it, exploring the concept of modern load and adaptation.
00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:33.759
So I'll start with you, Tim.
00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:40.639
Based on your recent work for a throwing athlete, what constitutes an appropriate response to loading?
00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:44.080
I guess the answer probably starts with a question back to you.
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What do you mean by loading?
00:02:46.159 --> 00:02:47.919
Oh, this is well played by you.
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I suppose loading is any form of, without using the word load, load through a joint or a soft tissue structure, any form of repetitive activity, any force that's going through any of our structures, be it bone or soft tissue.
00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:06.639
That's a pretty good definition to start with.
00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:13.199
I guess the next question then is, or the next way of looking at it is not all load is going to be created equally.
00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:14.080
Right.
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So when we talk about the appropriate response to load, then w we need to consider well, what is the load that's being applied?
00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:23.520
Let's think about throwing.
00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:40.000
If we're doing short toss or we're doing long toss, or we're on the we're in a bull pander on the mound, the type of load that's going through the shoulder and going through the arm, going through the elbow, is going to be completely different between those among those four different throws.
00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:46.479
So if that if the load is completely different, then the response is going to be completely different, or you'd expect the response to be completely different.
00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:52.319
So a response to short short toss it it could be considered, and Mike could jump in here.
00:03:52.479 --> 00:03:56.159
Short toss could be just the kind of thing that's low stress activity.
00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:01.520
You probably do more higher volumes of that loading, and you can probably do it more frequently.
00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:13.199
When you're getting someone on the pitching mound, or you're putting them in the bullpen, or you're doing hard throws, then the response to that load is going to be completely different, and you'll probably do it less frequently.
00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:27.759
There'll be probably a little bit more inflammation, there might be some uh reductions in range of motion temporarily, there might be some soreness, there might be some transient reductions in strength.
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These could be appropriate responses to that type of loading.
00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:38.959
The answer to what's appropriate it depends on the load that you're giving, and there'll be a bandwidth of what's normal, right?
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So if you do see a reduction in strength or you do see a reduction in range of motion, then it's important not to not to panic on the back of that.
00:04:47.839 --> 00:05:02.639
That's some of those responses could be normal and with a given time course of recovery, it could be short, a short time course for very low stress throwing, or it could be a longer time course for higher stress throwing, your athlete might bounce back.
00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:12.720
And that that could be all normal to see it, see reductions in those things, to see a negative response, but it could bounce back within an appropriate time frame of recovery.
00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:17.439
I suppose that gives us a nice strong framework for what appropriate adaptation might look like.
00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:29.279
And then over to you, Mike, when you zoom in at a clinical level and in that throwing environment, clinically, what patterns do you see in how pitchers adapt or perhaps fail to adapt to those increased workloads?
00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:30.319
Yeah, good question.
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I think this, you know, piggybacks well off what Tim said too, is I think when you talk about load in a throwing athlete, it's a little different than some of the other sports that we may see, maybe in two potential ways.
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Let's compare maybe to like a hamstring strain and a field sport athlete, right?
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That's a muscle, a muscle tendinous junction.
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That's somebody working probably within the muscle tendons, normal loading capacity, that probably has some sort of workload spike, either too low, too little, and causes some issue.
00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:10.240
The problem what we have with our throwers is that when they throw, they essentially equal the failure of the tissue with each throw.
00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:19.199
So if you actually looked at the biomechanical studies of the stress that is absorbed, and we'll talk about the elbow, for example, because Tommy John injuries are just so popular in baseball now.
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If you were to actually look at the tensile strength of the UCL, the ulnar collateral ligament, your Tommy John ligament, and you actually look at that in a cadaver, the tensile strength is less than the stress that we see on each and every throw.
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And now, don't get me wrong, cadavers have very poor tissue quality, right?
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Right.
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So they're hard to base that completely off.
00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:41.360
But it's still close.
00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:47.439
But what happens is that we have the dynamic stabilizers, the muscles, the tissues around it that are the ones that need to protect it.
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So when we look at it in a baseball athlete, we're using structures, and structures are getting injured that are being used at complete end of their physical limits.
00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:58.800
And that's how our injuries occur.
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They're a little bit different.
00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:04.079
So, you know, we always start by saying, like, what are the normal adaptations?
00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:14.240
We say, well, the first thing we kind of teach you if you're an athlete and you're coming in at whether you're injured or you're trying to enhance your performance, we say the first step is you have to understand it's like throwing a baseball isn't good for you.
00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:18.879
It's actually a very stressful moment and it's it's a stressful activity to do.
00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:26.720
Now, we can build capacity to be able to absorb that as best we can, but it is very stressful and it surpasses the capacity of the body oftentimes.
00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:28.959
So once you understand that, it kind of makes sense.
00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:36.240
So the two things we tend to see with pitchers that are trying to adapt that training load is we say it very simply to them, you get tight and you get tired, right?
00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:37.839
So tired, obvious, it's easy.
00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:42.079
Your muscles get weak, the dynamic stabilizers get fatigued and they get weak from doing that.
00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:49.759
And then oftentimes it's why you'll have an injury to a static stabilizer like your UCL is because your dynamic stabilizer is fatigued out.
00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:55.920
But the other one is the tissue that we see the tightness of the decreases in range of motion, like Tim mentioned.
00:07:56.079 --> 00:07:59.519
And what we found through our research was that cumulative eccentric trauma.
00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:05.519
So if you look at the patterns and the motions that lose motion, it's from that cumulative eccentric trauma and have it.
00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:07.120
So you lose internal rotation.
00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:11.439
You actually lose a little bit of shoulder flexion, probably because of the lat and the teres major.
00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:15.360
You lose elbow uh extension because of the elbow flexors.
00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:18.800
If you really go through it, it's all the muscles that are working eccentrically.
00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:25.759
So what we do to monitor our barometer is how tight and how tired are those muscles that are absorbing the stress of each and every pitch.
00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:28.800
And that's how we try to keep track of them over the course of a season.
00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:29.680
Fantastic.
00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:35.440
So it sounds like there's an element of obviously there's heavy monitoring post-recovery.
00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:37.679
And I know, Tim, you mentioned it as well.
00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:41.120
What sort of time frame do you gauge that over?
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Are you looking for some sort of tissue recovery over two days, seven days within the season and outside the season?
00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:50.080
How does it fluctuate?
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If you look at the way baseball teams will structure their workloads for their pitches, they generally work on a high low, high low model.
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Generally it's a five-day rotation.
00:09:00.799 --> 00:09:08.720
You might have some places that some teams allow a six-day rotation, but within that you have some high stress and low stress activity.
00:09:08.879 --> 00:09:20.159
So not every day is going to be hard throws, but it's important that in between starts, that there is some hard throwing to prepare the tissue for what's about to come in a game.
00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:28.559
Generally, though, if you work on that five-day rotation, then what that means is you're probably throwing hard, moderate to moderately hard every three days.
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On day one, you're in a game and you're on the mound, and then you'll have a recovery day on day two or lower stress day, and then you're starting to build in some harder throws somewhere between your first start and then your next start in in five days' time.
00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:54.799
And that pretty much sits within within the model of of what we'd recommend for lower body sports as well, that we're generally allowing 70 at least 72 hours between high stress days.
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If we think of something like the hamstring response to sprinting, if we sprint on Monday, generally we won't sprint again until Thursday.
00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:06.159
So 72 hours.
00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:11.039
But it it it may be that you allow longer between those high stress days.
00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:14.799
And again, it's gonna it's gonna depend on the tolerance of your athlete, right?
00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:39.279
So if you get to day three, 72 hours post, and that athlete's still sore or has reductions in strength, or has the tightness, so they're not moving well, or they're unable or unwilling to go into end ranges, then that might be an indication that they're not tolerating the load that you've just applied, that the light load is either too high or they need more recovery before they go back and do another high stress day.
00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:47.840
That's kind of a general online that we'd probably look for, but there might be some situations where athletes can adapt a little quicker.
00:10:48.080 --> 00:11:00.080
Maybe you could get some athletes out at 48 hours, but then maybe some will adapt a little slower and they they might need 96 or perhaps 120 hours to adapt to that high stress stimulus.
00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:06.720
So you've still got to think about you talk about it in in general terms, but you've still got to think about the individual athlete that you have in front of you.
00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:10.720
It's sounding like it reinforces that clinical interpretation.
00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:20.399
And as clinicians, it's obviously important to learn to read the signal and read the perception of fatigue and those performance shifts so that you can help support performance.
00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:26.799
I think in general, the research is great and kind of telling us how the average of a group will respond.
00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:31.120
In a lot of sense, when we're working with athletes, every athlete, it's an N of one.
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So we've got a we've got a framework to work towards that kind of guides our decision making.
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But then we still need to think about that athlete in front of us.
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And every athlete comes to us with different background, different story.
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And that could be injury history, it could be training history, it could be age, whether they're a young athlete or an older athlete, all of these kind of things feed into our the little algorithm in our head that's trying to manage that particular athlete as best as possible.
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Absolutely.
00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:01.039
Anything to add to that one, Mike?
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Yeah, I just, you know, I can't help but think, what just listening to Tim, that baseball is such an unfair sport where there's 162 games in 180 days.
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I don't think anybody else really does that, right?
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So you wonder why there's so many injuries, right?
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It's it's inevitable, it's bouncing, especially when we're pushing the envelopes with velocity now and pitch design, which just fatigues out the dynamic stabilizers.
00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:30.799
And it's just an unfair fight because to Tim's point, there's really no way to catch up once you get behind.
00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:39.200
Once your chronic workload gets super high, or once you even get super high with your Q chronic workload ratios, unfortunately, you need to pitch in four days.
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It's really hard to catch up.
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And trust me, we we've tried, right?
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We can minimize what we do in between starts if you start spiking too high.
00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:53.279
But inevitably, over time, it just becomes so hard because there's just so many games in such a short duration of time.
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It's a very unfair sport.
00:12:55.279 --> 00:12:56.559
I'll add that, I guess.
00:12:56.879 --> 00:12:57.679
Absolutely.
00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:01.120
Particularly when you're talking about that maximal tissue load.
00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:03.519
Yes, every time you throw.
00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:05.120
Yeah, that's huge.
00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:09.840
Let's use that now to explore building throwing capacity a little bit more.
00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:11.840
Tim, I'll throw it back to you.
00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:26.000
In your recent work looking at the relationships between training load, heart rate variability, perceptual fatigue, sleep, and injury and endurance athletes, you explored how multiple monitoring variables interact to reflect adaptation.
00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:29.360
So, how do you translate those insights into the throwing world?
00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:39.519
And specifically, how do you assess whether a throw is genuinely adapting to load versus beginning to accumulate fatigue or move towards maladaptation?
00:14:06.769 --> 00:14:10.690
Those measures that we had in terms of the response measures.
00:14:10.769 --> 00:14:18.529
So you mentioned heart rate variability and sleep and a few others in there, I I think they're probably pretty relevant to the endurance population.
00:14:18.769 --> 00:14:23.409
I'm not sure that I would use those particular measures for for a baseball player.
00:14:23.570 --> 00:14:29.810
If you go to Mike's point about playing 162 games in 180 days, it's not all the same field, right?
00:14:29.970 --> 00:14:37.490
So there's games that are on the road, they're back to back, so they'll play a game and then they're on a plane and they're going somewhere else.
00:14:37.570 --> 00:14:39.649
So sleep is going to be disrupted.
00:14:39.889 --> 00:14:50.529
When you're playing that frequently, I could almost guarantee you without measuring it, that heart rate variability, your sympathetic balance is going to be really high, your sympathetic tone is going to be really high.
00:14:50.690 --> 00:14:57.170
So me measuring that's probably not going to tell me anything other than what we probably assumed was the case anyway.
00:14:57.330 --> 00:15:03.250
And measuring sleep, sleep's going to be disrupted when you're moving around in different beds and different locations all the time.
00:15:03.490 --> 00:15:07.649
You're not going to have a consistent routine in terms of sleep-wake cycles.
00:15:07.970 --> 00:15:10.129
Monitoring arm health is critical, right?
00:15:10.290 --> 00:15:24.610
So what are some things that that we know might contribute to injury risk or performance when you combine spikes in training load or when you combine excessive training loads?
00:15:24.690 --> 00:15:29.730
And you can look at things like arm health, and different places are going to have different measures of arm health.
00:15:29.889 --> 00:15:37.649
If we look at the research around it, a lot of places are measuring some sort of measure of external rotator strength of the shoulders.
00:15:37.970 --> 00:15:45.250
So if external rotator strength starts to decrease, then that could be a sign of maladaptation.
00:15:45.490 --> 00:15:49.570
When your range of motion starts to decrease, that could be a sign.
00:15:49.649 --> 00:16:00.050
I know of some places who are just measuring a grip strength and they're using that as a measure of, well, it is strength decreasing, but what is a motor drive, what is neuromuscular drive?
00:16:00.290 --> 00:16:05.570
So they're kind of things that we can measure quite easily on a on a regular basis.
00:16:05.730 --> 00:16:10.450
And it becomes your screening actually becomes part of your response measure.
00:16:10.529 --> 00:16:12.129
So you've got your load measure.
00:16:12.450 --> 00:16:27.409
Not all pictures come with the same stress, but even if you just counted hard throws and that's that's your load measure, then you have a number of possibilities as your response measure that you could have going on a regular basis.
00:16:27.649 --> 00:16:35.570
So when the response variable tracks outside of a normal bandwidth or an acceptable bandwidth, then they act as little warning signs.
00:16:35.730 --> 00:16:39.009
You'll probably see the change happening over time.
00:16:39.090 --> 00:16:48.769
You'll see either strength decreasing over time or range of motion decreasing over time, and that they're your flags that that something has to happen here.
00:16:48.930 --> 00:16:56.129
You either have to manage the load a little bit better, or you have to manage the response to that load really well.
00:16:56.370 --> 00:16:59.330
You have to do it on the front end or you have to do it on the back end.
00:16:59.730 --> 00:17:03.570
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00:17:24.930 --> 00:17:25.809
That makes sense.
00:17:26.049 --> 00:17:32.049
So I suppose to clarify, you mentioned obviously tracking arm health and those variables.
00:17:32.289 --> 00:17:38.369
And we've also previously discussed that those changes might be an appropriate, acute change to load.
00:17:38.529 --> 00:17:45.889
So presumably in monitoring this, you're looking at that persistent change that doesn't recover over that 72-hour period.
00:17:46.209 --> 00:17:53.009
Yeah, and I th and I think what you're trying to do is think of arm health as almost like a rolling score.
00:17:53.089 --> 00:18:01.169
So it could be that you have a a three-day expected, you expect over three days that arm health is going to decrease.
00:18:01.329 --> 00:18:08.609
And you might have a picture in your mind of what normal looks like if you've got enough data, then you can start to map what normal looks like.
00:18:08.769 --> 00:18:14.289
So you can look at it in the short term, but you can also look at a rolling longer term arm health.
00:18:14.449 --> 00:18:19.250
So what is today's arm health compared to what it's been over the last for baseball?
00:18:19.409 --> 00:18:23.089
Maybe 15 games, or it might be 21 days, something like that.
00:18:23.409 --> 00:18:27.730
It could be 28 days if you wanted to keep it with a one-week and four-week kind of model.
00:18:27.889 --> 00:18:35.409
But the question you're trying to ask is where is my arm health today compared to when we're starting our pitching rotation?
00:18:35.569 --> 00:18:41.969
So when we're about to get on the mound when our arm health should be at its best, where is it today compared to then?
00:18:42.129 --> 00:18:47.329
And then where is it today compared to a longer period of time, say a 30-day window?
00:18:47.569 --> 00:18:49.730
Is it above or below or about average?
00:18:49.889 --> 00:18:51.730
And then you can start making some decisions.
00:18:51.889 --> 00:18:57.889
Now, of course, you're you've got data for that, but you've also got the player where you can just ask them a question.
00:18:58.049 --> 00:19:04.929
And they'll they'll be telling you, I'm sure Michael will tell you that he's worked with enough baseball players, they'll tell you when they're not feeling right.
00:19:05.169 --> 00:19:07.649
Everyone's got that pretty good internal sense.
00:19:07.889 --> 00:19:09.089
And what about you, Mike?
00:19:09.169 --> 00:19:17.250
When you're building that throwing capacity day to day, what practical metrics or indicators do you rely on most when you're trying to build capacity in pitches?
00:19:17.649 --> 00:19:23.730
I'm pretty similar to Tim, and I'll start by sharing a quick story that I've told every now and then, but you know, it's kind of good.
00:19:23.889 --> 00:19:33.730
But when I interviewed for my first job in professional sports with the Boston Red Sox, which being from Boston, this is essentially my dream job, and I had an opportunity to interview for it.
00:19:33.889 --> 00:19:41.889
And I remember one of the questions that they asked me during the interview, they said, Mike, you've worked with a lot of injured baseball players in your career so far.
00:19:42.049 --> 00:19:45.969
How are you going to make the transition from working with injured players to healthy players?
00:19:46.129 --> 00:19:49.169
And I just, I don't know, I didn't think about this, I just blurted it out.
00:19:49.329 --> 00:19:54.609
I said, I think every time you pitch, you get injured, and I have five days to rehab you back.
00:19:54.929 --> 00:19:57.969
And they just sat back in their chairs and nodded.
00:19:58.049 --> 00:20:00.129
And I was like, oh, I think I just got the job.
00:20:00.369 --> 00:20:03.329
It was a good response, but that is how I consider it.
00:20:03.490 --> 00:20:07.490
And like I said before, you're at max capacity with throwing at all times.
00:20:07.649 --> 00:20:09.490
You get tight, you get tired.
00:20:09.649 --> 00:20:13.649
My job is to make you look like you every time you pick up a ball.
00:20:13.809 --> 00:20:30.289
So if the eccentric trauma of throwing yesterday caused some soft tissue tightness, some muscle tightness, whatever it may be, my job is to restore that tomorrow before you pick up a ball and play catch and to make sure that that is maintained and comes back by the time you need to compete again, right?
00:20:30.449 --> 00:20:33.569
Because everything that happens in between is preparing for competition again.
00:20:33.730 --> 00:20:35.329
So we we have to be careful of that.
00:20:35.490 --> 00:20:37.569
So, you know, there's two things we look at, right?
00:20:37.649 --> 00:20:42.609
We when we look at load and we look at acute chronics and chronic workloads, we usually use torque, right?
00:20:42.689 --> 00:20:54.369
So we just published a paper last year on the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy of our interval throwing programs using torque-based biomechanical data to come with those very specific guidelines.
00:20:54.609 --> 00:21:04.289
So every throw at every distance has an amount of torque that is a certain percentage of max capacity of the Tommy John ligament, for example, your UCL.
00:21:04.449 --> 00:21:07.490
So we know we can build workload models based on that.
00:21:07.649 --> 00:21:11.889
That's how people get hurt, but I can't evaluate the UCL every day, right?
00:21:12.129 --> 00:21:13.009
Unless they're painful.
00:21:13.089 --> 00:21:14.769
And if they're painful, that's a whole different story.
00:21:14.929 --> 00:21:19.329
But to Tim's point, what we can see is we can see some of those barometers for of fatigue.
00:21:19.490 --> 00:21:21.649
We can see their range of motion loss.
00:21:21.809 --> 00:21:25.329
And for me, the number one barometer right now has been shoulder flexion.
00:21:25.409 --> 00:21:27.250
So shoulder flexion, range of motion.
00:21:27.409 --> 00:21:29.169
Everybody wants to talk about ERIR.
00:21:29.409 --> 00:21:30.929
Everybody thinks GERD's a problem.
00:21:31.089 --> 00:21:31.569
It's not.
00:21:31.730 --> 00:21:34.369
It's shoulder flexion, is the number one thing that we see.
00:21:34.449 --> 00:21:38.129
And then how it changes external rotation is probably why people get injured.
00:21:38.289 --> 00:21:42.609
I don't think GERD is a big contributor as much, that loss of internal rotation.
00:21:42.769 --> 00:21:46.449
It's the subsequent gain in external rotation that is probably the problem.
00:21:46.529 --> 00:21:51.969
And we know acutely and chronically you'll have changes in your range of motion that we just we have to play that game.
00:21:52.129 --> 00:21:53.089
We have to monitor them.
00:21:53.169 --> 00:21:55.009
We have to see are they gaining too much motion?
00:21:55.169 --> 00:21:56.129
Are they losing motion?
00:21:56.289 --> 00:21:57.329
Are they fatiguing?
00:21:57.409 --> 00:21:59.169
And we have to be careful with that.
00:21:59.409 --> 00:22:01.569
You said capacity and how we build capacity.
00:22:01.649 --> 00:22:09.649
And I'm going back between bit back and forth between two things, torque on a ligament, and then capacity of the muscles to be able to dynamically stabilize.
00:22:09.809 --> 00:22:11.569
It's two different things, right?
00:22:11.730 --> 00:22:28.129
One of the most important research articles that was published, I think, in the last decade on baseball players was by Peter Chalmers, came up with a study that essentially looked at ultrasound of the UCL at the beginning of a season, at the end of the season, and at the Start of the next season.
00:22:28.289 --> 00:22:33.169
And what they showed over the course of the summer was that the UCL got thicker and looser.
00:22:33.329 --> 00:22:38.769
And then over the course of the winter, the off season, it got tighter and smaller.
00:22:39.009 --> 00:22:46.689
And this may be the most important article because it tells us the keys to everything, but also the most misunderstood and misapplied article.
00:22:46.849 --> 00:22:49.809
A lot of people said the UCL gets thicker over the summer.
00:22:49.889 --> 00:22:52.529
And they thought hypertrophy, thicker is good.
00:22:52.689 --> 00:22:53.809
We need to throw more.
00:22:53.969 --> 00:22:55.250
The more throwing, the better.
00:22:55.329 --> 00:22:57.250
So that way a ligament hypertrophies.
00:22:57.569 --> 00:23:00.529
Ligaments don't act like muscles or bones.
00:23:00.689 --> 00:23:01.329
It's different.
00:23:01.490 --> 00:23:02.849
So we have to be careful with that.
00:23:03.009 --> 00:23:05.250
That larger ligament is swelling.
00:23:05.329 --> 00:23:07.730
That's interstitial damage that showed.
00:23:07.809 --> 00:23:15.329
So we showed for the first time that throwing damages the UCL, which we knew, but more importantly, that the off-season helps it recover, right?
00:23:15.490 --> 00:23:21.169
And unfortunately, a bunch of people said, oh, we need to not take time off from throwing so we can keep it bigger.
00:23:21.329 --> 00:23:23.329
I'm like, no, bigger is like swollen.
00:23:23.409 --> 00:23:23.969
It's injured.
00:23:24.049 --> 00:23:26.129
Like that's we want it to get tighter again.
00:23:26.209 --> 00:23:27.089
That's what we want.
00:23:27.250 --> 00:23:36.529
So it was the most misunderstood, but probably the most uh beneficial article I think we have because it showed that our off-seasons were very effective of controlling capacity.
00:23:36.769 --> 00:23:38.209
Everyone says about building capacity.
00:23:38.289 --> 00:23:45.409
It's really hard to build capacity in a ligament, but we can build capacity in the dynamic stabilizers to help protect that static stabilizer.
00:23:45.649 --> 00:23:47.250
That's a fantastic summary.
00:23:47.409 --> 00:23:59.009
And you're also clearly summarizing that sort of relevant knowledge of the literature, the knowledge of the loads that go through the elbow and upper limb, and that response to load is just crucial for clinicians.
00:23:59.329 --> 00:24:03.649
Let's cruise into balancing performance and injury risk.
00:24:03.969 --> 00:24:09.889
Tim, you've done some recent work on motor imagery training as a load management solution for athletes.
00:24:10.129 --> 00:24:12.529
Can this relate to overhead athletes?
00:24:12.769 --> 00:24:16.049
And what would this look like practically for this population?
00:24:16.449 --> 00:24:30.449
Motor imagery is a it's an interesting one in that it's underutilized in sport, but potentially it could be used in a number of ways for both healthy and injured athletes or those that are rehabilitating.
00:24:30.529 --> 00:24:40.129
Now that the benefits of motor imagery is that it activates similar parts of the brain to actual motor activity.
00:24:40.449 --> 00:24:48.209
So if you were to throw a ball or imagine throwing a ball, you'll get similar activation in the brain.
00:24:48.609 --> 00:25:01.889
There's also some research that's shown, for example, in ACL patients, that you can get the same type of muscle activation, EMG activity, just through imagining doing the sport.
00:25:02.289 --> 00:25:07.089
So there's potential there to use it in terms of preventing muscle loss.
00:25:07.250 --> 00:25:13.009
There's the potential to use it to get mental reps as opposed to physical reps.
00:25:13.169 --> 00:25:24.769
So you you can you get if you've got an overloaded athlete, physically overloaded athlete, you can reduce the physical load but still maintain some sort of skill acquisition component to their training.
00:25:24.929 --> 00:25:39.969
So whether you have a an overloaded athlete, whether you have a healthy athlete and you just want to use it as a to to complement normal training, or whether you have an injured athlete who who can't do the same sort of physical reps, there's ways that you could go it in.
00:25:40.129 --> 00:25:51.169
Now I I don't know, no, if I would imagine actually that baseball players would probably be more inclined to do mental imagery than some of the other sports that I work with.
00:25:51.409 --> 00:25:58.849
I'm not too sure whether it's actually if there's any research that's shown that it's been used in baseball, but there's definitely applications there.
00:25:59.009 --> 00:26:10.369
I think the hardest part about it is probably convincing the coaches that you can get similar brain activity, you can get similar muscle activity just through sit thinking about doing exercise.
00:26:10.529 --> 00:26:15.329
Now it's it's not as simple as just going, well, I'm gonna think about throwing for a little bit.
00:26:15.490 --> 00:26:18.129
It depends a little bit on the skill of the performer.
00:26:18.369 --> 00:26:29.809
So generally what we find is if you're a highly skilled performer, then you're better able to generate appropriate images and you're you're better able to hold those images for longer.
00:26:30.049 --> 00:26:34.289
So if you haven't had experience with it, it's gonna take time to actually get good at it.
00:26:34.449 --> 00:26:47.250
It depends a little bit on what you're trying to achieve too, and whether you want to try and whether you use an external or an internal focus, so depending on the skill that you're trying to develop will depend on what focus you use.
00:26:47.409 --> 00:26:53.490
But it wouldn't be my first it wouldn't be my first go-to point to increase capacity.
00:26:53.649 --> 00:27:04.049
If I'm going to improve capacity of a tissue, or whether it be muscle, what or whether it be ligament, then my first portal call would not be I'm going to think about doing it.
00:27:04.209 --> 00:27:17.730
My my first portal would be, well, what are some physical things that we can impl implement, whether it be on the field or in the weight room to improve capacity, but it could definitely be used to complement complement training.
00:27:17.809 --> 00:27:22.289
I wouldn't see it as a replacement to training, but it could definitely be used to complement training.
00:27:22.529 --> 00:27:28.209
Sounds like a useful adjunct, which by the time you're reaching the professional level, it's those one percenters, isn't it?
00:27:28.289 --> 00:27:34.369
And I suppose it it broadens how we consider training beyond just physical throws as it relates to load.
00:27:34.609 --> 00:27:43.490
So, Mike, from a programming and clinical perspective, what does training smarter and harder actually look like in a modern throwing program?
00:27:43.969 --> 00:27:54.449
I was very eager to hear Tim's response to that question because I've been thinking about swinging my golf club like Tiger Woods for years, and it has not translated to my swing.
00:27:54.609 --> 00:28:02.209
I was hoping you could give me like a tip, Tim, that motor imagery would help me, but it sounds like it's just a small piece of that complex movement pattern.
00:28:02.529 --> 00:28:03.569
Give it a try, Mike.
00:28:03.730 --> 00:28:04.369
It won't hurt.
00:28:04.529 --> 00:28:05.409
It won't hurt you.
00:28:05.569 --> 00:28:06.209
That's fine.
00:28:07.089 --> 00:28:11.649
Sarah, I actually love your question and I love how you phrase it, training smarter and harder.
00:28:11.889 --> 00:28:18.049
The reason why I like smarter about that here is that I believe that education with our athletes is paramount right now.
00:28:18.289 --> 00:28:23.490
Most of these athletes have no idea what they're doing and what the impact of what they're doing is on their bodies.
00:28:23.730 --> 00:28:29.969
So we see lots of players, for example, doing things between starts or maybe in the off-season, all off season.
00:28:30.129 --> 00:28:35.809
They're long tossing, they're throwing max effort, weighted balls against walls all off-season, right?
00:28:35.969 --> 00:28:36.769
All these things.
00:28:36.929 --> 00:28:46.289
And what we try to teach them is that, like, what, you know, once you get to long toss to about 120 feet or so, the stress on the arm and the stress on the body is similar to throwing off the mountain.
00:28:46.449 --> 00:28:47.329
So it's very similar.
00:28:47.409 --> 00:28:56.129
Like your body doesn't care if you're pitching or if you're playing catch or if you're throwing a snowball at your little brother, or like it doesn't matter what you're doing, it just measures torque, right?
00:28:56.289 --> 00:28:58.769
And I think that's the important thing to kind of remember here.
00:28:59.009 --> 00:29:04.929
So, you know, 25 years ago, we finally started getting some injury data that was published.
00:29:05.089 --> 00:29:09.490
And the thing that we continue to show that correlates to injury more than anything else is overuse.
00:29:09.809 --> 00:29:18.529
And one of the big things in youth injuries that just blows your minds if you pitch for more than eight months out of the year, you are five times more likely to get hurt.
00:29:18.689 --> 00:29:21.169
That's enormous, 500% increase, right?
00:29:21.250 --> 00:29:23.250
If you pitch for more than eight months out of the year.
00:29:23.409 --> 00:29:25.490
So that actually worked for a little bit.
00:29:25.649 --> 00:29:29.409
That word got out there, the American Sports Medicine Institute and Dr.
00:29:29.490 --> 00:29:30.289
Andrews and Dr.
00:29:30.369 --> 00:29:33.809
Flight, they got this information out to the world that that existed.
00:29:33.969 --> 00:29:37.569
But then pitching coaches, athletes in the winter, they're still trying to get better.
00:29:37.649 --> 00:29:48.209
They start all these other training techniques with weighted balls and pull downs and long toss and extreme long toss to max distances, thinking that those throws are free, but they're not.
00:29:48.449 --> 00:29:51.969
The stress on those throws are equal to or even surpasses it.
00:29:52.209 --> 00:29:54.689
So you have people doing this all winter long.
00:29:54.849 --> 00:30:01.169
And I asked them, I said, Hey, would you throw a bullpen, would you throw off the mount three, four times a week all winter?
00:30:01.329 --> 00:30:02.689
And they'd say, no, no way.
00:30:02.849 --> 00:30:04.049
And I'd say, why not?
00:30:04.209 --> 00:30:05.730
They say, that's too stressful.
00:30:05.809 --> 00:30:08.929
And I'd say, Great, what you're doing is worse.
00:30:09.089 --> 00:30:09.409
Right.
00:30:09.569 --> 00:30:14.849
So the thing that you need to start with is education on what is stressful and how they stress that.
00:30:15.009 --> 00:30:17.569
And the athletes that I work with, it's a part of our process.
00:30:17.730 --> 00:30:21.089
We just, I slowly try to make them smarter, right?
00:30:21.169 --> 00:30:24.609
To your point, we train smarter and harder by understanding that.
00:30:24.769 --> 00:30:27.329
Because to me, that's how you handle that.
00:30:27.569 --> 00:30:33.649
If you have a high stress load in a game for whatever reason, pitch counts up, the intensity of your pitches were up.
00:30:33.809 --> 00:30:35.569
We have to cut back the next few days.
00:30:35.809 --> 00:30:40.929
We have to get that, you know, acute chronic to be able to settle back down and make sure that we're dealing with that.
00:30:41.089 --> 00:30:43.490
So those throws in between aren't free.
00:30:43.569 --> 00:30:45.329
They're part of the stress, right?
00:30:45.409 --> 00:30:47.649
And during the COVID, we actually did studies on this.
00:30:47.730 --> 00:31:21.549
We tried to look at all of our data with throwing pitches in a game, which is what people talk about, like innings pitched and pitches thrown per season.
00:31:21.709 --> 00:31:25.949
That's only about maybe a quarter of the amount of throws that they do all season.
00:31:26.029 --> 00:31:26.349
Right.
00:31:26.429 --> 00:31:32.429
So if that's the only metric we're going by where you get injured if you pitch more than X innings, that's the wrong metric.
00:31:32.509 --> 00:31:34.749
It's all the crazy stuff they're doing in between.
00:31:35.069 --> 00:31:38.349
That sounds like your most crucial point, isn't it?
00:31:38.429 --> 00:31:40.989
It's education on what load is, what stress is.
00:31:41.149 --> 00:31:44.509
And ultimately it sounds like that more is not more.
00:31:45.789 --> 00:31:50.109
Well, not when you're talking about stressing ligaments to their max capacity.
00:31:50.189 --> 00:31:52.589
Again, that's what throwing is a very different sport.
00:31:52.829 --> 00:31:54.589
It's different than a hamstring strain.
00:31:54.669 --> 00:31:57.229
It's different than other, you know, injuries you may have.
00:31:57.469 --> 00:31:58.509
It's just it's different.
00:31:58.589 --> 00:31:59.549
So it's education.
00:31:59.709 --> 00:32:00.989
And I'll I'll give the guys credit.
00:32:01.149 --> 00:32:03.789
Once you teach them, then most of the times they say, Oh, I didn't know that.
00:32:03.869 --> 00:32:04.669
And they say, Okay.
00:32:04.989 --> 00:32:07.229
And then they adapt and they have a great season, right?
00:32:07.309 --> 00:32:09.229
And that that that tends to be how it goes.
00:32:09.549 --> 00:32:10.429
Fantastic.
00:32:10.589 --> 00:32:20.589
That's a great answer, which probably segues nicely into this next bit, which is just exploring managing spikes and that real world variability.
00:32:20.829 --> 00:32:22.909
So I'll throw back to you, Tim.
00:32:23.069 --> 00:32:29.949
What strategies help prevent harmful load spikes in the unpredictable reality of a throwing season?
00:32:30.349 --> 00:32:35.229
Well, probably the best way to uh to avoid spikes is to raise your chronic load.
00:32:35.389 --> 00:32:36.749
And this is the challenge, right?
00:32:36.829 --> 00:32:41.549
Because if you start with zero, then anything above zero is going to be a spike.
00:32:41.789 --> 00:32:50.349
Or we use the 10% rule or the 10% guide, 10% of nothing is still nothing, but it's still going to be a spike depending on where you've come from.
00:32:50.509 --> 00:32:54.909
If you've come from the basement, then 10% could be quite a large increase.
00:32:55.229 --> 00:33:05.389
But the best way for you to manage spikes is to build your chronic load because it's much harder to spike training loads when your chronic load is higher than when it's lower.
00:33:05.549 --> 00:33:26.589
Now there's a challenge there though, and this is probably one of the differences between upper extremity sports and lower extremity sports, in that there's a fair bit of evidence to say that higher chronic loads have a lower risk that are associated with a lower risk of injury in lower body sports, but that's not necessarily the case in upper body sports.
00:33:26.669 --> 00:33:45.789
There's probably more evidence to say the opposite that if you have high chronic loads or excessive loads, and Mike used the hundred innings in a season, or that's what we see as a an excessive chronic load, when you have very high chronic loads like that, then that's that's going to increase your risk of injury in upper extremity sports.
00:33:45.949 --> 00:33:49.309
So there's a little bit of a difference between lower body and upper body sports.
00:33:49.469 --> 00:33:55.789
But in general, the easiest way that you can protect against spikes is to raise the floor.
00:33:56.029 --> 00:34:08.269
If you have a higher chronic load, if you build systematically and progressively to a higher chronic load, then that reduces your chance of experiencing spikes because it's harder to spike when your loads are already high.
00:34:08.429 --> 00:34:12.029
But your your tissues are better prepared for the load that's about to come.
00:34:12.190 --> 00:34:20.909
And even though we need to get away from the sport and we don't want to be throwing all year round, we want to maintain arm health in off-season, right?
00:34:21.230 --> 00:34:32.190
Off-season is not just a period of time where we say, all right, now we do four months of nothing and then go back and then start, oh, we're back in season now, so now we can start throwing hard again.
00:34:32.349 --> 00:34:36.350
You have to maintain arm health, and you can do that in a number of ways.
00:34:36.590 --> 00:34:45.630
It doesn't have to be hard throws all the time, but you might be doing some throwing during your off-season supported by what you do in the weight room.
00:34:45.789 --> 00:34:48.190
But then you have to go back and start all over again.
00:34:48.350 --> 00:34:57.630
Okay, just because I've done 10 seasons as a major league baseballer and I'm heading into spring training, that doesn't mean I can just pick up where I left off last season.
00:34:57.789 --> 00:35:02.590
I have to go through the process of building capacity and building in a sensible way.
00:35:02.670 --> 00:35:08.990
And building in a sensible way means progressively and gradually increasing load.
00:35:09.150 --> 00:35:13.470
It's not just about going, oh, this is where we need to get here, we're going to do it in one day.
00:35:13.630 --> 00:35:20.190
You need to kind of map it out, start with the end point, where do we want to get to, and then work your way back from that point.
00:35:20.590 --> 00:35:24.349
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00:35:45.869 --> 00:35:56.030
So just to clarify, that strategy of raising your chronic load, you're referencing that largely occurring in the off-season, knowing that there's high lows during.
00:35:56.349 --> 00:36:00.750
Well, I think you will be able to build chronic load in in spring training.
00:36:00.909 --> 00:36:03.070
I mean, that's part of why you have spring training.
00:36:03.230 --> 00:36:15.309
But realistically, once the season starts, if you haven't got the chronic load to begin with, or you haven't built a reasonable foundation or a reasonable chronic load, then there's no let up.
00:36:15.470 --> 00:36:22.429
Like when you're playing 162 games in a in 180 days, you can't play catch up there.
00:36:22.670 --> 00:36:38.269
Because if your chronic load is too low and then you start spiking loads on the back of that, you're asked to pitch a lot at high velocities, then that increases your risk of injury, which means ultimately your capacity is going to be driven to the basement again.
00:36:38.429 --> 00:36:47.550
So that means you've got to you can't you can't throw and you can't train as hard when your capacity is in the basement, which means your chronic load is going to drop again.
00:36:47.630 --> 00:36:50.670
So then you've got to go through that process of building chronic load again.
00:36:50.909 --> 00:36:55.150
You really only get one off season, you really only get one spring training.
00:36:55.309 --> 00:36:58.190
You've got to make the most of it, but you've got to do it in a sensible way.
00:36:58.349 --> 00:37:03.309
If you can't have a good off-season, which involves rest, but it also involves some training.
00:37:03.470 --> 00:37:10.269
If you can't have a good off-season, then it's highly likely that it's not going to set you up for a good spring training.
00:37:10.429 --> 00:37:14.190
And that means you're not going to be well set up for a good season.
00:37:14.349 --> 00:37:20.030
Conversely, if you have a good off-season, it sets you up for a good spring training, which then sets you up for a better season.
00:37:20.349 --> 00:37:21.550
Fantastic.
00:37:21.869 --> 00:37:26.829
Mike, when schedules and innings and recovery fluctuates, what about you?
00:37:26.990 --> 00:37:31.949
How do you manage workload when all of these things are in flux?
00:37:32.349 --> 00:37:35.710
I'll just I'll add to Tim's comment a little bit first, too.
00:37:35.869 --> 00:37:40.750
I think the nature of pitchers and the state of baseball right now, pitchers, I think, understand that.
00:37:40.829 --> 00:37:46.670
And if anything, they're probably building up to too high of a chronic workload before they start the season now.
00:37:46.750 --> 00:37:48.750
They're doing too much in the offseason, right?
00:37:48.829 --> 00:37:50.909
Which kind of comes to bite them later in the season.
00:37:51.150 --> 00:37:59.550
Or we actually see that, Tim, more than anything else, it's the position players that oftentimes come in and they haven't done anything, and then they just pick up a ball and start throwing.
00:37:59.710 --> 00:38:02.269
Sure, they're hitting, but they don't emphasize throwing enough.
00:38:02.349 --> 00:38:07.869
And then they wonder why all of a sudden they have to do 100 ground balls in a day and their elbow sore, right?
00:38:08.030 --> 00:38:09.150
So, you know, it's funny.
00:38:09.470 --> 00:38:10.190
You actually see that.
00:38:10.269 --> 00:38:14.670
Like the pitchers, I think, get it, but the position players, you know, it it happens a little bit more.
00:38:14.909 --> 00:38:18.909
To answer your question, though, Sarah, about like the real world of like how we manage that.
00:38:19.070 --> 00:38:20.670
What we have to be careful, right?
00:38:20.829 --> 00:38:22.349
We're talking about professional sports.
00:38:22.510 --> 00:38:28.269
And even if we're talking for if we're not we're talking about college, even high school, their goal is to get to the professional level.
00:38:28.349 --> 00:38:29.550
That's why they're doing these things.
00:38:29.710 --> 00:38:34.829
But what when you get to the professional level, they get paid to throw every five or six or seven days.
00:38:34.909 --> 00:38:35.470
They get paid.
00:38:35.630 --> 00:38:41.070
And some of them get paid between half a million dollars and a million dollars every time they pitch.
00:38:41.309 --> 00:38:43.710
Not just like for the year, every time.
00:38:43.949 --> 00:38:50.349
So if you really think about that, if there are innings and there's there's there are spikes, there, everything's going up in the game.
00:38:50.510 --> 00:39:00.030
Again, I have five days to get them back because the owner of my team is going to pay them a million dollars to get back on the mound in five days, right?
00:39:00.110 --> 00:39:02.269
So they need to get back on the mound in five days.
00:39:02.349 --> 00:39:04.190
And that's some of the sometimes the challenge.
00:39:04.349 --> 00:39:11.309
So if they're spiking their workloads and things are fluctuating, it's everything we need to do in between to be able to handle that.
00:39:11.470 --> 00:39:20.429
And, you know, second half of the season, the guys are skipping bullpens between starts, or, you know, they're just playing light catch for a little bit because their their spikes are so high.
00:39:20.590 --> 00:39:22.990
But remember, the high workload days are every five days.
00:39:23.070 --> 00:39:31.309
So when you're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's been six, seven months, and you got six weeks left, you start to manage it differently.
00:39:31.389 --> 00:39:35.309
You start to just play light catch for a few days instead of trying to manage it.
00:39:35.389 --> 00:39:45.550
And then you just give it everything you got on that fifth day because you owe it to your teammates, you owe it to the ownership group, you owe it to the fan base of that city, and that's what their motivation is.
00:39:45.710 --> 00:39:50.110
So it is a little different and it's all centered around that main competition day.
00:39:50.429 --> 00:39:51.949
That's a great summary.
00:39:52.190 --> 00:40:06.670
And now I'm curious before we wrap up, I'd love to hear both of your thoughts on some advice and perhaps some key takeaways from today's discussion that you'd give to the clinician listening, perhaps managing a throwing athlete.
00:40:06.829 --> 00:40:08.269
Tim, perhaps you first.
00:40:12.030 --> 00:40:13.389
You don't have to do it quickly.
00:40:13.550 --> 00:40:15.309
So get there as safely as possible.
00:40:15.710 --> 00:40:19.949
The third part would be monitor the response to throwing.
00:40:20.110 --> 00:40:25.070
So think about things that are that potentially could increase the risk of injury.
00:40:25.150 --> 00:40:40.349
So whether it's decreased strength or decreased range of motion and build that into your monitoring so that you're systematically building loads through either throw counts or something similar, hard throw counts, and then monitoring the response to that.
00:40:40.590 --> 00:40:55.789
Think about a timeline of recovery, think about what is a normal bandwidth of responses, and that's probably the safest way that we've got to build capacity is load and then monitor the response to that load.
00:40:56.110 --> 00:40:59.070
There's two ways that you can improve capacity that I'm aware of.
00:40:59.150 --> 00:41:06.429
One is that you do it on the front end through training load, and that's through progressively just throwing a little bit more to a point.
00:41:06.670 --> 00:41:16.190
The second way that you can do it is manage it on the back end, and that is by managing the response and the health of that athlete, and in this case, the arm health of the athlete.
00:41:16.429 --> 00:41:24.590
If you've got an athlete that's at high loads and you can't load anymore, I can almost guarantee you that athlete wants to improve capacity.
00:41:24.829 --> 00:41:31.389
If you can't do it through load, the only other option you've got is to manage the response and manage the arm health of your athlete.
00:41:31.470 --> 00:41:35.949
So you're just trying to prop that health up as much as possible so that capacity is maintained.
00:41:36.030 --> 00:41:43.470
So there are your two options: load and the health component or load and check the response before deciding whether to load again.
00:41:43.710 --> 00:41:45.230
Fantastic takeaways.
00:41:45.550 --> 00:41:46.750
That was such a good response.
00:41:46.829 --> 00:41:52.510
I would actually say just re-listen to what Tim just said would be my biggest takeaway because I think he nailed that.
00:41:52.590 --> 00:41:53.389
That was fantastic.
00:41:53.470 --> 00:42:06.030
But honestly, my biggest takeaway, I think in our profession, especially upper extremity sports and baseball, like I still think this workload monitoring and this concept of workloads is a little bit newer to us than some field sport athletes.
00:42:06.190 --> 00:42:10.990
So my biggest recommendation for somebody listening to this is to dig into Tim's work.
00:42:11.230 --> 00:42:15.710
I know when I did that several years ago, I'm a better clinician because of it, right?
00:42:15.869 --> 00:42:25.869
What Tim teaches and the constants of workload management and even the science behind workloads, it's a different way of thinking that I don't think the rehab professionals always think of.
00:42:26.110 --> 00:42:35.869
So when you start adapting the concept of workload and capacity to really everything we do throughout our entire profession, every injury, I do think it's a game changer for us.
00:42:36.110 --> 00:42:38.429
So, you know, dig through Tim's work.
00:42:38.510 --> 00:42:39.630
It's going to take you a year.
00:42:39.710 --> 00:42:46.909
He's got a lot of public publications, but I'm a better clinician since I learned from Tim and went to one of his courses, and it was fantastic.
00:42:46.990 --> 00:42:47.869
So I would do that.
00:42:48.110 --> 00:42:55.470
Read our paper on interval throwing programs, where we basically just took Tim's models and his work and applied it to the baseball throwing.
00:42:55.550 --> 00:42:58.110
So you can see how we applied it to baseball.
00:42:58.269 --> 00:43:00.510
And I think that's a really good place to start.
00:43:00.590 --> 00:43:02.590
I think I think that's made me a better clinician.
00:43:02.750 --> 00:43:05.230
I think it'll help everybody listening to this as well.
00:43:05.470 --> 00:43:08.510
That's a fantastic summary from the two of you.
00:43:08.590 --> 00:43:18.750
So we're systematically building to higher loads, we're monitoring the response to throwing, improving capacity front end through training, or managing it on the back end by managing response to training.
00:43:18.990 --> 00:43:23.550
Mike, we're reading your paper on interval throwing programs, and we're all going to read Tim's work.
00:43:24.030 --> 00:43:26.829
Well, thank you both so much for joining us today.
00:43:26.990 --> 00:43:38.510
I think there are so many practical takeaways for those clinicians that are managing throwing injuries and a really valuable discussion on load and how valuable education is as well.
00:43:38.670 --> 00:43:39.869
So thank you both.