Skip to main content

10 replies

Pitching and lumbar spine

P Primary10+ posts
My son's team had 10 players go through a fairly rigorous off-season pitching program with a lot ofmound time and max effort throwing. Two of the 10 now have L4-L5 stress fractures and are missing the summer season.

Is there a fundamental flaw in the mechanics that overloads the spine? As a coach, is there something particular to look for (like arm lag or landing on the heel) that would foretell stress on the back? What about rehab and making sure it does not reoccur?

This seems to be a fairly common injury in some of the high-torque kids, ones that have great arms for their size. I could not find much of a comprehensive discussion about this.
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Low FinishLow Finish500+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Primary:
My son's team had 10 players go through a fairly rigorous off-season pitching program with a lot ofmound time and max effort throwing. Two of the 10 now have L4-L5 stress fractures and are missing the summer season.

Is there a fundamental flaw in the mechanics that overloads the spine? As a coach, is there something particular to look for (like arm lag or landing on the heel) that would foretell stress on the back? What about rehab and making sure it does not reoccur?

This seems to be a fairly common injury in some of the high-torque kids, ones that have great arms for their size. I could not find much of a comprehensive discussion about this.


Do they bend WAY over, Lincecum-style?
CADadCADad5,000+ posts
How old? They are particularly prone to this injury during the growth spurt and just after it. Good throwing mechanics will put a load on the spine. It is more a case of being genetically predisposed to this type of injury and then hitting them with an excessive workload.

As far as rehab it takes many months off to allow it to heal and making sure it doesn't happen again a lot of the right type of core work (not crunches or Russian twists) can help guard against it but if they are predisposed to this it can happen again anyways.

They should probably avoid almost any kind of hyperextension exercises and avoid squats in favor of doing leg presses.
CADadCADad5,000+ posts
Football linemen, baseball pitchers, gymnasts, dancers, wrestlers, rowers, javelin throwers, etc. The stress is primarily due to hyperextension (arching the back) of the spine. Bending forward is seldom, if ever, the cause. Hyperextension with a twist, i.e. pitching can be worse. One of the key tests for the condition involves hyperextension and then a twist.
Last edited by CADad
EyeontheballEyeontheball100+ posts
Just curious, what type of conditioning exercises were they doing? Was there anything like a tire and sledgehammer involved? This old school exercise is the cause of many back problems. A better way to build core torque strength is to throw a weighted ball from a two handed overhead position, slamming it to the ground at max velocity. The key is no connection to the sudden deceleration at impact.
CADadCADad5,000+ posts
The single leg and goblet squats tend to limit the amount of weight. The leg press does a better job of getting the high weights without impacting the back. Single leg, goblet and lunges tend to be better exercises overall because they bring into play balance and other muscles but they don't have the pure strength building effect that back squats or leg presses do. BTW, they do load the spine but the lower weights that can be lifted has some protective effect.
Last edited by CADad

Add Reply

Post
High Level Throwing

Driveline Baseball

Membership Required

We're sorry. You must be signed in to continue. Sign In or Register
×
Are you sure you want to remove from your Block List?
×
Loading...
×
When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .
×
Advanced Search
Advanced Search
Link copied to your clipboard.
×