⚾️ It is no secret that elbow injuries, specifically... UCL injuries, have been on a rise in recent years ➡️ The reason for this is so multi-factorial that it is impossible to pinpoint any 1 reason for an injury 💪 With the constant improvement in the development of pitchers, both skill side and S&C, we are seeing an increase in velocity across all levels of baseball 🎟This is obviously a Great thing for Punching Tickets but also leads to more forces being passed through the medial elbow 🔥There are really 3 proactive actions we actions we can take to counteract this: 1) Address pitching mechanics if there are deficiencies 2) Appropriately manage chronic/acute AND Total workloads 3) Increase the capacity and stress the elbow can handle 🔥 We will specifically dive in to the 3rd component of this in this thread. In short, the answer is simple, GET STRONG FOREARMS 3 WAYS VALGUS FORCE IS DISPERSED ✅ Radiocapitellar Joint Compression When a valgus stress is applied to the elbow, it is attempting to open up or gap the medial (inside) portion of the elbow. This is also the Orthopedic Test for a UCL injury. While this force is trying to gap the medial portion of the elbow, it is also compressing the lateral side. When the radius and lateral humerus compress, this acts as a stopping point for the elbow going into that valgus motion ✅ Forearm Musculature In addition to the UCL on the medial side of the elbow, there is also a group of forearm muscles that span that area and attach to the same portion of the elbow, the medial epicondyle. These muscles include: Pronator Teres, Flexor Carpi Ulnaris, Flexor Carpi Radialis, Flexor Digitorum Superfiscialis, and the Palmaris Longus. With that specific attachment to the medial epicondyle and their respective distal attachments, these do a great job of accepting the valgus force and protecting the UCL. There is some research that states FCU does the best job of the muscles listed, but we believe the best action is to strengthen all of them. The best ways to attack this is with movements including: finger flexion, wrist flexion, Ulnar deviation (moving pinky towards medial elbow), and Pronation of the forearm ✅ Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) What doesn’t get absorbed by the first two structures is placed on the UCL. Previous research has shown that a UCL with no other structures involved is able to withstand ~35 nm of force before failure The Problem is: Every Pitch produces far more than 35nm of Valgus Stress. This shows us just how important the other 2 mechanisms are! * Exercises in the videos should be a complement to your entire S&C Program and is not designed to replace itshow more
