Tuesday Tidbits 10/13/2020 — Dr. Marcus gatto

Here are this week’s tidbits to keep you up to date or just interested in what’s going on around you. Interesting news and research pertaining to neck mobility and subsequent elbow/shoulder injuries, foam rolling effects on jump height, and the use of technology when rehabilitating a baseball player’s injured elbow.

Radar Gun Inclusion & Baseball Player Elbow Rehabilitation

Recent research has looked at the perceived effort and subsequent velocity of baseball players throwing when returning from elbow surgery. More specifically, the study aimed to determine if players were generating excessive, unnecessary stress when rehabilitating in the early stages of 50% and 75% effort throws. It was concluded that players indeed will generate more force than intended when attempting to progress through partial effort throwing programs. Therefore, the need for radar guns to accurately depict effort and strain are a necessary front-line step required in elbow rehabilitation.

Lizzio VA, Smith DG, Jildeh TR, Gulledge CM, Swantek AJ, Stephens JP, Schulz BM, Makhni EC. Importance of radar gun inclusion during return-to-throwing rehabilitation following ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction in baseball pitchers: a simulation study. Journal of shoulder and elbow surgery. 2020 Mar 1;29(3):587-92.

My Elbow Hurts Because of My Neck?

Shoulder and elbow pain are extremely common when it comes to time lost in baseball. However, authors of a recent paper have validated reasoning behind pre-season neck screens and their potential impact on neck and shoulder pain. It was concluded that collegiate baseball players with limited neck mobility were up to 9x more likely to experience elbow or shoulder disability.

Devaney LL, Denegar CR, Thigpen CA, Lepley AS, Edgar C, DiStefano LJ. Preseason Neck Mobility Is Associated With Throwing-Related Shoulder and Elbow Injuries, Pain, and Disability in College Baseball Pitchers. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine. 2020 May 18;8(5):2325967120920556.

Should I Stretch or Foam Roll?

When comparing max jump height with participants who either foam rolled, stretched or foam rolled and stretched beforehand, it was seen that neither intervention had any meaningful impact on maximum jump height. What’s that mean? Well, foam rolling does not seem to enhance jump height either alone or in combination with stretching, therefore we need to keep training to accomplish this measure of athleticism.

Smith JC, Pridgeon B, Hall MC. Acute effect of foam rolling and dynamic stretching on flexibility and jump height. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. 2018 Aug 1;32(8):2209-15.