Thursday, July 15, 2010

Post pitching arm icing?

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/articles/2010/07/11/arroyo_has_dealt_well_with_life_in_cincinnati/

Thanks for fellow GAINer Mark Day for the heads up on this article on Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo.  Scroll down a bit and read his comments concerning post game arm icing.  It's a bad habit to get your players into.

5 comments:

JH said...

Joe,
I would encourage you to share why it's a bad routine to get into and what happens to the body/tissue as a result.

Thanks,
JOnathan

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the heads up. I don't work with baseball pitchers but I am interested why this is a "bad habit". For every Bronson Arroyo, I am sure there are pitchers that swear by post-game ice and helps them feel better. So I'd rather here from people like yourself as to why this is a bad practice and what alternatives there are. What is the general practice at the major league level - do most pitchers ice after pitching? Thanks again for bringing about the questions - makes you think.

Take care,
Bill

Joe Przytula said...

Remember the goal of this blog, better care & prevention of athletic injuries to the high school athlete. My point is to get the athlete to become an active participant in the recovery/restoration process. I personally don't believe the ice has any long term negative effects. I just don't think it has any positive ones either (no throwing specific studies to back me up-only ones on DOMS). I prefer them going through the thrower's ten. The isolated-isolation nature of the exercises get individual muscle fibers, and muscles themselves gliding over one another which prevents myofascial adhesions that contribute to nerve entrapments and soreness. I'll often precede that with the ART shoulder protocol (I am a big beliver in the role of myofascial release in the recovery/restoration process) If they want to follow that up with an ice pack, that's fine.

JH said...

Joe,
I'm surprised to here you still have your throwers doing external and internal rotation with the arm down by the side (as one of the throwers 10). Isn't their a more functional way to get the same effect??

Jonathan

Joe Przytula said...

Hey! Some controversy finally!
In my mindset, if you look at functional training as "purposeful training", then the T-10, used in this context, is functional. I will typically use "integrated integration" exercises post myofascial realease; and pitching for the reasons mentioned. Granted I'm sure there are MF release peeps who would not agree with me- like the faktr-pm (www.faktr-pm.com)group. That being said, even Dr. Lederman on page 2 of his neuromuscular book explains "exceptions to the functional approach to rehabilitation", so I feel OK in doing it.