Strength in Numbers #19
Recently, I was a guest on a podcast by Inform Performance, hosted by Ben Ashworth and Dr. Andy McDonald, covering a wide array of information related to assessing baseball health and performance. Click here to have a listen.
We talked about many things, but a major focus was on training, the most important aspect of monitoring. In a previous newsletter, I addressed our SPEAR training model. S in SPEAR stands for Strength, being the most important feature in arm care training.
Everything stems from strength.
The fundamental basis of strength is isometric strength, the bridge between eccentric (lengthening) and concentric (shortening) contractions, and is the transition moment in the stretch-shortening sequence going from stretch to explosive movement.
Injuries in baseball are characterized as deceleration injuries, high force, high speed in a lengthening position. Previous research has indicated greater isometric strength deficits in injured pitchers. Therefore, there is a strong potential that weak isometric strength is related to eccentric-contraction overload in managing endpoint external rotation and internal shoulder rotation for the throwing arm (ref, ref).
Knowing that weak isometric strength relates to injury, how can isometric training not be part of throwing arm training?
In this week’s ACIQ, we go into the theoretical approach as to why isometric training is important for throwing athletes and review the external rotation curve for the throwing arm in baseball pitching, co-contraction, and isometric training’s ability to assist in the early rate of force development to advance arm speed.
What is great about our product is that you can utilize it for monitoring and training with our Strength Tester feature, where you can identify how hard you are pushing in sets to improve maximal activation of the rotator cuff.
Stay tuned for more as we intersect testing and training with the ActivForce Dynamometer and the ArmCare Platform.
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