athleticpotential_pt

What does a data-driven return to throw process look like? Here’s a report from the first phase of one our Triple A players in the Mets organization ramping back up to throwing after coming off injury.

Every throw is tracked, and his progressed is closely monitored to ensure a completely successful return to throw.

Alongside this he receives a complete strength and conditioning program and an individualized arm care program to ensure his not only gets back to throwing at a high level, but has a shot to make it to The Big Leagues.

Don’t guess with your Return-to-Throw, reach out to us about how we can help you Reclaim Your Career and Realize Your Potential.

In-Person and Remote Options Available.

Rehab is Training. Training is Rehab. It’s just two end of the same spectrum, guided by the same principles.

Specificity - Prepare the athlete for the demands they will experience. Adding a ball into the mix doesn’t make it specific. What makes it specific is understanding the fundamental qualities expressed in their sport, and re-training them how to express those qualities.

Individuality - Rehab is far from a one size fits all approach. The psychosocial, emotional, and visceral responses to injury and rehab require an individualized approach in terms of exercise selection, but also patient management.

Overload - Apply more stress. Not “let’s do X because it’s less stressful.” That only matters when it’s too stressful to perform, but doesn’t mean that you want to avoid it completely. We must identify what they are incapable of doing as a result of injury, and restore the capacity to do it (given its meaningful).

Variation - Providing a variety of stimuli is great for motor learning and sport preparation. But variation for the sake of variation is not great. If an athlete hasn’t maximized the gains from one exercise, changing it up and requiring them to learn a new task just makes things less effective. In the end, output is king for adaptation, so make sure the exercise variation promotes better output, not just adding a body ball because it looks hard.

🤔What Happens in a Soft Tissue Injury?

In a Healthy Athlete, we can respect the normal loading schemes to drive progress overload and adaptation, so maintenance work, etc.

But in an Injured Athlete, the roller ace for all loads is decreased.

In acute injuries this is sudden, you know it got injured, you know it’s weaker.

But the case is the same for chronic overload injuries. Caught early, you can fix the issue. Let it go on long enough and you’ll be left scratching your head as to why you can’t handle the same weights without pain.

The biggest mistake athletes make is thinking rest and passive methods alone will fix your issue. Yes, restoring ROM and relieving pain are part of the process, but you must progressively load the injury to restore its capacity.

A good rule of thumb is that if an activity is painful, modify it enough where you can handle it at a 3/10 pain or less. If you wake up the next day and you feel the same, that’s a 🟢green light. If you wake up the next day and it hurts way more, that’s a 🔴 light and you know that load was too much.

With each 🟢, attempt to make some form of progress back to normal and monitor for more 🟢.

For each 🔴, modify until you get a 🟢 and then you have a starting point.

Of course if nothing works, get advice. Don’t try to fix it on your own if you don’t feel confident in your ability to modify and manage.
-
Need help? Reach out to us in a DM, we’d be happy to help you understand your injury and how to best approach it!