Lumbopelvic Control and Days Missed Because of Injury in Professional Baseball Pitchers

Abstract

Background Recently lumbopelvic control has been linked to pitching performance, kinematics and loading; however, poor lumbopelvic control has not been prospectively investigated as a risk factor for injury in baseball pitchers. Hypothesis Pitchers with poor lumbopelvic control during spring training are more likely to miss 30 or more days due to injury through an entire baseball season than pitchers with good lumbopelvic control. Study design Cohort study. Methods Three hundred forty-seven professional baseball pitchers were enrolled into the study during the last 2 weeks of spring training and stayed with the same team for the entire season. Lumbopelvic control was quantified by peak anterior-posterior deviation of the pelvis relative to starting position during a single leg raise test (APScore). Days missed due to injury through the entire season were recorded by each team's medical staff. Results Higher APScore was significantly associated with a higher likelihood of missing 30 days or more (Chi-Square, p=0.023). When divided into tertiles based on their APScore, participants in the highest tertile were 3.0 times and 2.2 times more likely to miss at least 30 days throughout the course of a baseball season relative to those in the lowest or middle tertiles, respectively. Higher APScore was also significantly associated with missing more days due to injury within participants who missed at least one day to injury (ANOVA, p=0.018), with the highest tertile missing significantly more days (mean=98.6 d) than the middle tertile (mean=45.8d, p=0.017) or the lowest tertile (mean=43.8, p=0.017). Conclusion This study found that poor lumbopelvic control in professional pitchers was associated with increased risk of missing significant time due to injury.

Coexistence of Trunk or Lower Extremity Pain with Elbow and/or Shoulder Pain among Young Overhead Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Several studies have reported that dysfunction in the trunk or lower extremities has a significant association with elbow and shoulder injuries in adult overhead athletes (Scher et al 2010;Feigenbaum et al 2013;Garrison et al 2013;Chaudhari et al 2014;Pontillo et al 2014;Radwan et al 2014). Some studies have demonstrated that poor core stability should be considered as a potential risk factor for elbow and shoulder injuries (Garrison et al 2013;Chaudhari et al 2014;Pontillo et al 2014;Radwan et al 2014).…”

“…Imbalance at any point of the kinetic chain could affect elbow and shoulder injuries (Reinold et al 2010). Several studies have reported that biomechanical dysfunction of the trunk or lower extremities, involving core stability, hip range of motion, and foot posture, are related to elbow and shoulder injuries among various high-level adult athletes (Scher et al 2010;Feigenbaum et al 2013;Chaudhari et al 2014;Pontillo et al 2014). However, there is little evidence focusing on the association between lack of sufficient support in the trunk or lower extremities and injuries to the elbow and shoulder among young athletes.…”

Effects Of 7-week Shoulder Exercise Intervention On Joint Mobility, Strength, And Function In Diabetics And Non-diabetics

“…12 The overall improvement in DASH score was 7.9, which was below the minimally detectable change (MDC) for this instrument of 10.2. 54 Similarly, the average improvement in SPADI was 9.7, which is below the MDC for SPADI reported in the literature (13.2-23.1). [54][55][56] While this observation may suggest that the intervention effects were too small to be clinically meaningful, taking into account that the participants did not have clinical shoulder pain at baseline, adds meaning to the relatively small improvements.…”

“…The average age of the 4 participants were 69.8±7.8 years, while the average age of the rest of the participants were 55.1±8.2 years. Since it has been demonstrated that prevalence of shoulder pain increases with age 54,57,58 shoulder pain in these participants may be simply attributed to their age.…”

“…hobbies, sports, and work) that enhance quality of life. Prevalence of shoulder pain increases with age regardless of diabetes 54,57,58 Therefore, starting a shoulder exercise routine earlier in life may help prevent or delay the development of shoulder pain later on in life.…”