Top 10 Reasons Your Arm Hurts

I was recently at an orthopedic appointment with one of my physical therapy patients. He was seeing Tampa Bay Rays’ orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Koko Eaton.

The young man had come to us with posterior elbow pain that had gradually worsened over the past few months. When he didn’t respond immediately to treatment, we referred him to Dr. Eaton. An MRI revealed an avulsion fracture of the olecranon process (the point of the elbow) where the triceps tendon inserts into the bone. Dr. Eaton made a plan to place a screw in the bone to reattach it, and in a few months our pitcher would be as good as new.

As the appointment concluded, the father of the young pitcher asked a valid question. “What could we have done to prevent this?”

Dr. Eaton’s response was brief yet profound.“Well, you could have never played baseball….this kind of thing happens.”

It’s true.

The only safe pitch count is zero.

AND ALL INJURIES ARE MULTIFACTORIAL!

I hate it when a new client comes in and says something like, “My coach made me do this, and it hurt me.” I always stop them in mid-sentence and explain how unfair and inaccurate that kind of thinking is.

NO ONE FACTOR CAN CAUSE AN INJURY.

AND NO ONE PERSON, ONE ACTIVITY, OR ONE PROGRAM CAN TOTALLY PREVENT INJURIES.

It’s WAY more complicated than that.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of variables that create a confluence of forces that can lead to injury.

There are no causes–only contributors.

The only thing you can hope for is to prudently prepare, and to preemptively identify as many possible contributors as you can.

Then you must attempt to change, eliminate, or suppress them as much as possible.

Does your arm hurt?

Here are the top 10 mechanical reasons for arm pain:

Arm crosses the acromial line
Elevated Distal Humerus
Inverted W
Forearm Flyout
Poor Pelvic Engagement
Lead Leg disconnection
Poor Glove Side integrity
Failure to Pronate forearm and internally rotate shoulder immediately after release
Failure to rotate around front hip
Elbow doesn’t stay lose and bent and crosses the midline of the body.

I just published a free 4 part video series called Mechanical Contributors to Arm Pain. This series reveals the secret to using the location of your pain to determine where your mechanics might be going awry.

It’s TOTALLY FREE ! All you have to do is become a Mobile VIP to access all four videos.

But there’s more!

The list above only includes the movement pattern variables that can contribute to arm pain and/or injury.

There are also plenty of physical constraints that can play significant roles.

Here is a list of a few of them:

SICK Scapula

GIRD

Rotator cuff integrity/impingement

Ulnar collateral ligament compromise

Shoulder mobility deficits

Thoracic mobility constraints

Hip mobility restrictions

Ankle mobility limitations

Lumbar range of motion ineffieciencies

Lumbar stability issues

Core muscle weakness

Muscle imbalances

And that doesn’t even consider the possibility of workload or training program contributors, and/or psychological factors.

Do you have a thorough understanding of all of these possible constraints?

Have you been checked for all of them?

Have you been checked for ANY of them?

If not, you are either wasting valuable training time, or you are risking degradation of your performance and possible injury.

The high school and college seasons are about to kick into gear.

It’s not to late to find out exactly where you are, and then do something about it.

I have a few options for you.

If you live near Tampa Bay, click here to sign up for an initial evaluation. We conduct them every Tuesday night at 6:00 pm. We’ll spend 2-3 hours examining you and your mechanics to identify all risk factors and significant opportunities for improvement.

Here’s another great idea:

I recently published a book and video called Engineering the S uperhuman Pitching Ma chine, Volume 2: Conducting a World Class Pitcher Assessment.

It’s a common sense, stepwise guide for assessing pitchers for nearly every possible constraint.

And it’s so easy even this guy understood it on the first try.

But the following is probably the best option for anyone interested in learning everything about the ARMory system that has produced 49 flame throwing 90 mph pitchers since Feb of 2011:

It’s called The ARMory Rocket Launchers Training Camp.

It’s 2 days of boot camp where I’ll lay it all out for you. I’ll cover all the fundamental scientific pillars of our approach and show you the “how” and “why” behind everything.

The camps run from 9am to 5 pm on Saturday and 9 am to 2 pm on Sunday.

We currently have camps scheduled for Jan 11/12 and Jan 18/19

For our out of town guests, we have a block of rooms reserved at the Holiday Inn Express

www.hiexpress.com\tampabrandonfl

When you register and attend, you will receive an ARMory 3 phase assessment including a high-speed video analysis. ($60 value)

You’ll get 2 ARMory style workouts showing you all the motor building exercises ARMory students have used to become some of the most prolific and explosive pitchers in the country. ($120 value)

It will be a multimedia extravaganza and will include 6-7 hours of lecture and video presentations on all the fundamentals of our program. ($600-$700 value)

Topics will include:

Starting With the Pain (Wolforth)

Reject The Freak Theory (Wolforth)

Conducting a World Class Evaluation

Training the Correct Energy System

Creating a Fast Twitch Athlete

Dynamic Warmup

The Fab 4 Pillars Of Explosive Pitcher Development

Balancing Accelerators and Decelerators

Varying the Nueromuscular Stimulus

Alerting the Reticular Activating System

How We Learn Motor Skills

The Bernstein Principle

Myelination

Deliberate Practice

Chunking/Blending

Periodizing Your Training Plan

We’ll also be covering the parameters of efficient pitching movement patterns such as:

Deceleration: Keeping it natural and safe

Creating Torque and Separation

Lead Leg Connection

Pelvic Engagement (how to use your hips)

Arm Action

Connection (keeping your movement pattern together and in sync)

Creating Tempo and Momentum

Direction

And Intent!!

And you’ll receive world-class mindset training throughout the event.

You’ll leave with a written 21-day plan to laser focus your training so you can rapidly gain the 5-7mph, the pinpoint command, and the titanium durability you have been searching for your entire life. ($100 value)

In total, that’s nearly $1000 worth of material and training for less than 1/3rd of that cost.

I don’t know how you can pass up this incredible offer. I’m so sure the Rocket Launchers Training Camp will change your life and your pitching career, that I will give you a full unconditional money back guarantee. If you are not totally satisfied, just tell me and I will refund the entire cost with no questions asked.

I take all the risk. You get all the reward.

Can’t beat that.

Until next time,

Keep pushing.The homestretch is just around the corner.

Randy Sullivan, MPT

CEO, The ARMory Power Pitching Academy