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This is somewhat an addendum or follow-up to a similar thread about arm injuries due to lifting weights: http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=74324
In January 2008, my 15 year old son suffered an acute avulsion of the medial epicondyle in his right elbow. In layman's terms, he had a significant fracture of the growth plate located at his inner elbow. He had surgery where two screws were inserted at the break and was placed into a full arm cast for almost seven weeks. The cast was removed was last Friday and he has started ROM exercises in preparation for rehab.
Brief history of the factors leading up to this injury are as follows:
1.) He pitched in LL from the ages of 9 to 12. Our league had established pitch count rules long before the National LL adopted them.
2.) He played/pitched for a local travel team at ages 13 and 14. If anything, we "babied" his arm during travel ball. All our travel pitchers had a pitch limit of 70-75 pitches, rest days were based on previous games pitch count, no pitcher went over 125-130 pitches in a week, etc. In fact, my son didn't learn to throw a curve until last year(at age 14) and threw at most 10% curves in any given game.
3.) He is somewhat of a "late bloomer". Only in the last 6-8 months did he begin getting hair under his arms, etc., and he's undergone tremendous growth during this time.
4.) He played freshman football this past Fall, and then was required to attend an off-season conditioning program. However, unlike the other thread, my son said their weight training was supervised by the coaches. I even had my son talk to the head baseball coach(who is also an asst. FB coach) about wanting to do weights more to get ready for baseball season, rather than bulk-up for FB.
5.) In mid-December, my son started his pre-season baseball conditioning and light throwing. This was being done concurrently with the off-season FB conditioning and weights.
6.) In mid-January, he was throwing to his catcher at an indoor facility when he felt something pop in his inner elbow. I was there when it happened... he had stretched and warmed up for about 20 min, and was on his ~ 20th pitch at about 75% of his normal when the injury occurred.
Here is what our Orthopaedic Specialist told us; this injury usually occurs in younger pitchers from over-use, but the weight training my son was doing was also a determining factor. My son had probably strengthened the bicep/tricep more than the forearm, which led to new forces and torque on his elbow. This coupled with the added stress on the growth plates from the weightlifting. So much for coach supervision, etc. I'm kicking myself in hindsight because I had never had him lift weights before, and I don't think he was physically ready for weightlifting yet.
The rehab regime set-up by the Orthopaed is as follows: 2-3 weeks of ROM exercises, followed by PT, with light throwing by late March or early April. Definitely NO pitching this year, but Dr. doesn't see any reason why my son couldn't be making the throws from SS by early May.
Does anyone have experience with this type of injury? Any advice on ROM exercises or rehab? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Twitch5
In January 2008, my 15 year old son suffered an acute avulsion of the medial epicondyle in his right elbow. In layman's terms, he had a significant fracture of the growth plate located at his inner elbow. He had surgery where two screws were inserted at the break and was placed into a full arm cast for almost seven weeks. The cast was removed was last Friday and he has started ROM exercises in preparation for rehab.
Brief history of the factors leading up to this injury are as follows:
1.) He pitched in LL from the ages of 9 to 12. Our league had established pitch count rules long before the National LL adopted them.
2.) He played/pitched for a local travel team at ages 13 and 14. If anything, we "babied" his arm during travel ball. All our travel pitchers had a pitch limit of 70-75 pitches, rest days were based on previous games pitch count, no pitcher went over 125-130 pitches in a week, etc. In fact, my son didn't learn to throw a curve until last year(at age 14) and threw at most 10% curves in any given game.
3.) He is somewhat of a "late bloomer". Only in the last 6-8 months did he begin getting hair under his arms, etc., and he's undergone tremendous growth during this time.
4.) He played freshman football this past Fall, and then was required to attend an off-season conditioning program. However, unlike the other thread, my son said their weight training was supervised by the coaches. I even had my son talk to the head baseball coach(who is also an asst. FB coach) about wanting to do weights more to get ready for baseball season, rather than bulk-up for FB.
5.) In mid-December, my son started his pre-season baseball conditioning and light throwing. This was being done concurrently with the off-season FB conditioning and weights.
6.) In mid-January, he was throwing to his catcher at an indoor facility when he felt something pop in his inner elbow. I was there when it happened... he had stretched and warmed up for about 20 min, and was on his ~ 20th pitch at about 75% of his normal when the injury occurred.
Here is what our Orthopaedic Specialist told us; this injury usually occurs in younger pitchers from over-use, but the weight training my son was doing was also a determining factor. My son had probably strengthened the bicep/tricep more than the forearm, which led to new forces and torque on his elbow. This coupled with the added stress on the growth plates from the weightlifting. So much for coach supervision, etc. I'm kicking myself in hindsight because I had never had him lift weights before, and I don't think he was physically ready for weightlifting yet.
The rehab regime set-up by the Orthopaed is as follows: 2-3 weeks of ROM exercises, followed by PT, with light throwing by late March or early April. Definitely NO pitching this year, but Dr. doesn't see any reason why my son couldn't be making the throws from SS by early May.
Does anyone have experience with this type of injury? Any advice on ROM exercises or rehab? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Twitch5
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