Context: Following a baseball pitching bout, changes can occur to glenohumeral range of motion that could be linked to injury. These effects are in part due to the posterior shoulder's eccentric muscle activity, which can disrupt muscle contractile elements and lead to changes in muscle cross-sectional area (CSA), as measured by ultrasound.
Objective: To assess changes in muscle CSA, and range of motion immediately before and after pitching, and days 1 to 5 following pitching.
Background: Collegiate baseball pitchers, as well as position players, exhibit increased humeral retrotorsion compared with individuals with no history of overhead sport participation. Whether the humeral retrotorsion plays a role in the development of throwing-related injuries that are prevalent in collegiate baseball pitchers is unknown.
Hypotheses: Humeral retrotorsion will be significantly different in collegiate pitchers with throwing-related shoulder or elbow injury history compared with pitchers with no injury history.
Objective: To measure the influence of humeral torsion on interpretation of clinical indicators of posterior shoulder tightness in overhead athletes.
Design: Cross-sectional control group comparison.
Setting: A university-based sports medicine research laboratory.