When talking about a complete or comprehensive training or throwing program, the conversation has to begin and end with “recovery”.
Fatigue is the Enemy of Mechanics
In other words, when an area of the body is fatigued or sore, movement is compromised throughout the entire chain, causing a negative effect on bio-mechanics and increasing the risk of injury. Being that throwing is a repetitive movement, along with it comes the possibility of overuse injuries.
Overuse is Really the Same as Under-Recovered
By expediting the recovery process immediately following a workout or bullpen you:
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- Reduce muscle fatigue or soreness
- Help maintain pitching bio-mechanics
- Enhance future performance
- Reduce the risk of injury
EMS (Electronic Muscle Stimulation) was designed for just this.
What does it do?
Electronic Muscle Stimulation or “EMS” uses muscle contractions to help pump more blood and nourishment through the selected area, conditioning the muscle and aiding in post workout recovery. The normalization of tissue through the movement of nourishment and waste increases blood flow to the chosen area helping to move waste and de-oxygenated blood away while bringing in fresh new blood without any stress or fatigue to the area. I refer to it as:
“Marching out the tired Marines and bringing in the new ones”
Here at RPP we’ve always spared no expense when it comes to optimizing our training for our athletes. Well, it’s no different when it comes to recovery.
That’s why beginning this month with the beginning of bullpens, we started incorporating the Marc Pro EMS system into our pre- and post-training/throwing protocol. Below is a picture of the Marc Pro device (left), and our PT room with one of our 3 new Marc Pro EMS systems.
How does it work?
The Marc Pro uses a decaying wave form combined with a pulse to allow for non-fatiguing muscle contractions. When used on a daily basis the device:
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- Decreases the downtime in between training sessions
- Increases muscle’s ability to do more work
- Improves the condition of the muscles by improving the vascular system
15-25 minutes, 2-3x’s / week can drastically improve muscle conditioning/performance as well as aid in the recovery process before and after workout/bullpens.
Who uses it?
Marc Pro is used by many world class athletes and professional sports organizations (click here for complete list), including just about every MLB team:
This is just one more step in our effort to stay one step ahead of the game and provide what we believe to best opportunities for our athletes to succeed.
See ya’ in the gym…
By Nunzio Signore (BA, CSCS, CPT, NASM, FMS)
