Front and Center… Oblique’s.

There appears to be a pandemic of oblique strains in baseball- occurring at all levels- the question is both why and why are they recurring in some players and not others?

Firstly, though- is the oblique injury new to baseball? Historically- these have been diagnosed as rib cage sprains or side strains, and these are nothing new, given the torque and force on core rotation in many aspects of the game. The “new” term in the public vernacular is the anatomically correct “oblique” strain.

There appear to be many mechanisms for oblique strains, from swinging the bat to pitching- and we even had one occur in the on-deck circle in 2009. Most appear to be contralateral side injuries- for the most part occurring in the eccentric loading or expansion of the core during movements related to in-game activities.

So as we understand the why- the question the conditioning coach faces is how to treat the conditioning phase of rehabilitation once cleared by the ATC, and how to prevent further injury as the season and the athlete progresses in the game.

One treatment Steven Miller (Marlins AAA ATC) and I found to work well, keeping the offender from repeating the pain, was the incorporation of eccentric loading throughout the second phase of treatment. Multiple planes of loading- featuring cable resistance and manual resistance- using stability balls and stances were incorporated into workouts for those that had experienced the injury, and to date- were effective at suppression of re-injury.

The incorporation of eccentric loading is critical in many phases of movement-and in many phases of strength and conditioning. Knowing how to correct a weakness is important in stabilizing the foundation of an athlete, and ensuring expedient and confident return to play is a critical success function.

Oblique strains- while they are “front and center” know how to vector load through the area for movement protection, and ultimately power production and maintenance.