Quarterback Vs. Pitcher Vs. Bench Press

We had a great question come in regarding our Blog last week; why we exclude bench press in our Baseball players’ strength programs (if you missed it, check out that Blog here)

The question was: Was having a similar conversation today about QBs and bench press. What do you think?

Here is my response:

While quarterbacks have similar stresses on their shoulders as pitchers, those stresses are a lot less than that of a pitcher. The record velocity for a quarterback throw is ~60mph whereas the highest recorded MLB pitch is ~105mph; they are in completely different ballparks (pardon the pun!). Because of this, throwing injuries are also a lot less common in quarterbacks. If we look at a study by Dodson, C.C; ET. Al  there are only 10 reported cases of UCL tears in NFL quarterbacks between 1994-2008 vs. 36 UCL tears in MLB pitchers in the 2015 & 2016 seasons alone! The majority of injuries NFL quarterbacks sustain occur through direct contact, ~82.3% (according to a study by Kelly, B.T.; ET. Al.) while overuse injuries account for less than 15% of injuries.

Another thing we have to consider is that most quarterbacks take long breaks from throwing in the off-season while pitchers (especially younger ones) have a tendency to jump the gun on their throwing programs and (in my opinion) on average do not let their shoulders recover long enough in the off-season.

What this tells me is that the durability of a quarterback’s shoulder is much higher than that of a pitcher’s and can more than likely sustain higher stresses off the field in the gym. While it may be a good idea to avoid bench press for similar reasons as our baseball players do (exacerbates negative adaptations from throwing, too far away from throwing motion on force-velocity curve, and failure on a heavy rep puts the shoulder in a vulnerable position), having bench press in a quarterback’s program is probably less likely to causes negative performance outcomes on the field. Which is, arguably, the most important thing to look for when choosing exercises for your athletes.

Keep an eye out for Part 2 of our Bench Press vs. Baseball Blog where we will show you pressing exercises much more suited to overhead throwing athletes, quarterbacks included!

If you have any questions or comments about this or any of our other blogs let us know in our comments section or send our author an email directly (cplewes@sstcanada.com)!

 

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SST Monday Athlete News Sept 7 2015

One day late due to the Labour day Holiday but some outstanding athletic performances by some of SST athletes across the board

Congrats to the Hamilton Tiger Cats and players like Mike Filer and Big Pete D for their thumping of the Toronto Argos yesterday!

4th year player and Hec Creighton favourites Will Finch and Mercer Timmis dazzled over the weekend

Mercer led his Calgary team to a victory over his former coach 49-16

Mercer carried the rock for 150 yds and punched in for 2tds!

Will Finch- had the perfect QB rating!!!- 14-15 passing – 304 yards and 3 tds….and added another thru the ground in leading Western to a victory

Next week Will will take his Mustangs into Laurier where SST Athlete’s Mike Malanda, Jamie Lalonde and Brendan Carey await

SST Oakville has some talented players who are making some noise in MLB

Miles Gordon the 4th ranked baseball player in all of Canada was selected in the 4th round by the Cincinnati Reds

Here is a great article on Miles

Lots of great performances and with NHL, High School football and NCAA all starting up the news will be flowing in the the next month!