Baseball-related elbow injuries are becoming too common an occurrence, and are frequent reasons baseball players seek medical attention.

Look, the immune system is complicated. Like really, really complicated. While new information is coming to light everyday, we already know that the immune system and sleep directly impact one another.

Sleep is often overlooked when talking about recovery and performance, but it is one of the most important factors in the recovery process. To really understand this, it is important to look at the stages of sleep and how getting quality sleep can impact performance for athletes.

In our previous article we discussed how lactic acid is not responsible for the soreness you feel after throwing, so where does this soreness come from? It is caused by micro tearing in the muscles when you pitch.

The next part of our series pertains to the lactic acid debate in pitchers’ arms post pitching. Many coaches tell their pitchers to run poles post pitching to “flush” the lactic acid from their body. In reality, there is no lactic acid buildup during pitching.

This set of articles will be a three part series, talking about long distance running, the lactic acid debate and why you feel sore after pitching.

The off-season (summer and fall ball) is the most critical time for players to improve and develop. This time of the year should be used for players to work on their skills, such as increasing velocity, commanding the strike zone, improving strength and conditioning, etc.