I received a great email from Kyle with the question.

I have been following your workouts vigorously and I have notice a huge improvement in power but I am afraid that I may be getting to powerful too quick. I am sure you have heard of pitchers tearing tendons or ligaments because their muscle got too big or too strong for their tendons or ligaments causing too much stress on those tendons and ligaments. I am just wondering if this lifting is going to cause that when I start pitching?
Thanks for your quick response,
Kyle

Kyle,

I understand your concern but unless you are using steroids are another illegal substance you have nothing to worry about. The injuries I have heard about of pitchers tearing ligaments or tendons is the Tommy John ligament or UCL and one of the rotator cuff muscles. This almost always happens because of poor mechanics and overuse. There isn't much evidence proving weight lifting as a cause of these ligaments tearing.

If you are growing stronger naturally with weight training your ligaments and tendons are growing stronger as well. I just recommend you work on the component of "Separation" or "Scap Loading" as much as you work on strength training. Learning to have good back hip to back shoulder separation will build torque in your core which will not only increase velocity but save your arm from injury. Read this article on Pitching Torque and the 3 Pivots to learn more. Here is a good drill to help you with developing optimal "Separation" http://topvelocity.net/pitching-velocit … -the-sled/