The bottom line
Tommy Kowaliwskyj, a baseball pitcher, has felt discomfort traveling from his shoulder down into his triceps and forearm. At Thrive in Belmar, NJ, Clint Price, L.Ac., keeps his shoulder loose and works down his arm with dry needling and electro-acupuncture, which also helps soreness and tightness from pitching clear up a little faster.
- Tommy Kowaliwskyj
- Baseball pitcher
- Discomfort
- Shoulder to forearm
- Needling
- Dry and electro
- Goal
- Faster recovery
Discomfort down a pitcher's arm
Tommy Kowaliwskyj is a baseball pitcher, and we've worked with him extensively. He has felt discomfort traveling from his shoulder down into his triceps, and further, into his forearm.
How we're treating his shoulder and arm
Clint Price, one of our acupuncturists in Belmar, treats Tommy's shoulder pain by keeping his shoulder loose, especially the back of his rotator cuff, the muscles and tendons that hold the shoulder joint steady. Because the discomfort runs down his arm, Clint works the whole posterior chain, the muscles along the back of his shoulder and arm, and loosens the pronator, a muscle in his forearm. Overuse strains the pronator in a lot of baseball pitchers, a common kind of sports injury.
Where trigger points, tight knots in a muscle, have settled in, Clint uses dry needling: the needle goes into the knot until the muscle jumps and lets go.
Staying ahead of soreness from pitching
Pitching can leave Tommy sore and tight, so part of his care looks ahead. We stay on top of his pronator and keep the blood flowing through it as well as we can. Clint also uses electro-acupuncture, acupuncture with a mild electric current added to the needles, which helps that soreness and tightness clear up a little faster.
Key takeaways
- Tommy Kowaliwskyj, a baseball pitcher treated at Thrive in Belmar, NJ, has felt discomfort traveling from his shoulder down into his triceps and forearm.
- Tommy's acupuncturist at Thrive in Belmar, NJ, Clint Price, keeps the back of his rotator cuff loose, works the muscles along the back of his shoulder and arm, and loosens the pronator in his forearm.
- Baseball pitchers often strain the pronator, a forearm muscle, through overuse, so Thrive stays on top of Tommy's pronator and keeps blood flowing through it.
- Clint Price uses dry needling to release trigger points in Tommy's muscles, and electro-acupuncture to help soreness and tightness from pitching clear up a little faster.
