THE INFLUENCE OF BASEBALL PITCHING ON THE HARDNESS OF THE FLEXOR PRONATOR MUSCLES - USING ULTRASOUND REALTIME TISSUE ELASTGRAPHY

The purpose of this study was to examine changes of the individual hardness of the flexor - pronator muscle group after pitching. The twelve normal male volunteers who had played baseball participated in this study. One hundred pitches were performed, and the individual flexor pronator muscles hardness were analyzed using ultrasound real time tissue elastgraphy (RTE) both before and after 100 pitching. The hardness of the flexor pronator muscles were not significant different between before and after pitching. However, hardness of the most hardened muscle was significantly different between before and after pitching. Therefore RTE is useful method to manage of the pitching counts in pitchers who performed athletic rehabilitation after throwing injuries