Baseball Workouts

Here's the best template for a baseball player's workout...

1. Dynamic Warmup
(Hurdles, Tumbling, Spider Lunges, Inchworms, Angels, etc.)
2. Active Conditioning
(Jump Rope, Agility Ladder, General Physical Prep., etc.)
3. Weight Training
"Here's where it gets a little tricky"
3 Focus "Money Lifts"
(Hang Clean, Hang Snatch, Squat, Deadlift, etc.)
4 Posterior Chain Dominant Lifts
(Glute/Ham, Ham Split, Step Up, etc., etc.,)
2 Shoulder Pre/hab lifts
(Muscle Snatch, Cuban Press, Int. Ext. Rotation)
3. Core Work
(Postural Holds, Windmill, Turkish Get Up, etc.)
4. Static Stretching
5. Functional Grip Training

(This is very basic and there are a lot more factors. If you have any questions let me know)

quote:

(Hang Clean, Hang Snatch, Squat, Deadlift, etc.)

This looks pretty good but why "hang" versions of lifts instead of from the ground?

http://ericcressey.com/

Read everything.

Here is a workout I made up.

Monday
Jump rope- 3-5 sets/3min
Squat(40-65%) 4x6
Deadlift (40-65%) 4x6
Split Jerk(40-65%) 4x6
Bulgarian Squat(70-95%) 3sets/3-5 reps
High Pull(70-95%) 3 sets/3-5 reps
Lunges 3sets/3-5 reps
Olympic good mornings(70-95%) 3sets/3-5 reps
Static stretching

Tuesday
Jump rope- 3-5 sets/3min
Barbell Home Run Press 2x8 each side
Barbell windmill 2x8 each side
Statics Holds
75x2 from flying 10yd sprint
50x2 from three point start
65x2 from two point start
20x2 from three point start on clap start
GPP- Jumping jacks, shuffle splits, squat thrust, mountain climbers- 30 sec each
Static stretching

Wednesday
Jump rope- 3-5 sets/3min
Agility Ladder
Session 1- Box, X, Star
Static stretching

Thursday
Jump rope- 3-5 sets/3min
Baseball full contact twist-2x8 each side
Russian twists 2x10 each side
Static holds
Static stretching

Friday
Jump rope- 3-5 sets/3min
1. Power Clean/Front Squat 2:1x3
2. Front Squat/ Power Clean 1:2x3
3. Front Squat/Push Press 2:1x3
4. Push Press/Front Squat 1:2x3
5. Squat/Split Jerk 2:1x3
6. Split Jerk/Squat 1:2x3
7. Power Clean/Front Squat 3:1x2
8. Front Squat/Power Clean 1:3x2
9. Front Squat/Push Press 3:1x2
10. Push Press/Front Squat 1:3x2
11. Squat/Split Jerk 3:1x2
12. Split Jerk/Squat 1:3x2
Static Stretching

Saturday
Tumbling drills- 2-3 sets
Jump rope- 3-5 sets/3min
Baseball Turkish Get up 2x8 each arm
Figure 8s 2x75 feet
Static Holds
55x2 from flying 10 yd sprint
25x3 from 3 point start
40x2 from 2 point start
10x3 from 3 point start on clap
Static stretching

Focus lifts have rest of 35-45 seconds
30 second rest for any core exercises
90 seconds rests in between sprints
40-65% Rest of 45-90 seconds

I'll be more than happy to answer any questions.

There is way too much pressing on Friday. And honestly, Olympic lifts aren't going to do much for you. If you are bound and determined to do a variation, do high pulls.

I understand the idea that Olympic lifts promote explosiveness, however the extreme stress on the shoulders while pressing heavy weight overhead is something I would not mess with.

I can understand what you are saying. However, on Friday those lifts are all done at between 40-65% of 1RM. I'll admit I am not the most knowledgeable person about the risks associated with Olympic lifts, but I do believe if done correctly and with the weight I described above the risk is limited to the shoulder. It may be possible that those lifts may also help strengthen the shoulder.

Plank, the purpose of doing the lifts from hang is that the hang position is a much more athletic position, and is a position in which we start alot of explosive movements on the baseball field.

Also easier to learn...

With that said, you will still benefit from the floor position.

also 7steps, i do think they can be hard on the shoulder(when done incorrectly, which many do), but the reward for training that way is incredible.

And based on who i think johnny appleseed is getting his info from, i dont think he will have a problem with form.

quote:

Originally posted by 7Steps:
I understand the idea that Olympic lifts promote explosiveness, however the extreme stress on the shoulders while pressing heavy weight overhead is something I would not mess with.

Agree. And this from a long time olympic/powerlifter, I have never been a big fan of the supposed "explosiveness" of those lifts because, to this minute, I don't know what that means (or, more how appropriately, how it really translates). Building a "base" of strength (which one could argue is only imperfectly measured by what? the weight training you are doing), I understand that. It teaches your body to activate more muscle fibers and grows them to a certain extent. Explosiveness in those lifts? Ok, I get that too; you can train to lift a weight faster, you build nerve pathways that let you do it better and more efficiently. But I would argue that a compelling has not been made as to how it translates to baseball (or if there is some translation, not enough to warrant the possible injury to young athletes with growing joints).

"Explosiveness?" Dunno. I do know what "injury" means, however, and I do know that it's darn hard to play (especially throw) with a bum shoulder.

ive been doing olympic style lifts for a year and my shoulders couldnt feel better...

If you do overhead explosive olympic lifts and lift it with your upper body, then yes it is very dangerous...the way we are suggesting you do them is "lifting" with your posterior chain...basically your upper body just "goes with the flow" and the legs and lower back do most of the work

johnny appleseed, you have some good information...wonder where you got that from

Ole Ball Coach, the injuries do not come from the exercises themselves. The injuries come from bad technique while performing these injuries. Technique has always been stressed because people want to just grip and rip without thinking. So if these exercises are performed correctly, the benefits far outweigh the risks.

Ya JC, I try to be well informed. Actually, I'm just incredibly intelligent and have made up all this on my own

Johnny, there are sometimes when grip and rip can be beneficial...

Your still right though

I will grant your point that improper performance can result in injury. Sadly, there are darn few high schools that don't have at least a handful of players that get hurt every year in the weightroom. I have lamented that fact with some of the oldtimers here on other threads.

The broader point is that there are, no doubt, a thousand exercises or variations thereof that one could do to become a better baseball player. My point is that one should make a determination as to what gives the best "bang" for the buck with the least probability of injury. To me, that means sport specific (for example, very few baseball moves don't include some kind of rotational component), and again, with a reduced likelihood of injury.

Most olympic lifts build strength for olympic lifts and, peripherally, have an additional effect of strengthening some the muscles athletes use to play baseball. They are, however, ballistic movements (with increasingly heavy weight) that primarily occur on one plane; few of which build on the ballistic movements one experiences on the baseball field (though acceleration while running, arguably, is at least partially translatable). If I grant your point about the proper performance, in my opinion, most of the olympic lifts simply still don't reach that threshold.

What we run into in our area is a lot of relatively young athletes that go to the weightroom with no clearly defined idea of what they actually want. I cannot tell you how many ballplayers, when I have asked them their goals (and I probably was one, if the truth be told) that wanted to be "stronger," or more "explosive," or something like that. When you try to quantify that for their sport, however, they have no idea; someone put an idea in their head that they had to get bigger, stronger, more explosive. Our rule of thumb is that everything we are trying to do allows our ballplayers to perform at their optimum level. IMO, strength training programs are effective to the extent they let them do that.

No matter what sport athletes I work with, there are two lifts that will be included in any kind of program.

-Power Clean (or the hang clean variation)
-Back Squat

The key to remember, though, is weight lifting is only good if it provides benefit on the field. Unless you are a competitive weight lifter, your numbers in the weight room mean NOTHING. Becoming a better Power Cleaner leads to one thing-->you improving in Power Clean. But you have to find a way to make your lifts transfer onto the field (or the court, etc).

attaboy bulldog

Bulldog,

Can you tell me why exactly you emphasize the clean?

quote:

Can you tell me why exactly you emphasize the clean?

Maybe you have a better idea for a single lift that emphasizes ENTIRE BODY?

For what purpose? I can make a solid full body workout without wasting my time on cleans or putting myself as risk for injury.

As for engaging the entire body, most Olympic lifters spend their entire lives trying to perfect form. 99% of teenagers in the weight room are simply putting weight on the bar and throwing it up with no emphasis on form! The idea of the weight room is to be able to properly utilize exercises to improve performance on the field, which can't be done if you're sitting in the trainers room with a bum shoulder!If you are a world class coach with the ability to get your athletes to lift like Olympic athletes, then congrats to you! You should be getting calls from China and Russia soon...

quote:

For what purpose? I can make a solid full body workout without wasting my time on cleans or putting myself as risk for injury.

Apparently you missed my point. I want ONE exercise that is full body.

quote:

The idea of the weight room is to be able to properly utilize exercises to improve performance on the field, which can't be done if you're sitting in the trainers room with a bum shoulder!

Yes, I much prefer to see my athletes on the field and in the weight room rather than in my athletic training room. I prefer to be all alone in my athletic training room..

quote:

If you are a world class coach with the ability to get your athletes to lift like Olympic athletes, then congrats to you! You should be getting calls from China and Russia soon...

Don't have to be a world-class coach or athlete to do Olympic lifts. Power Clean really is not that difficult. The key is this: Numbers mean NOTHING in the weight room. I would rather see you do an explosive lift such as Clean with 150 pounds explosively and full out than see you Clean 200 pounds slow. That's where most people go wrong.

Maybe you have a better idea for a single lift that emphasizes ENTIRE BODY?[/QUOTE]

Well, it is a good lift (and to be clear, I do think it has some value), but it certainly doesn't "emphasize" the entire body. As you said in a previous post, if performed properly, it does work the posterior chain. It peripherally works a number of areas, which is why it has value.

quote:

but it certainly doesn't "emphasize" the entire body. As you said in a previous post, if performed properly, it does work the posterior chain. It peripherally works a number of areas, which is why it has value.

Ole Ball Coach, it doesn't work every single muscle in the body true. But what it emphasizes is the use of every joint in the body. That's my point. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find another one that works the body like that. Sports are not played "upper body" and "lower body." Sports are played dynamically and "full body." It is my belief Cleans are the best simulation of this in the weight room. This is important for developing a "base" which is the point of going into the weight room. Then that athlete must take those skills taught and learned in the weight room and apply it on the field.

Most people think cleans are explosive because they are "fast". You can virtually make any lift explosize by using 50-60 % of your max and a variation of the exercize. For example, I want to be more explosive in the lower body,so I do jump squats.

Most people are anterior dominant, and all GREAT athletes are posterior dominant. A poor clean form just worsens the imbalances:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...qJU4&feature=related

Focus on the hips (money in baseball) and not the bar in this lift. Any explosiveness left?

At the risk of getting too preachy, the point of this discussion is "Baseball Workouts." I can concede that Olympic lifts have some value (and we do use them sometimes in the offseason), but could someone please tell me what baseball strength they train? Or better yet, if we featured it in a program, what "tool" would it improve? Throwing? Not likely and certainly not directly. Hitting for average? No. Hitting for power? Maybe indirectly. Glove? No. Speed? Acceleration possibly, first step going forward. This is still basically a one plane movement.

On top of that, we all agree that the danger of injury from a pretty significantly ballistic exercise is always there. We also agree that the athletes we are trying to help are often young and inexperienced and more than likely going to be influenced by their friends in a gym where good form and (more importantly) common sense may not be in large supply. I'm sorry, but I just don't see the value. Good exercise; not particlarly relevant to ballplayers for the risk.

quote:

Focus on the hips (money in baseball) and not the bar in this lift. Any explosiveness left?

Any explosiveness at all? NO. Don't even need to see the video to know that. Just look at the title of the video. If you're doing it 25x straight then you're not training power. You're training endurance.

quote:

the point of this discussion is "Baseball Workouts."

Ole Ball Coach, yes the topic is "baseball workouts." But I think we're talking high school kids here. I don't believe in full sport-specific workouts for high school kids. I want to develop an athlete first; not a sport player. That's the job of the sport coach.

Again, like I said, I use Power Clean and Back Squat to develop base. Yes, I will include some sport-specific activities but my base is all about athleticism.

Please refer to the original post and topic before posting. This is a thread i created to help me become a better, stronger, faster player to help meet my goal of playing college basaeball. This is not a debate thread so if you dont have anything to post that is relavent to the OP then please stop wasting my time with off topic posts.

thanks

quote:

Please refer to the original post and topic before posting. This is a thread i created to help me become a better, stronger, faster player to help meet my goal of playing college basaeball. This is not a debate thread so if you dont have anything to post that is relavent to the OP then please stop wasting my time with off topic posts.

thanks

Amazing how you can't find the time to do a little research on your own and expect to be spoonfed by strangers.

hey 7steps stay on topic and show some respect or stop posting. There is a reason why this forum exists...to help people with questions...ever think of that?

Anyway an update on my status: My senior season is going alright so far. Ive been accepted to my college of choice and have received an academic scholarship. Also i have talked with the coach and am still looking to walk on next season. Im working on a workout for this offseason and am still wondering if anyone has any lifting/speed workouts they could post or send me...nothing that will cost me...and i would extremly appriciate if someone could send me a workout from any college so i can get use to the workload they do.

Once again...
Thanks in advance

Colleges are all different. Some workouts are really hard, others are relatively easy. I know a couple colleges that used the P90X workouts. I advise you to make your own workout and learn as much as you can about the proper way to lift for baseball. I can try and help you make a workout if you want.

My college had a lot of reps and worked muscles that were unnecessary for baseball. So just because it is a college workout does not mean it helps you as much as another workout could. So again, you should make a workout that challenges you and prepares you for the college season. It's better to be over prepared than underprepared.

quote:

Originally posted by Ole Ball Coach:
At the risk of getting too preachy, the point of this discussion is "Baseball Workouts." I can concede that Olympic lifts have some value (and we do use them sometimes in the offseason), but could someone please tell me what baseball strength they train? Or better yet, if we featured it in a program, what "tool" would it improve? Throwing? Not likely and certainly not directly. Hitting for average? No. Hitting for power? Maybe indirectly. Glove? No. Speed? Acceleration possibly, first step going forward. This is still basically a one plane movement.

On top of that, we all agree that the danger of injury from a pretty significantly ballistic exercise is always there. We also agree that the athletes we are trying to help are often young and inexperienced and more than likely going to be influenced by their friends in a gym where good form and (more importantly) common sense may not be in large supply. I'm sorry, but I just don't see the value. Good exercise; not particlarly relevant to ballplayers for the risk.

Speed-yes, power-yes, throwing-yes

Hey 7Steps, I think this would be a better video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqmoqoz3iaM

Explosiveness? Very much so.

The hang clean is a very athletic lift (along with snatches, squat variants, push press/jerk, deadlift etc...)

and the purpose for most people that are going into the weight room for baseball is to become more athletic.

Now why don't they take the time to learn form and posture? Go Figure...

quote:

Speed-yes, power-yes, throwing-yes

Fair enough.
What kind of speed does it build exactly?
Power? How does your power increase exactly? And how do you measure it exactly?
Throwing? If it works for you, well then congratulations; not sure I have heard that before. I suspect that you are one of a very few. Still, be careful.

Andrew, to be clear, I am not against any single exercise. Part of my calculation in designing any program, however, is having a good idea of the risk and reward with each exercise or combination thereof. The goal is to let you do what you do better, and let you do so repeatedly.

Most baseball bats weigh between 29 and 35 ounces; most baseballs about 5. Powercleaning, whether it is hanging cleans or any variation thereof are arguably good exercises for making YOU stronger (if we measure your strength by the ability to powerclean or some other related exercise), but do they help you move the baseball or the bat (or move you, since that relates here) appreciably better for the risk you take on?

Make a case that it does, and I would be glad to consider it (like I said, we sometimes do certain similar movements in our offseason work). But please be more specific as to what they do, other than just make you more "explosive."

You're asking for a program for free, I'd be happy to recommend tons of valuable sources but $$$ seems to be an issue for you. Oh well, your loss.

In that case, you have this forum as well as THOUSANDS of other strength forums (tnation, maxx strength, hell, even letstalkpitching) to figure out a program for yourself. You even have your own program that the coach gave you! What else do you want?

Let me start by quoting Jon Doyle-

"So you ask, "What is the Holy Grail of Baseball Strength Training?" Ladies and gentleman…with great pleasure I introduce to you…"Force Production"

I think everyone agrees that in order to swing a baseball bat at 90 mph, throw a pearl at 95 mph or run a 6.5 sixty a great deal of force must be produced. This is fact. How you get there however, is where we run into problems. (Later on in the article)

Speed (or Reactive) Strength is rarely developed in American athletics today, especially baseball players. The ones who have a great deal of this strength were simply blessed with it.

Speed strength is so misunderstood by most coaches it's mind-boggling. As I covered in Part 1 of this series, maximal strength is targeted by the majority of baseball players. As you know, this is a monumental mistake.

Speed strength is the ability of the neuromuscular system to produce the greatest possible impulse in the shortest possible time. Furthermore, the two aspects to speed strength are starting strength and explosive strength.

Or in other words, How fast you can react and move in game-like conditions.

Can someone please explain to me what the heck is the point of being "strong" if you move slowly and mechanically?

When is the last time a good baseball player threw with slow arm speed or slow bat quickness?

It simply doesn't happen."

This statement is one of the points of my training. The purpose of the Olympic Style movements with the 40-65%of max range, is to teach the body to move in faster ways than normal, while increasing force output.

In order to increase bad speed, one has to first teach the body to output force properly.

This is why I train the way I do, because it is the best possible way to increase force production.

Force production in the form of leg drive when throwing, generating bat speed while hitting, and faster stride frequency while running.

My apologies if this has been addressed before, but I am curious if anyone has anything that they want to say about this training philosophy:

http://www.newhopehealthcenter...ture/principles.html

Youtube has a video on here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...4UQ0&feature=related

OBC