In-Season Lifting

Nothing over the head! Lighter weight. No need for an injury now. You do not need to lift to gain strength and mass through the season. Just stay conditioned. JMO.

Would you recommend limiting my shoulder workouts to band-work and long toss?

Some one else will need to respond to that, it is above my paygrade. I don't know if you could go wrong with that approach, but others will have greater insight.

The biggest thing that needs to be adjusted is the intensity and volume. I would increase intensity while decreasing volume. Remember that the specific weights don't matter so much because your sport isn't "weight lifting;" it's to play baseball.

But I think the biggest mistake people make (in all sports) is to either drop weight lifting and conditioning in season completely or they try to "maintain" instead and end up losing.

My only concern is that I have seen too many players injure themselves via shoulder or back strain from lifting heavy weight over head, just as the season is getting underway. They end up missing a portion of the season, or all of it. Sometimes that can have very critical consequenses, such as a Junior or Senior in HS looking for a LOI or a Draft Slot. Same in College. I sure would not want my son to miss a game, or an opportunity, during this season, his final season in college, due to a back strain from incorrect mechanics while doing squats. It only takes one mistake and you could be looking at hanging up your cleats.

From a position player standpoint, I do not see how they can lose much of what they gained in the offseason with all the basic work they do running and throwing.

That said, I am a proponent of weight training in season, but with less weight and nothing over the head.

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That said, I am a proponent of weight training in season, but with less weight and nothing over the head.

I'm not sure what (if?) I'd have a baseball player or really any athlete doing "overhead" with any kind of weight. But I am not a proponent of "less weight" in-season. Why do I want to be stronger on day 1 of the season than I would be the day of a championship game?

Interesting side note, I just this minute ran into a dad who is/was the pitching instructor at our 6A High School. His son who was a draft prospect went off to a Major Florida D1 as a pitcher. During mandatory weight training, having pitchers do dead lifts, he ruptured a disc in his back and is done. He now hopes to go into coaching. The dad was devestated, you could see it in his eyes. He said his son was taking it better than he was.

Just a true, timely, cautionary side note.

And it is a cost/benefit analysis. Perhaps I would be stronger each day if I strength train throughout the season. But, perhaps I will pull a muscle in my back and miss the season, lose my spot and be done.

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Originally posted by Bulldog 19:

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That said, I am a proponent of weight training in season, but with less weight and nothing over the head.

I'm not sure what (if?) I'd have a baseball player or really any athlete doing "overhead" with any kind of weight. But I am not a proponent of "less weight" in-season. Why do I want to be stronger on day 1 of the season than I would be the day of a championship game?

An injury can happen just as easy on the field as in the weightroom. I would rather see a player doing weight training during the season then none at all. But you also need to have streching and flexability work also. It was to bad that the players dreams were cut short, but I like deadlifts, single leg work and front squats as just a few excersises. they also need to be under the watchful eye of a good strength coach. Check out Eric Cressey's Blog on lots of good info. www.ericcressey.com

I will say that every player should take it upon himself to learn how to lift. The world of weight training is too often a collection of speculations and anecdotes that is just passed down from person to person and never verified.

There is a wealth of information (good and bad, unfortunately) on the internet and with some research you can eventually start to figure out where to look for legitimate info. You can certainly expect injury in the weight room if your form is bad or there is some huge flaw in the workout plan -- anyone that wants to lift heavy weights (do you want to be strong?) should spend some time to make sure they are lifting correctly.

Realize that your coach may or may not be well-informed. Don't let a coach that doesn't know how to lift cost you your rotator cuff, or disc, or anything. If you have the goals of being healthy and being strong, you should be lifting and you should be spending some time making sure your form in particular is good.

Thank you for all the responses.

So far I found that 3-4 full body workouts have been most convenient with my schedule. Any more insight would be appreciated.

AS A COACH I DO NOT LIKE PLAYERS LIFTING IN SEASON

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AS A COACH I DO NOT LIKE PLAYERS LIFTING IN SEASON

If I were your opponent, I'd prefer your players didn't lift too...

I've witnessed occasions where not lifting is better than lifting -- case in point when instruction is so poor that injury risk is very high. The amount of time that the instruction is poor is probably alarmingly high.