Strength and Power for Baseball Players

Every baseball player wants to be bigger, faster and stronger. Sometimes, this desire causes some athletes to want to speed up the process. This article series does not promote the use of steroids or human growth hormone to build up your body in a short amount of time.

Rather, the training methods described in this series are based on science, current research and empirical evidence. I will show you how to build an athletic body that will endure through the competitive years of your sport.

And, if you use these training methods, your body will remain “lean and mean” after your playing days are over. I should know. I trained hard (not using steroids, etc) when I competed in high school and college athletics. And, I continue to use many of the same (and better) training methods today when I exercise.

Every baseball player can improve strength and power (speed strength) with hard work and the proper training methods. Even though genetics plays a key role in an athlete’s physical makeup, improvements can still be made by anyone with proper training. Furthermore, physically gifted athletes can also make significant performance improvements.

Strength and power training allows the athlete to lessen her or his risk of injuries. Research has shown that most injuries occur in the transverse plane of motion during eccentric muscle contractions (force reduction).

A sport such as baseball is a transverse plane dominated sport (rotations, twists, etc.). Traditional training techniques, such as those with weight machines, have focused on the sagittal plane of motion (backward-forward and up-down motions) and concentric muscle contractions (force production).

IF MOST INJURIES OCCUR DURING ECCENTRIC MUSCLE CONTRACTIONS, THEN ATHLETES’ TRAINING REGIMENS SHOULD INCLUDE MORE EXERCISES THAT PLACE MORE EMPHASIS ON ECCENTRIC CONTRACTIONS. MUSCLE CONTRACTIONS AND PLANES OF MOTION WILL BE DISCUSSED IN MORE DETAIL IN LATER PARTS OF THIS SERIES.

Integrated, progressive training techniques should focus on flexibility, strength, balance, endurance and power for the body’s muscles in all three planes of motion (sagittal, frontal and transverse).

While accomplishing this task, specific attention should be given to training the baseball player's dominate plane of motion used in the sport. Training methods described in this series apply to both male and female baseball/softball players unless otherwise noted.

In part 2 of this series, I will discuss planes of motion as they relate to baseball players.

Download your FREE All-Star Baseball Power Workout Manual and improve your strength, power and explosiveness on the field!

Other things being equal, a muscular, powerful athlete will outperform a fat, slower or skinny, weaker athlete. Sports Fitness Hut's Fat Blaster Athletic Power Training System will give you your "lean and mean" athletic machine!

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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