To that end, over the next four days, I’ll outline my general strength and conditioning approach to dealing with position players and pitchers during the season.  Every athlete and every schedule is different, so it might take some tinkering to make this work for you.

First, though, I want to throw out a few quick FYIs, as some of what I “omit” will actually surprise you.  In terms of my in-season strength and conditioning beliefs, I’m different from many people in that:

1. I’m not big on lots of band stuff at the field – I discussed my thoughts on rotator cuff exercises frequency and overall scheduling in Clearing Up the Rotator Cuff Controversy.  In a nutshell, I tend to stick with 2x/week “conventional” rotator cuff exercises (mostly external rotations) and 2x/week rhythmic stabilization drills.  In conjunction with the rest of our overall program – which includes compound upper body strength exercises ( horizontal and vertical pulling exercises, in particular), deceleration catches, core stability drills, lower half strength exercises, soft tissue work, mobility work, etc – we cover all our needs for keeping an arm healthy.  Why on earth would I add more rotator cuff exercises to my program when I’m already increasing throwing volume, intensity, and frequency?  The cuff is already getting abused – so there is no need to crush it any more with daily tubing circuits unless they are incredibly light and just aimed at improving blood flow.

I firmly believe that many pitchers (and position players alike) overuse their arms during a season simply because they add, add, and add more to their program without fully understanding the outrageous eccentric stress that’s placed on the arm during throwing.  And, for those who insist that doing lots of in-season rotator cuff exercises has kept them healthy, I’d argue that this is probably the case because they weren’t that prepared at the end of the off-season.

2. I don’t do much medicine ball work in-season – If you haven’t already watched my video, the Absolute Strength to Absolute Speed Continuum, watch it now:

During the season, players are about as far to the “absolute speed” end of the continuum as they can be, as they’re hitting, throwing, and sprinting.  With the overwhelming amount of “accidental” power training taking place, I feel that it’s best to stay at the other end of the spectrum.  You can spend more time in the middle during the off-season.

That said, we do utilize a small amount of medicine ball work during the season.  Usually, it’s predominantly done in the opposite direction of a player’s swing/throw; in other words, a right-handed hitter would perform left handed medicine ball throws.  We might also do a small amount of overhead work just to maintain power within this range of motion (as well as the thoracic spine and shoulder flexion mobility that goes with it).

3. I don’t do any distance running for my guys – There’s no need to reinvent the wheel here, as I already barbequed this sacred cow in A New Model for Training Between Starts.  So, this time around, I’ll just be abrasive: coaches who have their baseball players run long distances are either lazy or flat-out stupid (or both).

4. I am a big believer in “less is more” and “quality over quantity” for in-season training – Rarely will an in-season strength training program session last more than 35-40 minutes.  It’s usually roughly 10-14 sets worth of work.  A guy might be in the gym longer than that for foam rolling and targeted mobility drills, though.

5. Volume and intensity should be lower in week 1, but higher for the remaining weeks with in-season strength training programs – I usually keep the volume and intensity lower in the first week of the program to minimize initial soreness.  Then, once the familiarity with the exercises is in place, we can load up a bit more in weeks 2-4 (or 2-6, if you opt to extend the program a bit longer).

6. Strength exercise selection changes a bit in-season, but the basics still apply – We’re still using a lot  of compound, multi-joint strength exercises, but there are a few modifications.

In-season, I tend to utilize more horizontal pulling (rows) than vertical pulling (pull-ups/chin-ups).  We use a lot of vertical pulling throughout the year, but never really go above once a week during the season, as some guys can get a bit cranky in the elbow with the amount of weight it takes to make them challenging.  If you want some of the benefits without the elbow issues, you can always plug in the crossover reverse fly.

This doesn’t mean, however, that I think chin-ups and pull-ups are bad for pitchers.  Far too many coaches have (unsuccessfully) tried to beat that dead horse; let it go, fellas.

Especially with pitchers, I utilize more push-up variations than dumbbell bench pressing during the season.  If we wind up doing three days of horizontal pushing, two will be push-ups and one will be dumbbell pressing.  If we do two days, it’s one of each.  If it’s only one, it’s a push-up.  We have several different variations (as I wrote here and here) from which to choose, so athletes are actually far less likely to get bored with them than with dumbbell pressing, anyway.

7. Don’t overlook maintaining mobility – It’s called “Strength and Conditioning,” but the truth is that we could probably scrap the conditioning part with respect to baseball and replace it with “mobility.”  Guys don’t just get hurt in-season because they lose strength; they get hurt because they lose mobility.  All the eccentric stress leads to significant losses in mobility, as does all the standing around leads athletes to miss out on basic functional movement patterns like squatting and lunging.  Don’t just be a “weights coach;” there are other things to address!  This is probably the primary reason why Assess and Correct has gotten such great reviews among baseball coaches; it’s one piece that they were missing!

It took me over a thousand words, but it would appear that I’ve gotten all my prerequisites out of the way.  Tomorrow, we’ll talk about in-season training for the high school baseball player.

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Post tags: Baseball Players, Baseball Season, Baseball Strength And Conditioning, Core Stability, Daunting Task, Deceleration, External Rotations, High School Baseball, Nutshell, Phone Calls, Pitchers, Position Players, Rotator Cuff Exercises, Season Baseball, Soft Tissue, Strength And Conditioning, Tissue Work, Tweets, Upper Body Strength, Volume Intensity

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If you actually slow things down and example joint angles, you’ll see that the shoulder and elbow positioning most of these guys get to is very similar to what you see in more overhand throwers.  The difference is in how much lateral trunk tilt they have; the more trunk tilt, the lower the release point.

The primary difference you’ll see is that sidearm/submarine throwers will typically break down at the elbow a lot more than the shoulder.  Aguinaldo and Chambers found that sidearm throwers had significantly higher elbow valgus torques than overhand throwers. It’s not surprising, given that they do tend to lead with the elbow a bit more.

Position players who throw more sidearm can largely get away with it because a) they don’t have anywhere near the volume of throwing in a single outing or a season that pitchers do, and b) they aren’t throwing off a mound.  We know that just stepping up onto the elevated mound dramatically increases arm stress.

So, what are the practical applications of knowing the demands are, for the most part, very similar?

First, spend a considerable amount more time focusing on core stability and working to iron out excessive right-left asymmetries that arise secondary to all the lateral trunk tilt.  In other words, worry as much about the spine as you do about the arm.

Second, I’d put an even greater emphasis on soft tissue work at the medial elbow – particularly on the common flexor tendon (the muscles that join to create this tendon protect the ulnar collateral ligament from excessive valgus stress).

Third, as is usually the case, use these guys as relievers to keep their throwing volume lower while still maximizing their utility.

Other than that, manage them as if you would any other pitcher – which should always be a tremendously individualized process, anyway!

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Post tags: 3b, Aguinaldo, Angles, Asymmetries, Chambers, Core Stability, Elbow, Flexor Tendon, Mu, Perils, Pitchers, Position Players, Practical Applications, Soft Tissue, Spine, Ss, Strasberg, Tilt, Tissue Work, Torques

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When you focus on posture and balance, you help align both your posture and your body in general. Before you begin your bodybuilding exercise program, you’ll need to have proper posture. Because most professional bodybuilders have good posture, their programs may not concentrate on this particular feature. However, if your posture is good, you can look more fit simply because of the way you hold yourself.

When you are engaging in a bodybuilding exercise program, you also need to make sure that your shoulders are stable. If they’re not, you could injure yourself. If you injure your shoulders, you could find yourself in pain because you did things wrong. This is something you don’t want, of course, and assuming the proper techniques will assure that you don’t have this problem.

Core stability is important, too. Bodybuilding exercise workouts need to include this information because core stability helps protect your lower back from injury. If you don’t develop core stability, you could injure your back. Many existing bodybuilding exercise programs don’t really focus on core stability because experienced bodybuilders already have core stability. If you don’t, though, you’re going to need to learn how to make your core stable before you can embark on a serious bodybuilding program.

The right bodybuilding exercise program will also help make you flexible and focus on the training that’s right for your particular body type. You are going to need both your lower and upper body flexible. You cannot be stiff before you begin to work out or you can injure yourself. Therefore, you’ll need to stretch and warm up, again with exercises perfect for your body type, to give you maximum flexibility and therefore lower your risk of injury.

You might also find that you have parts of your body that are more developed than others. This is normal, but it will need to be corrected. You’ll need to have a bodybuilding exercise program that focuses on all muscles of your body equally so that none are more developed than others. Having parts of your body overdeveloped while the parts are underdeveloped can make the overdeveloped parts work harder and can cause injury. This also slows you down when it comes to getting in your best shape.

In addition to your bodybuilding exercise program, you’ll also need to do overall conditioning. Overall conditioning requires that you add cardiovascular exercise, too. Even though cardiovascular exercise may not help you “bulk up,” it still exercises your heart and lungs, which is necessary for proper health and maximum benefit. In addition, this type of training is also going to help keep you from getting injured while you work on gaining weight by building muscle.

You’ll need to know about many things if you want to engage in a bodybuilding exercise program that will turn your slender frame into one with plenty of muscle. The best program is going to include exercises that will work on everything, from your core stability, to your posture, to stabilize your shoulders, to making you as flexible as possible, and improving your overall conditioning through cardiovascular exercise. Having a ball got physique is great, but if you want this, you’ll need to learn the right techniques for your particular body type.

Building muscle mass will be a cinch with the appropriate bodybuilding exercise for your body type. Your bodybuilding routines will never be the same again – discover the fastest way to build muscle!

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Post tags: back exercise, Body Building, Body Conditioning, Bodybuilding, Bodybuilding Exercises, bodybuilding program, bodybuilding programs, Bodybuilding Workouts, Core Stability, Exercise Program, Exercise Programs, Exercise Workouts, Fitness, Good Posture, health, Health And Fitness, Muscle Building, musclebuilding, Posture, Professional Bodybuilders, Proper Posture, recreation, Shoulders, sport, Sports

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2.Here’s another little teaser for you on the shoulder .  I remember hearing in a seminar last year with Kevin Wilk that scapular retraction increases subacromial space by up to 200%.  Those of you familiar with this stuff should know that the size of the subacromial space is a darn good predictor of shoulder pathology (check out my impingement series, part 1 and part 2 for details).  It’s not a large space in the first place, but if you have factors – including bone spurring, a type 3 acromion, or just terrible scapular positioning – you’ll run into problems pretty quickly, particularly with overhead movements.

Now, think about the cornerstone of most traditional shoulder rehabilitation programs: rotator cuff strengthening.  Now, while cuff strengthening is obviously super important, it really is only half (at most) of the equation.  The cuff will help to preserve the subacromial space reasonably well because it (when healthy and strong) stabilizes the humeral head (shoulder “ball”) in the glenoid fossa (shoulder “socket”).  However, if the scapula is excessively protracted, that glenoid fossa won’t be in the right place.

What puts the scapula in a good position?  Loads of work for the lower trapezius and serratus anterior – and, further down the chain, improving thoracic spine mobility, core stability, and hip mobility.  The cuff is just the tip of what is a very big iceberg…and that’s why we’re doing an entire seminar!

3. I’m writing about three blogs early this week because Cressey Performance’s Brian St. Pierre is getting married on Saturday.  Those of you who may be in attendance will be able to easily recognize Tony Gentilcore and I thanks to our keen fashion sense:

Kidding aside, Brian is a huge asset to our business, as he brings a unique skill-set to our methodology and is a big hit with all our clients.  We’re all really happy for him and his fiancee.  Head on over to his blog and give him some love.

4. On Thursday, I put in some work to update the Baseball Content section of the website.  It basically just compiles all the baseball-related writing I’ve done in one place.  Check it out!

5. It’s playoff time, so you know what that means: time for the wheels to come off for the Yankees (the commentary on this is great).

Have a great weekend!

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Post tags: Blog, Core Stability, Cornerstone, Glenoid Fossa, Humeral Head, Kevin Wilk, Little Teaser, Lower Trapezius, Mobility Core, Monday Morning, Pathology, Random Thoughts, Rehabilitation Programs, Reinold, Retraction, Scapula, Serratus, Shoulder Rehabilitation, Subacromial Space, Type 3 Acromion

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