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Strength Training For Baseball: Thoughts Of A Personal Trainer in Houston Texas

As a Personal Trainer in Houston Texas, I can tell you strength training is essential to improving athletic performance for baseball athletes. Thoughts of training with light weights, emphasizing stretching only and performing long slow bouts of endurance training are still around today.

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Unlike some in the field, I consider baseball to be a power sport and believe it should be trained as such. This means focusing on improving the power capabilities of the athlete through various strength/power training methods. Power cannot be achieved without a base of strength so more of this quality should always be sought after. Often this requires lifting heavy loads coupled with plyometric (jump training) and sprint-type activities for conditioning.

Weight Training for The Baseball Athlete

As a Personal Trainer in Houston Texas, I feel strength programs for the baseball athlete should look pretty similar to programs of other athletes. Sport specificity is the big term used today, but really should only apply to conditioning.

The idea of sport specific strength training implies the use of loading movements associated with the sport. I feel mimicking sport skill under load is inherently dangerous to the athlete and the load (weight) used during these activities is typically too low to produce any real result.

In my experience as a Personal Trainer in Houston Texas, most, if not all, baseball players need more strength. Strength is the foundation of speed, power and endurance. The best way to accomplish this is through focusing on big compound movements like squats, deadlifts, chin ups, lunges, various pressing movements, etc. Single joint movements should account for 20% or less of the total training volume to achieve maximal progress. A few possible contraindicated exercises for the baseball athlete are as follows: overhead lifting, some Olympic lifting variations, and barbell pressing movements.

By making strength improvements alone, most baseball players will see significant performance improvements in one or more categories of need.

A Word On Unilateral Exercise

As an experienced Personal Trainer in Houston Texas, I can tell you baseball is a sport that promotes unilateral strength dominance/imbalance. This is because one side does most of the work at the expense of the other, leading to a potentially large strength imbalance between left and right sides. This significant imbalance will predispose the athlete for injury.

Training one limb at a time will reduce the strength differential. This applies for all aspects of the body including the rotator cuff and scapula. I use this specific example because many pitchers only focus on their throwing side shoulder. They feel there's no need to train the opposite side because it's not used for throwing the baseball. This still, however, makes the athlete susceptible to injury.

In Conclusion

As a Personal Trainer in Houston Texas with years of experience working with baseball athletes, I can tell you this article should give you some good ideas for adjusting/starting a training program. Just remember, baseball is a power sport and needs to logically/safely be trained as such. Good luck!

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