It’s really important for baseball players to be in peak condition to not only perform at the best of their ability but also to insure they can mitigate injury. In this article we provide 5 barbell exercises you should consider adding into your strength and conditioning routine.
No spam – just thoughtful training advice
There is a reason why sports teams put millions into preparing their players to perform by using strength and conditioning programmes and thats because it’s effective. Using these exercise, with appropriate method, will enable you to improve your baseball performance. Through increased strength, explosiveness and durability, all of which can be achieved with a good strength and conditioning routine that can incorporate a barbell.
Injury can be hard to prevent, but strength training with appropriate methods is one of the best ways to mitigate injuries for both athletes and people in the general population. By strengthening the muscles of a joint you will become more resilient to certain positions that might arrive on the field.
Yes this is heavily related to injury mitigation, but it is often discussed a lot less. Athletes who take care of their bodies and are diligent with their strength and conditioning routines whilst also putting a great deal of emphasis on rest can see huge benefits in terms of career longevity. It’s no secret that looking after yourself will allow you to maintain peak performance for much longer.
Pitchers need to be careful when weight training, their shoulders go through a lot of volume and this needs to be taken into consideration when writing a strength and conditioning programme for a pitcher. Avoiding exercises like the bench press and selecting exercises like the press up and the half kneeling landmine press is a great way to go for pitchers as it allows them to move the shoulder through the full range of motion. To read more on this topic, I highly recommend you have a look through Eric Cressey’s extensive work on this topic.
Remember that exercises are not the priority, the priority is adaptation and exercises are just a means to achieve this adaptation. So when you’re looking through these 5 barbell exercises you could potentially add into your training programme, think about what adaptation they are providing, how are you going to use this exercise to create that adaptation. If you’re serious about getting in shape for your sport, you need to know what adaptations are most important for baseball athletes and what are the means to achieve these, not just a list of exercises you can potentially use. You need to be methodical and systematic when designing a training programme.
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This resource was written by Sean Klein. Sean Richard Klein has thousands of hours of coaching experience and a BSc in Sports Science with Management from Loughborough University. He owns a gym in Bayonne France, CrossFit Essor, which runs group classes and a Personal training studio.