Baseball Exercises – Training for Baseball

Baseball Exercises – Sports Series

This is the second in the sports series of articles since my last article on Training for Volleyball got such a great response. There was some concern that these articles are making it seem that training for a sport is too easy, but let me reiterate that these articles are just to build your base strengths and increase the stabilizing muscles of your core to prevent injury.

With that said, if you guys really enjoy these articles please leave comments on your progress and I will provide further more advanced workouts for all these sports.

Baseball Training – Movements and Muscles Used

Let’s analyze the movements and muscles used in baseball/softball.

Hitting: your core is instrumental with the rotation of your torso to build the momentum and allow your arms to swing. Your shoulder muscles (deltoids) and your lats are responsible for the swinging part of the motion.

Sprinting: running to each base is done at the highest intensity possible and utilizes the use of your quadriceps & hamstrings. Your core and swinging of the arms also helps with the movement and momentum.

Catching: utilizes the most important talent in baseball – hand-eye coordination (which is of course extremely vital for the success of your hitting as well). Your deltoids and biceps/triceps also come into play when you’re catching.

Baseball Exercises – Cardio Routine

As you noticed above, sprinting is the focus here to get you from one base to the next as quick as possible. Therefore, you need to increase your speed first through interval training and then by practicing sprinting. Your agility in the sprint is also quite important so try this out:

Weeks 1-3 (2-3 times a week):
30 minutes interval training on a treadmill (5 minutes warm-up at 4.2mph, next 25 minutes at intervals of 2 minutes at 6mph, 30s at 8.5mph)
10 mins jumping rope
10 mins elliptical or stairmaster

Weeks 4+ (2-3 times a week)
5 minute warm-up jog on field
20 minutes of sprinting laps (take a 30s-60s break at end of each lap)
10 minutes of jumping rope
5 minutes cool down light jog

Baseball Exercises – Strength Training Routine

The focus in your strength training routine is to increase the strength of your core, arms/shoulders, lats and of course legs. Try this workout 2-3 times a week and make sure to track your results.

All exercises 3 sets and aim for 8-10 reps. Increase weight used as it gets easier to accomplish 10reps.

Shoulder raises with dumbbells (view image)
Bicep curls with barbell (view image)
Triceps rope pull-down (view image)
Rear deltoid shoulder raises (view image)
Dumbell flyes (view image)
Squats on bosu ball with dumbbells (view image)
Reverse lunges with dumbbells (view image)
Hanging knee raises (view image)
Medicine ball wood chopper (view image)

What did you think of this workout routine? Try these workouts and leave a comment on your sports performance…