What Should I Do To Swing Harder For Baseball?
I play competitive baseball and have been weightlifting for about 2 years. I
know athletes shouldn't train like bodybuilders but should I still only
workout each body part once per week? My goal is to be able to swing harder
and have more power.
I don't believe you have to train each body part once a week. The reason is
for most of the sports programs you have a low level of volume each training
session for specific body parts. For example, I will have most athletes
Snatch, Clean, Squat, etc. all in one week. What is more important is the
volume and intensities that you incorporate. You should not be wasting you
time with exercises that are not going to be beneficial to performing better
on the field.
Hitting for more power is often misunderstood. The muscles that cause the
mammoth homeruns you see are not the arms. The arms are actually much weaker
than most of the bigger muscles in your body. The muscles responsible for
great power in hitting are the hips and torso. This is why even baseball
players can benefit greatly from incorporating variations of Olympic lifts.
These movements teach the athlete how to use their hips properly and develop a
great deal of explosive strength. The other aspect is great torso strength. I
am currently working on an article demonstrating abdominal exercises that will
create the type of strength in the abdominals required for sport. In sport,
the thicker (not fatter) torso is preferred to dissapate force and to create
huge power outputs. Recently, Dr. Mike Hartle wrote a complete series of
articles on how to use a sledgehammer to create the torso strength and power
that would make most fitness enthusiast shake! You can find his series on here
on www.Bodybuilding.com.
As far as splitting up your program, I suggest you think of movement instead
of individual muscle groups. For instance, don't think when you are going to
do your arms. Think of all the exercises that are involved with elbow flexion
and extension, this would include all pushing and pulling movements. This also
goes for looking at torso and leg work. Instead of thinking of a "six pack",
which is really the result of low bodyfat levels, think of all the motions
that are important to strengthening the abdominal wall. This would include
trunk flexion, side bending, and rotation. If you only focus on one aspect you
are neglecting full training of this region. For leg training you should
concentrate on a few movements and their variations. This would mean you focus
on hip extension and knee flexion movements. What would this mean? Many
exercises such as deadlifts, goodmornings, and all the Olympic lift
variations. Knee flexion would include back, overhead, and front squats,
lunges (all variations), and single leg squats. These are just a few of the
many exercises that would be appropriate for baseball training. Special
emphasis should also be placed on upper back work to counteract all the
throwing actions.
I like to think of focusing on several core lifts. This would be any Olympic
lift, deadlift, squat, even bench presses. The rest of the exercises are
supplemental lifts that compliment the needs of the specific sport. This would
mean improving certain motor qualities such as explosive strength,
speed-strength, or maximal strength. However, remember your program should
also incorporate sprint work and range of motion drills. Don't think one
dimensionally as in just the weight room.
Josh Henkin
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/henkin.htm
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