Home Posts tagged "Pro Baseball Pitcher Workout" (Page 16)

Random Friday Thoughts

Hey Gang, No transitional material this week; I'm a little scatterbrained. 1. Jeremy Frisch and company are running a great event for charity in Acton, MA on June 21. For more information, head HERE. Even if you can't make it, these charities could really use a donation. 2. Maximum Strength isn't just for men! "Maximum Strength is the book where brain meets brawn in an all-inclusive guide to getting strong and in shape. Eric manages to take the sissy out of salad and add the steak. It's a must have for busy lifters who need to make the most of their time while still getting optimum results." -Juliet Deane CSCS, RKC, USAW Check it out for yourself HERE. 3. Assess, don't assume. Still, if you're in the strength and conditioning field and dealing with teams, it's important to understand trends in the sports with which you work so that you can program to avoid the most common injuries. 4. On a related note, yesterday, in the time it took me to write an email, we had a kid come in with a cast up to his upper arm for a wrist injury from diving, and another guy tell me that he's having hip surgery in July for a chronic problem. This just goes to show you that if you work with athletes - no matter how young - you need to understand injuries. 5. I'm heading to my first optometrist appointment in WAY too long this morning - and I'm kind of hoping that they find something wrong with me to justify me wearing an eye patch. At the very least, it'll scare some of our athletes into lifting heavy stuff. I'm working on my pirate accent right now. 6. Stretching the anterior capsule in baseball players is just a bad idea. 7. There are a lot of blog readers who might not realize that I also have a newsletter that goes into far more depth on various topics each week. If you aren't already subscribed, don't miss out! You can sign up with the subscription set-up to the right of this screen. 8. Cadaver grafts for ACL reconstructions seem to work well if you're older and have no aspirations of really doing anything too athletic - especially change-of-direction and jumping. If you're younger, though, the chance of re-rupture is a lot higher, in my experience. The patellar tendon graft is pretty nice simply because the limitations of the graft site work hand-in-hand with the limitations of the ACL from a rehabilitations standpoint. 9. Great win for the Celtics last night. Waaahooooo. 10. If you want to look at the hip and knee in a non-traditional, outside-the-box way, I highly recommend Gray Cook and Brett Jones' Secrets of the Hip and Knee DVD. It's fantastic. Have a great weekend!
Read more

Quad Pulls in Baseball

Q: There have been a few quadriceps pulls in MLB this year. Have you seen these before in baseball players? What gives? A: This is why I love baseball; it's probably one of the most at-risk sports you'll ever see (particularly in pitchers). Here's a little excerpt from a slide in a recent presentation I gave on training for overhead athletes: -Very Long Competitive Season >200 games as a pro? >100 College/HS? -Unilateral Dominance/Handedness Patterns Asymmetry is a big predictor of injury Switch hitters – but no “switch throwers!” -The best pitchers – with a few exceptions – are the tallest ones. The longer the spine, the tougher it is to stabilize. -Short off-season + Long in-season w/daily games = tough to build/maintain strength, power, flexibility, and optimal soft tissue quality Specific to the quad pulls, I'd add to this list that baseball guys rarely hit top speed; all of their sprint work is done in acceleration, where the quads are dominant. Factor in that they spend a lot of time sitting on airplanes/buses, and it's no surprise that they'd get tight anteriorly. It's why it's so important to really hammer on hip mobility in any population that sits a lot.

The stop and go nature of the sport also dictates that strains would be common, whether they are groins, hip flexors, hamstrings, or quads (likely rectus femoris, which is a hip flexor that can get overactive, particularly alongside poor psoas function). So, all that said, before anyone jumps to conclusions and tries to criticize some strength coach, it's important to consider: a) the certain amount of happenstance that occurs with any baseball player due to the nature of the game and the season b) what that athlete does on his own in the off-season In terms of "b," I’ve seen some pretty bad stuff, unfortunately. For many guys, it becomes a leg extensions and curls off-season if they're on their own - or they do nothing. I'd like to think that our success in working with baseball guys is not just in the fact that we've made the programming good, but also in the fact that we've changed the culture a bit in our guys: they appreciate what lifting is doing for them and look forward to getting after it in the gym. Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive a Copy of the Exact Stretches used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!
Name
Email
Read more

It Only Took 259 Days…

We opened Cressey Performance on July 17, 2007. Amidst all the lifting, jumping, sprinting med-ball-stomping, and blaring of loud music, we neglected to actually make a website - until now. www.CresseyPerformance.com Enjoy.
Read more

Inefficency vs. Pathology

In Newsletter 95, I wrote about how pathologies often don’t become symptomatic until inefficiencies get to be too bad. Here is a perfect example of a guy who has basically learned how to work around a pathology to remain competitive at a high level. New Twist Keeps Dickey’s Career Afloat You can bet that he’s got a lot of efficiency working in his favor. Thanks, Paul Vajdic, for passing this along!
Read more

Public Access: Not Just for Wayne and Garth

Click the link below to view an hour-long interview I did on the Audrey Hall Show alongside Rich Gedman (former Red Sox catcher and current manager of the Worcester Tornadoes) and Bunky Smith (head coach of Framingham's American Legion Team) on the topic of youth baseball training.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1137806189/bclid1408993191/bctid1424672868?src=rss
Read more

Pressing and the Overhead Athlete

Many of you are going to hate me for what I’m about to say. I don’t let my overhead throwing athletes overhead press or bench press with a straight bar. There. I said it. Call me all the names you’d like but ask yourself this: “Am I cursing Eric’s name because I think that the cost-to-benefit ratio of overhead pressing and straight bar bench pressing justifies their use, or is it because I feel naked without these options? I have to bench press. I can’t start an upper body day with any other exercise.” Continue Reading... Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive a Copy of the Exact Stretches used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!
Name
Email
Read more

Your Routine, In-Season and Off-Season

Q: I was an online consulting client of yours for a few months this summer, and I was very happy with the results. It's definitely showing through where I wanted it to - playing basketball (I'm more explosive, no nagging pains, being able to play above the rim at 5'9"). I am familiar with your approach to training, and have utilized the outline layed out in your off-season manual, but now that my basketball league (it's an adult city league) has started I'm wondering what your approach to in-season training is. In the off-season I was lifting 4x/week with an upper/lower split, and now during the season I lift total body 2x/week. Do you do heavy max effort work in-season, e.g. singles over 90%, or is it more submaximal work for strength maintenance? How do you consolidate lifting so that you're fresh enough to make progress in the gym. but without interfering with games? If it helps, my basic layout is as follows: If it helps, my basic layout is as follows: Sunday PM: basketball game Monday PM: soft-tissue work (foam roller/lacrosse ball) and extended mobility work Tuesday PM: Lifting (with soft-tissue work and mobility warm-up): 1. Heavy squat/deadlift (3-5RM) 2. Unilateral (usually reverse lunges or bulgarian split squats) 3a. Pushups with blast straps 3b. High-rep band face pulls 4a. Posterior chain exercise (GHR or kettlebell swings) 4b. Side bridge Wednesday PM: basketball game Thursday PM: Lifting (with soft-tissue work and mobility warm-up): 1. Heavy chin-ups (3-5RM) 2. Unilateral (single-leg deadlifts or bowler squats) 3. Inverted rows 4. DB push press 5a. Light posterior chain exercise (swiss ball hip extension + leg curl or band good mornings) 5b. Pallof press or cable woodchop Friday AM: Basketball Practice (skill work, no scrimmaging) Saturday AM: soft-tissue work (foam roller/lacrosse ball) and extended mobility work Any input or direction you could give me on in-season lifting is most appreciated A: In-season, it’s important to keep the intensity up, just doing enough to maintain or slightly increase strength. It does NOT take much volume. Still, you have to listen to athletes; if they're beaten up, scale back a bit. As far as consolidation is concerned, it depends on the sport in question, to be honest. With pitchers, for example, I like heavy lower body sessions within 24 hours after a start. With basketball (practice, at least), I love doing the heavy work pre-on-court stuff and then coming back to assistance work after the on-court work. Great stuff. Try doing that before your basketball games - seriously. You could also move Thursday's session to post-basketball on Friday. I would actually look to get in a third session, if possible - just some upper body stuff here or there. My experience has been that in-season training is about frequency more than duration; it makes a big difference in terms of quality of work and acute endocrine benefits. Eric Cressey Step-by-step what it takes to become a superior athlete.
Read more

The No Hitter

On Saturday night, my girlfriend and I finished setting up our new television – only to turn it on for the first time and see Clay Buchholz toss a no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox against the Baltimore Orioles. Like everyone, I was very impressed with his ability to change speeds effectively with his pitches and get ahead in the counts all night. I’m more impressed, however, with the overall athleticism that has helped him get to where he is so quickly. In multiple telecasts, Red Sox commentators have noted that he’s the fastest guy in the organization. Yes, that’s even faster the stud center field prospect Jacoby Ellsbury (Had David Wells still been with the Sox, I’m sure he would have won that race, for the record). It’s speculated that while Buchholz was taken as a pitcher in the first round of the draft, he could have been selected in the fifth round as a hitter as well. Pitching and sprinting: two athletic endeavors that – to the casual observer to exercise physiology – are loosely related at best. I however, am of the belief that you need to become a better athlete before you become a better pitcher, basketball player, tennis player, or even a bowler. There are right and wrong ways to move – and if you have general dysfunction, it’s going to carry over to specific movements. If you are efficient in a general sense, on the other hand, that efficiency will carry over to sporting movements provided that you practice them (delayed transformation, as per Vladimir Zatsiorsky’s writings). Toss in a pitching coach, knowledge of the game, the right psychological profile, some favorable biomechanics, and get a catcher that calls a great game (kudos to Jason Varitek), and you must just have the youngest guy to throw a no-hitter in Red Sox history. Interestingly, in an interview at SoxProspects.com, when asked about his off-season training regime from last year, Buchholz responded: “First of all I lived in Dallas with a couple of other guys that also play ball, and we all worked out together. So we all had a little advice for each other. My main goal this off-season was to be in shape and have gained weight. I gained just about 12 lbs and I was in pretty good shape. I have lived in Dallas the last two off seasons and the clear focus was to get stronger and go to camp in great shape so I could show the front office I was committed to getting to the big leagues. The schedule I have been on has been very successful and I don't expect that to change. So I would say that the off-season was a success.” Buchholz also commented: “I think my athleticism shows up as a pitcher in my ability to change on the go, make adjustments quickly, and certainly in my ability to cover the bunt in both directions.” Get efficient, improve multiple strength qualities, and in the case of an absolute power sport position (i.e., pitcher), slap on some muscle mass. Not exactly rocket science, is it? Eric Cressey
Read more

Posterior Capsule Tightness: Subscapularis Dysfunction

I saw you write somewhere recently that subscapularis dysfunction was generally associated with posterior capsule tightness? Is there a causal relationship?
The subscapularis, infraspinatus, and teres minor work together to depress the humeral head during dynamic shoulder activities. The subscapularis posteriorly pulls the humeral head in the joint (counteracts pectoralis major), while the other two anteriorly pull it (counteract posterior deltoid). So, they're antagonists and synergists at the same time. If subscapularis shuts down, infraspinatus and teres minor fire overtime as depressors - but you don't get subscapularis’ posterior humeral head pull. Tightness kicks in with the posterior capsule, and you can also get anterior humeral glide issues. This is a big no-no in overhead throwing, as they’ll look to the elbow to get range of motion – and that’s when you start to see ulnar collateral ligament ruptures, ulnar nerve compression, etc. Eric Cressey

shoulder-performance-dvdcover

Click here to purchase the most comprehensive shoulder resource available today: Optimal Shoulder Performance - From Rehabilitation to High Performance.
Read more
Page 1 14 15 16
LEARN HOW TO DEADLIFT
  • Avoid the most common deadlifting mistakes
  • 9 - minute instructional video
  • 3 part follow up series