How To Develop Lower Body Strength

By Steven Ellis of PitchingWorkouts.com

Developing lower body strength is paramount to your success as a pitcher. To throw hard, you must transfer weight and energy quickly from the ground up as you make a pitch. When you hit the weights, aim to do ground-based movements. Limit machine-based workouts -- such as leg curls and leg extensions or any other workout done sitting or laying on a machine. You don't pitch sitting or laying down, right?

A better lower-body workout for pitchers should include three things:

• free-weight exercises
• ground-based exercises
• compound exercises

You'll find all three of these types of exercises in The TUFFCUFF Strength and Conditioning Manual for Baseball Pitchers, click here. Remember, baseball is played on your feet -- with all your leg muscles working together. You need to work your leg muscles in a similar way, especially as a pitcher.

Squats, deadlifts, and lunges are by far the best leg exercises for pitchers. If you do these hard enough, you don't necessarily need to do leg curls and extensions. The only time I see much use for leg curls and extensions is with younger pitchers new to strength training or pitchers rehabbing from an injury and getting back into exercising after taking an extended time off.

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