5 Ways To Kick-Start Your Off-Season Pitching Workouts Starting Today

Pitchers are made in the off-season. Whether your goal is to cut fat and/or build muscle relative to improvement in pitching and/or become more  flexible and increase pitching velocity, here are 5 ways to kick-start your off-season pitching workouts, starting today:

1. Develop a two to three mile running base. Nice and easy. But your running base is the distance you can do any day, any time, without trouble. If you're not already at 2 to 3 miles, build up to it.

2. Add sprints to your running program. You should have specific days where you're doing specific sprint distances -- i.e., short sprints (7 secs), medium sprints (15 seconds) and long sprints (30 seconds). Generally, you don't want to mix sprint distances on the same day. Just focus on one distance.

3. Medicine ball work will whip your core into shape, but you'll need to start light for a few weeks as your body adapts to the movements. Explosive med-ball work is sneaky. Seems easy at the gym. But it's absolutely killer on your body (in a good way). Just start slowly and progress at an even pace.

4. Got to train the shoulder with tubing or 3 to 5 lb weights (called Jobes, Throwers 10, etc.) These exercises are simply mandatory for a pitcher. They don't do crap for muscle definition or looking good at the beach. And, if done right, they're very time consuming. But pitchers in the big leagues and in college do them routinely ... and you should, too. They're VERY, VERY important, and too often overlooked.

5. How's your diet? Fast food's gotta go. But you still gotta eat. Don't restrict calories as you're trying to gain muscle because it doesn't work. It's one or the other. But some things you can do to be healthier right now include limiting your intake of sodas and energy drinks, getting your daily intake of vitamins and minerals preferably from foods rather than supplements (although there's nothing wrong with a daily multi-vitamin), and getting a good bit of sleep each day (which is when your muscles actually do their growing).

All this stuff and more can be found in my TUFFCUFF Strength and Conditioning Manual for Baseball Pitchers, where you'll find daily workout, throwing, sleep, nutrition, running, stretching, etc., pitching charts. Just fill out as you go.