Why Many Baseball Workouts Fail To Adequately Condition The Pitcher ... And How To Fix Them!

The problem with most high school baseball workout programs? They're created by the football coach. Now usually there is nothing wrong with these programs from a strength standpoint. But football is certainly different from baseball, and the workout should be adjusted accordingly. That's because in football, the majority of the movements require the athlete to use their chest and "push." In baseball, and especially with pitchers, the athlete needs more balance because he is using his arms to throw. This requires more upper back strength, an area that is often under-worked in most workout routines.

Now let's build on this for a moment. A "push" exercise is normally an exercise used to strengthen the front of the upper body (i.e. the chest). A "pull" exercise is normally used to strengthen the back of the upper body (i.e. a seated row).

As you may know, most people choose to do more chest or "push" exercises because they are easier, more common, and work the muscles that you can see in the mirror each morning.

Think about it for one minute. When you look in the mirror, you look at your chest, biceps, abs, and quadriceps (thigh muscles). We don't look at our upper backs in the mirror.

In addition we sit a tremendous amount during the day. We sit at our computers, sit in our classroom, sit in the car to and from school, sit to eat, etc. Because of this large amount of sitting, certain muscle imbalances are going to occur. Sitting over time causes the muscles in the front of the shoulder to get tighter and the muscles in the back of the shoulder to become longer. Any muscle group that is longer has a tendency to be weak and for a pitcher a weak upper back spells trouble.

To off set these imbalances we want to make sure our workouts incorporate more upper back strengthening exercises. The proper ratio for a pitcher is 3 times the amount of upper back or "pull" exercises as chest or "push" exercises.

For example, if a pitcher performs 3 sets of bench press, then he would need to do nine sets of upper back exercises (example: 3 sets of Ys, Ts, and Bent Ts).

For position players, the ratio should be 2:1 instead of 3:1 but the upper back should always be worked a little more frequently.

To learn more, pick up a copy of my TUFFCUFF Strength and Conditioning Manual for Baseball Pitchers: A 52-Week Guide To Pitching Workouts and Throwing Programs.