Should you lift heavy weights for baseball? I read somewhere / my coach told me that I shouldn’t!

This is another myth that refuses to go away. Rather than reinventing the wheel, I’ll quote from professional baseball trainer (and highly sought-after corrective exercise specialist) Eric Cressey’s body of work:

“…resistance training exercises performed on stable surfaces have been demonstrated effective in numerous research studies with respect to improving a variety of athletic qualities, including:

• muscular strength

• power

• aerobic endurance

• running efficiency

• anaerobic endurance

• rate of force development

• hypertrophy

• reactive strength

• agility

These qualities transfer to improved performance in a variety of sporting tasks, including vertical jump (74), throwing velocity (79), sprinting speed (22), and running economy (53).”

Here are some of the example papers he quoted for reference:

5. BAECHLE, T.R., AND R.W. EARLE. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning (2nd Ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2000.

66. SIFF, M.C. Supertraining (6th ed.). Denver: Supertraining Institute, 2003.

90. ZATSIORSKY, V.M. Science and Practice of Strength Training. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1995.

22. DELECLUSE, C. Influence of strength training on sprint running performance. Current findings and implications for training. Sports Med. 24(3):147-56. 1997.

79. VAN DEN TILLAAR, R. Effect of different training programs on the velocity of overarm throwing: a brief review. J Strength Cond Res. 18(2):388-96. 2004

So, in short, yes – you should train using heavy weights and for strength (the two are related) to develop as a baseball player. At Driveline Baseball, we integrate general strength training using barbells and dumbbells with sport-specific exercises using medballs, weighted baseballs, wrist weights, SPRI bands, and other implements.

(More about this can be read on Eric Cressey’s blog.)

How are medicine balls used in your programming?

Frequently. That’s the best answer I can give! Here are some examples of medicine ball work that we do at Driveline Baseball, as shown by athletes at Cressey Performance:

Programming changes for each athlete depending on their goals, age, and various other individual factors, but we definitely love to use medicine balls for both slow balance training and overspeed explosive rate of force development training. They are extremely versatile!

How is barbell training integrated into your training methodology?

The focus of barbell training in our training methodology primarily involves training for maximum strength as well as rate of force development. Our program is loosely based off Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength book, which is an outstanding resource and should be required reading for anyone getting into strength training for ANY reason:

On our pitching mechanics blog, I wrote a series of posts titled “Introduction to Weight Lifting.” You can find them here:

• Introduction to Weight Lifting I – Explanation of strength training
• Introduction to Weight Lifting II – Programming and suggested basic changes to the program

What’s a sample strength training routine look like?

Here’s a basic template for our strength training workouts:

• Dynamic Warmup (10 minutes): All clients go through a short warmup phase to prepare the body for strength, speed, or power training. We use foam rollers for myofascial release, dynamic stretching to get the synovial fluid moving through the joints, and empty barbell or light dumbbell work to get ready for the upcoming workout.
• Strength Training (30-40 minutes): Heavy compound movements are selected depending on the individual’s history and ability, but typically will involve full-body barbell work. Examples include squat variations, deadlift variations, pressing variations, pullups/chinups, rows, or even the power snatch or clean (intermediate/advanced trainees only).
• Speed/Power Training (3-15 minutes): Fast-paced “metabolic conditioning” work to train the energy systems in the body. Rate of force development is trained in this phase in order to develop explosive power and to stimulate fat loss.
• Active Cooldown (5 minutes): Static stretching and light work is used to cool down the body and improve flexibility.

After the workout session, we will discuss future workouts and the progress being made by the client. All records are kept in a paper and electronic log, accessible at any time by the coach.

I’m ready to get started! Where do I sign up?

Great! Check out our general training page and fill out the contact form at the bottom of it for more information!