Early Off-Season Training Focuses for the Baseball Player
I usually start to train professional baseball players around the month of October, which leads me to this blog post. Majority of the professional baseball players I train, play in the Minor Leagues. The Minor League season is a long grueling stretch that constantly pounds an athletes body physically, emotionally and mentally, which is why early off-season training is so important. It's a great time to focus on range of motion, strength, hypertrophy and just spend some time away from anything baseball. Frequently enough, my Minor League Players don’t want anything to do with baseball early in the off-season which is totally fine and most likely a good thing. When it comes to early off-season training there are a couple general things I tend to really dial in on. Each one of these could have their own personal blog post so today I am just skimming the surface. I will admit that this more often than not applies with a lot of my team sport athletes.
It’s important to note that every player is in different positions within their organization so all these are variable. Some players may go and play out of the country while others are fighting for a spot, so just keep in mind that everything is dependent on the individual athlete.
1. Switching Improper ROM to Proper ROM - It is no secret that baseball players over the course of the season lose mobility. Mobility is just as important as strength training and if anyone says otherwise needs to do a little more reading. When I initially assess an athlete in early October they are both stiff (tight) and short in multiple regions of the body. It's during this time we try to gain some mobility back. If we try to have athletes get into positions that they ultimately can't get into and then just assume we can load them up in that position we are asking for trouble. Because of this, the goal early is to actually help loosen up tight tissue and any unwanted joint stiffness. I particularly tend to work a lot on hip mobility, elbow extension, thoracic mobility and a little bit of shoulder internal rotation work. I tend to do this by using a couple different methods such as massage, myofascial release, breathing drills, static stretching and dynamic mobility exercises to name a couple.
Moral of the story, is that baseball players get all jacked up during the season and need to come back and focus on getting in whatever their desired position or posture should be - mobility. Lack of mobility does not just put them at risk in the weight room, but can also have detrimental effects on performance and injury.
2. Focus on the Basics - Too often than not do coaches want to throw in high-specificity training way too early. What I mean by high-specificity training is that the majority of the training or program is focused on movements and exercises that are very similar to the game itself. For example, medball work and exercises done in the transverse plane (promote rotation) are high on the specificity scale. I like to think of the early off-season as a great time to dial back on the sport specific exercises and focus more on basic fundamental movement patterns all while getting strong. Majority of my training in the early off-season is composed of core stability exercises that increase anti-rotation, anti-extension and anti-lateral flexion stability along with just straight up strength exercises (Deadlift, Squat, Presses). I will be the first to admit that I also get caught up in all the “cool” stuff but I always remind myself that there are about 4-5 4 week programs involved in the total off-season training for these guys so waiting on the “cool” stuff is okay.
3. Work on The “Protector” - The Rotator Cuff is composed of four muscles which include the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis. Each one of these muscles have a function but overall, the job of these muscles is to hold the head of the humerus in the socket of the shoulder or in other words stabilize the shoulder. When I first started in this industry I was a bit hesitant and uneducated about direct rotator cuff training, but due mostly to Eric Cressey and Mike Reinolds work I now think it is a must. When I program any direct rotator cuff strengthening exercise it is usually during the months of October and November due to the fact that a pitcher is not throwing during that time frame. As it gets later into the off-season and closer to preseason I tend to decrease the volume of direct rotator cuff exercises and focus more on deceleration work to help keep up with the load of throwing. In general, I am not a huge fan of training to failure and it is safe to say that direct rotator cuff training should not be done to failure, but train it like any other part of the body. I am a big fan of manual resistance exercises and pretty much anything in the side-lying position.
4. Stabilizers. Probably more important than the Rotator Cuff - It is a fact that the shoulder and the scapula cannot move without one another. Being able to have good scapular movement and positioning when the arm moves is key to having a healthy shoulder and making sure the rotator cuff isn’t in a vulnerable position. This can be referred to as scapulohumeral rhythm. There are a few muscles that help stabilize the scapula but the main ones include the serratus anterior, rhomboids (minor and major), levator scapulae and the trapezius. I like to think of the rotator cuff muscles as the “protector” and the stabilizer muscles as the “positioner” of the scapula. The rotator cuff won’t have an advantage if the scapula is not in good position and does not move well. Majority of rotator cuff injuries in throwers do not arise from the shoulder directly but from the scapula itself. This is because of the high scapular firing that is involved in throwing a baseball and then you combine that with weakness or fatigue of the stabilizing muscles you get poor positioning between the two. If these muscles are weak there is a strong chance that the overall biomechanics of throwing will change which will put extra strain on the rotator cuff and anterior capsule. My favorite exercise for training the stabilizers is the TRX Serratus Slides.
This is obviously just part of the puzzle when it comes to early off-season training for a baseball player as an individualized approach is always ideal. Every athlete is different but I can safely say that taking these approaches will go a long way in helping an athlete.
