Like a Big Leaguer: How to Train Like a Professional Baseball Player

One of the most important muscle groups in baseball is the lower body which consists of the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. As a pitcher or catcher, the requirements of the lower body are even more extreme.

The leg drive that is associated with being a pitcher or a catcher puts a significant overload on the quadriceps and gluteus maximus muscles.

According to Every Body's Personal Trainer, increasing strength through the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes are essential. Exercises such as squats, lunges, Kickbacks, and stiff-legged deadlifts are great exercises to target those areas.

Some additional exercises can also be performed using resistance bands, ankle weight, or swiss balls.

Stretching is also imperative in the game of baseball. Baseball is not a continuous game like basketball or tennis therefore there's a lot of stop-and-go action involved.

As a result, it's important to maintain flexibility through the muscles to prevent strain or pulls.

Abdominal strength, or core strength, is also a must when training for baseball. The twist and pivot associated with a baseball swing put a lot of emphasis on the rectus abdominis muscles as well as the obliques and intercostal muscles.

These are muscles throughout your stomach right down the middle and also the sides.

Exercises such as reverse sit-ups, planks, and hanging leg raises are great ways to stimulate the core muscles.

Twisting movements from side to side are responsible for stimulating and strengthening the obliques as well as the intercostal muscles.

Due to gripping the bat and the flip of the wrist associated with the swing, forearm strength is also another important muscle group.

By utilizing forward and backward wrist curls either with a dumbbell or barbell you can strengthen your grip strength and forearms and help to drive the bat when swinging at a pitch.

Finally, the triceps, or muscle in the back of the arm, is another muscle heavily utilized in baseball. When we throw the ball we are extending the arm and pushing thus putting an emphasis on the triceps.

Exercises such as dips, dumbbell kickbacks, or close-grip bench press are excellent exercises to overload and increase strength in the tricep muscles.

Like any other sport is very important to train sport-specific when prescribing a workout routine.

In the game of baseball lower body strength, coupled with abdominal and tricep strength are the most utilize muscles and therefore need the most work for development.