Tag Archives: sport specifi

Newington High School Varsity Baseball Team at Excel Fitness

Training Newington High School Varsity Baseball Team at Excel Fitness

By: Matt Knight

B.S. Exercise Science

Excel Fitness Personal Trainer

Over the past 2 months I have been working with the Newington High School Varsity Baseball Team running their off-season conditioning program.  I have developed this off-season program specific to each player based on their position and goals.  As a pitcher at the college level, I was able use my past experiences to convey the relationship between the specific mechanics of baseball and the sport specific exercises I had them perform.  Each player’s workout focused on muscular strength, cardiovascular training, and core training specific to baseball.

In addition to following the workout program on their own, the players came into Excel Fitness on Wednesday evenings and worked out as a team.  I gave them individual supervision and motivation to maximize the evening’s program.  Each workout session we focused on exercises involving the rotator cuff, abdominal, and polymeric exercises.  Plyometric exercises are fast explosive movements used to target the nervous system.  Generally by performing plyometric exercises over time you will increase the speed and force of the muscular contraction.  By targeting your fast twitch muscle fibers, which are responsible for quick movements, you can improve quick explosive movements such as a baseball swing and a baseball pitch.

There are many different types of upper and lower body plyometric exercises…

Here is a plyometric lunge jump…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXKx19fDQQk&fs=1&hl=en_US]

Here is a plyometric push up on the bosu…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmoBnxjFwFA&fs=1&hl=en_US]