Pointer #10—Jan 29, 2024
Keep your in-season lifting to ONE day per week. Can you do it?
This could be the most challenging task facing pitchers. After all, many of you added strength and size during the off-season. You do not want to lose it.
You won't lose strength - if you stick to the one day per week schedule.
It has been studied and proven that a person can maintain muscular strength for 18 months by doing one full body workout per week.
As a comparison - An MLB season runs from February to November (for the World Series teams). That is nine months. Most of us are not playing nine-month seasons. There will be plenty of time to add size in the off-season.
I realize that this might me very, very difficult for young athletes to accept - I was one of them - but we must be extra focused on maintaining, rather than adding, strength and mobility during the season.
Every person is different and there are those who say they need to lift weights during the season, some say the day before they are scheduled to pitch! And they have had success. My advice, in these cases, is to carefully monitor your performance and be aware of fatigue or any downturn in your pitching.
A pitcher's in-season goal should not be gaining size, but rather not losing the size built during the off-season.
Be smart, make an adjustment to your routine. Give yourself some time to rest and recover. You won't lose strength by skipping or reducing workouts.
Your body is the biggest piece of baseball gear you own. Think about your glove and how you take care of it -or your shoes, bat, and uniform.
Take care of your equipment so it lasts the whole season.
Do not wear out your body in the gym.
- DL
