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Weight Training Improves Flexibility for Pitchers

A recent study has proven that weight training can improve flexibility as well as – or perhaps better than – typical static stretching regimens. This study was released at the American College of Sports Medicine’s 57^th Annual Meeting on June 4, 2010. The study was labeled: STRENGTH TRAINING IMPROVES FLEXIBILITY, TOO – Preliminary research shows no advantage for stretching. You can read the full report here and this is the description of the report along with the results below. Read more

MLB Using Glorified Physical Therapy Instead of Explosive Strength Training

In my last interview with the legendary guru of Speed and Strength Training, from D1 Sports in Tennessee, Kurt Hester, stated that Major League Baseball is using glorified physical therapy instead of strength and conditioning. This was a shot at the lame approach to training and rehabilitating athletes in the MLB organizations. This is coming from a guy who trains some of NFL’s most explosive athletes and who was label as Gorilla Ball, when he was training the LSU tigers in the 90′s.

Kurt says that fear is a major problem with baseball players. They train the way they do because of the fear that comes from the higher levels of the game. He also says that if young baseball players trained like Major League ball players, they would never get better. The fear is that weight training, especially heavy weight training, will make you bulky and will cause injury. Kurt says the MLB’s athletic trainers are running glorified physical therapy programs and not actually training their athletes to become bigger, stronger and faster.  This is why I believe top draft picks and big salary pitcher’s like Mark Prior leave the league with a career ending injury, after only 3 years in the show, and never make it back. Read more

Heavy Weight Training Reduces Pitching Injury

Behm and Sale with the Department of Physical Education, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada put together a case study called, Velocity specificity of resistance training. This study showed that velocity is increased within muscle contractions when the intent is the focus of the training. This means that heavy loads create more intent within the muscles to fire at a high rate of speed, which in return will create a neural and muscular adaption. The muscular adaption is of the protagonists and the antagonists muscles of the joints. The development of the antagonists muscles post heavy load velocity training would prove that heavy weight training reduces pitching injury by building joint integrity. The integrity is enhanced in the joints post training because the muscle accelerators and decelerators are both growing stronger. Read more

Pitching Supplements for Recovery

Recovery can be a pitchers worst enemy or his best friend. If a pitcher is able to recovery faster than the average athlete then he has a significant advantage. The benefits to faster muscle recovery after a workout or game is reduced muscle fatigue which leads to higher velocity and more pitches thrown. Another big benefit is less chance of injury. Therefore the more quickly you can reach full recovery after a performance has a major effect on your success as a pitcher. This is why supplements have become a major part of sports today!

The remedies of today for muscle recovery are continuously improving. There are always new supplements coming out on the market that claim to improve recovery. The hard part is determining the ones that actually work without wasting a lot of time and money. I have put together a list of products and links to purchase these products at amazon.com. This way I will save you time and money. These are products that I used in my career which helped me not only overcome a career ending injury but to reach my velocity goals of 94mph. I am not claiming that these products will do this for you but they will definitely help. Read more

MLB folds under pressure!

It took steroids in the game of baseball to wake up the MLB. They learned quickly that the old school mentality that weight training will not make a baseball player better probably was dead wrong but instead of the MLB opening the game to the latest advances of the strength and conditioning world they decided to fold. Now why would they fold such a big hand that was dealt to them with a hard slap across the face? This is because of the pressures of the United States government. Congress threatened the MLB to a point of no return. To remove steroids from the poisoned roots of Major League Baseball they pushed out everything that resembled the disease. This meant strength and conditioning practices that juiced athletes used to develop their steroid-induced gains. Read more