Image by: Tanenhaus
By Roger Barone

Spring is just around the corner which means spring training has already started. Most teams are somewhere warm gearing up and conditioning for the 2013 MLB season.

In honor of spring training; it’s time to get you working out like a pro baseball player. If you have a family; these are some things you can teach your star athlete child.

Strength

The most important thing to work on right away is your upper body strength. It takes a lot of arm strength to hit a baseball with a wooden bat to get a home run. Why do you think so many baseball player’s take steroids?

They need to have insane upper body strength. Period. So what are some exercises to enhance your upper body strength? Start with the basics.

– Push-ups
– Incline/Decline Push-Ups
– Pull-Ups
– Chin-Ups

Then add resistance bands or free weights.

– Shoulder Press
– Bicep/Tricep Curls
– Bench Press

Agility

The next step to working out like a pro baseball player is to pick up your agility. You need to be able to be quick on your feet and be able to spring over to the next base.

Baseball players also play out in the field so they have to be able to locate where the ball is going and sprint out there as fast as they can. The ball will be coming down quicker than most people can think so if you can outrun the ball, you’ll be in good shape.

The best exercises to use to boost your agility/speed are again to start with the basics by building leg muscles.

– Lunges
– Squats
– Jumping Jacks
– Mountain Climbers

Once you have built up your legs; then you can start adding agility/speed training exercises.

A good exercise to utilize is to find a start and a stopping point. Since each base is 90 feet per base; make sure the distance between the starting point and the stopping point is 90 feet. Then; time yourself for 60 seconds. Build your way up to be able to run back and fourth 16 times in 60 seconds.

Only then will you be able to keep up with the pro athletes. Once you have trained yourself to run it 16 times in 60 seconds; then you can add in plyometric exercises to enhance what you have already trained for.

Keep Increasing Your Weights

Strength and agility are basically all you need to worry about when training like a pro baseball player. Agility will allow your body to recover during the game and will continue to do so while you build yourself up.

Strength is important when it comes to being able to keep your team ahead of the other team by throwing the ball fast, being precise, and the ability to make last minute changes when necessary.

Use these tips to train like your favorite baseball player just in time for the 2013 season.