Weight Lifting for Pitcher

[PitchingDude]

I am needing some input on the dos and donts of weight lifting for pitchers. Specifically, I have told that bench pressing can be detrimental to a female pitcher. Whereas bench pressing for male pitchers is good in that they utilize muscle groups built by bench presses for acceleration. But the female needs the same muscle groups not to be so built up due to them being in the deceleration mode at the end of their windmill pitch.

I am a complete novice about this topic. Any input would be beneficial. Thanks ahead of time for input.

 

[Rick Pauly]

Great Article Just sent out by Eric Cressey regarding bench pressing and baseball pitchers.....you can go to their website and read the entire article. They are definitely not proponents of bench pressing for pitchers. http://www.cresseyperformance.com/


3 More Reasons We Don’t Have Our Baseball Players Bench Press
Written on January 27, 2017 at 6:44 am, by Eric Cressey
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Today's guest article comes from Cressey Sports Performance coach Tony Bonvechio. Tony is also one of the contributors to the new Cressey Sports Performance Innovations resource, which is on sale for $50 off through this Sunday at midnight. Enjoy! -EC

 

[Findlay]

We had the same question just last week - our sports trainer said high rep, medium weight training is good for upper body, i.e. pull-ups (underhand), curls (various) for biceps/some forearm and wrist curls for forearm. Again, not heavy. Pushups he recommended too, but no bench. Shoulder exercise using resistance band ONLY (like pec deck and lat pulldowns).
Then for legs some squats/lunges, but the focus is explosive exercises for legs, i.e. squat jumps. He trains the young ladies on box jumps, sleds pulls, medicine ball slams - mostly HIIT training. Some weights, but light, high reps.
The guy has been training baseball and softball athletes for 20 years and seemed to know what he was talking about. All the kids in his gym were in superior shape and extremely athletic.
We also adopted this warmup routine before pitching -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lDC4Ri9zAQ

 

[chrispots]

I am needing some input on the dos and donts of weight lifting for pitchers. Specifically, I have told that bench pressing can be detrimental to a female pitcher. Whereas bench pressing for male pitchers is good in that they utilize muscle groups built by bench presses for acceleration. But the female needs the same muscle groups not to be so built up due to them being in the deceleration mode at the end of their windmill pitch.

I am a complete novice about this topic. Any input would be beneficial. Thanks ahead of time for input.

See a personal trainer...let them design something for you...

There is a 20 minute TRX workout that my pitchers complete 2x's each week in conjunction with a weight based 30 minute workout for the weekend that is a blend of stuff from P90X. I paid to have these workouts designed for my pitchers after they were assessed by a professional..well worth the $.

CP

 

[Chris Delorit]

Hi PitchingDude,

There's alot of fluff out there relative to male vs. female, baseball vs. softball. My suggestion would be to make your own opinion based on what you feel may be credible sources.

If it were me, I'd immediately question the above, as well as "why" the bench press is apparantly so detrimental for softball pitchers. With the bench press (positive & negative resistance) supporting strength development of a number of muscle groups, would other exercises like shoulder press, dumbell press & even push-ups be taboo?

There is credibility to the concern about the possible reduction of range of motion. Hovever, this can be countered by a thorough stretching routine. In my opinion, every weight lifting exercise has the potential to damage or limit range of motion. But, I've known many pitchers during my era to support bench work. I can't remember any who experienced any negative experiences or injuries as a result. Or at least, none that I was aware of.

While playing, I credit relatively heavy weight training, including the bench, as an invaluable asset to maximize performance, as well as performance injury prevention.

So, I don't believe there's reason to completely avoid the bench, if it includes sensible weight, proper recovery & a stretching routine. Since the chest, shoulders & back are large muscles in the upper body, you probably don't want to completely ignore those areas. Without balance, you can increase the chance of injury.

As mentioned above, a good personal strength trainer is a great idea.

Chris

 

[Phathead]

Our scool puts pitchers wit everyone else same lifts and exercises. Some really bothers me is 5lbs locked extended arm- forarm rotation, horz to vert up, vert down to horz. Same weight bent elbow upper arm horz rotate lower arm to horz in front. DD complains these hurt and not in good way. Anyone with knowledge I would appreciate input, seems to be putting a lot of stress in her shoulder joint/socket.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

There is so much crap on the internet regarding this subject; I would avoid all of it. There have been peer reviewed studies done by doctors/scientists that have been published in journals. I would stick with those. They are very specific in what exercises are correlated with throwing velocity.

 

[MacLobo]

I am needing some input on the dos and donts of weight lifting for pitchers. Specifically, I have told that bench pressing can be detrimental to a female pitcher. Whereas bench pressing for male pitchers is good in that they utilize muscle groups built by bench presses for acceleration. But the female needs the same muscle groups not to be so built up due to them being in the deceleration mode at the end of their windmill pitch.

I am a complete novice about this topic. Any input would be beneficial. Thanks ahead of time for input.

The problem with ignoring certain muscle groups, is that it creates muscular imbalance, which leads to injury. I have never seen or heard a reason not to do them, other than personal injuries. Sure, if you're a pitcher (baseball or softball), you do not want to train for serious size and strength in the chest, so you're not going to do 5X3's at 90% max. But, you want to train those muscles just like you train every other muscle in your body when you're an athlete.

 

[Crystal Brown]

Bench press is detrimental for a lot of people, not just pitcher. The oh so dreaded Monday chest day at the gym that can also be referred to wreck your shoulder day. If not done correctly, it puts a lot of stress on the shoulder. To do a correct bench press, you must retracing the scapula and latissimus dorsi (lats) and pre-stretching the chest so that the lowering portion of the movement creates a rubber band effect of the chest due to how tight the muscle fibers are from the pre-stretch, then stretch of lowering the weight to the chest. A lot of people do not do this. Instead the focus is taken off the larger muscle(chest)and has shifted to using the smaller muscle(shoulder) than you should be using.

 

[williamsdr3]

Can you refer me to any specific websites with the peer-reviewed studies regarding what exercises are correlated with throwing velocity? Thank you.