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Faizan
Baseball requires a wide range of motions for various movement patterns and skills, such as pitching, swinging, sprinting and lunging. These require optimal flexibility and stability to generate the most speed and power possible with the lowest risk of injury. Although traditional conditioning programs suggest stretching different muscles and joints to improve flexibility, stretching can decrease your performance and provide few or no benefits for baseball performance.
Train Movement, Not Muscles
Traditional philosophy in flexibility training implies that stretching muscles and joints will improve performance. However, a 2012 review of 106 journals and research on flexibility training published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise yielded no significant improvement in athletic performance from stretching. Since your brain, not muscles, controls movement and recognizes movement patterns, it's better to focus on flexibility exercises that are specific to baseball. Sample movement patterns include hip extension and stride length for sprinting, upper-spine rotation in pitching and swinging and shoulder rotations in different directions. When you train movement, you're also training your muscles.
Dynamic Versus Static Stretching
When baseball players perform dynamic stretching instead of static stretching in their warmup, they stimulate their nervous system and muscles together to create movement patterns. Dynamic stretching is moving your muscles and joints within their full range of motion repetitively. These movement patterns often mimic a specific sport skill, such as cutting and turning, pitching, swinging and lateral skipping. Compared with dynamic stretching, static stretching -- holding a muscle stretch for 20 to 30 seconds -- provides no improvement in performance before strength training, according to a 2005 study published in Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Another study published in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports showed that static stretching can reduce your strength and power output by 5.4 and 2 percent, respectively.
Field Drills
Sprinting, cutting and turning are essential for various positions, including the outfielder and the batter. Dynamic stretching for these movement patterns incorporates hip and leg movements in various planes of motion while keeping your upper body stable. Start with heel flicks where you attempt to kick your buttocks with your heels as you walk. Standing knee lifts involve bringing your knee toward your chest as high as you can without flexing your spine as you pump your arms to simulate sprinting. Other dynamic stretching exercises include hip swings, multi-planar lunges and arm swings.
Rotation Exercises
Rotational stretches help pitchers throw with more range of motion and batters put more power behind their swing. These stretches either target the upper spine or incorporate upper spine rotation with hip mobility. The type of stretches performed depend on the position played and the physical condition of the player. For example, if you have limited mobility in the upper spine, you may benefit from performing the quadruped thoracic spine rotation in which you kneel on your hands and knees and put your right hand behind your neck with your right elbow pointing to the right. Exhale as you rotate your shoulder girdle to your right, lifting your right elbow. Inhale as you return to the starting position. After you perform a couple of reps on each side, do a couple of swings or pitches and see if there's any improvement. Other rotation stretches include lunge and twist with an overhead arm reach, side-lying rotation, medicine ball chops and medicine ball shot puts.
Train Movement, Not Muscles
Traditional philosophy in flexibility training implies that stretching muscles and joints will improve performance. However, a 2012 review of 106 journals and research on flexibility training published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise yielded no significant improvement in athletic performance from stretching. Since your brain, not muscles, controls movement and recognizes movement patterns, it's better to focus on flexibility exercises that are specific to baseball. Sample movement patterns include hip extension and stride length for sprinting, upper-spine rotation in pitching and swinging and shoulder rotations in different directions. When you train movement, you're also training your muscles.
Dynamic Versus Static Stretching
When baseball players perform dynamic stretching instead of static stretching in their warmup, they stimulate their nervous system and muscles together to create movement patterns. Dynamic stretching is moving your muscles and joints within their full range of motion repetitively. These movement patterns often mimic a specific sport skill, such as cutting and turning, pitching, swinging and lateral skipping. Compared with dynamic stretching, static stretching -- holding a muscle stretch for 20 to 30 seconds -- provides no improvement in performance before strength training, according to a 2005 study published in Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Another study published in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports showed that static stretching can reduce your strength and power output by 5.4 and 2 percent, respectively.
Field Drills
Sprinting, cutting and turning are essential for various positions, including the outfielder and the batter. Dynamic stretching for these movement patterns incorporates hip and leg movements in various planes of motion while keeping your upper body stable. Start with heel flicks where you attempt to kick your buttocks with your heels as you walk. Standing knee lifts involve bringing your knee toward your chest as high as you can without flexing your spine as you pump your arms to simulate sprinting. Other dynamic stretching exercises include hip swings, multi-planar lunges and arm swings.
Rotation Exercises
Rotational stretches help pitchers throw with more range of motion and batters put more power behind their swing. These stretches either target the upper spine or incorporate upper spine rotation with hip mobility. The type of stretches performed depend on the position played and the physical condition of the player. For example, if you have limited mobility in the upper spine, you may benefit from performing the quadruped thoracic spine rotation in which you kneel on your hands and knees and put your right hand behind your neck with your right elbow pointing to the right. Exhale as you rotate your shoulder girdle to your right, lifting your right elbow. Inhale as you return to the starting position. After you perform a couple of reps on each side, do a couple of swings or pitches and see if there's any improvement. Other rotation stretches include lunge and twist with an overhead arm reach, side-lying rotation, medicine ball chops and medicine ball shot puts.
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