Approaches to Core Training

As an incoming college freshman, I was sent a manual through the mail with my football team’s workouts for the summer ahead. The manual was about 75 pages of mostly strength routines and information about the testing we would undergo once we arrived for pre-season training camp. The only core routines were hand-jotted at the bottom of the typed lifting program sheets, on a single line reading, “Abs: 250 reps”. Even at 18 years old, with no formal training in exercise, I remember thinking... Gosh, there’s got to be more to it than that!

What Are the Goals of Core Training?

As with every area of strength and conditioning, the common answer, “To Enhance Performance, and Prevent Injury” applies here. A performance goal of core training is to strengthen and support the middle of the body for improved coordination of the body as a whole. Many coaches aim to prevent injury by adding support to the mid-section’s structural beam, the lumbar spine, by using draw-in and bracing techniques, emphasizing stability exercises (i.e. planks), and ensuring that training does not compromise the natural anatomical arch of the low back. Other considerations may include improving hip mobility or scapulothoracic stability, depending upon how broadly the core is defined in your program.

A Movement Balanced Approach

This approach is about being anatomically balanced in all movement planes. Historically, exercise menus of various sit-ups, crunches, and twists have focused on building the endurance of the abdominal and oblique muscles. The erector spine, quadratus lumborum, and transverse abdominis, for example, have been more often neglected by traditional core routines. There are a few ways to create balanced core routines, either by incorporating all movements of the torso into each core program, or by equally dividing the movements throughout the training week. Here is a list of core movements to build exercise menus upon:

o Flexion: (e.g. Sit-Ups)
o Extension: (e.g. Superman)
o Lateral Flexion and Extension: (e.g. Side Plank Hip Lift)
o Rotation: (e.g. Medicine Ball Side Tosses)
o Low Back Support: (e.g. Supine Dead Bug Progressions)
o Hip Mobility: (e.g. Quadruped Hip Abduction)
o Scapulothoracic Stability: (e.g. Front Plank Scapula Pinch)

The goal is to diversify the types of core exercises being performed, as no one method of core training has been deemed most beneficial in scientific literature.

Rotational Core Training:

There are two predominant approaches to rotational core training: (1) Rotational Power-Endurance, and (2) Anti-Rotation. Rotational power-endurance exercises are dynamic in nature and most often include twisting movements using resistance. Some examples include medicine ball (MB) side tosses, MB standing torso rotations, “Russian twists”, and supine “knee-up” low trunk rotations.

Anti-rotation, or rotational stability, exercises include stability movements of the torso against rotational forces created from the momentum of the limbs. Common examples include, Grey Cook’s kneeling chop and lift exercises (from his menu of FMS corrective exercises), Convertaball twists, cable core presses, and Keiser push-pulls combinations.

What’s the difference… Rotation vs. Anti-Rotation? Rotational exercises train the concentric and eccentric nature of the twisting torso, while anti-rotation exercises are focused at stabilizing the rotation of the spine to best maintain the upright posture of the body. For example, there are anti-rotational elements to many functional single limb weightroom exercises (i.e. one-leg squats or deadlifts, lunges, one-arm presses, etc.). While rotational power-endurance exercises (i.e. MB throws) are excellent to develop rotational range of motion and explosiveness, developing anti-rotational stability should first be addressed to ensure the body can handle the force production of repetitive twisting.

Eric McMahon, M.Ed., RSCC
Minor League Strength and Conditioning Coach
Texas Rangers

Warming-Up: Too Much vs. Not Enough

The pre-game warm-up is one of the more contentious issues in high level athletics. A recently published article in the Journal of Applied Physiology suggested that power performance may be best served by a shorter, lower-intensity warm-up routine (Tomaras & MacIntosh, 2011). The researchers compared sprint cyclists performing two warm-up routines: (1) A 50 minute routine, progressing from 60-95% HRmax and ending with four sprints; and (2) A 15 minute routine, ranging from 60-70% HRmax, and ending with a single sprint. The researchers found that the shorter warm-up resulted in significantly less muscle fatigue and a higher peak power output.

Sprint cyclists and baseball players are different in countless ways. However, the researchers were effective in demonstrating that warm-up efficiency and recovery are important consideration for coaches before a game. Here are a few strategies for warming-up your position players, to prevent injuries, optimize performance, and prevent excessive fatigue.

Keep Players Moving:

Warm-up routines are not to be confused with static stretching routines for improving flexibility. Most of the benefits of a good warm-up (i.e. ↑ contraction speeds, ↑ movement economy, ↑ oxygen utilization, ↑ neuromuscular transmission, and ↑ muscle metabolism), derive from increasing the body’s heart rate, blood flow, and temperature of the muscles. The dynamic, or moving, portion of the warm-up (i.e. jogging, shuffling, carioca, squatting, lunging, arm circles, etc.) should make up the majority of the time allotted.

Keep Players On Their Feet:

Unless you are warming up a wrestling team, transitioning the team from standing, to sitting, to prone, and back to standing again takes up valuable time that players could be performing more sport-specific exercises. Baseball-specific exercises, including running mechanics drills, cross-over starts, torso twisting, and throwing, should be performed to facilitate the motor unit recruitment needed for maximal game performance. With the exception of sliding, baseball is always performed on your feet!

Progress Simple to Complex, Slow to Fast:

Warm-up routines should be progressed from smaller and slower, less taxing, movements, to more complex, faster, movements to ensure the safety of each exercise being performed. After a general warm-up, closed-chain dynamic flexibility exercises are most effective in reducing muscle stiffness while requiring the muscles to remain active in supporting the weight and posture of the body. Plyometric exercises (i.e. skipping, bounding, jumping, throwing, and swinging) should be performed towards the end of the warm-up to ensure that the muscles have been activated properly to sustain the eccentric stresses of decelerating the body.

Begin 30 Minutes Before The Game:

This amount of time allows for a general and dynamic warm-up to be completed with a coach in the first 8-10 minutes, throwing and sprint work in the middle 10-12 minutes, and individual preparation (i.e. extra stretching, mental focusing, etc.) in the 10 minutes leading up to the game. Not all athletes have the same weaknesses and imbalances. Nor do all athletes require the same level of muscle activation to perform optimally or injury free. Allowing a few extra minutes for players to mentally focus on the game ahead, get a drink, or relax is often overlooked when putting together the pre-game schedule.

Keep 3 Goals In Mind:

In professional baseball, most players have been active much of the day prior to the game. As long as players (1) Break a sweat by getting their heart rate up, (2) Alleviate any tightness in the hips, torso, and shoulders, and (3) Progress to game speed running, throwing, and swinging, they are likely doing enough to prepare the body.

Quality Not Quantity:

Focusing on dynamic, multi-joint, and baseball-specific movements can improve the quality of a pre-game warm-up. Excessively long or fatiguing warm-up routines should be avoided to promote season-long success.

Cited Source:
Tomaras, E. K. and MacIntosh, B. R. (May 2011). Less is More: Standard Warm-up Causes Fatigue and Less Warm-up Permits Greater Cycling Power Output. Journal of Applied Physiology, Published online ahead of print, link: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00253.2011.


Eric McMahon, M.Ed., CSCS
Minor League Strength and Conditioning Coach
Texas Rangers

Webinar Presentation (January 11, 2011)

Name: Functional Training and Progressions of the Shoulder and Upper Extremity in the Overhead Athlete

Featured Speaker: David Yeager, ATC, CSCS Co-Founder, BaseballStrengthCoaching.com Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and professional baseball Athletic Trainer

Course Objectives:

- Define function, functional training, and the components of sport-specific training in baseball.
- Describe the criteria for beginning or advancing exercise / activity progressions.
- Describe the general characteristics and key components of the overhand throwing motion.
- Explain the Kinetic Chain Concept as it relates to exercise training in baseball.
- Define the goal and key components of sport-specific shoulder girdle training.
- Illustrate sample exercise progressions for the overhead throwing athlete.


When: 01/11/2011 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Time Zone: (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US and Canada)

Be sure to log on to www.baseballstrengthcoaching.com in order to register and receive an email containing the session link.

Hope to see you there!

BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

What's your Speed?

In baseball the 60 yard sprint has been the bench mark of a player's speed for decades. There are few players that will run 60 yards in a straight line, the exception being a center fielder maybe trying to cover a gap. With that said, what does a 60 really tell us in respects to the game? It is the total distance from home to second or second to home, but in a real baseball situation we have a 90 degree bend in the middle. Many professional organizations and colleges are slowly making the switch to the 30 yard sprint and the 10 yard sprint. In functional terms this provides a coach and player with a better baseline evaluation of speed. The 30 shows how fast the player can get from one base to the other and so is a true functional measure of speed. The 10 yard sprint is a function of how fast the player is getting up to speed, which in most cases can make or break a player’s true functional speed. Baseball is a game of reaction and explosion and so the faster a player gets up to maximum speed, the more plays they will make both offensively and defensively. In most cases, even when the 60 is still used the player that has worked on his 10 yard burst and 30 yard sprint will also improve their 60. The real lesson here is to know your true speed, and in the case of baseball maybe quickness trumps true speed.

Brian Niswender
Co-Founder
BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

No Muscle Memory!

In this week's installment of BaseballStrengthCoaching.com's blog, I want to take a minute to discuss one of my pet peeves. Recently it seems that I have heard quite a few professionals discuss the concept of "muscle memory". While I understand the concept, as exercise science professionals we should know better. There is no such thing as "muscle memory"! Muscles do not have memory control centers. The actions of our muscle tissue are controlled by conscious and subconscious brain functions.

Sports performance skills such as running, throwing, striking, catching, jumping, landing, and stop and turn activities require coordinated muscle recruitments of multiple joints and planes of movement. During the developmental period of infancy, we learn how to recruit various muscle groups in order to stabilize and balance our bodies (raise the head -> rollover -> sit up -> stand). As we continue to grow and mature, we learn basic loco motor skills such as scooting, crawling, and walking. Still later in our development, we progress to more fundamental movements such as traveling skills (climbing, galloping, jumping, running), object controls skills (kicking, throwing, striking), and balance movements (dodging, rolling). All the while, the brain is programming and saving these movement patterns for future use. With practice the patterns are fine-tuned and enhanced.

The Central Nervous System (CNS) is not programmed for isolated muscle function. When a motor task is necessary, the CNS recalls the pre-programmed patterns of movement that were learned during our developmental years. During sports activities, the body has to compensate for the pre-programmed movement patterns and react to gravity, momentum, and ground reaction forces. This pattern of muscle activation and movement programming has also been seen in recent visualization research.

Rather than referring to this process as "muscle memory", which by definition is not possible, I like to use the phrase "subconscious memory". Subconscious memory more accurately reflects the motor responses.

David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder, BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

Athletic Destinies Determined By Age 10

I recently came across this article. This is something that I really try to preach to young athletes. I'd be interested to hear some other opinions.

David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder, BaseballStrengthCoaching.com


LeBron James was 10 years old once. By that age, he was on his way to becoming the LeBron James we know today, and he was helped by playing football, according to expert trainers who agree that a range of play activities between age six and 10 helps build a broad base of athletic motor and coordination abilities.

Each year hundreds of kids come through Scott Moody’s AthleteFit facility outside Kansas City, and dozens of them finish high school with collegiate sports scholarships.

“If [kids] don’t develop those manipulative motor skills at that age, that 6-10 window, then they don’t have the confidence necessary to participate,” said Moody. As a result, their overall fitness goes down, further dropping confidence. “It’s this downward spiral that most people never come out of.”

Moody joined more than 100 trainers from across the U.S. and Canada at a recent National Strength and Conditioning Association Youth Training Symposium in Chicago (see him presenting on TRX Suspension Training in the photo above). They discussed how in an overweight yet sports-obsessed culture, trainers are making a difference in how kids get started in athletics.

Patrick McHenry, a high school strength coach in Castle Rock, Colorado, talked about a tall, strong basketball player who could shoot and who looked like he might be great, but as a senior he lacked footwork.

“Was it too late? Yes, for him.” McHenry said. “If we had had him during his sophmore or junior year we could have helped him, but would he have been the best? No.”

Rick Howard, director of athletics for the School District of Philadelphia, gets requests from teachers and coaches for lowest-common-denominator training programs to meet the needs of, say, a third-grade physical education class or a girls’ softball team.

“It’s not that easy,” he tells them. “You really have to know everybody on that team, what they’re good at, what they’re not good at.” Mostly he sees sports instruction and training for kids that winds up reinforcing what they’re already good at, “Kids that are fast, keep them running.”

Reinforcement has run amok in cases where young athletes are opting to specialize in one sport at a young age. In the worst cases, according to McHenry, they run the risk of overuse injuries.

“We find they’re missing their window to all of those motor skills that are going to help them athletically later in the game,” said Moody.

“Girls’ soccer players have trouble tracking the ball in the air,” he pointed out, “because they never played volleyball growing up, they never played softball growing up. They didn’t get used to tracking objects out of the air.”

Mike Nitka is an editor for the trainers’ association journal and a Wisconsin high school wrestling coach. Motor skills in older people, he said, “can be developed, but not at the highest level possible because Mother Nature is trying to give us the biggest assist possible, and these are the windows” for that.

“I have a sign in my office,” Nitka said, “Volleyball players play volleyball. Athletes play anything they want.”

Article taken from news.medill.northwestern.edu.

Pull With Your Back

As coaches, we strive to achieve the maximum benefit for our athletes in the shortest period of time. Often, we see athletes performing an exercise correctly but not receiving the outcomes they should. Perhaps, this lack of outcome stems from the lack of appropriate focus on the performance of the exercise. For me, one of those exercises is the Lat Pulldown / Pull-Up exercise.

The primary muscles that are engaged during this exercise are the latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, teres major, and the lower trapezius. Their function is to adduct the arm and draw it closer to the pelvis. During the throwing motion, these muscles act as large decelerators to counteract the distraction forces at the glenohumeral joint. The muscles of the hand /forearm flexors, as well as, the biceps brachii are considered secondary movers during the Lat Pulldown exercise.

One of the common mistakes that I notice when athletes perform this exercise is that they over-emphasize their grip and as a result pull down using the smaller muscles of the arms. As I mentioned, the primary focus should be placed on the larger musculature of the back. Using mental cues can improve the mind-body connection. When coaching these athletes, I find it helpful to use the mental cue, “Pull with your back!” to emphasize the proper performance of the Lat Pulldown exercise. This will make an immediate impact in the technique by locking your “lats” into activation. To check this technique, the coach can place his hands on the athlete’s shoulder blades and feel that the pulldown movement is being initiated by their depression and retraction.

Focusing on the proper muscular activation while performing a movement can help to insure maximum benefits are achieved. “Pull with your back!” can be used for any exercise that requires the large upper back muscles to perform (i.e. seated row, bent-over row, etc).

David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder
BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

The "Sleeper Stretch"

The very nature of the overhead throwing motion subjects the shoulder joint to extreme positions and forces. When this activity is repeated over time, chronic adaptations will occur. When compared to non-throwers, throwing athletes often exhibit an increase in shoulder external rotation range of motion. However, the cost of this increase in external rotation is that it is often balanced by tightness in shoulder internal rotation. When this internal rotation tightness is 20 degrees greater than the non-throwing arm, it is commonly referred to as GIRD -Glenohumeral Internal Rotation Deficit.

Muscular imbalances in a joint or structure (i.e. tightness, etc) can affect the efficiency of the joint and may force other joints to do more work than they can handle. This creates the potential for injury by over stressing the body. Further, it inhibits performance by isolating the kinetic chain, and not allowing integrated movement. GIRD, or tightness of the posterior shoulder capsule / rotator cuff musculature, has been linked to an increased risk of injury by placing added stress on the shoulder decelerators, the internal static structures of the joint (labrum), and has been linked to medial elbow pain and disfunction.

The first line of defense in the prevention and treatment of posterior shoulder tightness is the “Sleeper Stretch”. This exercise is performed by lying on your throwing arm side with knees bent. Place your bottom arm perpendicular to your body with your elbow bent at 90 degrees. Stay on your side and do not lean backwards. Using your free (top) hand, gently push your arm toward the ground until you feel a light stretch or resistance to the movement. Hold that stretch for 5-10 seconds and repeat for 5-10 repetitions. Just as tightness is an acquired adaptation to repetitive movements, flexibility results from the consistent performance of a stretching routine. The “Sleeper Stretch” may be performed several times per day making sure that the joint is not being forced into a painful position / stretch.

When the muscles around a joint are in the proper length-tension ratios, they undergo less stress and can produce more force. Performing the “Sleeper Stretch” can improve shoulder health and performance in the overhead throwing athlete.

David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder
BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

Protein - A Little Goes a Long Way

The subject of protein for the athlete--- from how much is needed to what kinds are best, is the source of many hot debates. In many athletic circles, its function in building muscle has been extolled as almost magical. True, protein is an important nutrient. It’s found in a wide variety of foods coming from both animals and plants. Protein plays a vital role in repairing and rebuilding muscles, is an essential part of hormones, enzymes and antibodies that support our immune system. It’s not an energy source unless our bodies don’t have enough carbohydrates—the preferred fuel for all sports activities. Let’s explore the physiological basis for how much and what kinds of protein an athlete needs to help put this subject into a practical perspective for baseball.

Is protein more important than fats or carbohydrates?

No. All three of these nutrients, in the right balance and at the right time, provide the nutrition athlete’s need for the best training and performance.
How much protein does an athlete need?
The short answer is: more than a sedentary person who doesn’t play sports. Protein needs in athletes are higher, but exactly how much higher? Protein needs are calculated by weight, what type of athlete you are (endurance or strength & power) your training goals and by where you are in your sports season. See the table below for examples.

Average Protein Requirements for a 70 Kg athlete ( Divide your weight by 2.2 to find kilograms)

Type of athlete Protein Requirements (grams)

Sedentary .9 grms/kg 56 grms/day
Regular exerciser 1.0 grms/kg 70 grms/day
Endurance 1.2-1.4 grms/kg 105 grms/day
Resistance 1.4-1.7 grms/kg 112 grms/day

Protein needs for baseball (in season) are about 15-20% of the total day’s calories and are equal to about 1.2 grams/kg of body weight. To get an idea of what you might need daily take a minute and do the math. In the off season, if training goals change, protein requirements may change as well. We will address that topic (and protein for muscle building) when we discuss nutrition for the off season in September’s sports nutrition journal article.

It’s easy to meet your dietary protein needs through basic, nutritious foods eaten in a well balanced diet. If you eat cereal with milk for breakfast, yogurt and fruit for a snack, followed by a turkey sandwich for lunch, peanut butter & jelly sandwich or chocolate milk after your workout and dinner of a beef vegetable stir fry…. you’ve eaten about 95 grams of protein! You also get extra protein in your between meal snacks. Foods like whole grains and even certain vegetables have a little bit of protein, too, so it all adds up. If you eat enough food to support your training and performance, chances are that you are getting plenty of protein. There is no need to take extra protein in the form of pills or powders—food works! Save your money, choose well and enjoy all the satisfaction and flavor eating good food offers.

Protein from animals (lean meats, fish, eggs, poultry) is the most concentrated source and contains all of the essential amino acids. High quality plant sources include soy products, like tofu and soy milk, nuts and dried beans peas and lentils. Low fat dairy products are also an excellent source of essential amino acids.

Is more protein better?

No. Research confirms that anything over 2 grams/kg of body weight is excessive and does not benefit the athlete in any way. In fact, it might be harmful. Higher amounts of protein stress the kidneys because they have to excrete the nitrogen that is produced from protein breakdown (notice those body builders at the gym with gallons of water in tow?) Also, extra protein that isn’t used is stored as fat in your body. Only small amounts are used to repair and rebuild muscles so keep that in mind when choosing your recovery snack, after workouts and games. Anything more than 20 grams of protein is wasted.

By Kim Larson, RD, CD
Regular Contributor
BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

Athleticism or Skill?

In February when the NFL Combine was in full swing, I discussed the validity of evaluating athleticism and its correlation to the draft and future performance. Here we are in June and it’s time for Major League Baseball’s Amateur Draft. This makes me want to revisit the idea of “athleticism” and ask the question: Should teams draft athletes and try and make them baseball players? Or, draft baseball players and attempt to improve their athleticism?

The answer: Yes

Let’s make 2 assumptions for the sake of this discussion. First, high school players have the raw athletic abilities needed for sports performance. They lack the sport-specific skill development and experience of the more expert player. In this discussion, the high school player would be considered the “athlete”. Second, the college player possesses greater playing experience and skill development. These athletes would be considered the “baseball player”.

According to Baseball References’ Draft Database, an analysis of the players from the 2000-2005 draft classes provides a couple of interesting points:

1. College position players are better bets to reach the Major League level than high school position players; and
2. High school pitchers are better bets to reach the Major League level than college pitchers.

As mentioned, the college position player has greater sport-specific skill development and possesses a broader base of playing experience to allow him to adjust and adapt to the professional levels. With regard to the pitchers, perhaps the high school athlete has less wear and tear on his throwing arm as a result of a younger age and less cumulative innings / pitches (Although this may be a topic for another time – youth travel baseball). More than likely, the high school player also participates in other sports. The multi-sport performer tends to be a more well-rounded athlete with the many physiological tools and traits needed in each arena.

When working with the high school pitcher, more emphasis should be placed on proper throwing mechanics and delivery efficiency, as well as, teaching the overall knowledge of the game (i.e. fastball command, development of off-speed pitches, pitch selection and sequences, and identifying hitters’ weaknesses, etc). Care should be taken not to neglect the young pitcher’s athletic gifts and continue to enhance and maintain these traits. However, the sport-specific skills take precedence.

The more experienced and developed collegiate position player, can use athletic development to aid and fine tune the performance of his sport-specific skills. Speed and agility drills may be used for balance and footwork enhancement, along with the overall improvement of fielding range and baserunning abilities. Development of lower extremity and core strength / power / stability may provide continued improvement with regard to bat speed and power at ball contact.

So, the answer to my introductory question seems to be “yes”. It just depends on what position the player is being drafted to perform.

David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder
BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

New Journal Issue Coming Soon!

"If you're green, you're still growing. If you're ripe, you're next to rotten." -Jack Hughston, MD.

Don't forget - BaseballStrengthCoaching.com's new journal issue will be posted in June! Stay tuned for articles on topics such as rotational power, visual search and recognition, mental skills and goal setting, and sports nutrition.

Use It or Lose It!

This is probably one of my biggest pet peaves and an issue that I spend a lot of time discussing with athletes each year. And, if you've heard this from me on several occasions, I apologize. But, being that we are knee deep into the season, I thought that I would take a minute and review a simple concept.

Deconditioning, also called detraining is simply the effect of losing fitness when you stop training. The Principle of Use / Disuse is one of the main principles of conditioning. The concept is that “if you don’t use it, you lose it”. How quickly you lose fitness depends on how fit you are, how long you have been training, and on how long you stop.

Many people stop exercising at times for many reasons. It is not uncommon for baseball players to train intensely during the winter months and significantly decrease or stop training altogether once the season begins thinking that they will be able to maintain their fitness level throughout the summer. I hear it time and time again, "I really work hard in the off-season so I don't need to now." However, this thought process simply doesn’t work. With the overall length of the baseball season, the day-to-day grind of playing / practicing almost everyday, and the physical stress of throwing / swinging, it is almost impossible to maintain your strength and conditioning levels throughout the entire season without some sort of plan. Studies show that deconditioning begins in about 2 weeks if training is stopped altogether. Once lost, it takes nearly three times as long to recondition as it took to “detrain”. After 3 months following the end of training, researchers have found that athletes lost about ½ of their aerobic condition.

Top Ways to Maintain Your Fitness Level

(1) Don’t quit completely. At a minimum, performing 1-2 high-quality, high-intensity training sessions each week can help maintain your fitness level.

(2) Account for the body’s ability to adapt to training. DO NOT keep doing the same routine over and over. Adjust your training plan to gradually progress the training loads and intensities in order to avoid, detraining, overtraining, and injury.

(3) Using a variety of different exercise techniques, while staying true to the training goals and performance needs, can help to limit overtraining, enhance motivation, and increase training adaptations.

(4) Continue training (well-body conditioning, cross training, etc) through injuries.


David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder, BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

The Energy Balance Equation

As a Performance Enhancement Coach, I am frequently fielding questions from athletes who are trying to gain weight. What kind of workout should I do? What supplements should I buy? How much protein should I take? What kind of protein should I take? All of these questions can and should be addressed. But, there is one question that should be asked before all others…How many calories do I need?

The concept of weight management through Energy Balance is not a difficult one to convey. First, if an athlete’s goal is to maintain his weight, then the amount of energy (calories) that he expends through activity and exercise must equal the amount of energy he consumes (food). If his goal is to lose weight, then he must expend more energy than he consumes. And finally, if the athlete’s goal is to gain weight, then he must consume more energy than he burns. This is the most important issue in weight management – even before I begin discussing protein, carbohydrates, supplements, etc. Gater et al. (1992) demonstrated that athletes who participate in a strength training program and consume more calories than they expend show higher muscle mass gains than athletes with a neutral calorie balance.

(+) Energy Balance = Weight Gain
(-) Energy Balance = Weight Loss
(0) Energy Balance = Weight Maintenance

Even though this is not a difficult concept to convey, it definitely is not as easy to put into practice. For me, the first thing that I ask the player to do when dealing with weight management goals is to keep a weekly diary of what he is eating and drinking, so that I have an idea of how many calories that he is consuming. From there, we discuss the player’s daily calorie expense based on his daily practice, training, and performance activities. The biggest thing that I’ve found over the years is that most players do not have a good grasp on how many calories they need during the day or how many calories they actually take in.

23yo Male / 6ft Tall / 200lbs  3,114 Calories

The average professional baseball player requires 3,114 calories just to fuel his normal bodily functions at rest and maintain his current body weight. The need increases to between 3,600 and 4,100 calories per day to fuel the body for the addition of daily baseball activities. It is important to also understand that a player’s calorie needs will change based on the time of year (off-season, pre-season, or in-season), within a given week (5-day Starting Pitcher Rotation), or according to his role on the team (Starter vs. Reliever, or Everyday Player vs. Bench Player). Consuming up to 100-500 more calories per day than you are expending will provide you with the energy needed to gain strength and increase your lean muscle mass.

How do you gain weight? Above all else, make sure that you have a positive calorie balance.


David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder, BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

Preparation = Confidence

I know that the Vancouver Games have been closed for over a week, but one particular athlete’s story stood out in my mind. Immediately after winning the gold medal in the Women’s Moguls event, skier Hannah Kearney was interviewed and she talked about a “special note” that one of her strength coaches had sent her on the morning of the finals. Kearney was known to keep a diary of detailing each of her workouts over the past year. Her coach secretly went through the diary and summed up her work:

- 2,500+ Jumps
- 250 hours on the Bike
- 5,800 stairs climbed in ski boots while jumping into the pool

At the bottom of the note, the coach wrote “You are ready.”

Performance is a test of your training and skills. I know it’s a cliché, but don’t you feel better about taking a test if you’ve studied for it? Preparation for next season begins as soon as this season ends. Preparation for your next outing or game begins as soon as your last one was over. The goal is to maximize recovery, review what went right and what went wrong, develop a game plan, and then execute the plan. Simple right?

Not always. But, Hannah Kearney is on to one trick that can help…keeping a Training Log. Maintaining a log of workouts can help you recognize patterns and better understand when it is time to change movements and adjust the volume and intensities for optimal training benefits. Keeping a diary of previous performances can help you identify successful strategies and prevent falling into predictable patterns.

When you see it on paper, it is easier to recognize that you’ve done everything you can to prepare yourself for. And then you’ll know… “You are ready!”

David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder
BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

The power of "Power Talk"

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
-William Shakespeare

As I sit here watching the Olympics this week, I can’t help but think about the countless hours of training and practice that these athletes put in for only a handful of competitions a year and this ultimate event only once every four years. With so much time between competitions, they remain motivated and push on to achieve their dreams of Olympic gold.

Yet, how many of us work with athletes, both young and more mature, each day that it is a chore to motivate them for each practice or training session? The Olympians are at the pinnacle of their sport and still find the will and resolve to perform their necessary day-to-day routines. Most of our athletes still have a long way to go before they reach their elite levels. Even some of those who have cracked the professional ranks, still require a significant amount of our energy to nudge and drag them through their training sessions and put in at least enough effort to get something out of their workouts. Why do athletes often view these activities as a necessary evil? A colleague of mine said it this way, “It’s like some of them just don’t want to work.” I usually put it a different way. They just don’t understand the importance of the “behind the scenes” work and day-to-day grind that can have a huge impact on their on-field performance.

Shakespeare asks, “What’s in a name?” Language is a systematic means of communicating ideas and feelings. The words that we use should clearly designate our purpose and direction. The subconscious mind records everything. A person’s experiences provide a context for the emotions and behaviors that result from the words that are expressed. If an athlete has a history of negative experiences related to training or is constantly bombarded with negatives in his environment, then this will ultimately lead to negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors about training and workouts. For example, when a coach uses conditioning as punishment, this serves to frame strength and conditioning as something the athlete should not want to do. Our mission should be to provide an environment both physically and with the language that we use to motivate and encourage our athletes to strive for their best both during competition and during their day-to-day routines.

I read an article several years ago that really got me thinking about the concept of language and positive self-talk. The article described a shipping company that was losing almost a million dollars per year in late, damaged, and wrong shipments. They hired a consultant to analyze their warehouse operations and to recommend changes that they could make in order to maximize their profits. After a couple of months the consultants made only one suggestion…change a word. What the consultants determined was that in the warehouse, the workers were segregated into different roles (packers, loaders, drivers, etc.). These roles isolated the workers and limited their interest in the work they performed. The consultants suggested that the company do away with each of the workers’ designated roles and replace them with a single job description, “craftsmen”. The shipping company took the advice and began referring to each employee as a “craftsman”. They even altered their training and business manuals to refer to “craftsmen”. Over time, the company began noticing big changes. The employees began taking more pride and ownership in their work, warehouse morale improved, and the next year’s analysis showed that the money the company was losing due to poor work and shipping errors was virtually gone.

What are some words that we can change in our business? Since reading the article, I have made the following power changes to my language when I’m communicating with athletes:

Strength and Conditioning >> Performance Enhancement
Practice >> Training Session
Rehabilitation >> Reconditioning
Coaching Staff >> Performance Team

Professional baseball seems to also begun to embrace this concept of “Power Talk”. Many teams shun the negative, second-tier persona of the minor leagues by referring to it as “player development”.

David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

Burn The Ships!

This week I wanted to give you guys a story I came across, one that I hope impacts you as much as it has impacted me.

There was a great warrior that had to make a decision to ensure his success on the battlefield. He was about to send his armies against a powerful foe, whose men outnumbered his own. He loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the enemy’s country, unloaded soldiers and equipment, then gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them. Addressing his men before the first battle, he said “You see the boats going up in smoke. That means that we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice---we win or we perish!” They won. Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as "a burning desire to win", essential to success.

As a coach or a player, have you left yourself no way to retreat? Have you made the decision to make whatever your doing a success. Whatever you want, go get it. Cortez used this strategy when he came to the new world.

Brian Niswender, MA, CSCS
Co-Founder, BaseballStrengthCoaching.com
Owner, Warrior Sports Training

Movement Training vs. Muscle Training

Sports performance skills such as running, throwing, striking, catching, jumping, landing, and stop and turn activities require coordinated muscle recruitments of multiple joints and planes of movement. During the developmental period of infancy, we learn how to recruit various muscle groups in order to stabilize and balance our bodies (raise the head > rollover > sit up > stand). As we continue to grow and mature, we learn basic loco motor skills such as scooting, crawling, and walking. Still later in our development, we progress to more fundamental movements such as traveling skills (climbing, galloping, jumping, running), object controls skills (kicking, throwing, striking), and balance movements (dodging, rolling). All the while, the brain is programming and saving these movement patterns for future use. With practice the patterns are fine-tuned and enhanced.

The body is a sophisticated and marvelous machine. The joints of the body are connected to each other much like the links of a chain or an engineering system. Action at one joint in the chain (i.e. movements, forces, dysfunction, etc.) directly affects the next joint above and below in the sequence and indirectly influences the rest of the body. Activities can be divided into two types:

Open Chain Activities – one end of the chain is fixed to a point while the other is
free to move in space.

Example: hamstring curl, tricep extension, bench press etc.

Closed Chain Activities – both ends of the chain are fixed to a point.

Example: squat, lunge, push-up, etc.

In reality, there is no such thing as a pure open and closed chain. Sports movements involve a constant cycle of opening and closing of the chain (i.e. running, jumping, throwing, kicking, etc.). The Central Nervous System (CNS) is not programmed for isolated muscle function. When a motor task is necessary, the CNS recalls the pre-programmed patterns of movement that were learned during our developmental years. During sports activities, the body has to compensate for the pre-programmed movement patterns and react to gravity, momentum, and ground reaction forces.


Force Production >> Stabilization >>Force Reduction >> Stabilization >> Force Production


Despite the body’s natural tendency to movement pattern activities, many athletes, coaches, and trainers continue to perform sport-specific strength training activities by isolating and developing specific muscle groups. This will succeed in developing muscle size and strength, but will limit the crossover for sports performance and daily life. During athletic and daily life activities, the body must function as an integrated unit rather than isolated segments. Performing exercises which stress multi-joint and sport-specific movement patterns which the athletes encounter while playing strengthens the muscles in the manner in which they are used. This helps to limit abnormal muscle recruitment patterns and stresses on the body by integrating and enhancing the function of the kinetic chain.

David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder
baseballstrengthcoaching.com