What Is a Good Workout for Pitchers?

A baseball pitcher must master a solid workout routine to make it to the big leagues. Pitching involves more than the simple hand release of a baseball, and incorporating all the necessary elements into a carefully designed program will help you improve your pitching and stay strong.

  1. Parts of the Body

    • The pitching arm and shoulder require extensive conditioning to maintain a high level of performance and prevent injury to joints, bones and ligaments. Hand strength and flexibility are vital to ball grip and release. Lower body conditioning is the central component of pitcher training, as the velocity, power and follow-through are generated primarily from the hips and legs. Core exercises are also vital to keep the body fluid in motion and help prevent overexertion of the lungs and heart.

    Shoulder Exercises

    • Strengthening the rotator cuff is essential for a pitcher. Workouts are performed with a pair of light dumbbells and focus on building muscle in all areas of the shoulder. Raising dumbbells out to the side until the arms are parallel to the ground before lowering activates the rotator cuff fibers. Bending forward from the waist and repeating the same exercise, or standing straight up and lifting the weights out in front of you in the same way, covers all sides of the shoulder for a complete workout.

    Isolating the Upper and Lower Body

    • Practice isolating the upper body by dropping to one knee on the pitcher's mound and throwing the ball from this position. Proper body mechanics are learned through this exercise and teach the pitcher how to use his arm, shoulder and abs in concert with one another. Additionally, placing the tip of your back foot on a bucket and pitching from this position forces you to incorporate you lower body and thrust upward, as well as to push your weight onto the front foot to learn appropriate follow-through.

    Flexibility and Stamina

    • Flexibility and stamina conditioning are vital for a pitcher who intends to throw for a long time. Standard stretching of the arms, chest, neck, hips and legs is a must. Performing a bent-knee hamstring stretch loosens tendons and muscles for dynamic flexibility. Increase the difficulty by lying down and looping a rope or towel over the sole of your foot. Pulling the towel back toward your upper body puts greater focus on the hamstrings. Jogging and sprints also increase stamina, and leg presses bulk up muscles in the quads, hamstrings and calves.

    Core Workout

    • Building lean muscle in the core ensures pitchers can complete their wind-up and delivery with full force and motion. Performing situps and crunches on a daily basis helps keep abdominal muscles toned and activated. Moving core exercises onto a stability ball increases the difficulty and isolates core muscles even more. Squeezing, stretching and initiating situps using a 1- to 8-kg medicine ball during the workout adds further resistance.