I’m a washed up meat head ex-baseball player who loves to train. As lame as this sounds, one of the few advantages is that I get to experiment with my training on a very consistent basis without fear of failure. Sometimes these exercise experiments turn out awesome. Try these if you’re looking for something new to add to your training arsenal!
AntiRotational Sled Shuffles/Walks
This exercise is a real ass-kicker that will definitely expose your weaknesses. If you lack core stability, hip strength, knee or shoulder stability, the sled won’t budge a whole lot. All these areas are extremely important for an athlete’s health and performance.
Tips
- Take out all the slack in the tether before beginning the exercise. Start in a perfect position and don’t “yank” the sled.
- Take your time. I’m often all for shuffling/lateral running with the sled as fast as possible, but this exercise is meant to be slow and controlled! Add weight if necessary to make it more difficult.
- Keep a neutral spine. The initial response to get the sled to move is by leaning to the side with the torso. Don’t do that. Keep a perfect posture and engage the hips to allow the shuffle motion to move the sled.
- Use it for conditioning when needed! This exercise is relatively low taxing on the spine. It’s also, as stated before, a real ass-kicker! It’s fairly simple to perform as well. For those reasons, I think it can fit into a conditioning circuit well.
Release Sprints
Training in a contrast between resistance and no resistance is something I’ve found profound benefits with over the past year or so. 60 yd dash times have steadily improved as I’ve found more advanced methods of contrast to train speed-based methods.
Tips
- The Release Harness is the most obvious training tool to create this effect. Go about 5-10 yards sprinting resisted before releasing and allowing for a 20-30 yard sprint at full speed.
- No harness? No problem. You can achieve a similar effect by pushing or pulling a sled as fast as possible before sprinting. Like before, release the sled after 5-10 yards and sprint without resistance for 20 yards or so.
- Don’t go too far with the resistance. Like all contrast method and post-activation potentiation effects, you don’t want to fatigue in the initial movement. Keep the initial sprint against resistance to 2-3 seconds tops to allow for a full speed sprint without fatigue.
Speed Split Squats From The Pins
Much of my knowledge as a coach is based around baseball and overhead throwers. Take a look at an efficient front leg brace by a thrower. What does the lower body resemble? An explosive split squat. Granted the actual effect of an efficient front leg when throwing isn’t so much about sliding the knee back as it is about stopping the forward momentum of the thrower and propelling that kinetic energy to the upper body. However, the mechanics of the movement are so similar that I feel it can be of great benefit to incorporate into training.
Outside of the baseball realm, many other athletes can find benefit with this exercise. Football, basketball, soccer, volleyball and many other sports all require athletes to offer generate force quickly off of one leg.
Tips
- Train through the whole speed-strength spectrum: slightly heavier to slightly lighter. The intent must always be high.
- Mix up your set up. Sometimes go in one fluid motion, stressing the stretch shortening cycle. Other times, set up in the pins and go from a dead stop before exploding up. This helps with creating the most efficient transfer of force possible.
- Watch out for anything nagging and giving you problems. For the longest time my big toe and groin would bug me when doing this exercise. I solved these issues after addressing my set up and stance in the pins. This is a tough exercise on the entire body, so make sure to monitor your entire body in the set up.
Single Leg Bounding
Similar to the last exercise, unilateral bounding exercises can have a great carryover to the athletic field. Many times the legs are working separately- one produces force while the other accepts force. Single leg strength plays a big part, but then many forget to address single leg rate of force development. Train the ability to be both strong and explosive. These jumps certainly help bridge the gap between the weight room and the field.
Tips
- Unilateral Bounding without weight is great for beginners who are looking to increase “pulling” power with sprinting.
- Add some contrast by adding in dumbbells for 2-4 jumps, release the dumbbells and notice an instant increase in speed in the following 3-5 jumps.
PAILs & RAILs
PAILs (Progressive Angular Isometric Loading) & RAILs (Regressive Angular Isometric Loading) are great ways to work on end-range of motion strength and enhance mobility. Often times people hear ‘mobility’ and think ‘flexibility’. They are not the same. Flexibility is just a position you can force your body into- not necessarily a position you can efficiently move through. The ability to be strong even through large range of motion movements is the overall concept of mobility.
Often those with more mobility have advantages over those with less mobility. Starting with the performance side, athletes with more mobility can achieve greater separation and “whip-like” action when throwing, swinging, overhead serving, etc. For example, an athlete struggling in with hip internal rotation will likely not be getting the most out of the start of their throwing motion. This break in the kinetic chain can diminish performance.
From a health perspective, many times an injury will occur at a far end-range of motion movement (think about a hockey goalie straining a groin after doing the “splits” to make a save). Handling those difficult end ranges of motion can be enhanced through PAILs & RAILs.
So enough explaining why, here is the how. First, take a stretching type movement you have seen used often. In that stretching motion, force an isometric contraction (no visible movement) in the direction of the stretch for 10 seconds. Then take a short break before isometrically contracting in the opposite direction. Go several times through this cycle.
Tips
- Take your time ramping up from 25% intensity to 100%
- Utilize many different positions- even the ones you’re not so good at!
Landmine 1 Arm Rows
I love 1 Arm Rows. Not many exercises take care of the shoulder from a strength, stability and mobility aspect like a full range of motion Row. 1 Arm Rows are a staple for my baseball player programming and can certainly fit into many athletes’ programs who to enhance shoulder health.
Landmine 1 Arm Rows create the challenge in a different fashion through adding extra grip strength. Grip strength has its importance for baseball players for helping protect the elbow structure as well as helping a bit with performance. Grip strength plays an important role in performance for football, golf, tennis and many other sports. However, doing wrist curls all day won’t get the job done completely. Heavy holds and exercises that incorporate the hands squeezing as hard as possible are the best way to incorporate grip strength into your programs. Gripping the top of a barbell with the Landmine 1 Arm Row works well too!
Tips
- Make sure to stretch and roll out out the forearms! Wrist mobility is crucial.
- Work the eccentric portion slowly to really hammer home good movement patterns with the scap.
- This is a great alternative for those who don’t have heavy dumbbells.
By no means do any of these exercises listed above have to be staples in your programs. Monotony can be a killer, though. Having plenty of other exercises in your arsenal will help when working with clients with different needs and keep them coming back for more!
Any questions on anything you read here, contact me at Billmillerbaseball@gmail.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.