Last week, we spoke about the importance of core strength and how it helps protect the spine from injury and helps transfer force from the lower body to the upper body.
We also spoke about how many baseball players mistakenly overwork the lower back with core exercises like Sit-Ups, Side Bends and Russian Twists, which have very little carryover for baseball performance and can even cause pain and injury to the lower back.
Instead, your workout should focus on stabilization exercises that force core muscles to resist movement. This helps strengthen the connection between the upper and lower body. These core-specific exercises will improve throwing and hitting power—and help your core maintain control of your body during explosive hitting and throwing motions (which protects the spine).
Anti-Extension Exercises:
The goal of these exercises are to prevent the lower back from overarching. By avoiding extension at the lower back, you will reduce stress on the spine and help transfer force more effectively. Anti-Extension exercises will also teach your spine proper position in key exercises like squats & deadlifts. There are many different anti-extension exercise variations we use at GameChanger, ranging from front planks to ab wheel rollouts.
Anti-Lateral Flexion Exercises:
The goal of these exercises are to prevent excessive stress on the lower back when bending side to side. These exercises strengthen the obliques which play a critical role during swinging and throwing movements.
Anti-Rotation:
The goal of these exercises are to build a strong connection between the lower and upper body to ensure power is transferred efficiently from the legs to the core to the arms. If you cannot maintain proper stiffness in your core while performing rotational movements – like throwing or swinging, you will compensate at your lower back. This may lead to back pain over time.
At GameChanger we focus on these baseball-specific core training stabilization exercises, in addition to our rotational medicine ball throws, to increase velocity & hitting power.
All the best,
Joe Meglio
P.S If you’re interested in increasing your velocity & bat speed, CLICK HERE for details about our 8-Week Bat Speed & Velocity program. Spots are limited to the first 15 25 baseball players.
