Let’s face it; baseball players have no idea how to properly warm up before a game. Think about what you see every high school and most college teams do before games. They will usually jog one or two poles and then perform 5-10 minutes of static stretches while also bullshitting about what they did last night. I am sure these same teams still have their pitchers running poles because it will help improve endurance. It amazes me that coaches still live and die by static stretching and long distance running. They serve absolutely no benefit to becoming a better baseball player and can actually lead to injuries.
A complete warm up includes soft tissue work, basic calisthenics, mobility work, and CNS work. For the most part, I avoid static stretching because it can actually increase your risk of injury and can reduce power output. However, I have actually found that certain static stretches can actually improve mobility including: hip flexor stretch, pyriformis stretch, lat stretch, and the sleeper stretch,
What does a baseball warm up look like?
After 5-10 minutes of soft tissue work with a foam roller and lacrosse ball, my athletes perform this exact warm up. When it is nice out we will go outside and perform a movement prep which includes various forms of running, skipping and jumping. We follow this up with a few minutes of static stretching to open up the hips.
You're a f**king beast!!! I've been using a lot of the stuff on your blog and its crazy. I can see if people do it like a bitch they get nothing out of it but i been doing the tabata and its nuts. Only question is should i do it before a workout or after a workout or as the main workout that day and how many times a week? -Tom Caputo
TC,
I am glad to hear that you are using my training methods and getting good results. For those of you have not checked out the tabata method, please check it out before you read this. TC, here are my answers to your questions.
When should you use the tabata method?
You can use it at the end of a workout as a finisher. 1-3 rounds is plenty. I love to end every workout with a finisher.
You can use it as a totally separate workout. Perform 2-4 rounds for a total of 10-20 minutes.
How many times a week?
It really depends on your goals.
If you’re looking to cut body fat I would recommend strength training with compound movements 3 days per week and add in 3-4 conditioning workouts. Be careful not to do too much conditioning because it will limit your strength gains.
If your goal is to gain muscle mass, I would recommend maybe 1 conditioning workout a week. While gaining muscle mass you should be focused on taking in a ton of calories to produce muscle growth. 1 day a week won't kill you though and it will help you stay in decent shape.
I will close this post out with 3 of my favorite conditioning drills.
There will always be an ongoing debate as to whether or not baseball players, particularly pitchers, should bench press. On one side, the bench press is the king of all upper body lifts and many people believe it should be included into every athletes training program. The haters believe that the bench press is not “sport specific” and that it will eventually lead to shoulder injuries. My stance is that the bench press is a great upper body exercise for most athletes, however when it comes to baseball, the risk vs. reward is too great. There are more effective exercises that will give you a better bang for your buck. I don’t buy into the idea that the bench press isn’t “sport specific” because no exercise is truly “sport specific”. With that said, trying to imitate baseball motions, like swinging or throwing, with cable machines or other heavy objects will be detrimental to a player’s performance.
Instead of bench pressing, our athletes will perform a ton of pushups with medicine balls, chains, gymnastic rings and blast straps. They also perform dumbbell presses with neutral grips. My favorite presses for baseball players are 1 arm dumbbell presses and alternating dumbbell bench press. Pushup and dumbbell pressing variations are superior to straight bar bench pressing because they are more shoulder friendly, teach the scapular to move, activate the core more, and improve shoulder range of motion. Also pushups and dumbbell bench pressing are much less of a risk when compared to the bench press. They are much easier to learn, alleviate any shoulder problems, and you can also bump up the volume.
As power athletes, we still need to train heavy with low repetitions. To accomplish this goal we substitute max effort bench pressing with max effort chin ups. This keeps my baseball players healthy, while also getting them strong and teaching them how to handle their own bodyweight.
So does this mean that my baseball players never bench press? Not exactly, however we modify the regular bench press. Instead of using the straight bar, we will use a Swiss bar that allows the shoulders to remain neutral. This max effort movement is great for baseball players who feel like they need to bench press. In conclusion, while I believe the bench press is a great exercise for most athletes, when it comes to baseball players, there are more important training considerations to focus on.
I am looking for 10 guinea pigs to test out my new muscle building program. The 10 people who are chosen will not actually meet with me for the training sessions but instead will be provided with a 12 week program, training 4 X per week. The workouts are geared towards getting you strong as hell. I am only looking for serious inquiries so please do not email me if you are not looking to get strong as an ox or are afraid to get “too big”. This program is for the serious athlete/lifter that is dedicated to getting bigger and stronger and is looking for a serious program to get them there. It is far superior to the training programs popularized in bodybuilding magazines because those workouts are geared toward the steroid using bodybuilder and those workouts offer little to no benefits for hard gainers, athletes and the average.
Here are the minimum requirements:
You must be willing to learn and try new exercises out. If you do not plan on following this program to the T, this is NOT the program for you.
You must be healthy. Aches and pains are okay, we are all banged up from time to time, but if you are dealing with any injuries I cannot accept you.
You must read my blog on a daily basis. How do I know your reading it? My readers often connect with me and ask me questions and provide me feedback. If you do not connect with me or provide feedback, I will assume you are not reading it. This serves as an educational tool to expand your knowledge of training and understand why I do things the way I do.
You must be able to train for 12 uninterrupted weeks for at least 3 X a week.
In order to track your progress, you must be willing to take before and after pictures and you must be willing to do perform some indicator lifts to track strength progress
You must be willing to invest $50. I will be constantly connecting with you to help you along the process and make sure things are running smoothly. I will be dedicating my time to ensure that you are getting everything you need to be successful. The $50 investment is than $16/month. Remember this includes program design, nutrition and supplement design and anything needed to help you succeed.
You are participating in this program because you live too far or have some other legitimate reason why you cannot train with me in Staten Island, New York or Edison, New Jersey.
Serious inquires only! If you are interested, email me at megliofitness@gmail.com . Please include your name, age, and a brief background on your training history and 100 words on why I should choose you. I will only be accepting 10 guinea pigs for this new program and all decisions will be made by April 30. Those who are selected will be notified by April 30.
Today was a great day. At 2 o’clock I trained my newest athlete, Billy Winters, and he didn’t disappoint. He trained his ass off and even was ballsy enough to come back for round 2 tonight for some crazy conditioning. From 4-8 I did some serious coaching and was able to get in a quick training session in as well. Since I have been in season I have been training full body lifts, 2-3 days per week. A lot of people say don’t train heavy in season. I say screw that. In order to maintain levels of maximal strength I think you need to train heavy in season. With that said, I hit a personal record on the trap bar deadlift tonight, 585lbs on the low handles. This is a great accomplishment for me because in the off season I hit 585 but on the high handles.
This just goes to show that strength is a skill. You must constantly work at it to get stronger. Since I am in season I have been deadlifting more than usual to give my knees a break. For those of you that don’t know, I am a catcher and while I never have had any knee problems, I don’t plan on getting any in the near future. Every time I deadlift, my technique improves and I get use to handling heavier loads. This is what everyone should strive for because the only way to get stronger is to add weight to the bar!
This brings me to my next point- you should always track your records and have goals in mind. Keep these goals realistic and small. If you deadlift 300 lbs, your goal should not be to deadlift 400 lbs. instead, it should be to hit 305 and so on. Constant progression is the key to success! Each week you should strive to hit some sort of personal record in your indicator lift. In addition to breaking records by pumping out a heavier weight, records can also be set by doing an extra rep or more volume. For example, if last week you benched 275 for 5 reps and this week you hit 275 for 6 or 7 reps, this is a new personal record. Keep in mind that you will not break records every week. It’s just the nature of the beast but do your best to constantly progress slowly.
Meglio Fitness would like to welcome its newest athlete, Bill Winters. I am very excited to have Bill join our team for many reasons. Aside from being a friend of mine for 3 years now, Bill is one of the hardest working athletes I know and represents the type of athlete I accept into my program. Bill was the four year starting quarterback for Fairleigh Dickinson University and is now playing professional football for the New Jersey Revolution in the AIFA (American Indoor Football Association).
Bill owns every strength record for quarterbacks in school history. He has squatted 500 pounds and benched 385 pounds. He has also hit 24 reps on the 225 bench press test and has ran a 4.58 40 yard dash. As a quarterback he owns nearly every school record in history including rushing touchdowns in a season. He is the school's all-time leader in the following categories: all-time passing yards, all-time attempts, all-time completions, all-time completion percentage, and passing touchdowns. I am the single-season record holder for: passing attempts, passing completions, completion percentage ( 1 and 2 ), and rushing touchdowns. I also own single game records of passing touchdowns as well as rushing touchdowns (4). HE was The Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) player of the week a handful of times throughout my career as well as ECAC Southeast Player of the Week. This past season he was also featured on d3football.com . This season he was an all conference selection as well as the team MVP for the second consecutive season (Offensive Player of the year 3 years in a row).
Bill has obviously accomplished a lot over his four year career at FDU. I look forward to working with him and turning him from an absolute beast into a mutant of an athlete. I will be sure to update you with his progress in the weight room and on the gridiron.
Joe Meglio helps athletes improve their athletic performance by teaching them how to properly train their bodies.This results driven business is where like minded athletes come together to become bigger, faster, stronger and more explosive...
