As we have already mentioned in other articles, a baseball player needs to have a lot of core strength. Indeed, some would say that this is the most important kind of strength for baseball because the game involves so much twisting and bending of the trunk. When you wind up for a pitch or a hit, you are almost always twisting your trunk like a spring and then letting the spring go at the right moment. So, if we are going to think of our upper body as a spring, it becomes very important to make sure that the spring is made of the best steel. And how do you temper steel? By getting it red-hot, of course!
Why Does A Baseball Player Need To Do Push-Ups?
A baseball player can greatly benefit from doing various kinds of push-ups. However, you don’t want to do the standard push-up in most cases. The standard push-up puts a lot of stress on the shoulder, and that can be a problem from a baseball training perspective. Baseball already puts a lot of strain on the shoulders, to begin with, so you don’t want to make things any worse.
A baseball push-up should be done with your hands directly under your shoulders. They should not forward of the shoulders, nor should they be spread wide. You also want to turn your arms slightly inward and forward. By doing this, we take some of the strain off the shoulder and put it on the bicep. Since baseball does not use the bicep very much, this is a good area to absorb the extra load.
A baseball push-up is meant to increase the power of your arms and core, and to increase the coordination between the two. This exercise also promotes good posture because it forces you to flex the muscles of the core in order to keep the lower back from bending. And that brings us to our key point: Baseball players need push-ups because it has always been one of the best ways to improve core strength.
The Baseball Push-Up Workout
Here is a workout composed of several push-up variations, and geared specifically toward baseball players. You might find it to be helpful when you need to isolate the upper body and core in a time-efficient and effective way. We will leave it up to you to determine how many sets and reps you will do of each variation, but we would advise you to avoid the temptation to get lazy. We’re going easy on you today, so don’t make us regret that!
Variation 1: The Traditional Push-Up
This one has already been explained. The person in the video linked above is doing a normal and traditional push-up using the methods described above, except for one little thing: He’s got a heavy chain on his back. If you are advanced enough to feel comfortable with it, you might want to try the same thing.
Variation 2: Triangle Push-Ups
The distinctive feature of this push-up is the spacing of the hands. Instead of using a shoulder-width grip as you normally would, you bring your hands together so that the thumbs and forefingers touch together and form a triangle.
While this one is a little harder on the joints, there are several reasons that it has been included. The biggest of these is the exceptional level of triceps burn that is provided by this variation. While the triceps aren’t one of the most important muscle groups for baseball, they also shouldn’t be neglected. Thus, it is good to have an exercise that works the triceps while also working one of your primary targets (the shoulders) at the same time.
Variation 3: Three-Point Push-Ups
There isn’t a whole lot to say about this variation. It’s just like a traditional push-up, except that one leg is extended. Normally, a person has four points of contact when doing a push-up, but this one reduces it to three. If you understand physics at all, you know that this puts a greater strain on the other three points. Thus, it’s a great way of making the traditional push-up just a little more of a challenge.
Variation 4: Inclined Medicine Ball Push-Ups
this is another simple variation that requires little explanation. You do your push-ups as before, but this time you put both your hands on a medicine ball. If it is a standard-size ball, this will place your body in an upward incline position. Thus, it will work different muscles as compared to the standard version.
Variation 5: Handstand Push-Ups
This is easily one of the most impressive and intimidating push-up variations. Some people call it an inverted push-up because you are doing the motion upside-down. Wrist strength and flexibility are very important for this exercise and should be developed a little bit before beginning. Another easier variation is to do a front handspring and end with your feet against a wall. This allows you to push against the wall for a little extra balance and control, but the push-up is still just as difficult as ever. This one is a little more hardcore than the others, so we recommend that you be careful here.
Conclusion
By using a combination of these five variations, you should have no problem reaping the benefits of a push-up workout. This will allow you to focus on the strength of your core and arms more than anything else, and that is what a top-level baseball player needs in order to perform at the top of their game.
At the same time, we wouldn’t recommend this as a long-term workout plan. Focusing on any one thing for too long can be problematic, so use this as a boost workout rather than an everyday workout. If you would like to boost us a little bit, we hope that you will follow us on Facebook using the link below.
The post Push-ups To Improve Your Baseball Skills appeared first on Gaspari Nutrition.