The Ten Fundamental Exercises for Pitching

As a college pitcher, I have been around baseball conditioning and specifically arm care and strengthening. Pitchers all over the world stress to take care of their arms and to make sure that they are kept healthy throughout the season. There are many different exercises for different muscles all over a pitchers arm and many new ones being thought up everyday. I will help you pick the ten best exercises and drills that you can do to help condition your arm.

Squats are not usually associated with your upper body, but having a strong base is what can make you keep your energy in the last couple innings. Normally pitchers who have a weak lower body will start to get tired later on in the game and their mechanics will start to fade. To prevent injury from bad mechanics, a good lower base from squatting will help keep you energized into those long innings.

Sit-ups should be an everyday thing for any serious pitcher. A strong core, or abs, is a very easy way to boost your velocity dramatically if you are serious and do your work everyday. Crunches are the most basic work for this but there are many different ways to work your abs that can work as long as it pushes you.

Free weight bench is an excellent lift for pitchers as long as it is used in moderation. A pitcher should have a strong upper body but does not need to have bulging muscles. This lift will tone your upper body and since it is free weight, will allow you to keep some flexibility compared to that of using a bar bench press.

A drill called “Rice in a Bucket” is to strengthen the shoulder and is exactly what the title says. You pour a large amount of rice into a fairly deep bucket that is large enough to you to fit your arm in to reach your elbow. You then take your hand and plunge into the rice from just above the surface. After repeating this drill multiple times, it will greatly increase your shoulder strength and help reduce your injuries

The next drill is an old favorite of young girls, jump rope. Jumping rope is often used as exercise for children but is an excellent drill for pitchers and any position player. Jumping rope will help improve agility and coordination, which is often used to field bunts while pitching. This drill is also good to strengthen your lower body and raise your stamina.

Muscles that are commonly used while pitching are your triceps. This muscle is one that helps accelerate your arm through and is one of the primary pitching muscles. The tricep extension is a lift that you pull down on a cable to a ninety-degree angle and then slowly release up and repeat. Doing this exercise will increase velocity and stamina to your game.

An exercise that many professional pitchers do to help condition their entire body is swimming. Swimming can strengthen your upper body and lower body while leaving you lose and flexible. Swimming is an easy activity on the body and can greatly increase your arm strength. However, if you swim with improper technique then it can result in putting to much pressure on one spot and actually hurting you. So if you know they right mechanics, swimming can be a very easy and helpful activity.

One of the mot important activities a pitcher does everyday is stretching. Stretching is the most important tool to a pitcher to prevent injury. Making sure that your body is stretched out and that it is loose before you pitch is an excellent way to reduce injury and soreness. Stretching can also increase speed to your fastball because of the looser muscles.

Running is an extremely important activity that every pitcher needs to do in between his outings. The best combination of running is long distance the day after you pitch then slowly work into around one hundred yards sprints by the day before you pitch again. Long distance running the day after will help cleanse your body of lactic acid and will also add flexibility. Small amounts of sprints the day before can increase your stamina the next day during the game.

The final and most important exercise a pitcher should due daily are Jobe exercises. These exercise consist of lifting a light weight up and down with a straight arm. There are many different angles and positions that you should put your arm in while performing these exercises to help its effect. This exercise will increase the strength in your shoulder greatly and will easily add extra mph on to your fastball.

If you follow most of these easy exercises, you will notices differences in your pitching speed and your effort put into it. These exercises will help you become a better pitcher as well as keep you off the injury list.