15 Great Exercises to Increase Power for Baseball Players

Baseball is a full-body sport and a game of power. Power can be seen as the ability to be explosive or the rate of doing work. In the game of baseball, power and performance are closely linked. Baseball players need a lot of power for throwing, hitting, base stealing, as well as fielding.

In addition to these, research from OnBase University shows that in order to be a successful baseball player, you have to control your upright posture, interact with the ground, control your core, control your arm, and stride 65% of your height. Exercises for baseball players have to address all the muscles and only the best performance and strength-training coaches should create and monitor the exercise plans.

Here are 15 great exercises that can help baseball players to increase power:

1. Kettlebell swings. This involves a complete body movement that helps to build your strength. It requires power, endurance, and speed. In this form of exercise, the power of the jump is used to propel the weight.
2. Band resisted broad jumps. This kind of exercise involves adding bands to your broad jumps in order to increase your force production. Most of the time, broad jumps are tested in gyms, athlete intake, and combines. These jumps make use of a great measure of pure power output.
3. Trap bar jumps. This form of exercise is often performed with low weight to achieve peak power. Using the trap bar brings the weight closer to one’s center of mass, with the arms down by the sides and placed in a neutral position. When too much load is used, the velocity will drop, thereby defeating the purpose of the lift.
4. Weighted seated vertical jumps. This exercise is almost like trap bar jumps, but it is important to choose a weight that will not slow you down too much. When doing this, do not start while seated on a box, so you can provide all the power on the way up.
5. Pivot lunge/pivot clean. This exercise helps train your leg strength and control over momentum, which you will need while pitching. You have to first master the skill with the pivot lunge before you move on to the pivot clean. After learning both, you can combine them in a set. For instance, you can do pivot lunges for the first five reps, and another five for the pivot cleans, and then switch sides. You can use a dumbbell for the lunges, but the kettlebell is preferable.
6. Offset kettlebell front squat. This exercise is quite challenging but you will get high muscle stress with low joint stress. You will get a challenge to scapular stability on the side holding the kettlebell, more so as the bell gets heavy. This squat version gives contralateral stability challenges in the frontal plane for the core and hips.
7. Dynamic rows. You will have to be in a hinge position and this challenges the posterior chain. More so, your torso’s rotation will be accelerated and decelerated bilaterally while you are maintaining the hinge. The rotator cuff and scapular stabilizers are also forced to work quickly.
8. Prone planks. Baseball players need this exercise. It builds stability and a strong core. It also helps in balancing and increases the strength of the overall body. Planks are great for the back and hips, because of the way they work more muscles than the abdominals. According to research carried out by Cortell-Tormo, when one has a posterior pelvic tilt and scapular adduction, the overall core activation will be increased.
9. Medicine ball overhead stomp. This exercise mimics the power necessary to produce ground power. Pitchers and players need it on the field to generate the extra power they need to get the ball to a base.
10. Standing trunk rotation. Rotation is one of the biggest goals for baseball players as it is done during pitching, batting, and throwing.  This exercise can be done with a bar, medicine ball, barbell, or resistance band. When carrying this exercise out, move the upper spine without twisting from the lumbar spine. This will increase lumbar stress. If the rotational movement is poor, there will be no power, and you will get shoulder injuries and back pain.
11. Sprinter starts. To do this exercise, you have to start in a pushup position and extend your elbows. While in this position, fire your legs explosively, using your arms for momentum, then sprint forward 10 yards. As you run, ensure you drive your feet hard into the ground in a piston-like motion. Take a 30-second rest and repeat for five reps. The purpose of this exercise for baseball players is to improve acceleration which is important when sprinting out of the batter’s box, running down balls in the outfield, or going from first to third.
12. Lateral bound. While standing, balance on the right leg and keep the left foot on the ground. Slightly squat with your right leg and jump laterally with the leg and glutes. Then extend with your ankle, knee, and hip, then land on only the opposite leg, while maintaining your balance. Repeat this to the other side. Hold per side for a count of three. Do ten on each side. This exercise is great for building explosive lateral power in your legs, necessary when fielding and on the bases.
13. Cossack squat. This exercise challenges core stabilization while doing a full range of motion at the hips, knees, and ankles. When a kettlebell is used, it increases the core’s intensity and scapular stabilization, while bulletproofing the lower body.
14. Turkish get up. Baseball players need this exercise for a staple core strength and mobility of the hip and shoulder. The Turkish get-up is a challenging movement requiring the utmost ability to stabilize the scapulae, spine, and shoulder joints under load. This is done while allowing movement and mobility in the hips, knees, shoulders, and other parts of the body.
15. Single arm snatch. In this fundamental power movement exercise, you will need to have sound hip and shoulder stabilization while having an explosive hip and knee extension. The movements are similar to those in weightlifting and functional fitness competitions. The benefits this exercise offers include total body stabilization, strength, and unilateral movement training.

Conclusion

Baseballers and other athletes will find the 15 exercises provided here very useful. They can be used to increase the power of baseball players, while also promoting better movement, challenging strength, improving muscular balance and symmetry, and conditioning capacities. However, these benefits cannot be enjoyed if you are not using the best sports supplies and products provided by the Bat Critic website.