PTJ Sep Oct 2010.pdf

feature
about the
AUTHOR
David J. Szymanski,
PhD, CSCS,*D, is an
Assistant Professor of
exercise physiology,
Director of the Applied
Physiology Laboratory,
and the Head Strength
& Conditioning Coach
for the Baseball
team at Louisiana
Tech University.
Dr. Szymanski is a
Certified Strength and
Conditioning Specialist
with Distinction and
a Registered Coach
with the NSCA. In
1997, he was apart of
the Auburn baseball
team that went to
the NCAA College
World Series. Before
attending Auburn
University, where he
earned a doctorate in
exercise physiology,
Dr. Szymanski was
the Assistant Baseball
Coach and Weight
Room Director at Texas
Lutheran University for
5 years. His primary
research has focused
on ways to improve
baseball performance.
Dr. Szymanski can
be contacted at
dszyman@latech.edu.
General, Special, and
Specific Core Training
for Baseball Players
David J. Szymanski, PhD, CSCS,*D
When conditioning baseball players, the importance of
core training and its effect on improving performance
should be emphasized. Core training predominantly
consists of torso or trunk (rectus abdominus, external
obliques, internal obliques, and transverse abdominus)
training, but also includes the stabilizing muscles of the
hips, lumbar, thoracic, and cervical spine. When designing
a baseball-specific core exercise program, a variety of
exercises requiring the athlete to move dynamically in all
three planes (frontal, sagittal, and transverse) of human
movement should be included. Frontal plane movements
involve lateral flexion and bending on both sides of the
body. Sagittal plane movements involve flexion and extension
of the trunk in forward and backward movements.
Transverse plane movements involve rotation or twisting
on both sides of the body.
Baseball movements occur through sequential, coordinated
muscle contractions that require timing and balance.
The system by which this occurs is called the kinetic
link. If the multi-planar human movements are not coordinated
to allow the forces generated from the lower
body to be transferred through the torso to the arms, then
baseball performance (hitting and throwing) will not be
optimal. It is often said that the weak link in the human
body is the torso since it may not be trained properly, or
sport-specifically. If training for the torso is not geared at
developing core strength and power in hitting and throwing,
a player’s performance may not be optimal and there
may be a greater likelihood of sustaining an injury. Torso
contributions are vital for both the execution of high bat
swing and throwing velocities, and for improving bat
swing and throwing velocities within individual players.
Thus, enhancing core performance utilizing strength and
power training should maintain and may even improve
bat swing and throwing velocities depending on the maturation,
initial strength, resistance training experience,
and baseball skills of individual players.
core training
There are four different phases of an annual periodized
program. They are off-season, preseason, in-season, and
active rest. Off-season and preseason core training will be
addressed in this article for the baseball player. In order
to improve core performance, strength training professionals
can implement general, special, and specific exercises
into a progressive periodized program. Progression
means incorporating movements from simple to complex,
known to unknown, low force to high force, static to
dynamic, lying to sitting, kneeling to standing, and on two
legs to standing on one leg.
General core exercises would be traditional abdominal,
oblique, lower back exercises, pillar bridges, and some
lower body multi-joint exercises. Traditional trunk exercises
are routinely performed slowly with greater volume
during the off-season when athletes are attempting to
develop core muscular endurance and hypertrophy. As
the off-season progresses towards the preseason, traditional
trunk exercises are performed with resistance to
develop muscular strength. Pillar bridge exercises require
an athlete to isometrically stabilize the trunk in prone or
lateral positions. Furthermore, multi-joint resistance training
exercises such as the squat, good mornings and deadlifts
can improve core strength. The activation of trunk
muscles while executing a squat or deadlift exercise may
be greater or equal to is the activation produced during
stability ball exercises. Stability exercises, such as pillar
bridges, may not need to be performed if athletes are
squatting and deadlifting with loads greater than 80% of
their 1-repetition maximum. An example of the first two
weeks of a six-week general trunk exercise program can
be found in Table 1. An example of the first two weeks of
a six-week general weighted trunk exercise program can
be found in Table 2.
nsca’s performance training journal • www.nsca-lift.org • volume 9 issue 5 13