In order to be a competitive pitcher, you must have excellent full-body strength, mobility and power. While practicing pitching can help to improve your technique, if you really want to develop as a pitcher, you should include weight training in your program. According to strength coach Mike Boyle, sports are played using the body as whole, so stick to full-body workouts based around free weight compound exercises performed standing up, as these will be most functional for improving your pitching.
Pushups
While it may be tempting to begin your training session with a barbell bench or overhead press, according to strength coach and baseball trainer Eric Cressey, these exercises, and any other which put the shoulder joint in a vulnerable position, should be avoided by pitchers if you wish to keep your shoulders healthy. Perform three sets of 15 pushups to begin your workout. If you find regular pushups too easy, then you can increase the difficulty in a number of ways. Try using gymnastic rings, a weighted vest or doing medicine ball and single arm pushups. All of these are great for improving your upper body strength.
Dumbbell Rows
After pushups, move on to dumbbell rows. It is important that for every pushing exercise that you do, you balance it out with a pulling exercise, as this will help you to maintain strong shoulders and good posture. Dumbbell rows are an ideal pulling exercise, as they stress your rhomboids, latissimus dorsi, trapezius and biceps muscles. Do five sets of 12 repetitions per arm, and increase the weight when you can comfortably complete all five sets with perfect technique.
Pallof Press
The Pallof press trains all the functions of your core muscles and is highly applicable for pitching, as you stand in a very similar stance to perform it as you would do on the mound. Stand next to a cable machine, and hold the handle attachment in both hands. Take a big step out so that you are about 5 feet away from the machine, and hold the handle in front of your abdominals. Press the cable straight out in front of you, and hold it there for two seconds, while trying not to move any other part of your body, then bring you hands back in to your body. Perform three sets of eight repetitions on each side.
Dumbbell Lunges
Stand with your feet together and a dumbbell in each hand. Step your left leg forward 2 feet and plant it firmly on the floor. Slowly bend both knees until they are at 90 degrees and your right leg is about 2 inches from the floor, while keeping your torso and head straight, then forcefully push back up to your starting position. Do four sets of 10 repetitions on each leg. According to trainer Mike Robertson, single leg exercises like lunges are great for helping to strengthen the structures around the knee and ankle joints which are put under high amounts of pressure in sporting activities such as pitching.
Frequency, Time and Extras
Perform this workout twice per week, preferably with at least a day or two of rest between sessions. Aim to complete it in about 45 minutes, and spend 10 minutes warming up before the session and the same cooling down afterward. If you feel the need to add in extra exercises to help your pitching, such as external shoulder rotations, face pulls or more core work, then do so, but make sure you still do the four main exercises with enough intensity.
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