A baseball player's training program should supply power and explosiveness for hitting, strength for throwing, speed for running, and quickness and agility for playing the field. An ideal workout will incorporate a variety of exercises to address all of those areas. Your training should peak in the off-season, allowing you to use the season for maintenance.
Leg Exercises
The squat is an all-encompassing lower-body exercise that helps you develop the base of power you need for hitting, running and pitching. Since you are trying to build strength, rather than muscle mass as a bodybuilder would do, use heavier weights that allow you to do three sets of six to eight repetitions. You can substitute leg presses if you want to take a break from squats. Leg curls and calf raises are other viable exercises in a baseball training program. As the season approaches, you will want to shift from working out for strength to working out for functional explosiveness. At that point, instead of the standard barbell squat, do dumbbell squats in a combination exercise with alternating shoulder presses -- three sets of 10 repetitions.
Core Exercises
Your core muscles, especially your abs, obliques, hips and glutes, allow you to rotate your torso as you swing the bat and also help your agility and quickness when running or in the field. Weighted crunches, three sets of 15 repetitions, are an option for muscle strength training. In plyometrics training, medicine ball exercises such as reverse curls and side throws, three sets of 10 repetitions, are effective. Hanging knee raises target your lower abdominal muscles.
Upper-Body Exercises
You use the muscles in your upper back and shoulders to swing a bat, so honing those muscles is crucial. Barbell or dumbbell shoulder presses and dumbbell shoulder raises, along with wide-grip lat pulldowns for the back, work those muscles directly. Also, incorporate the bench press for its potency as an all-around strength-building exercise for the upper body. Plyometric push-ups are an effective upper-body exercise. In this variation of the standard push-up, explode upward so your hands leave the ground.
Cardio Exercises
The main reason for doing cardio work is to improve the sprinting ability you need to run the bases and chase down balls in the outfield. Interval training on a treadmill or elliptical is a way to increase your sprinting capacity. In interval training, you go all-out for a period of 30 to 60 seconds, slow to a moderate pace for a period that lasts about twice as long as the all-out interval, then repeat over the course of a 20- to 30-minute workout.
You also can practice sprinting on a track or field, dashing the length of a football field or a quarter-mile on a track, both of which are slightly longer than the distance from first base to home plate. Repeat the sprint as often as you can in 20 minutes, resting for a minute or so between sets.
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