Hey everyone,

I was wondering if you guys could comment on my summer lifting plan, which is based on the heavy portion of my HS team's winter lifting program. This will be done three times a week and will consist of two chest exercises, four back exercises, three shoulder exercises, three leg exercises chosen from a list of twenty total exercises. In addition, I will be doing three auxiliary lifts, a series of rotator cuff exercises (about 12), and core strength drills. I greatly appreciate your input and suggestions.

EDIT: Workout will be four sets of each, going from 5 reps to 4 reps to 3 reps to muscular failure. Weight will start at 80% of 1 rep max, going up in increments of 5% all the way to 95%.


Chest (2):

Flat Bench
Incline Bench
DB/Machine Flies
DB Flat Bench
DB Pullover

Back (4):

Back Lat Pulldown
Wide Grip Lat Pulldown
Neutral Grip Lat Pulldown
Machine Rows
Decline Pull

Shoulder (3):

Hang Power Clean
BB Power Pull
Rear Delt Raise
Shrugs
DB Shoulder Press

Legs (3):

Squat
Dead Lift (Trap Bar)
DB Lunge
BB Step Ups
Calf Raises

Auxiliary (all)

DB Wrist Curls
Reverse Wrist Curls
Tricep Rope Pulldown

Revised Goal: To add lean muscle mass (5-10 lbs a reasonable goal?) all while increasing muscular strength and maintaining quickness.

Oh and before I forget, a few quick protein questions:
1. Answered
2. How much protein should I be taking on non-lifting days?
3. Answered
4. Answered

I think that's all for now. Once again, thank you for any and all of your input.

- Shoestring44

The EAS stuff is good...nice and cheap. From everything I have ever read and from my experience, you should shoot for one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Divide your portions evenly and spread them out throughout the day...you should be eating 5 times a day (chicken is great for this). You should eat that much protein every day.

Also, are you doing any plyometrics and sprinting? Also, what position do you play?

quote:

you should shoot for one gram of protein per pound of body weight.

Actually it'd be just over a gram of protein for every kilogram of body weight. 1.2-1.3 grams per kg (body wgt) per day.

Weight in pounds divided by 2.2 equals weight in kilograms.

I agree..as a 185 lb player, I shot for between 185 and 200 grams of protein. What I did was precook a whole lot of chicken (eat it throughout the week) because it gives you a lot of convenient protein without a lot of fat. The protein shakes are also great.

Before we can say more about your workout, we would need to more about your goals for lifting (getting bigger vs. getting faster).

I am a P/OF (mostly OF), and as of right now I am looking at sprinting either on non lifting days or before I start working, but since speed isn't really a problem for me, my overall goal is to essentially get bigger as I am only 5'10 140 right now. As for plyos, I'm not entirely sure if I can get access to those over the summer. Thanks again guys.

Shoestring: Plyos are numerous things that you can do with no equipment. Make sure as you add body weight, you do not slow down.

You also want to make sure your strength is getting much bigger compared with the weight you are putting on.

Honestly, "getting bigger" isn't a good goal. Let's say right now you are 140 lbs. Your goal should be to squat 2-3 times that weight...bench 1.5-2 times that weight, etc. You want to be as strong per pound of body weight as you can be, so if you put on 20 pounds of body weight, you need to be able to squat atleast 60 more pounds to maintain the same percentage of strength.

As you get stronger, your muscles have to get bigger, thus adding weight. Usually, when a person tries to add weight, they put on a lot of fat or water weight, and that actually takes away from their ultimate goal of being a better baseball player.

Seems like a lot of volume to me. And I do not see where reps/sets are varied.

There are some good things, as there are compound movements, but I'd like to see the isolation exercises dropped.

The Power hang clean is not a shoulde rexercise. Rather it's a posterior chain exercise - hamstrings, glutes and back.

EAS protein is not what it used to be. The 6 pound bags digest very poorly. I would not suggest that brand.

You want to get as much protein from real food as possible. You don't need 1 gram per lb of body weight. Typically 1 gram per pound of Lean Body Mass is more than enough during heavy training cycles.

Jon: Two questions,

(1) Just to double check before I change anything, the isolation exercises to be removed would be the following: calf raises and the auxiliary lifts (I think I'm missing a few more)?

(2) What protein brand would you suggest?

Oh, and if there is anything you guys need/would like to know so you guys can help me more, don't hesitate to ask. Thanks again for your input.

I wouldn't get rid of your auxillary lifts because two of those are your forearms. Strong wrists and forearms are needed. Also, I would consider buying a bucket and filling it with rice. I don't know if you are familiar with this, but a rice bucket is a great way to strengthen your hands.

I would still recommend the EAS brand. IMO protein is protein and EAS is fairly cheap.

If you don't like that, BSN makes a great tasting protein called Syntha. It is BY FAR the best tasting stuff on the market.

Yes, DB flyes, pullovers, calf raises...

As far as protein, it does absolutely no good if you do not digest the protein. Cheap protein is just that, cheap. Most of Optimum proteins are good and relatively inexpensive. Best protein on the market is ProtoWhey. Again, the 6 pound EAS bags is the lowest quality protein they sell. Most do not understand this. Every product by 1 company does not necessarily contain the same grade as the others.

As far as wrist exercises, you get a strong grip by doing cleans, deadlifts, pullups, rows. While wrist curls are fine, they will do very little for basebal performance or grip you can actually use. Try a bar hang or rope climbs. If you want a killer grip do towel chins.

I know several very good trainers (college and professional) that say making sure you get the protein is more important than the quality. Not every person can afford the "best" protein. Again, ProtoWhey is what you believe is the best protein, that is not a fact! I have used EAS, along with others for a while with great results. Us poor college kids have to do what we can and top of the line supplements were at times not possible.

There are many different things you can do for wrist strength...just walking around a room gripping a 45 pound weight is great. Again, the rice bucket is a great tool for hand/forearm strength. It's cheap to make one and it will last for many many years.

Shoestring: There is no one right answer when it comes to lifting weights and training. If I were you, I would go research what somebody like Mark Verstegen advocates for sports training. You have to research different things and find out what works best for you.

Actually, there are study's that show whey hydrosylates, are, in fact, superior to other forms of proteins in many regards. So please do your research before making a statement.

Quantity, is in no way more important than quality. I highly doubt any good trainer would say this.

In fact, if you take in to much protein on a consistent basis, not only will you devlop an allergic reaction to it, but your body will actually become less effecient at processing and utilizing protein.

I share what I do with my college and professional athletes. That's it. It's up to each individual to choose what they do. Not sure why you are so quick to get defensive.

Jon: I have been around some of the best trainers in college baseball and am just relaying what I have heard. I am not being defensive, I am just stating what I have been taught...again, I am not stating I have done all of the research, etc., just going off what has worked for me and other college and pro athletes.

I hear you. In reference to proteins, companies quality changes quite often. For exmaple, raw material costs for whey have almost quadrupled over the last 2 years. These prices have not been reflected in retail costs, so the product ends up being cut and of worse quality.

Today's product may or may not be the same as it was just a few years ago.

Bulk whey will "work" per-say, but in no way is it a high quality protein.

Once one has the chance to see the difference quality of protein make in recovery, they would never go back to using bulk whey/protein. I am fortunate to be able to see this in my everyday work with the highest level athletes in the world.

Jon: I agree that high quality protein is much better than bulk. My point was not everyone has the funds for high quality and bulk is better than nothing.

I have used high quality protein and it is definitely great stuff. No questioning that here.

Alright, thanks again for your help guys.

Any thoughts on Whey-to-go?

Muscle Milk has worked for me,and I have taken their protein for almost 2 years

Not sure about Whey-to-go...link?

There are so many proteins now. They all come from the same few raw distributors. It all depends on what the company does to the end product.

MuscleMilk is solid.

Whey to go is made by Solgar

http://www.solgar.com/Products/Amino-Acids-and-Protein/Protein.aspx

It has been around at least a decade.

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