I would like to get some ideas of what types of baseball specific workouts for core strength and functional baseball strength could be done with absolutely no access to equipment. Although it doesn't really apply to me, I'm sure some folks face situations where they don't have access to any equipment, and I was thinking this may be a worthwhile topic.

Let's assume that a player has access to absolutely no equipment (no weights, no medicine balls, no plyo boxes, etc.). In other words, I guess their only workout "tool" would be their body weight.

As an aside, how about some ideas as to some homemade equipment that could be put to use. Here, I'm talking about things such as family size soup cans for Jobe exercises, a broom handle sitting across the bottom rung of two chairs rather than hurdles, etc.

Hopefully there are some folks on these boards that will benefit from a discussion such as this.

You can easily tape an agility ladder to the garage or basement floor.

Gallon milk jugs filled with water weigh just over 8 lbs.

You can also Google body weight exercises for more ideas.

Your best bet would be to do exercises such as burpees, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, shuffle splits, etc as conditioning work.

Then things around the house such as wheelbarrow walks, keg throws (ok these may not be around the house but you can get for free!) and tire flips (again can get for free) along with a variety of outdoor activities would be best suited to train body effectively. This type of training is fun and effective!

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Originally posted by Jon Doyle:
Your best bet would be to do exercises such as burpees, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, shuffle splits, etc as conditioning work.

I can vouch for these exercises. They kick you in your butt but you will also realize that you are training effectively. The best part is that you can do them pretty much anywhere at anytime. You don't necessarily need a gym membership to get stronger.

The NPA has a video titled Fitness On The Field that describes a bunch of exercises that can be done on the field using body weight. Some also use a wall or chain link fence.

House also has a book titles Fit To Pitch that I believe also describes similar exercises.

Jon you have a PM

quote:

Originally posted by Jon Doyle:

Then things around the house such as wheelbarrow walks, keg throws (ok these may not be around the house but you can get for free!) and tire flips (again can get for free) along with a variety of outdoor activities would be best suited to train body effectively. This type of training is fun and effective!

This sounds like that ESPN "Worlds Strongest Man" that show is amazing.

But i have one suggestion 8 Count Body Builders. Man i remember my feshman year at the first practice of high school i got caught talking while the coach was (never done it since) but i had to do these for 10 mins. It was freakin tough. It was a punishment for a stupid move. But 8 Counts and Static Holds are really really good.

i know someone who tore a rotator cuff doing tire flips. also someone who crushed a foot with the keg throws...this case it was a salt barrel.

be careful with those shoulder joints. a standard MRI for a teen-age baseball player (one who has been playing since early days (4-5)) will generally show some damage and illicit a response from the orthopeadic doctor to consider another sport although I'm sure you've all heard that from the orthopaedist before.

Check out Pushing Yourself to Power by John E. Peterson. Its an entire book on body weight workouts.

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know someone who tore a rotator cuff doing tire flips. also someone who crushed a foot with the keg throws...this case it was a salt barrel.

I've never seen a torn RC from tire flips. In fact, I consider it very safe and there is almost zero learning curve. But as with anything else, including walking down the street, there is an injury risk.

Instead of keg throws, how about using sand bags? They are fairly cheap to make and if you drop it on your foot, there is much less chance for breaking. Take play sand, place in one or two layers of heavy duty trash bags that are well secured by tying and duct tape - place in a duffle bag and secure that by tying off with rope and duct tape that.

Tim Robertson

quote:

Originally posted by Jon Doyle:

quote:

know someone who tore a rotator cuff doing tire flips. also someone who crushed a foot with the keg throws...this case it was a salt barrel.

I've never seen a torn RC from tire flips. In fact, I consider it very safe and there is almost zero learning curve. But as with anything else, including walking down the street, there is an injury risk.

it was from a local strongest man competition...tore something in shoulder and i thought they said Rotator Cuff. Labrum might have also been said but it's been 12 years or so and I forget...and then a coach got suspended (baseball) for letting players make up exercises with items laying around the baseball field barn area and a kid got hurt (shoulder) throwing tires. (the latter NOT being supervised by adults).... at least not properly.

Sand bags are great. But they are different than kegs. Both are safe when used properly. As mentioned above, you can get hurt using anything - or nothing at all