I was asked the other day by one of my athletes what the ideal body mass was for helping his performance. Now, this could be answered a number of ways.
According to “Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning” the text for the NSCA-CSCS, this individual should present with 11-13% body fat being a baseball player. This will put him in the leaner than average category, but it doesn’t really define what position he plays. This is based off normative data that a sample of baseball players who are considered to be a good representation of all baseball players present as. I don’t think I would argue much. However, you’re going to see a wide spectrum of body composition across the sport.
Some research looks to see how body fat% has an impact on performance. Items like agility tests and sprint tests are the items in question. In terms of performance markers for the sport, I think that they are a decent representation. Assuming that the quality of the research was acceptable (few are), it almost seems like common sense that the more body fat I carry, the slower I will be. Again, not really a good reflection of position.
Some other research was actually done to reflect positions in baseball. That was cool to look at. Finally something objective to the actual position with a large enough sample size to rule out error. And…short stops are leaner than everyone (roughly 11%), pitchers are fatter (14.4%). Now we’re getting somewhere with this. Even if the research was exclusive to minor league baseball.
Another research article pointed to the direct relationship of body weight and velocity in pitchers. So now we have a reason for pitchers to think big. But that doesn’t necessarily mean to pack on the fat.
Anecdotally, if this baseball player is a pitcher and is working hard in his offseason training, he will be getting stronger which in turn will lay the foundation for him to also become more powerful. Once January hits and he is in the cages pitching, he should see a nice improvement in his velocity. At the end of the day that is what we are trying to accomplish with a pitcher. Maybe his body fat% is hovering the 11-13% range, maybe it’s 20%, or maybe it’s 8% which has been reported by some as the standard.
Bottom line is, eat a diet centered around whole foods making sure to get enough food to stay in an anabolic range when recovering. Get plenty of sleep keeping in mind that those hours of sleep before midnight are much more valuable and we should be aiming for 8 uninterrupted hours. Put the time in the gym! Don’t sign up for 4 days per week and make excuses as to why you make it 1-2 times. The gym should be exciting and a grind all at the same time.
We are 3 weeks into our baseball offseason training program and it’s going great! If you have any questions please feel free to reach out.
When I think of my hockey, football, and rugby athletes I think of performing the Olympic lifts and loading them up to fairly high intensities. The reason for this is to help the athletes absorb force as well as produce a lot of force in an instant to get the bar moving. I will usually use Olympic lifts with my other athletes as well–baseball excluded mostly–but to a much less degree. I like to spend my weekend evenings sifting through peer reviewed articles and I have been able to find some interesting statistics. Mostly that you only need roughly 40% of someones 1RM, or 1 repetition max, to help develop power. That’s particularly nice for my non-contact athletes who don’t necessarily see the value of a heavy hang clean.
For those athletes who have contraindications to Olympic lifting, or are baseball players, we have a number of other options that we can use. Most simply, I like to use jump squats with either a weighted vest or dumbbells. My next go-to would be the kettlebell swing varieties. It helps to teach extension of the hips and knees in an explosive manner and it does well to keep most athletes in neutral. I have also programmed things like RFE split squat jumps (RFE=rear foot elevated), split squat jumps, single leg jumps on a box/bench, and landmine push presses. I feel that these different options help to reinforce the triple extension/jump patterns and offer a variety to the athlete.