Please rate my workout, make suggestions

[Matt7084]

Hey, 19 yr old baseball player (pitcher) here, preparing an off season workout that will take me from now until Spring.

Above all I want to greatly improve the strength of my legs. I also injured the UCL ligament in my throwing elbow last year, so I'm gonna focus on making my elbow/forearm as strong as humanly possible.

My workout schedule is MWF. Nothing doing on Tuesdays or Thursdays. I'm not too familiar with weight lifting terminology but here goes...

For upper body I do:

3 sets of pullups, each set maxed out until I fall off the bar
3 sets of wrist curls (each direction), 25lb weights
3 sets on the butterfly machine (pecs), pretty heavy load
3 sets on a tricep machine, again pretty heavy load
3 sets of bicep curls, medium load, not too strenuous

I also use elastic tubes to work all of my shoulder muscles

Then I do 3 sets of 50 situps, but should I use the ab machine instead? I would like to be much stronger and 'explosive' in the hips and abs next year, so any recommendations there?

For my legs:

5 rigorous minutes on a stair machine. It leaves me unable to walk for about 5 minutes after I get off...Still though, what can I add here to turn my legs into shear tanks.

Thanks

-Matt

[Person]

Originally Posted by Matt7084

Hey, 19 yr old baseball player (pitcher) here, preparing an off season workout that will take me from now until Spring.

Above all I want to greatly improve the strength of my legs. I also injured the UCL ligament in my throwing elbow last year, so I'm gonna focus on making my elbow/forearm as strong as humanly possible.

My workout schedule is MWF. Nothing doing on Tuesdays or Thursdays. I'm not too familiar with weight lifting terminology but here goes...

For upper body I do:

3 sets of pullups, each set maxed out until I fall off the bar
3 sets of wrist curls (each direction), 25lb weights
3 sets on the butterfly machine (pecs), pretty heavy load
3 sets on a tricep machine, again pretty heavy load
3 sets of bicep curls, medium load, not too strenuous

I also use elastic tubes to work all of my shoulder muscles

Then I do 3 sets of 50 situps, but should I use the ab machine instead? I would like to be much stronger and 'explosive' in the hips and abs next year, so any recommendations there?

For my legs:

5 rigorous minutes on a stair machine. It leaves me unable to walk for about 5 minutes after I get off...Still though, what can I add here to turn my legs into shear tanks.

Thanks

-Matt

No bench press or squats or lunges or anything? Put the isolation as a secondary concern and use multi joint exercises (like bench press, pull-ups, squats, lunges, etc.) as your primary means of gaining strength and size.

On a scale of 1-10, 4. I give it that high because I like pull-ups. It'd be a 1 otherwise.

[Matt7084]

Well I dont know much about bench pressing, but it seems like a football/wrestler type thing. Im not looking to get big, infact getting too big is not good for a pitcher (except my legs, want them as big as possible). IIRC my max bench press is around 220lbs. Should I do bench press reps in the 160-180lbs range?

And I forgot about lunges...definitely will do them.

-Matt

[semiotik]

I'd ditch a lot of your isolation exercises, like butterflies or bicep curls, since they really will have little effect on your athletics. Stick to compound movements like squats, benches, deadlifts, overhead presses. Your wrist curls fit in well, so I'd keep them. You want exercises that are readily applicable to athletics, that get more than one muscle group working together. Your rubber tube work sounds good - strengthen that rotator cuff, big time. Since you are in the offseason don't be afraid to go heavy. Also, you might want to do some medicine ball work, like tosses off the wall, up in the air, etc, since you want to get your body accustomed to moving against a load in similar fashion to pitching.

If you want to be explosive, do squats, deep deep squats. You'll find that they stabilize your trunk by working your abs as well as your legs. Also, consider lunging plate twists (lunge while holding a plate and twisting to the side not kneeling forward). This will mimic the twisting movement your body uses to pitch. For abs to some planks and more medicine ball work (go on a swiss ball in front of a wall, grab a medicine ball overhead, lean back over the swiss ball then explode up, throwing the ball against the wall, catching it and leaning back down, like a sit up).

If you REALLY want to work on explosiveness work on some powercleans, but get a coach to work with you, if possible.

Remember, you want to work on getting your whole body strengthened and working as one, like squats or deadlifts, since it mimics the full body movement of pitching.

Pullups are good for stretching the tendons in your elbows, chin-up style.

One last thing: really strengthen your rotator cuff using your rubber bands. Trust me, this'll pay off huge for you down the road.

Best of luck with your offseason preparation!


Sem

[Person]

Originally Posted by Matt7084

Well I dont know much about bench pressing, but it seems like a football/wrestler type thing. Im not looking to get big, infact getting too big is not good for a pitcher (except my legs, want them as big as possible). IIRC my max bench press is around 220lbs. Should I do bench press reps in the 160-180lbs range?

And I forgot about lunges...definitely will do them.

-Matt

You don't want to be big, but you are going to do flies and curls? Give me a break now. Weight is more of a result of diet than anything. If you are eating a lot of extra cals, you will gain weight whether you are training or not. Squats, bench, military press, lunges, deadlift, and many more are all lifts that will benefit you greatly (although using all of them is not necessary).