Baseball players require a blend of strength training, explosive power, and core strength to optimize their baseball performance. A well-designed strength training program can help baseball athletes develop power, enhance shoulder stability, and improve lower body power. Below, we’ll explore the most effective strength exercises for baseball, including bodyweight exercises, medicine ball drills, and weight room movements.

But, a note: I’m not a personal trainer. I’m just a baseball coach and a dad who helps his kids gets stronger and faster at their preferred sports. And this is not a definitive guide. A professional strength and conditioning coach could help you take your game even further. But, if you’re relatively new to strength training for baseball, this guide will help you establish a basic strength to improve your performance on the field.

Ask your doctor if this works for you.

Affiliate Disclaimer: This post does contain some affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, RBI Gear may make a small profit at no additional cost to you.

Benefits of Strength Training for Baseball

A proper strength training program can help a baseball players in multiple ways:

• Enhanced Bat Speed: Stronger upper body and core strength improve swing power.
• Increased Throwing Velocity: Strengthening the throwing arm and rotator cuff leads to higher velocity and reduced injuries (but we’ll get to that in a bit).
• Better Running Speed: Stronger lower body power improves explosiveness, leading to better sprinting speed.
• Improved Athleticism: Strength can have a direct impact on a player’s ability to move quickly, change direction, and other movements related to athleticism—important factors for shortstops, centerfielders, and catchers, among other players.
• Injury Prevention: Strengthening the shoulder joint, rotator cuff, and hip joint helps prevent common baseball injuries.
• Endurance and Stamina: Maintaining strength development ensures peak performance throughout the season (a difficult task over a long travel baseball season).

Bodyweight Exercises for Baseball Players

Bodyweight training is essential for baseball players, whether it’s pre season, during the season, or the off season. These exercises help improve balance, build a strong core, and reduce strain on the shoulder joint and hip joint. They also build muscle endurance and can help increase overall strength.

This simple pull-up bar can be all the equipment you need to create an effective bodyweight routine. However, if you want a bit more flexibility, a power tower can help as well. Just keep in mind that some power towers are a bit too big for youth athletes.

Push Ups: Step-by-Step Guide

1. Begin in a push up position, with your hands shoulder-width apart and your body in a straight line.
2. Engage your core and maintain proper form (core strength is vital for baseball).
3. Lower your body by bending your elbows until your chest nearly touches the ground.
4. Push through your palms to return to the standing position.
5. Repeat for the desired reps.

Pull Ups: Step-by-Step Guide

1. Grab a pull-up bar with your hands more than shoulder width apart.
2. Engage your core and back muscles (your lats, to be specific) and pull your body toward the bar while squeezing your shoulder blades together and touching your chest to the bar.
3. Avoid using momentum; focus on controlled movement.
4. Slowly lower yourself back to the standing position (the more time under tension, the better).
5. Perform for the desired reps.

If standard pull-ups are too hard, consider using a band. Banded pull-ups allow you to do more pull-ups and increase your reps until you’re strong enough to perform pull-ups without one.

Bodyweight Squats: Step-by-Step Guide

1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your knees bent slightly (this is a general rule, as some players feel more comfortable with their feet wider or closer).
2. Engage your core and maintain an upright posture.
3. Lower your body as if sitting into a chair, keeping proper form with your chest. Continue down until your hip joint is below your knee joint.
4. Push through your heels to return to the standing position.
5. Repeat for the desired reps, ensuring a full range of motion.

Dips: Step-by-Step Guide

1. Setup: Position yourself on parallel bars with your arms fully extended and your body upright.
2. Lowering Phase: Engage your core and lower your body by bending your elbows, keeping them at about a 45-degree angle.
3. Depth: Lower until your upper arms are parallel to the ground or slightly deeper if mobility allows.
4. Press Up: Push through your palms to extend your arms and return to the starting position.
5. Repeat for the desired reps.

Modification: If dips are too difficult, use resistance bands for assistance or perform bench dips to build strength.

Medicine Ball Exercises for Power Development

Medicine ball drills enhance power development, which is crucial for baseball movements such as hitting and throwing. These exercises also improve shoulder stability and overall core stability. Medicine balls and plyometric balls are some of the most valuable resistance training tools a player can find.

Amazon has affordable, good quality medicine balls. You can also find them at Dicks or other sports equipment location.

Keep in mind that medicine balls designed to bounce CAN be dangerous to perform slams with. If you’re looking for a separate ball for slams, check out this one from Champion Sports. It’s designed to prevent bouncing to keep a slammed ball from striking you in the face.

My younger athletes (including my daughter) use this 5-pound plyoball for medicine ball throws, as well, and it has held up very well for about a year.

Medicine Ball Rotational Throws

1. Stand in an athletic stance with your feet shoulder width apart.
2. Hold a medicine ball at chest level.
3. Rotate your torso forcefully to one side and throw the ball against a sturdy wall. A double underhand grip or an overhand-type push both work.
4. Catch the medicine ball and repeat on the other side.
5. Maintain proper form throughout.

Medicine Ball Slams

1. Stand with feet shoulder width apart, holding a medicine ball overhead.
2. Engage your core and slam the ball to the ground (the core is the star of the show here, not just your arms).a
3. Pick up the medicine ball and repeat.
4. Focus on explosive power.
5. Repeat for the desired reps.

Weight Training for Baseball Players

Incorporating weight training into a baseball training routine improves strength development, powerful legs, and maximum strength. It also helps player pack on muscle to prevent looking scrawny to coaches and scouts. Also, strengthening the overall body can increase throwing arm strength and bat speed.

You’ll need some weight training equipment for these exercises, or you can head to a gym (a more affordable option). But if you have the means, a 300-pound weight and barbell kit along with a quality squat rack for squatting and benching will do.

Squats

1. Stand with feet shoulder width apart (roughly), holding the barbell across your upper back.
2. Engage your core strength and keep your chest upright.
3. Lower your body until your hips are parallel to the floor or below your knee joint.
4. Push through your heels to return to the standing position.
5. Repeat for the desired reps.

Deadlifts

1. Stand with feet shoulder width (again, roughly) apart, gripping the barbell with both hands.
2. Keep your back straight (neutral, really) and engage your core stability.
3. Lift the bar by extending your hips and knees.
4. Lower the bar back down in a controlled manner.
5. Repeat for the desired reps.

Bent Over Barbell Rows

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and grip the barbell with an overhand grip, slightly wider than shoulder-width.
2. Perform a deadlift as described above.
3. Hinge at the hips, lowering your torso until it’s nearly parallel to the ground while keeping a slight bend in your knees.
4. Keep your core engaged and your back straight (avoid rounding your spine).
5. Pull the barbell towards your lower ribcage by driving your elbows back and squeezing your shoulder blades together.
6. Lower the bar in a controlled manner until your arms are fully extended.
7. Repeat for the desired reps.

Bench Press

1. Lie on a flat bench with your feet planted firmly on the ground.
2. Grip the barbell slightly wider than shoulder-width, ensuring your wrists are aligned with your elbows.
3. Arch your lower back and pinch your shoulder blades together.
4. Unrack the bar and lower it under control to the middle of your chest, keeping your elbows at roughly a 45-degree angle.
5. Press the bar back up explosively, fully extending your arms without locking out your elbows.
6. Repeat for the desired reps.

Romanian Deadlift (RDL)

1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding the barbell with an overhand grip in front of your thighs.
2. Keep a slight bend in your knees and hinge at the hips, lowering the bar while keeping your back straight and chest up.
3. Lower the bar until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings or it reaches mid-shin level.
4. Engage your glutes and hamstrings to drive your hips forward, returning to a standing position.
5. Repeat for the desired reps.

Power Clean

1. Setup: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, gripping the bar just outside your knees with an overhand grip. Keep your back straight, chest up, and core engaged.
2. First Pull: Drive through your heels, extending your knees and hips to lift the bar while keeping it close to your body.
3. Second Pull: As the bar passes your knees, explode upward by forcefully extending your hips and shrugging your shoulders.
4. Catch: Pull yourself under the bar, rotating your elbows forward to catch it in a front rack position on your shoulders, knees slightly bent.
5. Stand Up: Extend your legs to a full standing position.
6. Reset and Repeat: Lower the bar under control to the starting position and repeat for the desired reps.

Bulgarian Split Squat

1. Setup: Stand a few feet in front of a bench, placing one foot behind you on the bench (laces down or on the ball of your foot).
2. Lowering Phase: Keep your chest up and core engaged as you lower your back knee toward the ground, ensuring your front knee stays aligned with your toes.
3. Depth: Lower until your back knee is just above the ground or until you feel a deep stretch in your front leg.
4. Drive Up: Push through your front heel to return to the starting position, keeping the movement controlled.
5. Repeat for Reps: Complete the desired number of reps on one leg, then switch legs.

How Many Reps?

There are varying thoughts on how many reps and sets you should perform. A very basic strength training programs, Starting Strength, suggests 3 work sets of 5 reps for every lift but the deadlift. The deadlift is too taxing on the central nervous system and should therefor only be performed at max effort once.

How Often?

It depends on your schedule. I’ve found the easiest way to get all of your important lifts is to use PPL, or push-pull-legs. Here’s how I like it:

Push Day:

• Bench first
• Incline bench
• Dips

Pull:

• Deadlifts
• Barbell Rows
• Pull-ups

Legs:

• Squat
• Romanian Dead Lift
• Bulgarian Split Squat

Baseball Training Phases: Pre-Season, In-Season, and Off-Season

A structured training program should align with a baseball athlete’s schedule:

• Pre-Season: Focus on strength and conditioning to build explosive power and core strength. You should be focused on building muscle and adding size at this time, as well. It can be difficult to do both, but reps in the 8 to 12 range will help.
• In-Season: Maintain strength development and baseball performance while managing rest periods. Skipping your lifts because you’re in season will prevent your from performing your best.
• Off-Season: Emphasize power development, rotator cuff exercises, and conditioning programs to prepare for the next year. A little bit of body maintenance on any injuries is great, but also focus on gaining weight and getting stronger.

Sleep and Nutrition for Baseball Players

Nutrition

Proper nutrition fuels strength training and conditioning programs:

• More Calories: Supports strength development and recovery. Calories are energy and you need them to continue getting stronger.
• More Protein: Aids muscle repair from weight training, also helps reduce soreness and improve recovery.
• Less Junk Food: Prioritize nutrient-dense foods for sustained energy. Calories from candy and junk food are technically calories, but they don’t have the other vitamins, minerals, and macros that you need to hit.
• Hydration: Proper hydration is essential for maintaining baseball performance and preventing fatigue. Being properly hydrated improves sleep and improves recovery.

Protein shakes can be a great way to get more protein into your diet without a ton of effort. Simply put a scoop into 8 ounces of milk or water, shake it up in a blender bottle, and you’re adding 30-40 grames of protein without a whole meal. But, nothing replaces whole foods, so don’t plan on REPLACING meals with a protein shake.

Sleep

• Muscle Recovery: Sleep is when your body repairs and grows muscle tissue. Without enough quality sleep, your strength gains and recovery from training will suffer.
• Hormone Production: Sleep boosts testosterone and growth hormone levels, both essential for muscle growth, energy, and overall athletic performance.
• Cognitive Function: Reaction time, focus, and decision-making all decline with poor sleep—key factors in hitting, fielding, and pitching.
• Injury Prevention: Fatigue increases the risk of injury. Well-rested athletes have better coordination and movement efficiency, reducing strain on muscles and joints.

How to Improve Sleep for Better Performance:

• Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night.
• Maintain a consistent sleep schedule, even on weekends.
• Avoid screens (blue light) 30-60 minutes before bed to improve melatonin production.
• Create a sleep-friendly environment: Keep your room cool, dark, and quiet.
• Reduce caffeine intake in the afternoon and evening.

Prioritizing sleep is just as important as training and nutrition. Without it, strength, recovery, and performance will suffer.

Conclusion

A well-rounded strength training program is essential for baseball players to build strength, increase explosive power, and improve baseball performance. By incorporating bodyweight exercises, medicine ball drills, and weight training while focusing on proper form, shoulder stability, and rotator cuff health, athletes can maximize their potential in the weight room and on the field.