The Rookie/Invincible. You're never too old to transform

#1

I wanna do one of these threads to keep myself incredibly motivated and up to date on information I learn from this great website.

About me, well I am an interesting story and I will state this clearly: At my age, (26 years old) if I were to even somehow ever make it to the bottom of the minor leagues system it would be one hell of an accomplishment.

My younger years were rough because my brain was behind my age—>Now its catching up, ages 13-17 back in the day the world didn’t really know what ADD/ADHD was all about. I was a lazy, short fat kid who had no motivation for anything. Basically spoiled in many ways.

When I was 18, somewhere in the middle of my senior year in high school I got on medication (adderral) and it was like an incredible change in my mind where the first THOUGHT I had was I wanted to get in shape. I worked out daily and grew about 4 inches in this time, lost about 40 pounds by the time I graduated high school. Sports weren’t even an option for me anymore. Last time I played organized baseball was when I was 12-15 years old.

Now were on to the present days. I guess all I can say for the last 7-8 years they have been very inconsistant physically wise. I’d go from working out a lot then just stopping. Back and forth for a while. I can tell you this now at my age my brain is a lot more mature than it used to be so I understand “structure” in life and I am incredibly active. I have been working full time for a little over a year. I plan to enroll into school whenever I can handle the responsibility and actually succeed.

Most people would tell me I’m too old (parents have had their share lol) but hey YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE!
I do TONS of reading on bodybuilding.com about nutrition and lifting. In the last 5-6 months started a eating plan where I’m down 25 pounds and well on the way to getting in that prime shape. Only thing I’m fighting is that horrible word we call “Time” :slight_smile:

I wanna do this for the future kids out there who are unfortunate like myself with brain characteristic’s that make life harder but with HARD WORK and faith, anything is possible!

I’ve always been blessed with a strong arm, that was and never will be a doubt. Physically I have a VERY long ways to go. I’m sitting at 6’ 240 with plenty of body fat that needs to go. Leg’s are so far away from what you would call a pitcher that its almost funny. Havent had a mile run in roughly 2-3 years so 9-10 minutes is problaby the best I could do right now. Pitching or even throwing was more consistant in the summer time but I need to be doing that once a week! Thats a good reason why I’m doing this, keep yourself in the right mindset on what your goals are.

With all this negative stuff I’ll tell you some positive stuff I have going for me. I am very active, in my job its very physically demanding. I’m on my feet all day lifting boxes and production work. I workout before or after work everyday during the week, I havent missed a workout since June. Here’s a general picture of my workout.

Monday- shoulder’s/ab’s (I do 200 crunches at the end of my workouts 4 days a week)

Tuesday- back/ab’s
Wednesday- chest/calves/abs
Thursday- arm’s/abs
Friday- Legs.

I change my workouts up every 8-10 weeks.

I wanna end this first post with my goals I wanna set over this winter.

First and foremost: I need to start running, ABSOLUTELY #1 right now! You can’t pitch without having strong, quick legs/hips.

Were gonna start doing a mile jog once a week for a few weeks or maybe even longer.
Then were adding in HIIT cardio with some sprints into the mix.

Goal #2 right now is NUTRITION. You will not see the results you want without eating perfect, lots and lots of quality protein’s are key. Stay consistant, one meal at a time.

Goal #3 Throwing/pitching once a week and working on mechanics. I learned some great information from this site and I thank the people who viewed my post with their advice and thats what I’m going to be working on fixing.

Lets close this first post with a good luck to anyone out there trying to accomplish this same great feat. Believe in yourself and “dont let others rent space in your mind”. (A great teacher of mine in highschool once told me this and I still use it)

Feel free to leave any comments if you want to, I believe I will update this once a week to tell how my week went and to make sure I’m completely HONEST on what I did good and bad. If you took the whole time to read this I give props to you and believe me when I say if I motivate ONE other person out there I will feel great at the end of the day. Let’s have a great week next week baby, be back on here next sunday.

#2

I suggest you start by reading some material written by Eric Cressey regarding workouts and overall physical fitness at www.ericcressey.com. Running (long distance) will not create strong abs or hips, you’ll learn this on Cressey’s website, you need to switch up your workout program and get off the body builder splits. You should focus on full body workouts 3 times a week in the weight room. Check out 5x5 for beginners by Mark Rippetoe or even get his book Starting Strength.

Any other questions and I’ll gladly assist.

#3

Dude I don’t want to be a jackass but come on

#4

you’ve made a habit of having short, pessimistic and unhelpful posts on this forum. Offer constructive feedback or don’t offer any at all. You’re better than that. The guy clearly has passion.

#5

For all the good on here, there will be always be some bad. Its how the world works. I could care less what anyone’s opinion is on me, too old for that shit

. I came on here looking for answers and help and I’m gladly finding QUITE a bit. Thanks Chuck again for the useful links, means a lot. I have nothing to hide when writing all the stuff I did and some are gonna take it whatever way they wanna.

#6

Edit by admin
Inappropriate attack.

#7

edit by admin…
Keep Log Forum clear of this stuff

#8

Justin

Your posting here is admirable. I highly respect you and your insight of yourself. Not many men would have the honesty, guts, and deliberateness to express themselves as you did. No matter what or how you go about taking charge of life, you will succeed.

About wanting a life in the professional game - it’s not what you visualize or even think is a pleasant way to make a living. In fact, it’s barely a living at all.

Your age is not in your favor, in addition to physical issues that you currently are trying to iron out. But then again, I’m not closing the door on the professional game. With respect to the affiliates - Minor Leagues, the competition is cold hard steel, hardcore with very little movement to either side for anything but razor edge perfection.

The “Indy’s” on the other hand (Independent Leagues) have a variety of clubs around the country that might be interested in your determination. But then again, competition is stiff.

However… I had a man like yourself who, for all intensive purposes, got no looks at all from any club that he tried out for in our League… BUT, he just happened along at the right time and place- and was signed for -“short season”. He had three months to come around - and paid to do it. By the end of the second month, I honestly don’t think he disliked anybody as bad as he dislike me. We had words from time to time, but nothing more than that came of it. By the end of the second month, going into his third, he was ready to earn his spot. He played for five games, as relief, got respect, lived in a cramped motel room with two other players, substandard food, a bus ride that reeked of musty orders - then finally called it a season. He never came back - BUT he did find out what it was like, wasn’t for him, but nevertheless he did what he set out to do.

I will say this, the life that you’d like to experience is cruel and unforgiving to anyone who is thin skinned, and, has the slightest lack of ability to hold their own. This environment begs for the shallow side of the human condition, like a pen of chickens surrounding a sick hen. This is not to say that you couldn’t make it, but, it can be grief on your plate – that’s full enough with what you have - or had to deal with…

I give you credit for the amazing job that you’ve done thus far. Stay the course, as tough as it has been. I’m sure somewhere along the line, someone will need your maturity, self confidence and drive to help them get over the bumps in the road that you overcame.

You’re the stuff that communities are build of. Where you work will soon notice a man who is a man and worth holding on to.

Coach B.

#9

Thank you very much for your insight and compliments. The major thing that drives in my competitiveness is that expectation of how much I have to go in improving. Strength, speed, and mechanics. I think about it everyday- the potential I see in myself… I can’t look back 20 years from now and wonder what if? I totally agree with what your saying about the cut-throat dog eat dog competitiveness.

I’ll give you a clue how far away I am, lifted my legs on saturday. First time in roughly 2-3 months. Squats I did a measley 3x8 at 105 pounds. Lunges I did 2 sets of 40 reps no weight. Did quite a few other things and I can tell you 4 days later my gluts and hamstrings are still sore. With this blog, thats our starting point right now. Gonna get 2-3 months of weekly consistancy, then we’ll switch it up to some of these “full body workouts”. Thanks again John, I have off tommorow so I’m gonna get reading that book and I’ll let you know what I think of it.

“It is a great read for anyone like myself who hasn’t played organized baseball in years, ask him for a copy and I’m sure he would be happy to help.”

#10

If my experience and suggestions can help you in any way via this media, ask away. Again, I admire your toughness - that’s what it takes.

With respect to the book, don’t be fooled into thinking it’s just for rookies, basic and little else. The more your read into it, the more of a foundation you will build and as your progress, you’ll find yourself going back over chapter after chapter, squeezing out the finer points that most other players will take for granted.

There’s also just enough “advanced” material in there, to have you thinking out of the box.(sort of speaking.) Again, put on the ole thinking cap and you’ll see just how far in depth this “simple stuff” can be.

As you progress, I stroingly suggest getting a copy of Steve’s TuffCuff. That publication wraps around anything and everything that you ever wanted to know about training. His publication covers rookies right up to the professional pitcher. It’s good, Justin, it’s very good. You’ll also find charting and some very frank talk about being good enough to grind out the what-for-ever in this game. However, that publication is not for the flash-n-the-pan man. The man that’s looking for the quick fix, living on the excuse, won’t benefit at all.

Coach B.

#11

I want to show a detailed version of my leg workout. Gonna be a lot of emphasis on improving these weights I’m starting out at. This is the first workout of it and the weight I did will be in parenthesis.

Squats- 3 sets 8 reps- (105) upping this ten this week.
Superset: 3 sets 10 reps each
Lying leg curls (50) keeping same then upping 5 next week.
Stiff leg deadlifts (65) keeping same then upping 10 next week.

Verticle Leg Press: 4 sets 15 reps. (180) upping ten this week.

Superset:
Walking lunges- 3 sets of 40 reps (2 full sets) I did two full last week no weight and were working to failure on the 3rd set this week. As I get to 3 full sets I will be adding in weights from dumbells.
Leg extentions- 3 sets of 12 reps (50) keeping this one more week and upping 5 next.

Hack squats- 3 sets of 15 reps (didn’t do) theres no equipment for this, gonna be adding in something else for this when my legs are able to handle the load.

Seated calf raises- 3 sets of 15 reps (90) I do these twice a week while holding for 2 secs each rep. Very hard to move up in these so I’m being patient but will be adding 5-10 in next week or two.

Standing calf raises- 3 sets of 8 reps (90) upped this 10 pounds already. So were currently at 100, keeping one more week then upping another 10.

So this is basically a summary of what I did on 12/18/2010. Got a busy day today, , practice working on some throwing with a friend, and do my legs workout later tonight. Then were gonna call it a shorter week this week and get some extra rest in. I will be back sometime next week to update on an IMPORTANT new years resolution that needs to be accomplished. Everyone have a great christmas!

#12

Went from a negative to a positive.

#13

I decided to wait until monday because of work and working out to keep me more busy. I can gladly say now its been 74 hours nicotine FREE, cold turkey… is the only real way to quit. Feeling real good and never goin back I can tell ya that. This week I’m just starting a light cardio in the mornings couple hours after I get up. Right now just a very light half mile jog. Each week or week and a half roughly we’ll up it one minute at a time until we reach the mile pace. After that we’ll up the speed. Glad the holidays are finally done, get back to a strict diet and no alcohol. Gonna be the first weekend, we’ll see how it goes lol…

#14

How hard do you throw?

#15

I dont have a clue where my velocity is right now… I wouldn’t even take a guess because I’d be way off I imagine. Sometime in April I’ll try to figure out a way to get clocked. I think theres a batting cage area around here with a mound and radar gun that you can rent, seems like my best option. Not my biggest concern at the moment, I wanna get into excellent shape before I worry that I wont have enough.

#16

If your curious, this is the exact workout I’ve been doing the last 5 weeks.

There’s two parts to it and I’m on part one. I dont necessairily agree with the “no cardio” so I’m doing on my own. Going to be doing this part 1 for 2 more weeks after this week. After that part 2 for 9 weeks. That’ll lead to April 1st where then I’m going to be adding in cleans, snatch’s, different kinds of deadlifts, plyometric’s, and just harder workouts in general.

I’m really going to be trying my hardest to eat PERFECT. I even purchased some expensive amino acids supplement called Xtend by Scivation to help me recover faster. Workouts have been great, legs are incredibly brutal 2-3-4 DAYS after with soreness. I’m hoping this gets better or these amino acids will help in time.

On the pitching/throwing end I’m happy I’m finally getting more consistantcy. Saturdays are kind of becoming my throwing days, had a great one last week where I threw pretty solid for about 25 minutes straight. Very sore a day after so I dont want to push too hard to fast but also REMEMBER I cant go too slow because I’m so far behind with my age.

So continue throwing once a week for a month/ month an half (mid/end February) then we’ll up it to about once every 5 days until we can get out on the mound and go even more often.

I’m gonna update my stats on the weights for the legs at the end of the month. It’ll show better progress rather than every few weeks. Good luck to all you other boys out there and keep hitting it hard. Back with another update when I feel the need…

#17

What I find as a great motivator are PICTURES. Not a huge believer in actual bodyweight. I take pictures of myself once a month to make sure I’m progressing along the way I want to. You can also tell what areas your lacking on and where you need to put more emphasis.

I’m posting one of myself I took yesterday and I will take another in the next 10 weeks or so. Areas of improvement I can tell by looking at.

I want bodyfat down 20-25 pounds yet
I want to build a lower back/ abdomen/legs/ hips like Roger Clemens :slight_smile:

I’m gonna post another mechanic video in the next 10 weeks also to see where I need improvement.

All in all I’m glad I’m making good improvements but yet a very long ways to go. One day at a time baby!

http://img577.imageshack.us/i/p1010943j.jpg/][img]http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/6597/p1010943j.jpg[/img

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
http://imageshack.us

#18

I have a bunch of stuff I need to get laid out throughout the week which I’ll get to editing as the week goes on and I get more time.

-Few things though

-I decided to purchase the TUFF CUFF book and so far I’m liking it.
-Going to be changing some of my workouts, mainly shoulder’s and chest.
-I threw saturday for the 3rd consecutive week (something my body ISNT used to at this point) and I’m starting to feel a kind of burning tightness in my shoulder. I dont know if this from not warming up as proper as I should or my body telling its still sore. It hurts more in the beginning and gets better as I throw more. OR my mind is just ignoring the fact of the pain. I CAN FEEL IT all the time with certain movements. If you were to lift your arm straight up all the way and kind of lean over your head I can feel that tightness. I believe its part of the rotator cuff but I’m not a doctor obviously.

  • Little worried about it though and I hope it gets stronger as time goes on.
    -I am taking pretty much this whole week off from my workouts. Its really healthy to do this generally every 8-10 weeks. Its good for you mentally, physically, and it gets you more motivated missing what you love :slight_smile:
    -I am going to workout my legs though, problaby in the middle of the week. Cant slack on these. And I will be throwing on saturday more than likely. I believe with the extra rest during the week will help my shoulder.
  • By the end of the week I will have my new workout setup and I post everything with good attention to detail.
    -This is the one of the best months I’ve ever had, INCREDIBLY MOTIVATED! This site and blog in general keeps me on the top of my interests mentally and I love it!
    -I gotta get to my job right now though so this is the start, I’ll be adding more to this later in the week.
#19

Got some free time this week so I kinda wanna do an Overview of the last 8 weeks and see how I’ve improved.

-I weighed myself today, 240 on the dot, (NO change in last 2-3 months.) Not gonna weigh myself again until April 1st.

-I dont count calories in my diet exactly which I tend to get into that habit in the near future. Heres a general idea of what I eat during the week.

  1. Wake up at 830ish, eat packet of plain oatmeal w/ blueberries. Whey protein shake with milk. Vitamins and Fish oil pills.
  2. (Preworkout) 1130ish, Whey protein shake w/ water. Amino Acids w/ water. Glutamine cap w/ water. Pre workout drink with water. I’ll eat a bananna or Nutri-grain bar also.
  3. (Postworkout) 130ish. Hydro-whey Protein w/milk. Glutamine cap, Amino Acids w/ water. Generally a salad or veggies with Chicken on a wheat pita and or plain baked potato.
  4. First break at work 500pm. Whey protein w/ water, Yogurt. Some kind of piece of fruit. Whole wheat bread with a piece or two of lunchmeat (which I do need to change).
  5. Second break at work 800. Whey protein w/ water, 3-4 hard-boiled eggs without the yolks. A baggie of All natural almonds.
  6. Home from work, bout 1045. Casein protein w/ milk. Bowl of fat free cottage cheese.

From my understanding, I consider this a pretty solid diet. Consistancy is key and obviously I do have my mess up days like anyone else but you dont let that bother you and get back to the next meal.

MY GOAL NUTRITIONALLY over the next 10 weeks is to improve the weekends, saturday and sunday to the equivalency of the week. So basically I’m saying I dont eat as well on my days off. Having ADD/ADHD we do VERY WELL in very structured lifestyles. When I get too much free time is where I tend to mess up.

Alrighty, on to the overview of the workouts in the last two months.

  • First highlight I love and to show you how hard I push myself. I did more crunches in the last two months than my whole life combined.
    Starting out on the 29th of Nov. First day of ab work, it took me 5 sets! with 15-20 seconds in between to get to 200 crunches.
    -This last week I finished the first week where I got 200 crunches in without stopping 4 days in a row.

Shoulder workout: 75 seconds in between each set.

Standing Military Press barbell, 3x8reps. 1st week 65pds. 8th week 70pds w/ 9 reps last set.

Standing Side Laterals Dumbells, 3x12reps. 1st week 10’s. 8th week 12’s w/ 13 reps last set.

Bent Rear Delt Raises Dumbells, 3x15reps. 1st week 8’s. 8th week 8’s w/ 16 reps last set.

Sitting Shoulder Press Dumbells, 2x8reps. 1st week 30’s. 8th week 35’s w/ 10 reps last set.

Cable Cross-over Side Laterals, 2x12reps. 1st week 10 side. 8th week 15 side.

Butterfly’s Machine, 2x15reps. 1st week 75pds. 8th week 95pds.

Back Workout: 75 seconds between sets.

Wide-grip Lat Pulldown, 4x12/10/8/8reps. 1st week 100pds. 8th week 110pds w/ 9 reps last set.

Overhand Bent Barbell Rows, 4x8/8/6/6reps. 1st week 75pds. 8th week 90pds.

Close-grip Lat Pulldowns, 3x12/10/8reps. 1st week 100pds. 8th week 110pds.

One arm dumbell Rows, 3x10reps. 1st week 25’s. 8th week 30’s.

Superset of Underhand Cable rows and Seated Cable rows, 3x12reps. 1st week 50pds. 8th week 60pds.

Barbell Shrugs, 4x8reps. 1st week 135pds. 8th week 135pds.

Chest/Calves workout: 75 seconds between sets.

Incline dumbell press, 4x8/8/6/6reps. 1st week 45’s. 8th week 55’s w/ 8reps last set.

Flat dumbell press, 3x8reps. 1st week 45’s. 8th week 50’s.

Flat dumbell flyes, 2x10reps. 1st week 20’s. 8th week 25’s w/ 12reps last set.

Incline Barbell Press Smith Machine, 2x12reps. 1st week 95pds. 8th week 105pds.

Seated Calves, 3x15reps. 1st week 90pds. 8th week 95pds.

Standing Calves, 3x8reps. 1st week 90pds. 8th week 105pds.

Arms workout: 75 seconds between sets.

Close Grip Barbell Bench Press, 4x8reps. 1st week 85pds. 8th week 110pds w/ 9reps last set.

Lying tricep extention w/cable, 3x10 reps. 1st week 70pds. 8th week 80pds w/ 12 reps last set.

Skull Crushers, 2x12reps. 1st week 30pds. 8th week 35pds.

Barbell Curls Wide-Grip, 4x8reps. 1st week 55pds. 8th week 65pds.

Hammer Curls dumbell, 3x10reps. 1st week 25’s. 8th week 30’s.

Incline dumbell curls, 2x12reps. 1st week 20’s. 8th week 25’s w/ only 8 reps last set.

Leg workout: Only did 3 weeks of this, wont miss anymore of these. 75 secs between sets.

Barbell Squats, 3x8reps. 1st week 105pds. 3rd week 135pds.

Lying Leg Curls machine, 3x10reps. 1st week 30pds. 3rd week 35pds.

Stiff Leg Deadlifts, 3x10reps. 1st week 55pds. 3rd week 70pds.

Leg Press Vertical Machine, 4x15reps. 1st week 180pds. 3rd week 205pds w/ 17 reps last set.

Walking lunges, 3x40reps. 1st week no weight, only got two complete sets. 3rd week no weight all reps two weeks in a row.

Leg extention machine, 3x12reps. 1st week 50pds. 3rd week 60pds.

Seated Calves and Standing Calves are the same that are done in the Chest/calves workout.

All in all it was a pretty good two months, OBVIOUSLY my biggest goal for the next 10 weeks are to keep killing them legs and not miss any leg workouts. I’m looking forward to my next workout and hope this week flies by! Thats about all for today… I’m thinking I’m going to do my leg workout tommorow. So I will be figuring out my exact next workout on thursday and friday and maybe into the weekend.

#20

Alrighty… so much to bring up today, lets see if I can remember everything. First off its been a great week for myself! Had a superb legs workout wednesday where I upped everything from last and got it up with almost less effort than times before. Yesterday I got called into work early and got done at 6:30 which is early for me so I was bored with nothing to do like usual. I made the best of the opportunity and headed up to the gym to get a pretty light 45 minute cardio on the elyptical for 500 calories. Pitching/throwing tommorow and I really have a great feeling my arm will feel AWESOME with the extra rest I’ve given this week. After that I will be resting up and gearing up for monday which leads me to…

This whole week I’ve been thinking what kind of workout is gonna improve my body for pitching the most? I look at my weaknesses in my body and how they relate to pitching:

  1. Hips and hip rotation power.
  2. Speed and quickness in general.
  3. Glutes, hamstrings, obliques, lower abs.

These three things are what I consider my BIGGEST weaknesses. Notice I didn’t put “lacking agility”, I am very very agile and crafty, also eye/hand coordinated extremely better than most. I’m still going to be working on agility but with not as much emphasis as the BIG THREE.

TRUE FACT ABOUT ME RIGHT HERE
I could not tell you the last time I ran SPRINTS. Sad to say but an educated guess would be middle school football practice (13-14 years ago). I have so much room for potential in so many factors it just strives me every single day to want to push myself as hard as I can.

What I’m going to be doing for the next 8 weeks is the tuff cuff phase 4 workout with one exception. Mondays are going to be MY leg workout and that workout only. Heres an interesting twist to the workout that I’m going to do to make sure I’m getting each part of it. If mondays are my legs lifting, that gives me 4 other days each week to do the rest of the workout. The tuff cuff has 6 total days a week. Week one is going to look like this:

Mon- legs lifting.
Tues- tuff cuff day 1
Wed- tuff cuff day 2
Thur- tuff cuff day 3
Fri- tuff cuff day 4
Sat- pitching/throwing (at least through february then might more often)
Sun- rest

After week 1 here is where the twist comes in, rotating the tuff cuff days with each week.

Week 2 is like this

Mon- legs lifting
Tues- tuff cuff day 5
Wed- tuff cuff day 6
Thur- tuff cuff day 1
Fri- tuff cuff day 2
Sat- Pitching/throwing

I like this idea much better than doing the same 4 daily workouts each week.

Alright thats gonna wrap it up for me for about a week or so. After I get my starting weights down next week I will post in detail the starting points. Problaby get this done next saturday. Have a great weekend!