Workouts without weights?

Conditioning
#1

So I’ve decided that I don’t really want to lift weights for upper body anymore. I’ve decided that I need to make sure to continue lifting very heavily for lower body and keep doing good core exercises but lately I’ve been thinking that a lot of the upper body workouts I’ve been doing aren’t really necessary.

From my experiences, I’m beginning to believe that as far as upper body goes, it’s better for a pitcher to be doing plyometric and body-weight oriented exercises. I just haven’t seen any real effects on my pitching endurance, velocity, or injury prevention come out of exercises like bench pressing.

This said, I was wondering if anyone knows some good upper body workouts that don’t involve weights. I know some obvious ones-- clapping pushups are definitely in my new routine. But I was wondering what I can do to keep other important upper body muscles in shape without lifting weights. By this I mean muscles like the triceps and forearms and muscles in the back. I’m thinking about getting back into boxing…would that be a good full-body workout? Anybody know anything good?

#2

Never Gymless by Ross Enamait - everything you could ask for on bodyweight exercise and program design.

#3

Check out the NPA’s “Fitness On The Field” video.
http://www.nationalpitching.net/videos.asp?

#4

How can you tell that ‘bench pressing’ has no effect on your qualities you listed?

It is good to not do traditional lifts for awhile (when you’re young) but only if you throw every day and keep your other routines consistent. That way, you can judge if there is any real difference or not.

Why is it better to do plyometric exercises and body weight exercises for pitchers? What are your experiences that led you to this conclusion?

I do ‘heavy’ lifting and body weight exercise in the off season.

Some things you can do for the upper body are:

Push ups
-regular
-extended ROM
-power
-feet raised
-close grip
-stability with med balls
-1-arm [I will someday…]
-and any combination of these

Pull ups
-vertical wide grip/close grip
-horizontal (use a bar low to the ground and put your feet on the ground)

#5

I correct myself. I think that upper body exercises have helped me. I had a healthy season this year and definitely threw harder than I have in the past, I believe, thanks to good overall strength gains.

Right now I feel as though I’ve pretty much made all the upper body muscle gains I need to make. I think that if I were lifting any more I might become too bulky and unathletic. So basically I want to maintain what I’ve done in the past and develop better plyometric power. I’m hoping that more body-weight exercises will help me to do that.

I’m not discouraging lifting at all. But I do think that there’s a point when you have to stop trying to make gains and make sure you’re still a pitcher rather than a body builder. So hopefully a new program will be beneficial in both maintaining overall strength and developing agility and power.

#6

http://www.teenbodybuilding.com/bame4.htm thank me later 8)

#7

Why would you stop lifting weights for upperbody that makes no sense to me. You dont have to get bulky up top. Lift in the 1-5 rep range. Your working with such a heavy load that the volume is never going to get you into a hypertrophy mode. Also trust me your not getting to bulky up top. You know how hard it is to put on muscle mass. Unless your lifting like a bodybuilder then well say good buy to your baseball career.

Also you cant build better plyometric power. You build power two ways more strength or more speed. If you build up your strength, speed follows faster. The only way to build up more strength is to work in the 1-5 rep range. Strength is your best friend if your a pitcher in my book. Work on speed second. Speed meaning upper body plyo work.

Do the body weight exercises as assistance exercises to weights.

#8

Just do your normal routine with less weight and more reps. Pitching is all about flexability.

#9

More reps is not a good option. Doing more reps works your slow twitch muscles. You have to recruit the fast twitch ones. The only way to do that effectivly is heavy weight or speed work.