Baseball and CrossFit Training

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October and baseball the perfect match. The final 4 teams are left, who will make the series? I'm pulling for Detroit since my Indians and Rays are out but it was a great run for both teams... So let's get down to the point. Will CrossFit training help your athletic performance or more specifically your baseball performance?

The definition of CrossFit is "Constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement." 

The answer is YES OF COURSE IT WILL and I'll explain. Strength training and baseball have come a long way. If you're not weight training as an athlete you've missed the boat. I think almost everyone will agree with me on this. "Jose Canseco is a bad example of how you should get strong since he admitted to steroid use but he is a good example of what muscle can do for you in baseball. Even at his size he wasn’t too bulky to keep him from being the first player ever to hit 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in the same season."-Graeme Lehman, MSc, CSCS

The CrossFit training method can be a very valuable tool for the baseball player. Weak players will get stronger, fat players will become leaner, and athleticism will improve. CrossFit, with its multi- jointed functional movements, will prove to become more popular in professional baseball in the near future. CrossFit teaches us to be prepared for whatever comes our way, which is important because not every game goes as scripted. Players need to adapt. Routine is the enemy. If a baseball player is adequate in all three of CrossFit’s fitness standards, he will have a better chance to be injury-free and perform to his best ability throughout the 162-game regular season— plus playoffs! CrossFit-style workouts can be done anywhere, which is important for big-league ballplayers. We spend 81 games on the road during the summer. No matter what stadium we play at, we can certainly find a place to get our work done due to CrossFit’s adaptability. Whether it’s on the field, the concourse or in the weight room, we will find space. (Florida Marlins strength and conditioning coach Paul Fournier)

Athletes have become bigger, faster and stronger. I've always loved the training involved when it comes to sports but you need to have the skill that goes along with your sport. There are people that are strong that can lift a ton and then there are athletes who are strong that can push a lot of weight. There's a difference. You need to have the skill prior. Just doing CrossFit won't make you a Division 1 athlete but if you have the athletic ability prior and then you enhance that with CrossFit training then there's a chance you can make something happen. I trust that makes sense. With that being said I really believe in the workouts performed at CrossFit. They push you to your limits physically and mentally. When you work out at CrossFit there's no waiting around or guessing when you're doing a WOD.

For Example:

-You know the exact workout

-How long you have to complete the WOD 

-The amount of rounds that needs completed

 All you need to do is warm-up, figure out the WOD and get after it. "You can go all out and you don't have to think about what lift you will do next or how much rest should you be taking in between sets. " -MM….you can quote me on that 

WOD

In your current weight training and conditioning for baseball you are already probably doing a good majority of the CrossFit movements. The Squat, hang clean, shoulder press, front squat just to name a few….but what you may not be doing is combing them all or a few into a workout for a set # of rounds or time. When you perform a CrossFit style workout you will increase your strength and conditioning at the same time! Isn't that the goal. I think this makes perfect sense, especially when you only have a certain amount of time to train during the day (especially in college). Furthermore, when you have a full team in the weight room it will build team unity and everyone will be on the same page. Not to mention, its very easy to track your progress:

-Log your weights used 

-Log time it took to complete

This is an easy way to track each athletes performance. There are different Apps and computer programs you can use that will make this process simple. Bottom Line, THERE IS NO HIDING. CrossFit will help get the most out of each athlete physically and mentally.  

Heres are 2 examples below of CrossFit baseball workouts more on the CREATIVE side.

Example 1 

IN TEAMS OF 3, each member tries to get as many runs as possible for their team in 20 minutes.

1st Base: 10 Hand Release Pushups
2nd Base: 10 Squats
3rd Base: 10 Burpees
Home Plate: 10 Pullups (20 JPU's)
100 meters separates each base!

(CrossFit Elijo)

Example 2

TEAMS OF 4-5 ATHLETES 15 min AMRAP

Team with the most runs at the end of the 15 minutes wins
Get a hit by completing three forward rolls
WL to first base and perform 10x 4 count mountain climbers
WL to second base and perform 10x tuck jumps (good ones..bad ones get you 25x squats!)
WL to third base and perform 10x K2E or “K2”eh”” which is “almost/kind of” to elbows.
WL toward home plate, but you must “slide” in by performing 5 burpees to score the run.
Call out the name of your team each time you cross home plate and the coaches will give you a run.
(CrossFitrebels.com)



College and Professional programs have been adding CrossFit into their training regimens for sometime now which I think is a great idea. CrossFit promotes a full body workout. It will also help you gain better balance and control which is needed when you play baseball. More importantly the stronger and more flexible you are the less likely you will get injured. Baseball seasons are long and if you can stay injury free you help your team. Paul Fournier of the Florida Marlins states, "My role is to improve Florida Marlins baseball players athletically or enhance performance, but it’s also one of injury prevention. You can certainly understand the importance of keeping healthy players on the field, and isn’t a “fit” player a healthier player? I feel the answer is yes, especially if we are using the definition of fitness that CrossFit has provided." 

CrossFit is a vigorous workout that combines weight training, aerobics and gymnastics all in one so that you become fit in every area of your game. The goal is to be functionally fit: to push every aspect of your body to the max so that you’re healthy, strong and in shape. Not just so you can lift a ton of weight or run a minute mile, but so you’re fit to do anything that life throws at you. (Askmen)

Here is a quote below from the UC Riverside Baseball Team, who has incorporated CrossFit in their workouts. I took this from the CrossFit Journal. 

"Following Fall Ball we moved into a three-days-a-week strength and conditioning program consisting of heavy cleans, squats, and CrossFit storms. My bread and butter as a strength coach is Olympic lifts, squats, and hill/bleacher sprints. When I began using CrossFit three years ago, I was worried that I might be sacrificing some of my athletes’ clean and squat numbers for the broader fitness they would gain from CrossFit. I was willing to make that sacrifice because I believed so much in the general physical preparedness foundation that CrossFit delivers. I was happily surprised that our strength and power numbers have actually gone up using hybrid programs like the ones I describe in this article."

Get active and stay active. Work hard on the field and in the weight room. Don't Cheat Yourself. You only have so long to play so make it worthwhile. Put yourself in the best position to be successful. Control what you can control. 

My alma mater Indiana University has one of the best weight rooms in the country. Indiana University's 25,000-square-foot strength and conditioning center, built in 2009, is among the biggest in the nation. Indiana's baseball team made the College World Series in Omaha this past season.