It’s essential for a good baseball player to have a strong arm. All baseball positions, including batting, pitching, and fielding, require a considerable amount of arm strength. Having strong arms means you can excel in every aspect of baseball. You can hit home runs, throw blinding fastballs and cover the field with accurate throws.
And the good thing is, it’s actually really simple to develop sizable arm strength. However, simple doesn’t mean easy, so it will take a lot of time, hard work and persistence. Here we will explain some great exercises that will condition your arm strength and solidity, which will allow you to play better and avoid injuries.
How to build arm strength
Let’s start with 45-degree front lateral raises. For this exercise, you will need 2 kg dumbbells in each hand. Stand with your arms down at your side and then lift your arms together until they level with your shoulders. Then put your arms back down. Don’t use too much force so you don’t cause shoulder injuries.Repeat 12 times per set. Try two sets. The crucial thing about this exercise is the angle your arms make to your body. You need to keep your arms in between full spreading and keeping them in front of you, exactly at 45 degrees.
Let’s continue with dumbbells and do some dumbbell curls. Put your elbows in front of your body, your palms upward but slightly away from you. Your forearms should be bent just below the 90 degrees angle. Lift both dumbbells upwards to your chest, then bring them down back to initial pose. It’s up to you how heavy the dumbbells should be. If you’re not sure just keep the dumbbells from the previous exercise. Try to do three sets with 12 repetitions each.
Now, let’s go for tricep pushdowns. For this exercise, you have to hold the same dumbbells in front of you at 90 degrees, but your palms should face the floor. Push your forearms down while breathing out until you reach your thighs. Stay there for a second, then breathe in and bring your arms back up. Instead of dumbbells, you can use a small barbell. In order to turn this exercise into tricep pulldowns, just flip your hands so your palms are facing up and use the same movement. Try 3×10 repetitions.
Let’s move to the bench for some close grip bench press. Start with small weights then add them as you progress. Lay on your back and put your hands on a bar about shoulder-width between them. Raise the bar as you breathe out, and lower it down to your chest while you breathe in. The close grip helps develop the triceps, which are important muscles for throwing. Do 4 sets per 8 repeats. If you’re doing this exercise for the first time, it’s advisable to have a spotter.
The final arm strength exercise is throwing the medicine ball. Call the boy in front of you and stand sideways to a wall. Rotate very quickly and let the ball go. This exercise improves your arm strength but also your core.
In order to work on your technique, you need to try different styles of throwing the ball. To work on your wrist throw, try to immobilize your elbow and throw the ball using just your wrist. Try throwing in different positions. You can sit down, kneel and stand up. Use your torso, hips, and knees while throwing, and even jump forward as you wind up (crow hop). You should be practicing long throws three times a week even outside of practice.
Throw at various distances for 15-20 minutes each time. Try to make the ball fly straight across the field instead of arcing. Don’t use full force, but strive to make a good line. The good exercise for arm and body strength is throwing the rugby ball around. For this, you will need a smaller rugby ball and someone to throw to. When throwing, aim for your partner’s chest.
Practicing throwing will help you increase arm strength which will, in turn, improve your hit too. When you’re ready to pick up the bat, make sure your equipment helps rather than hinders your performance. If you’re playing at high school or college level, Baseball review site The Baseball Stop says that ‘the DeMarini CF8 BBCOR has been a favorite amongst hitting specialists for years now’. The two-piece composite bat is carefully designed to maximize its feel, power, and performance.
Note: BBCOR baseball bats are the only bats allowed at the high school and collegiate levels.
Push-ups are awesome full-body strength exercises. Your hands should be leveled at the shoulder level, and the balls of your feet should be touching the floor. As you do the push-ups, try contracting your glute muscles to keep your body in a straight line. Lunges are great for the leg strength and flexibility, and you can add dumbbells to increase the weight. Russian twists are great for the core strength, especially on transverse abdominal muscles. You can hold the weight in front of you or work without one. If it helps, you can cross the feet. Finally, squats greatly develop legs and core muscles. You can do it with or without a barbell, but anyway you should keep your weight on the front part of your heel.
Conclusion
A good baseball player needs to have strong arms, and there are many ways to achieve and develop arm strength. However, since baseball requires more than just arms, exercising arm strength is just one step in exercising the whole body. In order to throw well, you will need a good base of legs and core muscles. These exercises take perseverance and tenacity, but you will improve your performance and avoid injuries if you stick to them
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