Don't Lose the Off-Season Gains: Why In-Season Training is so Important

Bardo's is kicking off the summer with a new strength & conditioning program powered by the Institute, exclusively first for Team Colorado.  Andrew Scherer from the Institute will be leading this program with a baseball specific program that's designed to give you the baseball performance edge needed to advance to the next level.  With all the attention revolving around off-season training, we sat down with Andrew to discuss in-season training and why it is so critical. 

Training for baseball in-season is not only important to maintain strength gains that have been made throughout the off-season, but is critical to success as your team progresses during the season. Progressing through a long baseball season can take a toll on the body especially on the shoulders and hips. With proper training focused on flexibility, mobility and many of the common baseball injuries can be prevented. As we kick of the Bardo’s Speed & Strength Program Powered by The Institute, our summer training will be focused on building a quality base of strength with more emphasis on proper techniques in lifting, sprinting and first step quickness. Below is an outline of three the major considerations to why it is so important to continue to train during baseball season.

1. Flexibility/Mobility-Throughout the game of baseball we are asking our bodies to work in every plane of motion (vertical, horizontal, and rotational) which puts a tremendous amount of stress on our muscles and joints. Because of this we need the greatest range of motion possible through every muscle and joint. When our range of motion decreases, wether it be our hamstrings or our lats, we not only put added stress on that particular muscle but all musculature surrounding it. This is one of the leading causes of injury in baseball! You do not see many guys get hurt on a routine ground ball or a homerun swing. No, the injuries occur when we ask our bodies to make an awkward throw from our knees after making diving stop or during a swing where the batter was fooled by a curveball. Baseball forces our bodies into some very non typical situations and the stronger more mobile we can be only increase our chance of success without injury!

2. Less is More-In-season training is very much focused on quality over quantity! We do not need to be spending multiple hours a day in the weight room to achieve great in-season training success. Instead each lifting session should be short and more focused. Our training program will consist of 1 hour sessions with a 10-15 minute warm-up, 35-45 minutes of training and 10-15 minutes of cool down and stretching. Each of these sections is just as important as the others. Leaving out any portion is only increasing your chance of injury!

3. Strength Gains-The old belief that we can just maintain strength throughout the season is gone now. During the season we are either getting stronger or getting weaker! This does not mean we are making the same strength gains as in the winter but we do need to continue to get stronger. Going along with Less is More in-season training will see a large drop in volume while keeping the intensity high. This allows our bodies to build muscle while not leaving us sore and without losses in our range of motion.
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Strength training in-season has many benefits, but the number one reason is staying healthy. Baseball is a long season but just like every other sport it is all about who is playing best at the end of the year. Training properly throughout the entire season will allow us to peak at the right time of year, while those who have not continued to train are declining in strength and fizzling out come playoffs. This is when we will thrive!

​Learn more about the Bardo’s Speed & Strength Program Powered by The Institute and Coach Andrew here. 

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