Since baseball is such a dynamic sport, training for baseball power requires training multiple planes of motion.

Here are a few key exercises to incorporate to get baseball players throwing faster, hitting harder and becoming more explosive in the field and on the base paths.

1. Single-Leg Broad Jump

Start by standing on one leg. Drive your hip back while maintaining an upright trunk position, then drive through the heel, pushing your hip forward. Land on both feet with your hips back, heels down and chest tall. Repeat for 3-5 sets of 1-3 per side.

2. Split-Squat Jumps

Start in a split-squat position with your chest tall, core tight, glutes engaged, back toe in the ground and front foot pressed in the floor. Drive your front foot into the ground and jump up explosively, then load your hips as you catch back in the split-squat position. Try 3 sets of 3-5 per side.

3. Lateral Broad Jump

Start in an athletic position. Keeping your chest tall, sit down and back into your  back hip, then explosively push through your heel and hip to drive out in the opposite direction. Land with your chest tall, hips back and heels down. Try 3-5 sets of 1-3 jumps/set to train maximal power.

4. Lateral Rotational Broad Jump

Start in an athletic position. Begin the same way as a Lateral Broad Jump: sink back in the hip and jump out in the opposite direction. As you push off, begin to rotate through the hip. Rotate your whole body in mid-air, landing on both feet facing 90 degrees away from the start position.

5. Rotational Med Ball Throw

Start with your front shoulder toward the wall in an athletic position. Hold the med ball by your hips. Shift your weight back, load your front hip and reach the ball toward your back hip. Shift your weight forward, drive off your trail foot and rotate through your hips and upper back. Aim for 3 sets of 5 throws/side.

6. Med Ball Slam

Start in an athletic position with med ball at chest level. Reach the med ball overhead, getting extension through your thoracic spine, hips, knees and ankles. Drive your hips down, following through with your arms, then slam the med ball into the ground. Repeat for sets of 5-10.

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When working with baseball pitchers at Advanced Therapy and Performance, we know that our guys have many needs to address coming off a grueling season that runs from 140 to 162 games.

Our main goals during the first phase of the off-season are to improve mobility and core stability, improve work capacity, and re-teach patterns to get our guys moving better and feeling better. This allows for greater increases in performance during the latter phases of the off-season, when the new season nears.

One way we attempt to hit all these goals is to use more unilateral (single arm/single leg) exercises when training our pitchers. Unilateral training is a great way to minimize asymmetries and strength deficits on opposing sides. Any time we get an athlete in a unilateral position or performing a unilateral movement, we can address core stability, improve single-arm and single-leg strength and present a greater challenge to the nervous system. And by using unilateral training, we effectively double the volume of work in a given lift (10 reps per side equals 20 total reps), which helps increase the athlete’s total work capacity. We can effectively correct faulty movement patterns, improve mobility and increase endurance.

All of these are top priorities for any strength and conditioning program to reduce the risk of injury. Baseball is a predominantly asymmetric and unilateral sport, so we incorporate a lot of unilateral training to get our baseball pitchers moving well, healthy and strong.

Below are some of the best unilateral exercises we use when helping baseball players get optimal results from training.

Split-Squat Variations

Split-Squat variations put the athlete in a great position for their sport (pitching, hitting, sprinting), and they’re also great for teaching eccentric loading of the hips, challenging core stability, and stimulating the nervous system. Start tall, sink your hips down into the bottom position and drive up using your front foot and hip to return to the starting position. We use Split-Squat Holds, Loaded Split-Squats, Rear Foot-Elevated Split-Squats and Reverse Lunges throughout our programming for baseball pitchers. For any of these exercises, we look for an upright torso, knee in line with toes, extension of the back hip and back toe on the ground at the bottom position.

Single-Leg Deadlift

The Single Leg Deadlift is a challenging unilateral hip hinge pattern. Keep your chest tall, chin tucked and trail leg straight while actively pushing your planted hip back toward the wall to create a proper hinge pattern. The key is to stand back up using your glute and hamstring of the planted leg, rather than just swinging your trail leg through. The offset dumbbell increases the stability demand of the exercise and it’s a great way to progress in the early off-season.

Single-Leg Step Down

This is another great exercise to teach proper eccentric loading of the hips. Sit your planted hip back as far as possible while maintaining a neutral spine and a tall chest. The goal is to control the pattern all the way until the heel of your trail leg taps the ground, then return to standing. To progress, increase the height of the box to train strength in increasing ranges of motion, then start adding load.

Half-Kneeling Shoulder Press

The half-kneeling position is a great way to challenge stability while still giving the athlete multiple points of contact to reference. Make sure your front foot is firmly pressed into the ground, with your hip engaged. Contract your back glute while your back toe is pressed into the ground. This setup maximizes stability in the lower half, allowing greater transference of power. From this position, we like to give our athletes an offset dumbbell (right arm with left knee forward and vice versa), starting with the weight by the shoulder and pressing straight up to increase strength in end range of shoulder flexion. It’s a great exercise to train shoulder stability and to teach how to generate force through the ground and leverage points of contact to gain stability through the movement.

Knee-Supported Row

All athletes need a strong posterior chain, and this is especially true for baseball pitchers. They need a high level of strength and stability through their upper posterior (scapula, rotator cuff muscles, trapezius) to allow them to get into a good position at the cocking phase of the pitch, as well as to help them decelerate through the finish. Set up with your knee and hand on the same side of the bench, keep your back flat and chest tall, and push your planted hand into the bench. Your opposite leg should be even with your hips and out to the side while you hold the dumbbell with your opposite hand at shoulder height. We coach the Row by having the athlete think about pulling the shoulder blade down and back to increase middle and lower trap activation, followed by a controlled lowering of the weight to emphasize stability throughout the full range of scapular abduction/adduction. Make these exercises a staple of your off-season training if you’re looking to take your performance on the mound to the next level. READ MORE:

• Complete Off-Season Baseball Workout, Part 1: Rebuild
• Complete Off-Season Baseball Workout, Part 2: Strength
• Complete Off-Season Baseball Workout, Part 3: Power

In baseball, or any other overhead sport, proper shoulder function is critical to performance and longevity. When we get our baseball guys in after a long season to start their off-season training, one of the first things we look at is restoring mobility and stability to the shoulder.

Look at a minor league starting pitcher coming off a 150-inning season. Obviously, he will have  a lot of wear and tear on his throwing arm. It is our job to ensure that he regains proper range of motion and relearns stability in both the glenohumeral joint and scapulothoracic joint to get him moving, feeling and performing better when he begins his off-season throwing program.

RELATED: 4 Exercises Pitchers Need to Do After Every Start

Some key things we work on to improve function are motion of the scapula along the ribcage and the interaction between the scapula and glenohumeral joint to create efficient, fluid motion around the shoulder girdle.

Although proper shoulder function is a big concern of ours during the off-season, we also have many other needs to address and must use exercises that offer a heavy return on investment throughout our programming. Below are some of the best movements we use to integrate proper function and keep our pitchers healthy through the season.

RELATED: In-Season Baseball Workouts for Pitchers

Wall Scap Slides

Scap Slides help to reintegrate proper scapular motion and scapulohumeral rhythm. Start with the forearms at shoulder height, pressed into the wall with a foam roller or valslide. Stand with a staggered stance, keeping the chest tall with head back and chin tucked. Reach the arms up at a slight angle, coming up as high as you can while keeping a neutral spine, with scapula moving along the ribcage. This exercise is a great way to teach the connection between the scapula and ribs, and it allows athletes to learn how to get into a more efficient overhead position.

Push-Up to Downward Dog

This is another great exercise to teach scapular motion. Think about pulling yourself down to the ground with scapula retracted to get to the bottom of the Push-Up. From there, push away from the ground through the hands, reaching out in the top position and forcing full range of motion. Then drive the hips up to make a “V” with your body, reaching overhead at the top of the Downward Dog to work good overhead stability and proper scapular motion going overhead.

RELATED: Do’s and Don’ts of a Pitcher’s Off-Season Training Program

Push-Up Position Multidirectional Reach

The first part of this exercise is establishing a strong push-up position, with the head back, chin tucked, chest tall, back flat, core and glutes engaged and toes driving into the ground. We use paper, wrist wraps, towels, etc., to allow a smooth glide while reaching. Maintain a strong push-up position while reaching overhead at a 45-degree angle and laterally. Make sure hips and torso stay square to the ground throughout the exercise, and stay tall to allow the scapula to glide on the ribcage.

Bear Crawl

The Bear Crawl is my favorite exercise for core and scapular stability, while also serving as a great tool to challenge coordination. Start in a quadruped position with chest tall, neck back, chin tucked, back flat, core tight and knees in line with hips. Raise the knees just above the ground, then with opposite arm and leg take a small, controlled step forward. Alternate sides to crawl a specified distance, then move backwards to come back to the start.

Y’s/T’s

I use Y’s and T’s to strengthen the lower and middle traps and to teach good stability in an overhead position without the added reference point of the ground. Pull the arm into position through the lower traps to ensure recruiting the right muscles with good movement and not just creating motion at the glenohumeral joint.

Band Rotator Cuff Circuit

There is a benefit to incorporating isolated rotator cuff work, especially with starters and harder throwers who have worn down the rotator muscles over the long season. We like to incorporate isometric holds, active external/internal rotation and some horizontal abduction exercises.

RELATED: How Young Pitchers Should Prepare for the Upcoming Season

Half-Kneeling Bottom-Up Kettlebell Press

I use this exercise to get the athletes into an overhead position with strength, while forcing recruitment of stabilizers throughout the full range of motion.

Start in a half-kneeling position, with chest tall, chin tucked, core tight and hips engaged. Hold a kettlebell bottom-up in the hand opposite the forward leg. Punch straight up overhead while maintaining a good upright position. Control the kettlebell slowly back down and complete the specified number of reps.

When you look at sports and athletic performance, you see that we move in multiple planes, usually at the same time. However, most of the exercises we perform are done in only one plane.

So what’s the issue? Deadlifts, Squats and other exercises are effective, but you need to train in multiple directions to become a complete athlete.

RELATED: The 8 Planes of Motion in Strength Training

Here’s how to develop the three planes of motion.

The Sagittal Plane

The sagittal plane bisects our bodies into right and left halves. Motion in this plane occurs around a horizontal axis from left to right that runs perpendicular to the plane (as seen in the image above). Exercises done in this plane train linear, straight line movements such as sprinting, jumping, squatting, pushing and pulling.

Many of these movements are foundations of what we do in the weight room when we train athletes. Below are some key sagittal exercises:

• Deadlift – For an in-depth breakdown of one of my favorite lifts, check this out. The Deadlift is a great exercise to teach a hinge pattern and create a strong posterior chain, with powerful hips and hamstrings. A key attribute of athleticism is having powerful hips; and variations of the Deadlift should be incorporated into the programs of all athletes.
• Squat – Another key exercise performed in the sagittal plane. A proper squat pattern is a foundational movement for healthy individuals, from infants to the elderly, as well as a big factor in athleticism. A good Squat trains the hips, hamstrings, quads and calves, while improving mobility in the hips and ankles (another huge advantage for athletic performance.)
• Reverse Lunge — A great exercise to train single-leg strength, core stability and eccentric control of the hips. Because of the position-specific strength and stability it requires, we use it a ton for pitchers and other athletes who need to improve their linear speed. It forces multiplanar core stabilization through a full range of motion, giving an added training effect to the central nervous system.
• Jumps (Broad/Vertical) – Jumps are terrific measures of power, which is why they’re included in many combines for player evaluation. They’re also great in the weight room. Jumping is probably the easiest and most efficient way to train power. Even more important, Jumps teach you how to land properly to safely and effectively absorb force.

Use these exercises to build a baseline of strength and stability. But when you exclusively emphasize sagittal plane movements in the weight room and day-to-day life, you lose the ability to reproduce foundational movements outside of linear patterns. Lateral and rotational movements are critical to sports and important to maintain in life.

We often need to spend time relearning these patterns in the weight room. If you want to maximize your athletic performance and reduce the risk of injury, move beyond the sagittal plane and incorporate frontal, transverse and multiplanar movements.

RELATED: Add This Unique Deadlift Variation to Your Training Program

Frontal Plane: Lateral Strength

The frontal plane bisects the body into anterior and posterior sides. Motion occurs along an axis that runs front to back, perpendicular to the plane. Most exercises done in the frontal plane train lateral/medial movements.

Sports require a constant ability to change direction, both reactively and powerfully. Thus, we have to train those medial/lateral abilities in the weight room. Shuffling, cutting, coming around the edge on the line—all involve motion on the frontal plane. Here are some key exercises we use to train in the frontal plane:

• Sidestepping – The Sidestep is not just for rehab programs. It’s a great way to train glute activation, hip abduction and adduction, knee and trunk stability. The Sidestep creates the foundation for stabilization and control with lateral movement, so taking the time to use them with new athletes or during warm-ups is important.
• Lateral Bear Crawl – One of my favorite tests of hip and core dynamic stability. When done correctly, it forces you to resist several forces to maintain your position, while improving scapular motion/stability and hip abduction/adduction.
• Lateral Lunge – The ability to cut and change direction on the field requires a high level of eccentric strength in the hips as well as good body control to maneuver in space. The Lateral Lunge is a great exercise to teach change of direction, training proper lateral hip loading, positive shin angles, and core stability.
• Lateral Broad Jump – Another key area of changing direction is to be powerful out of a cut. We use the Lateral Broad Jump to train lateral power. Teaching proper landing mechanics with the Lateral Broad Jump, initially done with two feet and progressed to a single-leg landing, is important to prevent injuries and help athletes learn to load their hips better to absorb and output force more efficiently.

Transverse Plane: Rotational Strength and Stability

The transverse plane splits the body into superior and inferior parts (upper/lower). The axis of movement runs from the head to the ground, perpendicular to the plane of motion. Transverse plane movements are mainly rotational patterns, as well as horizontal abduction/adduction.

For sports like baseball, golf, tennis and lacrosse, if you are not efficient rotationally, you set yourself up for injury, because they all require a tremendous amount of rotational strength and stability. Yet, how often during our day or while training do we rotate?

Although everything from throwing a baseball to turning over to get out of bed requires rotation, most of the movement limitations I find during assessments are with this simple pattern in the transverse plane. Louie Simmons from Westside Barbell always talks about training your weaknesses, so performing these exercises in the transverse plane is important for both performance and injury prevention:

• Rolling Patterns – Lie on the ground and roll around a bit. You’ll be surprised how challenging this is for most people, especially adults who may not have gone through true rotation since they were young children. Rolling patterns are great to teach stabilization through movement and get athletes reacquainted with foundational rotation.
• Seated Hip Flow – This is a great drill to warm up the hips, develop core strength and stability through rotation, and stimulate the CNS. By creating active ranges of motion through the hips and pelvis, you can move more efficiently on the field.
• Standing Band Rotations – A great way to train rotational stability, power, and eccentric loading of the hips. Maintaining control through a range of motion allows you to establish the base to reproduce the movement on the field. For more on that topic, check out the link here.
• Rotational Med Ball Throws – Especially for baseball players, there’s no better way to train rotational power than to load the pattern with a rotating throw. The additional weight forces you to properly load and rotate your hips coming through to get force behind the ball.

Multiplanar: Putting it All Together

As I stated earlier, we do not move strictly in one plane, and this is especially true in high intensity sports. Therefore, you need to integrate these movements in order to have the best carryover to your sport. Here are some of my favorite multiplanar exercises:

• ½ Get Up – One of my favorite “bang for your buck” exercises. It trains rotational power and stability, shoulder stability and coordination, all while challenging numerous positions at once.
• Rotational Landmine Press – A great exercise to train transference of power through the kinetic chain. Incorporate many variations of the Press to get as sport-specific as you’d like.
• Crow Hop Rotational Med Ball Throw – This one not only does a great job of training coordination of rotational, lateral and linear power, it’s also one of the best ways to get fired up during a training session. Throwing a ball against a wall as hard as you can—what’s more fun than that?

If you want to maximize athleticism and sports performance, you need to train a variety of movements through multiple planes of motion. If you want to compete like an athlete, you must train like an athlete and move the way an athlete moves.

RELATED: Why Sport-Specific Training is Overrated

Increasing athleticism is all about learning how to move optimally. This involves acquiring sufficient range of motion within the joints, as well as possessing strength, stability, and a sense of control throughout different movement patterns. Teaching these patterns is a long term process, but they are the foundation of what we as strength coaches do to develop our athletes. One method I use to teach novel movement patterns and attempt to make the process quicker is to introduce isometric and eccentric tempo work with various exercises. The goal of using eccentrics and isometrics is to get the athletes to feel and control their movements in the weight room, and then use that on the field.

RELATED: Build Explosive Strength and Power With These Eccentric Exercises

Isometric exercises involve having the athlete hold a specific position (e.g., the top of a Push-Up or the bottom of a Squat) while resisting gravity and other forces pulling him out of position. Isometric movements offer a huge nervous system training effect, challenging the brain to get comfortable in an uncomfortable position. Because of the CNS response, using isometrics are a great way to train control and stability, as well as to increase strength through improved neural drive.

RELATED: Get Stronger with Eccentric Training

We incorporate isometric exercises into many of our programs, and into almost every program for new and younger athletes. Changing where the isometric is held, varying the time of the hold, and adding load to the exercise creates a greater training effect to carry over to their sport.

We start our athletes with a simple bodyweight hold at the bottom of a Squat or Split Squat, or at the top of a Push-Up. The goal of our progressions is to challenge the stability requirements in the positions by removing a point of contact to the ground, adding a load to force the athlete off-balance and having them overcome that force.

Eccentric exercises involve controlling movement patterns through the eccentric, or lowering, phase of a lift, fighting the gravitational force pulling the athlete down. The eccentric phase puts greater stress on tissue, which is why, apart from improving body awareness and stability, eccentrics are great for eliciting gains in strength and size. In terms of athletic performance, eccentric loading of a movement is critical to large force outputs through force production and muscle spindle activation. And teaching proper loading techniques through a movement ensures athletes are moving optimally, engaging the right muscles to be as powerful and efficient as possible, and  reducing the risk of injury.

RELATED: Dumbbell Isometric Chest Press

We have our athletes start with bodyweight exercises such as Squats, Lunges, Push-Ups, Pull-Ups and Hip Hinges, where they control the descent through a specified count, typically 3 seconds down. As they progress, we start adding external loads to the exercises, increasing the time down and adding an  explosive component to the concentric muscle action out of the eccentric to promote a greater transfer to their sport. Whichever way we progress, we have to make sure the athlete is successful with the movement patterns, understands how his body is moving, and can feel the load in the right areas before we increase the challenge of the exercises.

RELATED: Split Squats with Isometric Hold

Having an athlete control himself through different movement patterns, and then having him hold specific positions, sends great feedback to the CNS. The subsequent neural and muscular response teaches athletes to learn body awareness, patterning and stability in multiple positions. These traits are what allow the athletes to move optimally and efficiently in their sport and reach a higher level of athletic performance.

When performed correctly, the Deadlift can be an effective movement to increase strength, size, speed and power. Because it trains multiple attributes for improved performance, it’s slightly more complicated than just picking a weight up off the ground and putting it back down. To get the full training benefit and prevent injury, take the time to learn the proper technique.

Below are some key cues I use to coach the Deadlift to maximize performance and maintain the health of my athletes.

RELATED: Deadlift Complexes: The Secret Exercise for Insane Strength

Setup

The setup for the Deadlift is key. If you start in a bad position, you’re going to finish in a bad position, or waste energy trying to get out of that bad position. A good initial setup ensures you are in a safe position to lift and able to move efficiently throughout to produce the maximum amount of force. We look for three main points in our setup:

• Start with the bar just in front of your shins. Place your feet hip-width apart, toes pointing forward or just slightly out, depending on your anatomy. When you look down, the bar should be over the knot in your laces.
• Hips back. Keeping your neck back, chin tucked and chest tall, push your hips back as far as you can to get down to the bar.
• Grab the bar, pull yourself down. Grab the bar with a double overhand or alternate grip, and think about pulling your chest tall and your shoulders and hips back. This creates tension in your hamstrings, hips, lats and traps, allowing you to stay stable in the torso and powerful in your lower half.

The Pull

Once you’ve established a strong, stable positon in the bottom, you’re ready to lift the weight from the floor. Here are the main cues I use for the lift:

• Brace your core. In the bottom position, take a large breath in and brace your core. Think of your trunk as a can of soda. You want to apply pressure outward into your anterior core, obliques and lower back.
• Tension on the bar. Chest tall. Take the slack off the bar. By taking the slack off the bar, you add more tension in your body and prevent jerking the weight up, allowing for a safer lift. I have my athletes think about pulling their chest tall from the floor to the top of the lift to prevent them from rounding their backs.
• Push through your heels. The lift begins with a powerful leg drive through the heels into the floor. I coach to push the weight away from the ground, rather than pulling it up. I’ve found this helps to be powerful through the legs and hips rather than using the lower back to pull the weight off the ground.
• Drive your hips. Push your hips through at the top while bracing your core hard. To get powerful hips, you need to finish the lift with your hips extended and glutes powerfully engaged. This, along with a braced core, helps prevent overextending in the lower back.

RELATED: Does Your Back Round When You Deadlift? Here’s How to Fix It

The Descent

I’m not a fan of athletes dropping the weight at the top of a lift. A huge component of moving well and being athletic is the ability to absorb force through eccentric loading of the hips, which is ignored when you drop the weight. From the top of the lift, I coach my athletes to have a controlled eccentric movement to the ground, reversing the pattern they just performed.

• Brace your core. Keep your hips back. From the top, I have my athletes take another deep breath, brace their core, and begin the descent by pushing their hips back, keeping their chest tall, neck back and chin tucked.
• Sit back. Once the bar gets to your knees, continue pushing your hips back as you bend your knees, lowering the weight to the floor.

The Deadlift is a complex lift, which, when performed correctly, offers a huge return on your investment. To gain the greatest value and training effect and reduce the risk of injury, establish a strong bottom position, be powerful out of it, and control the weight back down. Whether you’re an elite athlete or a weekend warrior, incorporating the Deadlift into your program will make a big impact on achieving your fitness and performance goals.

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