The Fundamentals

Training the lower body helps baseball players increase the capacity of force they are able to produce and how much they can produce quickly. Both of these are needed in games, so we need to prepare accordingly. As the athlete's force output increases, so does the amount of stress being put on the body. This means more prep to tolerate those stressors for both performance and durability.  In short, we know that in baseball the lower body is going to be put through a wide variety of positions at high speeds and under high stresses. To be ready for this, we need to develop strength and stability through wide ranges of motion.

As far as what lower body lifts are good for baseball players, that answer changes depending on the individual. Some of the factors that go into this are injury history, time of year, athlete goals, and training experience. We look to include exercises that move athletes linearly, laterally, and rotationally along with also working bilateral and single leg movements. Overall, when it comes to lower body training for baseball players is to find exercises that are specific to the player, rather than specific to the sport.

Exercise Selection Basics

For needs and situations that don’t just call for a back squat, the safety squat bar (SSB) can be a great tool to still get an axial load. This is particularly useful for athletes with shoulder or elbow injuries as they don’t have to grip the bar on their back. It’s important to load the spine so the athlete can develop adaptations to resist collapsing their posture, strengthening the core and surrounding muscle groups. The first squat variation we typically start athletes out with is the goblet squat, and then progress it to an anterior loaded squat such as a front squat, Frankenstein squat, and/or Zercher squat. After the athlete has made the desired adaptations from the front-loaded squat variations, we will typically move the load to the posterior. This move to back or SSB squats progresses the load and challenges the movement in a new way.

Lunge variations are important for all athletes as their sports are not played in just one plane or on two legs. As it is important for the athletes to get strong in all ranges of motion, it is also key to train to express their strength and power in different planes. Increasing coordination can help increase the athletes' ability to transfer the gains they make in the weight room to the field. Lunges are a great way to get unilateral strength gains while adding elements beyond the sagittal (linear) plane, as they require different strength, stability, and mobility to execute. Examples of the lunge variations you will see in the weight room at Driveline are reverse lunges, walking lunges, and lateral lunges. Changing up how you load the lunges is a great way to regress and progress those exercises. Some examples of this are front rack reverse lunge or goblet lateral lunge into a band. If the goal is more focused on peak output and the athlete is close to their season or even in their season, giving them an overload movement with less stability demand like Hatfield Rear foot elevated split squat is a great way to still progress strength through the desired range of motion 

Lower body exercises often involve significant demands of the core and the posterior chain. This should be monitored to ensure we are not over-taxing the lower back, which would put the athlete at increased risk of injury. Including anterior core exercises to increase the stability of the core can help reduce that risk and help them maintain better posture throughout the movements. This is also why having a qualified coach to program and monitor your lifting is crucial.

Knee vs. Hip Dominant Movements

Knee-dominant exercise is a key movement pattern for developing the lower body. Among the most common knee-dominant exercises you will see in the driveline weight room are squat and lunge variations. When choosing what specific type of squats or lunges, it’s important that we put the athlete’s goals first and understand that no one exercise is right or wrong for the sport. Back squat doesn't need to be demonized or championed, as it is just a way to provide a higher load bilateral lower body squat exercise. Almost every element of the squat can be modified. We can do this by changing the range of motion and movement path through the loading strategy, such as front or back rack, or by making it unilateral by only using one leg at a time. Bodyweight plyometrics like hops and bounds are a great way to increase the velocity of the movements and get the athletes moving explosively in the different planes to get a more dynamic output.

When it comes to hip dominant exercises, the same planes apply. The most popular of these you will see in our weight room are Trapbar deadlift, Barbell RDL, and a barbell hip thrust. Our most popular unilateral variations are single-leg rdls and hip thrusts along with hamstring curls. For accessory work, we tend to choose single-leg variations due to the stability demands of each. The rotational mobility and stability needed in these unilateral exercises are often in line with the stressors that the athletes will have to tolerate in their sport.

Knee and hip dominant exercises are broad categories that help when organizing exercises, not training absolutes. Gray areas still exist such as the Bulgarian split squat, where there is a decent amount of knee flexion but works more of the posterior chain. Another example is the hamstring curl, which is a posterior exercise but has more of a knee extension/flexion concentration. It is important to train both knee dominant exercises and hip dominant exercises in all three planes. These are the areas the athletes will surely have to perform movements while on the field, so they must prep with that in mind.

Bodyweight Lower-Body Training

Bodyweight exercises are a great way for younger or less trained baseball players to start the weight room. They can build some foundational movement patterns and lower body strength this way, with no equipment needed. Knee dominant exercises such as squats and lunges are a great way to accomplish this and achieve some muscle growth (hypertrophy) in the legs. When it comes to your posterior chain, RDLs, hip thrusts, glute bridges, and hamstring curls are a great entry to hypertrophy and building strength. You can also introduce single leg variations of RDLs, hip thrusts, and hamstring curls. Using different tools and equipment like chains, slides, and bands to modify the loading is a great way to progress those bodyweight exercises. Having the physical ability to move your body around is needed to be ready to play at the next level.