Tagged: power

Jogging Kills Your Power – Studies You Should Know About

Baseball is a game of POWER, power pitchers and power hitters dominate the game and get the attention of coaches, scouts and fans.  Every play in baseball lasts only a few seconds and the two main actions, swing and throwing, requires less than a second.  Despite these facts endurance training has been emphasised for years which is especially true for pitchers who have been made to run countless about of poles.

The big question is why would you do endurance training if your sport requires nothing but short bursts of power?

The warning should be that running on the warning track for too long will kill your power outputWarning – running on the warning track for too long will

Kill your Power Output!!!!

Enter today’s study that you should know about:


Authors: Matthew R. Rhea,  Jeff R. Oliverson, Greg Marshall, Mark D. Peterson, Joseph G. Kenn and Fernado Naclerio Ayllo’n.

What did they want to find out?

They wanted to find how lower body power in baseball player was affected throughout a season with either endurance or sprint based metabolic/conditioning work.

Lower body power is a great thing to have in baseball and pretty much any other sport in the world.  In another study the Texas Rangers organization tested all of their players from “A” ball all the way up to the Big Leaguers and showed that lower body power levels climbed higher and higher with each level of competition.  To find out other differences between the minor league and the big league players check out the rest of the article here.


How did they find out?

They split 16 college baseball players into two groups.  While both groups performed the exact same in-season weight training program 2-3 days per week they differed in how they performed their conditioning.  One group performed sprints (10-30 reps, 15-60 meters, 10-60 sec rest) while the other group performed approximately 45 minutes of jogging or cycle 3 days per week.

Lower body power was measured before and after the season.   To measure lower body power these authors used a TENDO FiTROdyne  Powerlizer.  This device measures jump height but also takes into consideration body weight.

Body weight is an important component of power because if two guys can both jump 24 inches off the ground the guy who weighs more needs to produce more power to get 24 inches off the ground.

At 307lbs with a 35 1/2 inch vertical Ndamukong Suh of the Detroit Lions is a very very powerful athlete

At 307lbs with a 35 1/2 inch vertical Ndamukong Suh of the Detroit Lions is a very powerful athlete

Why Use the Vertical Jump?

The vertical jump is standard test for lower body power in the world of exercise physiology.  While a baseball player’s ability to jump vertically is not stressed it does still indicate a level of athleticism and power.  The study that I performed found that vertical jump height does not significantly correlate with throwing velocity but I would say it doesn’t hurt to have a guy that can jump high.  If nothing else it indicates a good strength to weight ratio.

If you want to measure your own power get a calculator and find out how high your vertical jump is in centimeters (your vertical in inches/2.54) and how heavy you are in kilograms (your weight in pounds X 2.2) and follow the equations below for your peak and average power in watts with the Harman Formula.

Peak power (W) = (61.9 x jump height (cm)) + (36.0 x body mass (kg)) + 1,822

If you want to compare yourself to the pro ball players in this other study that I mentioned here are their numbers.  The big league players in the Rangers organization had average verticals of nearly 72 cm and weighed 101.2 kg which gave them a peak power of 11542 watts.  Compare this to the “A” ball players who were 92kg with verticals of 70 cm which produced peak power of 10823 watts.

For the record Ndamukong Suh’s peak power is 12427 watts!!!  Someone who weighs 100kg (220lbs) would need to jump a freaky 45 inches to produce as much power.

What did they find out?

From the beginning to the end of the season the group that performed endurance training saw their power levels drop an average of 39.5 watts.  This isn’t a huge drop and it is understandable how at the end of the season your body might not be what is was at the start of the season.   However the sprint group saw an average increase of 210.6 watts!!!

The results really come down to a principle in exercise physiology called specificity.  This principal states that the training program needs to be sport specific.  Obviously the most specific thing to throwing or hitting a baseball would be throwing or hitting a baseball but our bodies can only handle so much of these actions so we need to find a means of conditioning that DOES NOT hurt our ability to produce power.

What this means

Whenever you exercise you are training your body to get better at that particular action.  So if you run long distances your body is going to make the adaptations necessary to get better at this type of training by improving your ability to use the slow twitch muscles rather than the fast twitch muscles.

Slow twitch muscles are made for endurance and as a result they have very poor power production while fast twitch muscles are great for short powerful bursts but bad for endurance.  Although baseball games can last a long time there is approximately 13 seconds between pitches which is more than enough time for those fast twitch muscles to recover.

Check out the picture below of an endurance runner versus a sprinter.  Which body would you say is better for throwing hard?

I’m going with the guy on the right

Take Home Message

Running is great for baseball players but the type of running you do is going to have a huge effect on how your body is going to respond.

Instead of conditioning with long distance running try:

  • running sprints like they did in this study
  • perform circuits of exercises likes lunges, pushups and rows
  • push a sled or a car (be sure its in neutral and a safe environment)
  • try interval poles where you alternate between jogging, sprinting and walking

It’s a very expensive piece of exercise equipment

but you might already have one 

Until next time Stay Powerful

Graeme Lehman


Tis’ the Season for Size & Strength


  1. Eat Lots of Food
  2. Get Lots of Rest
  3. Lift Lots of Heavy Weights


Let’s look at these elements individually.




  • Workout Nutrition – Follow this sequence when you lift weights
  1. Eat a meal 2 hours before the gym
  5. Nap
  6. Continue to eat every 4 hours


  • Eat a minimum of five meals
  • drink plenty of water – 5 liter minimum


Strong like bear means you must sleep like one


  • sleep in a very dark and slightly cool room
  • try to maintain a regular sleep schedule


Your only “stress” over the holidays



Exercise Fundamentals Series – #2 Rest

#2 – Rest

Part one of this series looked at “stress” while part two will look at  the “rest” portion of the fitness formula.

“Stress” and “Rest” can be likened to the Yin and Yang of ancient Chinese Philosophy.

baseball ying yang
Yin & Yang = Rest & Stress

We have all seen this symbol and how it represents balance between these two equal but opposite forces – a balance that must be respected if you want to achieve higher levels of fitness.

If you have too much stress/yang and not enough rest/yin you will beat yourself up and tear your body down – this is no good.

too much stress

But if you provide too much rest/yin and not enough stress/yang you’re body will not positively adapt and will become fatter and lazier.

There is a basic concept in exercise that you must learn to accept otherwise you will be literally wasting your time and effort in the gym.  The concept is that we DO NOT get bigger, faster and stronger during our workouts but rather the time between them.  Tough to grasp I know but keep following along.

The stress you place on yur body during your workout just gets the ball rolling towards your goals of becoming more powerful baseball player.  If you give your body a chance to rest we just have to rely on our body’s natural ability to adapt so we are better prepared to meet the demands of this stress if we come across it again.  This is why we can progressively lift heavier weigh we have conditioned our body to do so.  In the world of Exercise Physiology this model is either called “Super compensation” or “Fitness Fatigue”.

Fitness Fatigue Model

These two models are slightly different from one another but they both basically state your body will improve its fitness level following a stress if you give it the chance.  The rest that you provide your body then becomes vitally important if you want to make positive gains.

Bottom line

Follow your workouts up with periods of relaxation.  Food and sleep are two of our best weapons to make the most out of our recovery time between workouts. Don’t forget about all the other distresses in our lives – if you can learn how to handle them, you will be well on your way to seeing the results that you want.

working hard on his resting

Take home points

  • Get at least 8 hours of sleep each night
  • Go to bed before midnight
  • Don’t watch tv or look at a computer screen 30 minutes before bed
  • Take a breath with Epsom salt (form of magnesium that helps muscles relax)
  • Make sure all your school work is done (another form of stress you need to control)
  • Have a post workout drink with carbs and protein to start the recovery process as soon as possible.
  • Try taking an adaptogen in the form of a Ginseng to help your body cope.
  • Try breathing exercises

Graeme Lehman

Exercise Fundamentals Series – # 1 Stress

This is the first of a three part series on the basics of exercise.  The fitness industry has done a phenomenal job of complicating things and confusing people but it is my mission to break down all the geeky science and fitness myths into “Layman’s Terms” so you can succeed with whatever your fitness goals may be.

If want to create a body that is capable of pumping ut big league power then you have to follow this simple 3 step formula:

  1. Stress your body– provide a physical stress to your body that is just beyond what you are capable of doing.
  2. Rest your body- let your body repair, grow and adapt to the stress.
  3. Repeat – be consistent

That is basically it ladies and gentlemen; everything you read about exercise can be classified into one of these three categories.  While there are of course a lot of finer details that I will discuss in further articles about these three basic components I will just focus on the fundamental principles for now.

#1 – Stress – Build Legendary Strength

Willie Mays Kneeling on Ground

The legend of Milo of Croton is the old story of a  in weight lifting and illustrates the point of stress and how it builds strength.  The legend states that as a young man Milo lifted and carried a newborn calf on his shoulders while walking around and he continued to pick up and carry this calf everyday as the calf grew into maturity forcing his body to become stronger.  The story culminates with Milo walking into the Olympic stadium carrying a full grown bull over his head.


This story represents a principal in the exercise science world called progressive overload.  This principal, first identified by Dr. Thomas Delorme, requires a gradual increase in volume, frequency, intensity or time in order to produce a positive adaptation such as decreased fat stores and increased muscle.

The tough part about this progressive overload principal is that you have to push your body beyond its limits because if you don’t, your body will not make any changes.

db rack

Start on the top row and progress to the bottom (don’t forget about the middle row and technique for each rep too!!)

The bottom line is you are going to have to work hard and keep pushing yourself to get to where you want to be. Stop judging your workouts on how sweaty you are or how sore your muscles are the next day.  To see if you are on the right path just simply ask yourself if you did better than the last time you did that workout.  If the answer is “Yes” then congratulations you just had a great workout and are on your way.  It is beyond the scope of this article but there will be times that you will have to purposely underachieve in order to make bigger gains but we will cross that bridge when we get there.

The path towards your goals is simple but it’s not easy.


The Five Athletic Tools



Are you a 5 Tool Athlete?





Ball Player or Athlete?

Baseball is one of the most powerful sports earth.  Hitting and throwing are two of the most explosive actions that you’ll find in any sport.  Despite this some people don’t consider baseball to be a sport that requires a lot of athletic ability to be successful.

This stereotype is a result of the fact that baseball is game that places a high demand of skill.  Skills like hitting a round ball squarely with a round bat or the skill to make a ball look like it’s coming faster than it is just to have it fad away at the last possible second.  High levels of these types of skills can help you compensate for a lack of other skills such as athletic ability, after all if you are very skilled at hitting your ability to run doesn’t matter much.

Hit Em’ Where They Ain’t

This is part of the reason that those who play baseball can be described as a “ball player” or as an “athlete”.  The ball player might have a lot of skill such as hand eye coordination but may lack speed or strength while the athlete posses plenty of speed and strength but is deficient in the skill side of the game such as fielding, hitting or pitching.

“I’m no athlete…I’m a ball player” – John Kruk

Even with the pitching position some guys are known as good throwers will others are “pitchers”

Jamie Moyer – pitcher

Brandon League – Athlete

The five tool player

For the non baseball fans out there a “Five Tool Player” is a term used to describe a player that has all of the necessary abilities to excel at the game of baseball – someone that can do it all.

The Five Baseball Tools are:

  1. Run

    Willie Mays circa 1954

  2. Field
  3. Throw
  4. Hit for Power
  5. Hit for Average

These types of players are a rare breed and every coach wants a roster full of them because they are have an ideal combination of athlete and ball player.  Some examples of some “Five Tool Players” include Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle or Ken Griffey Jr to name a few.

Griffey always got a good jump and had a good jump

If you want to be a five tool player you have to first identify what area’s you need to improve upon.

Are you more of an athlete or a ball player? 

Should you concentrate on your ball player or athletic skills right now?

It is in our nature to work on what we are already good at and avoid what we are not good.

More time in the batting cage rather than the squat cage

For the most part young baseball players that have been playing every summer day for the last 5 plus years have spent a lot of time and energy building their ball player skills by taking tons ground ball and BP (batting practice).  Running around and playing catch does provide the benefit of building some athletic skill but it does not do provide as much upside or benefit that occurs when you focus on improving your:

  1. Speed
  2. Strength
  3. Agility
  4. Endurance
  5. Mobility

These happen to be my 5 athletic tools

The Off-Season

One of the challenges that occurs when you start playing higher levels of baseball is that there is less time to focus on building your athletic skills in the off-season because there just isn’t as much off-season.  This is too bad because this is the time when you should be focusing on becoming a better athlete in order to bring your game up to the next level.

Not only will a strength and conditioning program provide you with more speed and strength but a smart program will increase your chances of avoiding injuries which could sideline you and it is impossible to get better when you are hurt.

Your Athletic Skill Resource

Baseball is evolving and today’s game demands that in order to play at the top-level you must have a lot of skill, both baseball and athletic.  And it is the purpose of this blog to help improve your athletic skills.

Be sure to check back to this blog on a regular basis in order to learn more and more about how you can improve your athletic skills and avoid injury.

Check back in the archives to see the off-season program that was listed which is a great place to start.

Graeme Lehman

Do You Have Big League Skills?

Do I have big league skills? 

This is a question that every baseball player wants to know the answer in order have an idea what to work on so that they can get to that level of the game.  But in order to answer this question you have to know a couple key pieces of information

  • What level are my skills at now?
  • What level do my skills need to be at in order to play professional baseball?

Then we have to look at the different categories of baseball skills that make up a baseball player:

  1. Mental Skills (mental toughness, leadership, grittiness, etc)
  2. Baseball Specific Skill (fielding, hitting, base running, pitching, etc)
  3. Athletic Skills (speed, power, agility, etc)

Both mental and baseball specific skills are tough to measure in regards to putting an exact number on them; sure coaches can tell you that you need to get mentally tougher or improve your hitting skills but they can’t give you an exact number or percentage to shoot for.  I have never heard a coach say with certainty that if you improve your grittiness by 34% you will make it to the Big Leagues.  Even baseball scouts can’t measure players with exact figures for mental and baseball skills, they can only rank them in comparison to other players which is more of an art than a science.

The athletic skills on the other hand can be measured and ranked accurately and thanks to some researchers and the Texas Rangers organization we now know just how much athletic skill one needs to play professional baseball.

For two years these researchers tracked 343 players within the Rangers organization and measured athletic attributes like agility, jump height, grip strength, power and sprinting speed along with physical characteristics like height, weight and body fat and they separated them into categories based on what level of professional baseball they played.

Here are some of the results:

Rookie Ball “A” “AA” “AAA” MLB
Age (years) 21.3 22.9 24.9 26.8 28.7
Weight (lbs) 202.5 202.5 211.2 219.0 222.6
Vertical Jump (cm) 70.1  70.1 69.1 71.1 71.9
Vertical Jump Peak Power (watts) 10,798 10,823 11,127 11,435 11,542
Grip Strength (kg) 103.5 105.2 111.6 115.6 111.0
10-Yard Sprint (seconds) 1.57 1.59 1.58 1.55 1.52
Pro-Agility (seconds) 4.54 4.48 4.42 4.53 4.42

 These results clearly demonstrate that the players in the Majors are in fact bigger, faster and stronger than the guys in the minors.

The New Baseball Stats – Athletic Stats

Baseball is a game of stats and the researchers did not ignore this fact.  They looked at the players stats over the course of the two year period and found that certain tests were great at predicting a players ability to steal bases or hit home runs even within their level of baseball.  Here are some highlights of these stats from this study and how it relates to the game of baseball. 

Question: Want more Stolen Bases?

 Answer: Improve your Ten Yard Dash

Rational: The 10 yard dash which measures acceleration which more important than top end speed because it is very rare to hit top speed in baseball.  Acceleration is needed to track down a fly ball, cut off a grounder, steal a bag or beat out an infield single; all of these examples don’t have you hitting your top speed.  The big league players on average had the fastest 10 yard dash times.



Want more of these?




Get Better at This

Question: Want to hit more home runs and increase your slugging percentage?


 Answer: Increase your Vertical Jump Power

Rational:  Power is the combination of force and velocity (for more on Power check out the “5 Athletic Tools”) so when you take the jump height (velocity) and combine it with force (body weight) you get power.  The vertical jump scores of the big leaguers was higher than the other levels but the real story is when you look at the fact that they also weigh more than the other players which means that they are in fact more powerful.  And baseball is a game of power. 


Increase your Vertical Jump and...


Hit More Bombs

This is a very interesting study because baseball is considered to be a very “skill” dominated sport where if a player is very good at hitting or pitching they don’t have to be the greatest athlete in order to reach the top level of the game.  We are always reminded that baseball players are not athletes when we players like Babe Ruth and David Wells are used as examples but these two guys were athletic enough and possessed extreme levels of both baseball specific and mental skills which enabled them both to succeed.  Today’s baseball is becoming more and more competitive and this study shows that athletic skills are playing a deciding role in who plays in the “Show” versus the minors.

The Study: Anthropometric and performance comparisons in professional baseball players.  

The authors: Hoffman JR, Vazquez J, Pichardo N, Tenenbaum G

Where I found it: J Strength Cond Res. 2009 Nov;23(8):2173-8.

Graeme Lehman