Baseball Strength Training Examined

   I am a New York Mets fan, thus I do have a somewhat fatalistic streak. When I read over the winter that Noah Syndergaard had packed on 15 lbs. of muscle over the off-season, I just knew that he was going to be injured before long.
   Sure enough, Syndergaard, a solid but lean 6-6 to start with, ended up pulling a "lat" (lattissimus dorsi) muscle on April 30th, and hasn't been back since.
    New York Times reporter James Wagner caught up with Syndergaard recently, and in a July 23rd article, the 24-year old, nicknamed "Thor," admitted that he may have taken the wrong approach.
    "So much of what I learned this year," Syndergaard told Wagner, "is that I thought I was doing what I needed to be doing. But I realize now how messed up my body was, and I'm working hard to get it back to normal."
   Syndergaard, undergoing extensive rehab now, will not forego the weights, "but you have to be smart about it." The ace right-hander felt he wasn't "taxed enough" in his old workout and pushed himself harder this past winter. In retrospect, he feels he may have over-done it, and now is adding more stretching into his routine.
   "Nobody really wants to stretch," he said. His desire now is to be "strong, but also mobile and agile."
   Syndergaard still feels a good amount of weight-training is necessary to carry you through the rigors of a six-month baseball season, but besides flexibility work, is also adding more running to build up cardiovascular endurance. He used to do yoga and pilates, but is giving that a rest, because it's "not exactly sport specific."
    All-time great Alex Rodriguez, now a FOX broadcaster, feels that today's younger players have neglected running, and that's led to a rash of injuries, particularly hamstring problems. "A Rod," in a recent broadcast, said his off-season program, besides weights, included a lot of 200 and 400-meter "repeats" at the track, which gave him lower body strength and endurance, and taxed the legs in a similar way to the stop and start of baseball.
    Training for sports is always evolving, and what works for one person may not be the right mix for the next. Everyone, weekend warrior to Noah Syndergaard, must find the combination that works best for them. Think of the skill-set your sport needs and try to tailor your workouts to it. From that point on, it's trial and error. We hope to see "Thor" back in action soon. It's been a dreary season for Met fans!