Baseball strength and conditioning tips to get you back in the game

Can't wait to get back to baseball or softball season?

You'll need some baseball strength and conditioning tips to help get you up to speed before the season actually starts.

Injury prevention is the best medicine for safety and performance

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System emergency rooms across the country saw more than 265000 baseball and softball injuries in 2012. Fractured or sprained ankles and knees topped the injury list followed by facial injuries.

While lots of sports injuries are simply accidents adopting a preseason baseball strength and conditioning routine can help your body withstand the stresses experienced during play — plus it can build up your strength and endurance to run faster hit harder and throw longer.

Upping athleticism before baseball season

While you might be looking for baseball- and softball-specific conditioning drills or exercises the American College of Sports Medicine suggests focusing on general fitness abilities during a preseason period (of at least six to eight weeks) before the team starts playing games. This routine should include multi-joint exercises that require balance stabilization and coordination and strengthen the core. You should perform these two to three times a week with a rest day in between.

The standard minimum physical activity guidelines for adults according to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion is 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise for 30 to 60 minutes per session 75 minutes per week of vigorous-intensity exercise for 20 to 60 minutes per session or another combination of the two. Along with this the organization recommends doing muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week. This is a good base on which to build your baseball strength and conditioning routine.

Proper warm-up and cool-down

According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE) the most effective warm-up mimics the movements and the wide range of motion you are about to perform during the activity — in this case baseball or softball. Warm up for one to three minutes before the activity and perform each of your warm-up moves five to 10 times.

For baseball and softball try arm circles that mimic throwing and fielding and torso twists and arm swings that mimic the batting rotation. Go through the motions of each exercise slowly to get your body ready to perform them.

According to the Mayo Clinic warming up with light activity is a good idea. The organization actually recommends that you save the static stretching (holding a stretch) for the cool-down period once your muscles are already warm and ready to extend. Try stretching your arms shoulders hamstrings and quadriceps to improve flexibility for running fielding and batting.

Give yourself time

Even a relatively fit person doesn't merely exercise one day and wake up in sporting shape. If you've been largely inactive all winter the ACE has a 12-week program to "kick-start" your fitness so getting started as soon as possible is the right idea. This is doubly true for people concerned about overuse injuries. If this is the case you should talk to your doctor or physical therapist about any limitations and what you can do to prevent injury. They might recommend daily shoulder exercises like those published by the Animated Dissection of Anatomy for Medicine.

Once your general fitness is up to par and you begin workouts with a team the coach will likely initiate baseball strength and conditioning drills and make recommendations based on your age and skill level.