Reasons for Baseball Players not to Perform Distance Running

Boy, don't they look like they could throw some heat

    

    Often times, when baseball season comes rolling along, you'll see players performing an endless number of 'poles' or runs through the local neighborhood. Why is there a large amount of coaches who do this? Is it because they are lazy and just want the kids out of their hair for awhile? I don't know the true answer, but what I do know is that distance running is unrelated to the demands of their sport.  One pitch in baseball takes about 2-4 seconds depending on the pitcher, with a fraction of that time being the determining explosive action. When running the bases, average times from home to first fall within 3.5-4.5 seconds. Do either of these actions sound like they involve the same demands as distance running? Are you beginning to get the message? Distance running for any strength and power athlete is inappropriate and will only serve to drain the athletes and zap them of the strength and power they need to compete at a high level. Below is a list of 5 issues that I have with distance running when it comes to baseball.

1. Due to already present stressors in their lives, natural testosterone and growth hormone levels are already depressed, both crucial for strength, power and recovery. These issues can arise from poor sleep pattens, a poor diet, school work, traveling for games, etc. Distance running only serves to worsen this condition by depressing testosterone further and giving rise to chronically high cortisol levels (a stress hormone which can cause break down of muscle tissue). 
2. Do to its repetitive nature, the pattern of movement can become ingrained in the system, affecting capabilities to produce other movement patterns when called upon. It robs athletes of their ability to be athletic. Seeing as how baseball, and namely pitching, is a repetitive motion, pattern overload is a serious issue.
3. Due to the lack of a full range of motion at the hip, the hip flexors (mainly the psoas) as well as the hip extensors(glutes and hamstrings) can remain under-activated . This will result in a lack of hip mobility. It is common for baseball players to suffer from HIRD, or hip internal rotation deficit, which takes away from the necessary range of motion that their hips must undergo to perform specific movements such as pitching and hitting. To compensate, the body will call on other areas to take on the stressors of the action, leading to injuries in ill-prepared and inappropriate muscles and joints.
4. Distance running isn't powerful, plain and simple. Pitching requires a large amount of power to be moved from the legs up through a strong core and then transfered up the arm to the ball to produce high throwing velocities.
5. Long distance running can lead to illness due to a depressed immune function. Combined with the issues that baseball players have to face in their daily lives discussed in the first issue, distance running leads to chronically elevated cortisol levels and an impaired ability to recover from illnesses.

CC Sabathia, not exactly the most conditioned athlete.

    While there are other reasons not to undertake distance running, those 5 should give you a really good idea on why you or your athlete should not be using it as part of their program. Sprinting should instead be utilized. You might ask, 'But how will they get conditioned?' Let me ask you, how many times have you seen a MLB game where the pitcher looks as if EMTs should be on the dugout steps ready to take action if the pitcher pases out from the trip to the mound? Now that isn't to say those pitchers couldn't use some extra conditioning to lose weight, but the bottom line is, you don't need high conditioning levels to play baseball. In fact, those pitches often are 'workhorses' throwing 200+ innings for multiple years. For pitchers, a smart preseason throwing program including progressions from long tossing and flat ground work to mound work and bullpen sessions is plenty to get into top condition for the season.

No Nonsense Baseball,

Kyle Bohannon, CSCS

Owner/Head Trainer

kyle@trainstrive.com

www.trainstrive.com