It’s always interesting to see how top athletes stay in shape – especially baseball players. What kinds of exercises get you through an entire 162-game season?
Mens Fitness.com got a peek at Los Angeles Angels centerfielder Torii Hunter’s workout regime and it’s quite interesting.
Hunter says there isn’t a set rotation of exercises on each day, so the players don’t know what Maresh will have them doing when they show up each morning. The only guarantee is that it will be an intense two to three hours, and that there won’t be much machine work; it’s all “Rocky Balboa stuff,” as Hunter says, with the players often using their own body weight as the tension force. “You might do box jumps, stepups, and pullups,” Hunter says. But the trickiest one has him in pushup position, feet on a physio ball, while using his hands to balance a board over asmall wheel. “At first, the goal is to just balance it,” he says. “I can do pushups now, but it’s real tough. It takes focus.
“The physio ball is definitely my friend,” Hunter says. “It’s a big part in everything I do with my core. I get a 45-pound weight and lay back with my arms out in front of me and crunch it without moving the physio ball. Keep your hips up the whole time. Get stabilization. If you’re strong in the midsection, that means you’re stable; you’re stronger than a guy who just lifts weights.”
As you can see from the photos, Hunter does a ton of core exercises, which is vital for baseball. There isn’t a lot of heavy lifting in his workout routine and almost everything is done on a physio ball (or Swiss ball as it’s sometimes called), which forces more muscle groups to work together at the same time. For more photos click here.
