The best hitters in baseball have powerful swings. You can have the best eye in the game, but if you can’t drive the ball out of the infield, you will quickly fall behind your competition. (Read about Miguel Cabrera’s Off-Season Workout.)

Fortunately, power can be improved with a hitting workout. It will help you use your legs and core to drive the bat through the zone, adding zip to the ball. When combined with hitting practice, this is the recipe for success at the plate.

Power Hitting Principles

• Hitting a baseball starts with your legs, not your arms.
• When you hit, your two legs do different things, so you must create equal strength in both legs with single-leg exercises.
• Your trunk transfers force from your lower body to your arms and eventually to the bat. Structural exercises like Squats, which require good posture, develop this physical ability.
• Hitting a baseball is explosive. Exercises like Med Ball Throws and Power Cleans will teach you how to apply max strength in as little time as possible.

Baseball Hitting Workout

The following hitting workout program, to be performed three days per week on non-consecutive days, reflects the above principles. Rest one to two minutes between sets. The program gets progressively harder to challenge your body. Start at the low end of the specified percentage of your max and work up to the high end over the course of three weeks. Then retest your strength and start over based on your new max.

Day One

• Power Clean – 3×3-6 @ 60-70%
• Med Ball Chest Pass – 3×10
• Back Squats – 3×8-12 @ 70-80%
• Lunges – 3×8-12 each leg
• Romanian Deadlifts – 3×8-12
• Neutral-Grip Dumbbell Press – 3×8-12
• Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldowns – 3×8-12

Day Two

• Single-Arm Dumbbell Power Clean – 3×3-6 each side
• Med Ball Rotational Throws – 3×10 each side
• Split Squats – 3×8-12 each leg @ 30-40% max Back Squat
• Glute-Ham Raise – 3×8-12
• Neutral-Grip Dumbbell Incline Press – 3×8-12
• Single-Arm Dumbbell Rows – 3×8-12 each arm
• 3-in-1 Shoulders (Front Raise + Side Raise + Rear Delt Raise) – 3×12-15

Day Three

• Dumbbell Split Clean – 3×3-6 each leg
• Med Ball Forward Toss – 3×10
• Front Squats – 3×4-8 @ 50-60% max Back Squat
• Reverse Lunges – 3×8-12 each leg
• Single-Leg Romanian Deadlifts – 3×4-8 each leg
• Dips – 3xMax
• Pull-Ups – 3xMax
• Superset: Bicep Curls + Tricep Extensions – 3×12-15