A Practical Guide to Baseball Workouts for Pitchers: Build Strength, Balance, and Durability

Learn how pitchers can train smarter with exercises that support velocity, protect the arm, and match your unique mechanics.

Why Pitchers Need Their Workout Approach

Many pitchers follow general strength programs without realizing those routines aren't built with throwing – or their specific needs – in mind.
Pitching is a complex movement that places unique demands on the shoulder, elbow, hips, and legs. If your program ignores those differences or mimics what other players do, you may not be building the strength or stability needed to throw efficiently.

This is even more complex because not every pitcher moves the same way.
Some have more mobile hips, others rely more on late upper-body rotation, and many may have old injuries that change how they train. That’s why this guide doesn’t give you a one-size-fits-all list; it helps you understand what areas to train and how to adjust your plan based on your own body and background.

The Five Key Areas Pitchers Should Train

Let’s break it down into five core categories every pitcher should think about. These areas are based on real-world experience, current research in sports performance, and the shared practices of high-level programs.

1. Arm Care: Support What You Use Most

Before everything else, you need to protect your arm.
Pitching places significant stress on the shoulder and elbow, which is why rotator cuff and elbow exercises are foundational movements for any age pitcher. Band external rotations, scapular pushups, and light wrist exercises may look small, but they help build long-term durability. These drills support the muscles that stabilize your joints, especially after repeated throws.

Insight: Injuries can happen when your stabilizer muscles fatigue faster than your larger muscles. That’s why shoulder care and overall stability are just as important as absolute strength.

2. Balance and Mobility: Build Control Before Velocity

Every pitch begins with movement: your windup, your leg lift, and your stride toward the plate.
Exercises that improve balance and hip mobility help you control those movements. These include single-leg RDLs (a balance favorite), hip openers like the 90/90 stretch, and lateral lunges for stride control.

Not every pitcher will need the same mobility drills, but nearly all benefit from more awareness of how their lower body moves during their delivery.

Tip: Record your stride or balance drills in slow motion. You’ll often see where your control breaks down.

3. Strength Training: Build the Body That Supports the Throw

You don’t need to lift like a bodybuilder to throw hard, but you need strength in the right areas.
Pitchers benefit most from movements that work the posterior chain (your back, glutes, and hamstrings) and the core. That’s where your throwing power starts. Focus on exercises like:

• Trap bar deadlifts
  
  

• Front squats
  
  

• Rear-foot elevated split squats
  
  

• Cable core rotations
  
  

• Landmine presses
  
  

These movements support power and balance. They also help transfer energy efficiently through your delivery.

Note: Don’t chase big numbers: Chase consistency, control, and clean movement.

4. Explosive Drills: Turn Strength into Game-Speed Power

Once strength is in place, you can convert it into speed.
Explosive exercises help pitchers become faster and more dynamic. These can include:

• Medicine ball throws (rotational or slam variations)
  
  

• Jump squats or box jumps
  
  

• Sprint starts
  
  

• Lateral bounds and skater hops
  
  

These drills improve how quickly your muscles can fire. Over time, this may improve pitch velocity and quickness off the mound.

Warning: These drills can be high-impact. Start with lower reps and build gradually.

5. Weighted Balls and Biomechanics: Use with Purpose

Weighted ball training has grown popular, but it isn’t magic.
When used correctly, weighted balls may help increase arm speed. But they also can increase stress – any higher arm speeds will. Their impact depends heavily on the implementation, strength capacities, and how the drills are structured.
If you're considering weighted balls, do so under guidance. Track how you move, how your arm feels, and how your body reacts across time. When we suggest plyo drills, we do so based on the player’s biomechanical assessment. These drills are just as much to improve delivery efficiency as they are for arm strength or velocity. Delivery efficiency is where long-term, sustainable pitching velocity comes from, anyway.

Smart tip: Use a camera, radar gun, or coach’s feedback to assess, not guess, whether weighted ball work is helping or hurting.

Bonus: Recovery and Conditioning Aren’t Optional

Pitchers need to recover just as hard as they train – maybe harder.
Workouts don’t mean much if your body doesn’t have time to adapt and heal. Recovery routines should include:

• Light mobility flows
  
  

• Stretching (especially post-throwing)
  
  

• Foam rolling or massage
  
  

• Cold tubs or contrast therapy
  
  

• Sleep tracking
  
  

• Hydration and protein-rich meals
  
  

Conditioning should match your position. That means sprint intervals, agility drills, and tempo running, less long-distance jogging, more short bursts with intent.

Final Thoughts: Build the Plan That Fits You

There’s no single "perfect" pitching workout.
What works best depends on your current ability, your body type, and how you move. But smart pitcher training always includes:

• Protecting the arm
  
  

• Training for control, not just power
  
  

• Matching your strength to your throwing mechanics
  
  

• Recovering and adjusting based on how you feel
  
  

If you’re serious about staying healthy, throwing harder, or getting more consistent, this is the plan to build on.

Continue Learning:

• How to Prevent Arm Injuries in Pitchers
  
  

• Weighted Balls: Pros & Cons of Weighted Ball Training
  
  

• Pitching Equipment for Smart Training