This is initially directed towards KyleB since he's a baseball/fitness guru, but anyone who wants to chime in with legitimate responses, please do.

I'm looking for advice for a baseball specific workout over the next few months to achieve a few objectives. First of all, I want to shed some weight in order to increase mobility and speed (and overall athleticism) and secondly I'd like to maintain or increase my power numbers.

About me: I'm 22 and play collegiately at the club level. This is (obviously) less competitive than varsity competition but it is generally more competitive than intramurals. FWIW, I play at a fairly large division I university and we play against decent competition. A team in our conference has consistently represented in the world series for several years running. I will likely be splitting time at 2B and DHing when I'm not in the field.

Anyway, I'm about 5' 10" and approx 205-210 lbs. Five years ago when I was in HS I was at around 180. The past five years has simply been a slow but steady increase in my weight (and fatness level). I'm not fat, but obviously I could be a bit more slim. Our first games are not until an early March trip to Florida and I'm curious what the best plan of attack would be in order to arrive at my previously stated objectives. I should add that I also want to do this in order to increase my general well-being, regardless of any competitive advantages.

Of course, I plan to adjust my diet and eat 5-6 times as recommended throughout the day. I also plan to exercise, both cardio and weight training. Lastly, I think I'll take some supplements. I will take both a protein supplement and a fat loss supplement. Maybe also a multivitamin. With regards to the fat loss, I need some recommendation. What thermogenics do you recommend? I also need recommendations as far as specifics with regard to exercises to achieve my goals.

All and any comments, recommendations and suggestions are greatly appreciated in advance.

i wonder if you play at Pitt

now i wonder if you do!

We are in pretty similar situations - we both have until the beginning of March to really buckle down and get into better shape, and we're both slightly fatter than we want to be. FWIW, I'm 6'1" 205 lbs and also a 2b.

I recommend the basic compound lift structure. My weeks typically look like this:

Monday: Baseball skills day, bodyweight exercises / static stretching day.
Tuesday: Running day.
Wednesday: Heavy lifting day.
Thursday: Running day.
Friday: Heavy lifting day.
Saturday: Running day.

Heavy Lifting Day:
-5x5 squats
-5x5 deadlift
-3x10 seated rows
-3x7 DB chest press
-2x10 cable cross core rotation
-2x10 lunges with medball twist

Running Day:
-Run 2 miles at a slowish pace, maybe sprint a few times during the run as well (depending how I feel, usually never want to sprint to be honest)

Baseball Skills Day: (I'm a RP, too)
-General warmups (jogging, active stretching)
-Thrower's Ten program using SPRI tubing and 5 lb DBs
-Hit 40-50 balls off a tee, over 80% of them are to right-center field (I'm RH)
-Hit 40-50 soft toss balls, maybe less if I am feeling really good and don't want to overwork it, maybe more if I haven't been putting in the work lately (again, still right-center field or up the middle for the most part)
-Warmup the arm with a small long toss session and a quick jog
-Throw 60-80 pitches from the mound in parts of 15, alternating with my workout partner (who is an SP). Videotape at least one part of it. Working almost exclusively on fastball velocity and command at this point.
-Field 30-40 balls at shortstop
-Field 15-20 fly balls in left field
-Maybe whack a few more off a tee if I feel like it (I usually do; I love to hit)

My overall suggestion to you is that you really focus on maxing out compound lifts (squat/deadlift for sure) to increase power, and to get a lot of reps off a tee and soft toss. If you like, you can send me a video of you hitting (make sure it's a side view) and I can analyze it for you to help point out some mechanical flaws that will help you at the plate.

As far as diet/supplements, here's what I'm doing since I'm cutting:

kcals/day: ~2100
meals/day: 4-5
protein intake: .8g/lb bodyweight (I try, anyway)
thermogenic: cannot stress this enough, ErgoLean's AMP is the best legal product I've ever used in this category; 2 caps 3 times a day
multivitamin: centrum twice a day

You seem to know what you're doing re: diet, so I'll just say to stick to lean proteins, have moderate complex carb intake (brown rice, wheat bread, some leafy veggies would be nice), and some good fats (nuts, olive oil, flaxseed oil, omega 5 oils). If you like fish, buy a bunch of frozen (or fresh if you aren't lazy like me) salmon, halibut, and tilapia and broil/bake/sear it with some lemon butter-type recipes and serve with asparagus/broccoli/brown rice for a great high-protein high-good-fat moderate-carb meal.

Be sure to get enough carbs on your baseball skills day, for sure, and always drink a protein shake afterwards (or during).

Thanks for your suggestions. I can try to get video of my swing. It's lefty and usually pretty good when I'm not in a slump LDO. Actually, when I'm confident and very comfortable at the plate, I tend to hit pretty well and have a good OBS. I just want to get some of the nicely hit doubles in the gap over the fence. I need to get a video though, analyzing my swing is something I need to do.

Protein shake wise what do you suggest. I think I like the sounds of Syntha-6 from BSN but thats not an immediately after workout kind of protein. I'd likely just have one of these in the morning or before bed. Obviously post-workout shakes are of the whey type. Should I get this too, or get only this and scrap the syntha? I'm pretty unknowledgeable about supplements. Thanks for the thermogenic recommendation. I think i'll try the amp and see how it works for me. Is the dosage you mention standard or on the high side?

I use Optimum Nutrition Gold (Chocolate), as do a lot of people on this forum. It tastes good and mixes well and has all the standard BS amino acids that are "essential."

2 caps 3 times a day is standard for a thermogenic. As always with these types of supplements, start with the minimum and work up to comfortable tolerance.

kyleb can you tell us more about amp? how long have you been taking it? what effects does in have compared to other thermogenics you've taken?

bump cuz i'd really like to know too. I'm looking for a good thermogenic/fat-burner to take over 3-5 weeks.

also, having a hell of a time finding where to buy it, can I pick it up at a local GNC or is it online order only?

Sorry, I missed this awhile ago.

www.ergopharm.net - All about ErgoPharm's products, including AMP, AMP2, and 11-OXO (all of which I have used and endorse).

Buy it from bodybuilding.com - ships very fast, and it's much cheaper than direct order.

AMP has a lot less jittery side effects than something like ECA or Clenbuterol, and I like it a lot more. On the other hand, it has less of an appetite suppression element. AMP2 has the raspberry formula in addition to the regular AMP formula, which is basically combining AMP + BioTest's Hot-Rox product. It makes you sweat a lot and gives you raspberry burps.

thanks, just ordered v.2 from bb.com, saved me $10 at least.

We'll report on where I'm at in a month.

Raspberry burps are kinda nice now. Sweating alot really isn't I only take this in the mornings for this reason though.

What are your guys ideas on whether and how much that will raise blood pressure?

personally I'm not too concerned b/c I'm 22 and am already fit. I've never had blood pressure/cholesterol problems.

ya i bought some of it this morning when i re-upped my protein. should be interesting...prob going to start at 1 pill 3 times a day, right? or what....

2-3 pills, 2-3 times a day. To tolerance.

Hey,

I bought those pills. Been taking 2 in the am, 2 in the afternoon for 3 days now. Might try to add one in the evening at some point, but they have so much caffeine I'm afraid I won't sleep.

Anyway, I've never used anything like this before (and this is probably an impossible question) but taking 4-5 pills a day while eating right and following a good running/lifting schedule...what can I expect and how long does it take before I'd see something? I was reading that you should use something like this in cycles, maybe a month on and a month off- does that mean that after a month I should notice something?

Again, that's probably a ******ed question.

It's not a ******ed question - if you haven't taken a supplement like this before, it's good to start with one capsule per dose and work from there. I take two in the morning and two in the afternoon like you - none in the evening for the same reasons.

Thermogenics like AMP help keep your energy levels higher, which can help you get to the gym and stay motivated. Occasionally on low-carb diets, you can be tired, so this can be a big benefit. You're also increasing metabolic rate which will theoretically burn more calories, but it's not exact science on the effects per person.

I would expect a little better than normal results, but it's tough to tell. I wouldn't cycle it, but I guess you could if you wanted to benchmark the supplement.