Training Method to Throw 100mph

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Athletter

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Good morning to all new and old readers! Here is today’s edition of TheAthletter, exploring stories, ideas, and frameworks to be the best athlete you can be —and how you can apply them to your career.

Today, we’re exploring a training method I believe will help me get to 100mph.

What you’ll learn:

Structural Balance

How you can apply this to your own career

P.S. Send me feedback on how I can improve. I want to be worthy of your time. I respond to every email.

How do you train to throw 100mph?

After research, talking to world-leading experts and experimenting...

I learned a training concept that's going to help maximize my athletic potential.

Here's that concept:

Structural Balance.

Structural Balance is training the body to become equally strong on both sides.

Example:

How strong are your hamstrings compared to your quads?

How strong is the back of your shoulder vs the front?

How strong are your tib muscles compared to your calves?

For the majority of my baseball career I only focused on the accelerators.

Who cares about the decelerators right?

But when I learned about Structural Balance - I changed my mind.

I was introduced to Structural Balance when I learned from kneesovertoesguy.

He has a proven system to develop elite jumpers...

What he found was as he trained the decelerator muscles in the jump:

Jump height improved at a faster rate.

How exactly does structural balance increase performance?

1. Increased force generation.

When you have balanced strength on both sides of the joint:

The joint is able to move more efficiently, leading to higher force output.

Imbalances can disrupt the movement and reduce efficiency.

2. Reduced overcompensations

If one muscle is way stronger than the other...

The stronger muscle can overcompensate, leading to less efficient movements.

3. Reduced energy leaks

Compensations by a stronger muscle can lead to energy leaks.

4. Increased Protection

The stronger your decelerators, the more force it can handle keeping you healthy.

This allows you to continue to make progress and push your limits.

So how do you incorporate structural balance?

Start training commonly neglected muscles that are causing imbalances:

Tibs:

The opposite of the calf:

I had never trained these and as a result were extremely weak.

Hip Flexor:

We train the squat all the time...

But here's how you develop the muscles responsible for the opposite motion of a squat:

Hamstring:

Many times the hamstrings aren't as strong as the quads.

Build up to doing a full nordic curl:

Rear Delts:

As Baseball Players we put the front of our shoulder through explosive movements daily.

Yet - all we do for the back of the shoulder is light banded external rotations.

Progressively build strength in the back of the shoulder.

This is my favorite video from my friend, Kneesovertoesguy who explains this concept:

Hope it helps!

Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 

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