muscles

I know this may seem like an interesting title to one of my blogs as I normally write about conditioning regimens, workout equipment, or how to improve an athlete’s baseball specific skill set. However, my father and I have realized in the past few years that although a lot of the products Oates Specialties carries is designed with a baseball, softball, or throwing athlete in mind, the equipment has one universal characteristic: athleticism. What I mean by that is most of our conditioning tools encourage, require, or even demand that an athlete be as explosive and athletic as he or she can. This realization led us to begin promoting our equipment not just as baseball specific, but as tools that transcend individual sports to the broader theme of developing well conditioned and explosive athletes. Continue reading →

Now that I am no longer playing ball I probably spend too much time in the weight room working on my “beach muscles.” After several months of lifting weights and doing very little functional strength work I decided to switch up my routine and focus on some body weight exercises. I pulled out my pair of Gymnastic Rings that I have used extensively in the past but hadn’t used in some time in order to focus on the most basic lifts. With the rings I generally do 3-5 sets of pull-ups, dips, reverse rows, pushups, and chest flys. These 5 exercises kicked my butt enough that I decided to dedicate a blog to them. Continue reading →

As soon as you begin research involving sports training or innovative new training regimens it is common to read about what the training does for your neuromuscular pathways. I had a basic idea as to what this means but I knew that I was uninformed of the science behind it and I figured others might be as well. So I decided to devote an article to this important topic. Continue reading →

Flexibility is fundamentally important to many athletic movements as your body's muscles and joints play a critical part in your athletic ability, performance, and durability. With that being said, athletes often cringe when they hear a coach or trainer mention the word flexibility. I know I used to. Immediately thoughts of tedious and painful hamstring, hip, and groin stretches come to mind. However, as an athlete there are many sacrifices you must make and exercises you must do that you aren't enthusiastic about. Working on your flexibility should be a task of the highest importance to all serious athletes. Continue reading →