Chris Davis Workout
The Chris Davis workout includes the exercises needed to become a Home Run hitter. Chris Davis gained extra strength in the off-season by using a new workout. The key difference is that he incorporated Olympic lifts into his routine. This is what gave Chris Davis his Home Run hitting ability.
Chris Davis’ trainer, Joe Hogarty, was the strength and conditioning coach behind the change. Hogarty incorporated Olympic lifts into Chris Davis’ routine. The Home Run hitting exercises that Chris Davis workout uses are:
Orioles First Baseman, Chris Davis, says:
In Texas, there were maybe four or five guys always in the weight room. Here, there are like 20. One of the reasons I finished as strong as I did last year was the workouts. I came in with some [past] knee issues and was able to run around in the outfield and not have knee problems or anything like that.
Olympic Lifting For Home Run Hitting
Olympic lifts are unique to advanced weight training. These lifts lead to Home Run hitting. The challenge is that Olympic lifts require advanced movements with heavy weights.
The reward is a faster, and more explosive, musculoskeletal connection. Although Olympic lifts don’t use a baseball bat, they train the mind in coordination. For Chris Davis, this improved his home run hitting ability on the baseball field.
These exercises are known as Home Run Hitter Exercises because of the way your body responds. Power cleaning 300 pounds has more of a musculoskeletal connection to swinging a bat than people think.
The muscle fibers that you activate while swinging a bat, are the same one uses to perform many Olympic lifts. It is hard to train these muscle fibers. You need to be performing an action that is both explosive, and uses a lot of weight. This is why Olympic lifting is the secret Home Run hitting workout routine.
Brady Anderson, Orioles VP of baseball operations says about Olympic lifting, and the Orioles strength coaches:
It’s hard to get people who want to teach [Olympic lifts]. It’s hard to get people who know how to teach it. I’m not trying to criticize anyone’s system, I’m just worried about this one. To me, this is very standard science, standard procedure, but still unusual in baseball. Speed and power.”
Orioles Transformation
In the 2013 off-season Spring training, all the Orioles took their workouts up a notch by training in a new facility.
Joe Hogarty is the strength and conditioning coach that ushered in all the new exercises. After being an intern for the Red Sox in 2003, Hogarty became a strength and conditioning coach with the Orioles. He started in the minor leagues, but worked his way up to the main strength and conditioning coach for the Orioles.
Ryan Crotin is the Orioles 3rd strength coach, who focuses on bio-mechanics. He says about the player transformation:
Making athletes better, physically faster, stronger, more powerful, the other benefit — injury prevention — comes from those facets.
The Orioles former training center was in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It was such a bad gym that all it had was cardio. The weights were in a tent in the parking lot. Former player and Orioles broadcaster, Mike Bordick, says the previous facility was not up to par. He says:
It was ridiculous. Guys wanted to get stronger, but there was really not a lot of motivation.
The Orioles didn’t just get a new workout facility in the off-season. The Orioles even got new shoes. Weightlifting shoes have a 1.0″-1.5″ heel. This allows for stability in your heel, while performing Olympic lifts. The Adidas AdiPower Olympic weightlifting shoes Chris Davis wears is the signature look of the Baltimore Orioles in the off-season.
Paul Cater, another of the 4 strength coaches, supervised the Baltimore Orioles’ new workout routine. Paul Cater says:
When you see a guy wearing those shoes, you know he’s bought in, It’s a shift in culture, from what I understand. Every single person we’ve talked to said they’ve never had a better strength-and-conditioning program than this.
Chris Davis Steroid Allegations
The Chris Davis Steroid Allegations are unfair to someone who is training as hard as he is. Chris Davis is excelling as a home run hitter on the field, because of his commitment off the field. In the Orioles weight room, Chris Davis is the guy who’s giving 110%. Chris Davis says:
It’s extremely frustrating that people would just assume I was on something because I’m having success.
But, in the steroid era, success has it’s detractors. Chris Davis was questioned by ESPN about steroid allegations. Chris Davis says the steroid allegations are erroneous. He has been tested 4 times this year, and has been found clean each time. Chris Davis says:
The people who just assume you’re on steroids aren’t there in the weight room after a game when you’ve played four hours in the sweltering heat and you have zero energy, and you know you need to get a workout in. It’s just disrespectful.
The reason the Orioles decided to invest in a new training facility is simple. They want the best return they can get on their $100 million payroll investment. If you’re going to be shelling out that kind of money, you had better be doing the best Home Run hitting exercises known to man. And that, is Olympic lifting.
