Josh Beckett
As baseball tries to emerge from its era of suspicion, Texas-bred Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett--with the game's most feared right arm--has become the perfect antidote.
by Mike Monroe | photos by Patrik Giardino
| Print Page | Email to Friend
How Josh Beckett Trains
Starting pitchers were once the
marathon men of baseball. They
were always running long lopes
in the outfield in between starts
in preparation for the rigors of
pitching for several innings in
baseball's summer heat. Josh
Beckett sprints.
Each pitching motion, he
explains, requires about three
seconds of intense effort, followed
by about 12 seconds of
recovery time. So his cardio
workouts are designed to replicate
that cycle. "We try to train
my body to recover during those
12 seconds," he says. "We do
about three seconds, and then
try to recover in 12."
His workout includes heavy
reps with dumbbells (heavier for
biceps, lighter for exercises that
replicate the pitching motion)
and a medicine ball. Many exercises
are done while balanced
on a Swiss ball.
He tries to arrive at spring
training in good cardio shape,
then use the prep time to get his
arm ready for the season's grind.
"What you do during the offseason
is, first, build a base,"
he said. "That takes about three
weeks, and then you try to get
as strong as you can before
you go to spring training. Once
you get there, you taper down
and it's just a maintenance program
for the next six or seven
months."
Conditioning is vital because
the effort required to throw as
hard as Beckett does for seven
months is taxing on his entire
body. "People have always said
about me: 'Oh, his pitching
looks effortless,'" he said. "It
ain't effortless. I put out max
effort. I try to throw the damn
thing as hard as I can. That's my
demeanor, and it's like this: My
job is to execute quality pitches
consecutively until the game is
over or somebody takes the ball
out of my hand. That's the philosophy
I live by."
[on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and more]
