I hope all of you college baseball fans are surviving out there during the offseason! Like I’ve said before, football is just not the same no matter how biased I am. The Fighting Camels have been having a good fall thus far. Having to battle through the weather conditions that set us behind schedule a few weeks ago was a bit of a challenge, but the sun eventually showed itself and allowed us to get to work. One part of our grind the weather cannot hold back is our team lifts, though. These are vital to us in getting bigger, faster, and stronger. I would like to give you all a taste of how it is to hit the weights with the Camels.
First and foremost, I am convinced that there isn’t a better strength coach in the country than our very own Andrew Carter. Coach Carter is known for bringing tons of energy and enforcing his rule of no yawning in the weight room – which leads to push-ups if you were wondering. He is great at working with multiple teams here at school and managing the different workouts that suit our different sports. Even on our bright and early 5:45 am workout days he is wide awake and ready to push us to get better in any way possible.
Speaking of those early mornings, Coach Carter and our baseball coaches expect our best effort no matter the time of our lift. Whether we begin before the sun is up or not, is it crucial for us to attack the lift as hard as we can and use everything we have in in our tank. As we arrive at our weight room, which is in its first full year of use, guys usually start to roll out their legs and stretch what they need to in order to feel ready to work at max potential. At about this same time, there are some guys who are weighing themselves to see what “gains” they have made (I say gains just because gaining weight is the goal of the majority of our players and because it sounds cool).
After everyone has arrived, we start the process with some sort of core workout. Some days it’s a bridge series with other things added in to make it harder of course, while some days we attack the dreaded “Plate 200”. This involves a 25 lb. plate and a number of ab workouts at a very quick pace. After we have knocked this out smoothly, we break up into different stations and do some sort of light warm up at each. I must mention too that Coach Carter is not a fan of guys messing up the order of things or going to the wrong station. After all, it is the little things that make the difference in winning a team championship.
Next is when the actual workout begins. We rotate between upper body, lower body, and total body days and bring the same level of intensity for each. Lower body days bring the most “hype” to the weight room because that is when we do squats. We are expected to go up in weight as we lift and leave nothing back. Squats usually result in many guys hovering around others doing heavy weight (in between their own sets) and yelling at them until they finish their set. Yes, squats are never fun for your legs, but it’s worth the pain getting to see guys get so excited about each other grinding through it. Along with our main exercise everyday comes other smaller exercises which are not to be mistaken as less important. These involve baseball focused exercises that complement our bigger ones. Our high energy atmosphere is to be maintained throughout all of this.
After we all have completed our workout, we are given protein and everyone drinks a shake before leaving the weight room. One person is selected each day to give a toast to the team before we all drink them together. Most guys go with something motivational in hopes to leave an impact on everyone that will last throughout practice later in the day. Some go with a comical approach while still adding a little motivation in as well. For my first toast of the year I shared a quote by Derek Jeter stating “there may be people who have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do”. This ties into what is always the most important aspect of the weight room – effort.
I hope you all have a better idea of what it’s like to lift weights like a Camel. I am beyond pleased that I was able to share this with you all. Now, with College Baseball still months away, go savor the last bit of baseball left in the MLB postseason. As always though, Roll Humps!
Drew Butler
