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MLB Players’ Wacky Offseason Workouts You Won’t Believe

For those who have always wondered how some MLB players enter the season looking like bomb-smacking, flame-throwing titans, it’s actually a simple process.

Unless you want to pop a couple doses of “growth hormones,” or PEDs, and grow a bobblehead like OF Barry Bonds, just think of the weirdest, most “what are you doing?” workout ever. No, seriously. These guys have gotten by in the bigs by doing some of the most head-scratching baseball workouts that I have ever seen.

OF Giancarlo Stanton


OF Giancarlo Stanton (#37). Photo courtesy of Gregory Bull/AP Photo

OF Giancarlo Stanton (#37). Photo courtesy of Gregory Bull/AP Photo

New York Yankees OF Giancarlo Stanton easily wins the title as the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson of baseball and truly is a He-Man in his own regard.

I’m not sure if what he is doing in this 2018 Instagram post is actually a workout or if he is just trying to show off how he has the strength of the Hulk, but you can see him lugging two people up a hill, on his back, while he is carrying some big-ass weights. If I tried this, I don’t know what would break first, my back or my legs. No wonder why he has over 300 home runs in his career and constantly strikes fear in opposing pitchers.

RHP Michael Lorenzen


RHP Michael Lorenzen (#21). Photo courtesy of John Minchillo/AP Photo

RHP Michael Lorenzen (#21). Photo courtesy of John Minchillo/AP Photo

Cincinnati Reds RHP Michael Lorenzen appeared on MLB Network’s show “Hot Stove” to explain his workout routine and what he tries to attack in the offseason. He is one of the very few two-way players in MLB, sometimes getting the call from Cincinnati to play some center field if needed. Lorenzen has acquired the gym rat label with his Instagram posts of him working out.

This post, in particular, stood out to me. He calls this exercise the batwalk challenge.

Lorenzen has both hands at the top of a baseball bat while the bat stands up straight on the floor. At the beginning of the challenge, he is in a plank position and insanely starts moving his hands down the bat. When he gets to the bottom, he starts putting one hand on top of the other and moves back up the bat until he gets to the top again. This is all while the bat is standing! Note the balance required along with the strength to control his weight.

The batwalk challenge looks super fun to try but I refuse to risk it. The bat would probably end up bopping me in the head if I attempted this.

C Francisco Cervelli


(From left to right) 2B Eddy Alvarez (#65) and C Francisco Cervelli (#29). Photo courtesy of Julio Cortez/AP Photo

(From left to right) 2B Eddy Alvarez (#65) and C Francisco Cervelli (#29). Photo courtesy of Julio Cortez/AP Photo

Retired C Francisco Cervelli has our batwalk boy, along with any other player in the bigs, beat by a mile when it comes to weird workouts. I would bestow the MVP for wacky workouts to Cervelli for the antics he has pulled during his exercises.

Cervelli seemingly has a knack for working out on the beach. You can see Cervelli in this post hitting a squat crawl while hilariously flapping his arms around, looking like he is about to fall on his face with every step he takes.

We also have this post, which may be the most outlandish — to say the least. Here you see Cervelli doing some peculiar exercises with Atlanta United striker Josef Martinez. These guys are locking arms and legs in unison, doing some weird cross-armed bear crawl exercise simultaneously. To top the video off, these guys choose to do an exercise where one guy is dodging punches from the other in a dancing fashion. With the chemistry between these two guys, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them pair up on a show like Dancing With The Stars and take the world by storm.

This may be hard to believe, but several MLB players are doing workouts like these. Considering the results these guys have garnered from doing borderline-psychotic exercises like the ones I listed here, maybe we are all the crazy ones and should start following in their footsteps.

Cover photo courtesy of Gregory Bull/AP Photo

Author

ATNB Columnist David J. Detweiler lives in South Jersey. He currently attends Rowan University as a double major in Communications and Radio/Television/Film. David has had prior experience in journalism with FollowSouthJersey and BlueSkyTalk. As an avid sports fan, David is passionate about sports and aspires to succeed as a member of the sports media universe.