Spring Training: Work Out like a Pro Athlete

Just because you can’t hit one out of the park like Derek Jeter or throw a fastball like Joba Chamberlain doesn’t mean you can’t take a lesson from the boys of baseball and train like a pro athlete. We spoke exclusively with professional baseball strength and conditioning coach Dana Cavalea, who recently opened a New York training facility called ML Strength, to find out how “regular” people can apply the same techniques used by today’s top athletes to their own workouts.

“The methodology [I use with players] is based on seven elements: evaluate, educate, prevent, train, compete, fuel, and recover,” Cavalea says. “We’ve taken these seven elements and applied them to the general population to give athletes the feeling of competitive achievement with regard to performance enhancement, body awareness, and injury prevention.”

Here is the coach’s conditioning “cheat sheet” so you can get the most out of your workouts, both on the field and off:

1. Get Your Heart Pumping

Maximizing cardio is a science. “Train while using a heart rate monitor and working at no less than 70 percent of your maximum heart rate,” Cavalea says.

To calculate your maximum heart rate, use this online calculator. Cavalea also recommends cycling in intervals that take you up to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate.

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