Training Sessions Are Fewer, but Don’t End, as Season Winds Down

Brett Henry, strength and conditioning coach for the Syracuse Chiefs, talks strength training

By Jillian Thaw

Brett Henry, Strength and Conditioning Coach

Brett Henry lets the Syracuse Chiefs come in and lift weights as they please—so long as they do so three or four days a week. Those training sessions range from 15 to 45 minutes, but Henry, the strength and conditioning coach for the Syracuse Chiefs, says he cares more about the players listening to their bodies.

“We can’t have them playing sore,” Henry said.

Henry, who began working with the Nationals in 2009 after he graduated from Washington State University, started spring training in 2010. 2013 is his first year in AAA. Dressed in black Chiefs athletic apparel, he stood in the weight room, keeping an eye on the players who chose to lift following the Aug. 6 doubleheader against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

Henry said players often incorporate lifting after the games as a way to unwind from the activity of the evening. Several athletes meandered through the weight room and an adjacent physical therapy room. Catcher Kris Watts lifted 50-pound dumbbells—Henry occasionally offered an exercise suggestion—while others iced shoulders and elbows.

“Pitchers will lift the day after they pitch. Maya obviously had a nice night. So he’ll lift tomorrow,” Henry said, referring to Maya’s strong pitching over eight innings in the Chiefs’ 3-2 win over the RailRiders in the second game that evening.

Relief pitchers are trickier, since it’s never certain when they’ll throw. Henry said most relief pitchers prefer to lift that night following a game, but that typically pitchers lift the following day so that their body maximizes the recovery process.

The positional players have more freedom in their strength training. Some players prefer to lift before the game as activation, Henry said. Other players don’t want to trigger anything before the game starts or are used to lifting after the game.

As August signals the winding down of the season, Henry’s sessions are typically reduced to one a week. He said that bodies are broken down, but the workout is still a requirement, as there are still games to be played.

“Beforehand, we may work on explosive stuff,” Henry said. “Maybe some fastball-type stuff. After the games, it’s more like range-of-motion-stuff. That’s more of an injury-preventative type of thing. Power before and stretching afterwards.”

Henry likes rotational exercises for the players. In a sport where rotational power is important—consider how players have to twist and turn to throw a baseball—Henry gets the players, both pitchers and hitters, on the medicine balls and has them throwing at walls. Stability training is also important, as it strengthens the abdominal and lower-back muscles to help stabilize the body during motion. Many of the exercises Henry incorporates are done again on one leg.

“Doing things on one leg makes it that much easier on two legs. That’s how we’re performing out there,” Henry said. 

The Chiefs also follow players during the offseason. Henry said that within the next two weeks, offseason profiles will be put together: what players have done well this year, what they need to work on, and how those players will develop after they leave at the conclusion of the season. Henry follows up with the players a few times a month to monitor progression and keep notes on the players.

“When they report for spring training, what they’re saying should match up,” Henry said.

First, though, they’ve got to get through the rest of the season. 

Henry’s Q&A can be found here or below.