Last Updated on May 10, 2022 by uthxlr8
The importance of strength and power in the game of cricket is often overlooked. However, it is an essential part of the game. A batsman must have a lot of power to be able to hit the ball out of the park or even hit it off the ground.
To increase their strength and power, a batsman needs to regularly train their muscles by doing various exercises. Strength and power are important for a batsman because they help them to produce more power with their shots.
In cricket, the batsman is responsible for hitting the ball and defending the wickets. He needs to have good strength and power to be able to hit the ball with a lot of force. The better his strength and power, the more successful he will be in the game.
Batsmen should look up all aspects of fitness, such as
- Cardiorespiratory Endurance
- Musculoskeletal strength
- Flexibility
- Mobility
1. Cardiorespiratory Endurance:
The ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen to the working muscles while carrying out the physical activity is called cardiorespiratory endurance. As a batsman, improving your cardiorespiratory endurance will ultimately result in improved physical performance.
This is because, when your body can ensure maximum supply of oxygen to the muscles, your body can function for a longer period without stopping.
The term cardiorespiratory explains that there are two systems involved – the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The cardiovascular system consists of the heart, veins, capillaries, and arteries and deals with pumping blood and ensuring oxygen to the body.
Whereas, the respiratory system deals with the intake of air and pushes the oxygen into the blood which is further supplied to the muscles and organs. The nose, mouth, and diaphragm are the components of this system.
Therefore, improving both these systems allows the body to take in more oxygen which results in an increased number of blood cells and hemoglobin, thus pumping large volumes of blood to ensure maximum oxygen supply.
Exercises that help in improving cardiorespiratory endurance are running, swimming, walking, rowing, jumping jacks, side hops, and burpees.
2. Musculoskeletal strength
- Structural Exercises- Cricket is a game that requires massive muscle power. The musculoskeletal strength of the body is an important factor for batsmen. Therefore, muscle development via structural exercises is a crucial component while training.
The structural exercises increase muscle strength by putting the muscles to work against a weight or force. Therefore, more strength helps in playing the long shots while batting.
Structural exercises include incline bench press, dumbbell row in plank, lunge with medicine ball rotational slam, and push-press. - Compound exercise- Batting is way more than just swinging a bat and hitting the ball. While batting, numerous muscles of the body like posterior deltoids, pectorals, anterior deltoids, biceps, and triceps work together to hit the ball. To ensure that all these muscles work together and produce enough strength to hit the ball, these muscles have to be trained.
That’s exactly where compound lifts are the show-stoppers. Compound exercises train multiple muscles at once in a single lift. With the number of muscles that batsmen need to train, compound exercises are a perfect match.
These compound lifts include Squats, Deadlifts, Push-ups, Barbell Hips raised, Clean and Press, Parallel Dips, and Bent-Over Row. - Core exercises-Having a robust core means being able to stabilize your body and transfer the force from the body to the bat. Therefore, to increase core strength, you have to train it with the right exercises to see the difference in your game.
Effective core exercises include rotating leg raises flutter kicks, T-push ups, planks, medicine ball throws, forward crunches on the machine, reverse crunches on an incline bench, and Ab dip stand.
3. Flexibility:
Flexibility holds utmost importance in the game of cricket. Increased flexibility has a direct impact on your performance by promoting efficient movement, preventing injury, correct body alignment, and maintaining the right muscle length.
Flexibility exercises include Self-myofascial release/foam rolling, active and passive stretching, yoga, lying knee roll-over stretch, and standing high-leg bent knee stretch.
4. Mobility:
The ability to move the joints in a larger range of motion is referred to as mobility. Batsmen need to improve their mobility to ensure that they reach the ball even if it’s away from their bodies while batting. Also, while running between the wickets the joints of the limbs need to be mobile to swiftly run on the cricket pitch.
For a batsman, the key areas where mobility should be increased are the thoracic spine, ankles, hips, knees, lumbar spine, and shoulder.
To improve mobility, you can start with static 30-sec hold stretches and then follow it with mobilization exercises like single-leg glute bridge, hurdle drills, overhead squats, and dynamic mobility drills.
Conclusion:
Batting is more than hitting the ball. For an excellent batting performance, as a batsman, you need to train the right muscles and build strength. Your training regime must consist of all the above exercises to ensure improved performance.
