I have a son who just turned 17 who is working on getting a college scholarship to play baseball. He’s 5’10”, 160 pounds. He’s hoping to be at least 180 pounds by baseball season. This is his senior year. A lot of people who have worked with him feel like getting to that weight will give him a lot more opportunities, including helping him get his fastball into the 90mph+ range and hitting the ball out of the park.
For the past couple years, he has worked super hard to put on weight, but it’s just a big challenge for him. We feed him lots of protein (beef and chicken), and he takes in a ton of calories every day. He also works out a lot, including doing weight lifting, plyometrics, running and sport-specific (football and baseball) drills. He also takes creatine daily.
He is a very late bloomer, having just lost his baby teeth barely over two years ago.
My wife and I are concerned about pushing him (or allowing him to push himself) too quickly to gain weight. I know it’s pretty common for boys to not fully develop and reach their optimal adult weight and strength until after they turn 18 years old.
Anyone have a recommendation about how to help this athlete get to the weight he wants to be by baseball season in the spring (March)?
Start tracking his food intake if you’re really serious. And by “you”, I mean “him”.
If hes not gaining weight on his current food intake, then add more food. Single ingredient foods are best, but you can use more condensed carbs if food volume is difficult to manage for him.
As he’s gaining weight, make sure he’s still doing speed drills. Last thing you want is for him to get big and slow.
We want slow steady weight gain. 20lbs should take no less than 20 weeks, ideally closer to a year so he’s not just adding fat tbh.
Carbs are the ideal energy source for him. Excess fats tend to get stored as fat, whereas carbs are used for energy reserves (glycogen) first, and only then are stored as fat. Don’t push him to get fat; performance is more important than scale weight.
I’d share your concern about gaining too quickly. He’s not going to pitch faster or bat further because he chases weight gain. Rather, he may gain weight as a result of doing things that will help him throw/ hit harder.
I was 5’9” and 200 pounds at his age. I matured a lot earlier than he has.
My side of the family (five boys) tends to be larger - average weight over 200 pounds on frames going from 5’9” up to 6’2”. My wife’s family (four boys) probably averages 180 pounds.
He has severe asthma (struggled with it ever since he received the DTAP shot at 3 years old…) that keeps him up at night, so he often sleeps in until 10am. We feed him a big breakfast every day, usually one of these:
pancakes
sausage/bacon/eggs
fried potatoes with eggs
oatmeal
fruits: blueberries, strawberries, raspberries blackberries, apples
I have supplemented at times with a couple boiled eggs at night before he goes to bed.
I’ve also gotten a lot of ideas from a sports nutritionist who used to work with his high school team: https://www.instagram.com/nutrition_with_wendi/ I have followed some of her protocols, including adding this one:
Outside of asthma, he’s a super athletic kid. He bench presses 250 pounds, squats 335, and power cleans 225.
This is him:
We all just feel like if he could add 20 pounds of the kind of stuff he’s made of already, he could get where he wants to be…ultimately a professional baseball player.
Football season ends in a couple weeks. As much as I love the sport, I’ll be glad when he can get more rest and focus on recovery and building instead of burning so many calories every day.
We probably started him earlier than we should in school. He feels pressure to get physically to where a lot of 19-year-olds (some of them high school teammates) are despite the fact that he just turned 17.
I was just my spontaneous reaction, as your question seemed to resonate well with Dan John’s expertise in working with athletes. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got a reasonable answer from him. Best of luck! And please do post his reply in this thread for everyone interested to learn.
I think you’re right, but it seems like the easiest metric to quantify is simply, “How much do I weigh?”, assuming that every extra pound of weight brings with it more strength, more speed, more power…since that’s been his experience in the past few years.
Being a medical doctor I notice signs of uncontrolled asthma here. This is a major factor for energy expenditure. Is your sons asthma properly treated by a physician you all feel comfortable with? Do you use a metered dose inhaler (spacer)? Addition of Montelukast?
There’s also a new generation of inhalers that works better when having insufficient effect (I especially like a variant called Innovair). Something to further discuss with your son’s physician.
We went to at least 5 different doctors when he was younger. None of them had anything useful for him. Instead we have gone the natural route, and that has been much more productive.
The DTAP gave my oldest three kids chronic asthma. After the last experience 14 years ago, we stopped vaccinating altogether.
None of our six younger kids have had any vaccines. None of them have asthma. Not a coincidence.
Is he working with coaches now? I’m going to get out of my depth, because I was never a baseball player, but the training metrics seem very football focused. The baseball kids (especially pitchers) tended to be really careful around some of those lifts.
Anyway, when we wanted to gain weight with reckless abandon, it wouldn’t have been with foods on that list. To be clear, I think a better route is something like that list.
Not that it helps at all, but I gained over 30 lbs (to be fair, I was coming out of a weight class sport) at 19 and grew into a football weight. I went from acceptable speed to relatively fast at the position without actually getting faster. I just say that as context for the “I’m afraid to fatten up” advice.
It’s also a totally different world now. Is it scouts telling him to gain? If so, you kind of have to (or they’re blowing him off, but let’s assume not).
You’re feeding him pretty hearty breakfasts. Does he like to eat? Does he get full easily?
There is lots to be said and recommended, but as I respect other opinions (and other people), I will tread gently here.
I’ve seen many undertreated/untreated people with asthma the past 18 years as a physician, and none of them was doing well. If your son is to become a professional athlete, but is coughing at night due to asthma - Something is wrong here. Untreated asthma leads to loss of lung function and can even contribute to growth retardation. Lack of sleep leads to recovery problems. How much better, faster and stronger would he be on a proper asthma regimen?
Why apply nutritional science, but neglecting medical science?