I think flexibility in general is something that needs to be reinforced, and not only baseball players but all sports.
What I've been telling everyone that loves Carolina football is that we are going to put a team out there that, number one, is in good shape. We're going to be fit, we are going to be able to play the whole game and we're not going to poop out.
Lindor is a good player. When I was 20, I wasn't conditioned like he is.
I do a lot of running, and I do it every day. I run on a track, I run hills and I work the stair-stepper extremely hard. I do some type of cardio every day. In addition, I have a passion for golf, and that helps me stay fit, too.
I know what I need to do to prepare myself, and I try to do the best I can to take care of my body and prolong my peak years as a baseball player.
For every player, it is important to be fit and have a good pre-season behind him.
My last year of football I started having a couple of MMA fights, and bringing the weight down. It started in the pre-season of football, just to keep fit, and I did really well.
Sports like baseball, basketball, and hockey develop muscles. That's why Americans have the strongest eyes in the world.
As long as we're fit, we just have so much to give on the court.
It's a 90 minute game for sure. In fact I used to train for a 190 minute game so that when the whistle blew at the end of the match I could have played another 90 minutes.
I'm trying to be in the best shape of my life. I'm getting stronger and more athletic to help rebound and to guard bigger opponents.
Until you're a rookie, you don't know what NBA game shape is.
Equipment's the biggest change. And the guys have been getting bigger, stronger, more athletic - so the game has become more of a track meet instead of a tennis match, in a sense.
Golf is flexibility, and I notice more guys injured. You can overdo this conditioning.
During the season, I usually work out two or three times a week. I'll do a full-body workout after games. I plan it out the day of.
I witnessed an MVP firsthand in Jose Altuve. I asked him what he did during the offseason, and he said he trains his core.
I'm just trying to keep myself in basketball shape and take care of my body while I can.
What I've done is back off weight training and do more wrestling, cardio - where you're building muscle but not building weightlifting muscle.
My biggest problem was to get the coaches to understand that I was a runner, and I wanted to prepare myself based upon the calisthenics I did and get myself ready. For example, I used my forearm when I ran the ball, so I didn't want to do pushups because I wanted my forearms to heal.
A lot of fighters just go to the gym and spar or wrestle, but they forget about their conditioning. Things like that cause lots of injuries.
LaRon Landry, a safety, is in incredible physical condition - really impressive. Also Anthony Castonzo, the left tackle - I'm very impressed with him. He really sets a great example for how to stay in shape - not only during the off-season but throughout the season, which can be a struggle because of the rhythm of the way things work.
Because a football game is just sixty minutes, but I'm training six, seven hours in every day. So, going for sixty minutes becomes easy. More importantly, I think that your muscles mature and can move in all different directions.
For Buffon, I hear he trains less on the field, and he is more focused on keeping his muscles strong.
When we went home every winter, they warned us not to lift heavy weights because they didn't want us to lose flexibility. They wanted us to be baseball players, not only home run hitters.
The quicker you get acclimated to getting hit and being on the ground, it's better for you when the games start.
