Don’t Look Down on the Downward Dog; Flexibility Training May Extend Careers
Will Carroll for Baseball America
Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Gloucester, MA – We’re a couple weeks away from the voluntary spring training reporting date for pitchers and catchers, but many Gloucester Fishermen players aren’t content to wait until mid-February to begin their workouts.  Looking to improve on an 83-79 season, they’ve converged on Gloucester early to prepare as a group.  How does the oldest group of players on any PEBA roster get themselves in shape?  Just what you might expect.  Pumping iron at Fitness Zone, hitting the batting cages at Strike One… and doing the downward facing dog at Treetop Yoga Studios?

Believe it or not, for the last three weeks, Fishermen players have been arriving at Treetop at 11 a.m. four days a week for private yoga courses with the staff.  Although this is the second straight year that members of the team have trained at Treetop, you can forgive the strange looks from the regular members as this group of conditioned enters and leaves the studio.  After all, they’re hardly the stereotype of your wispy, new age yoga practitioner.

Still, the sidelong glances don’t seem to bother the players at all.  “I guess we’re not what they’re expecting, huh?” laughs Millard Wooten.  “I’ve noticed the attention, but it’s cool.  People have been totally welcoming once they get over the shock and start talking.  And hey, there’s no arguing it; this stuff works.”

What exactly is it working?  What inspires grown men to assume the locust and firefly pose?  The concept is simple: Greater body flexibility leads to greater career longevity.

These Fishermen are not the only ones dipping their toes into this pool.  Players from all over the PEBA have begun incorporating yoga and pilates into their off-season exercise routines.  Converts to this new form of training tout the range of benefits it provides, including breath control, increased core strength and range of motion.

Each of those are worthy benefits, says Gloucester head trainer Arturo Peña, but what inspired him to encourage his wards to give yoga a try was the mounting body of research suggesting that flexibility training is a veritable fountain of youth for athletes.

“More and more, we’re learning just how much control the individual athlete can exert over the longevity of his career,” explains Peña.  “The feeling was always, ‘My body will speak up and tell me when it’s time to hang ‘em up.’  Now we’re discovering ways to tell the body to shut up and keep functioning at peak performance, and yoga is a big part of that.”

Peña has found eager converts amongst the Fishermen, and that’s little surprise.  Comprising the only PEBA roster with an average age over 30, these players are looking for any edge that will keep them on the field and out of the trainer’s room.

Masujiro Inoue needs no prodding.  At 37, he is the elder statesman amongst Fishermen participating in the off-season group yoga training.  Inoue knows first-hand how frustrating it is to have one’s body betray you.  A torn thumb ligament early in spring training last year was supposed to cost him a couple of weeks.  Instead, recovery dragged on into the regular season, and even upon his return, Inoue didn’t feel right.  He blames lingering pain from the thumb for alterations in his swing that later caused him to miss time with forearm and back ailments.

“I never felt right,” confesses Inoue.  “Every swing caused a little stab of pain.  Coming over from Kuwana, I didn’t have a chance to join the team for flexibility training last year.  If it can prevent these injuries from occurring in the first place, then I’m all for it.”

Gloucester Assistant General Manager David Fingerhut believes yoga can help his players avoid injury, and he claims this belief is changing the way is influencing how the team evaluates free agents.

“There’s been an unspoken feeling in PEBA front offices that you’re courting disaster if you pursue a player who’s on the wrong side of 35,” notes Fingerhut.  “Free agents of a certain age have had difficulty finding employment at times.  That’s great news for us.  I hope teams continue to ignore these players, because we’re not afraid to actively target them when we believe doing so will help our club, and a big reason why is Artie’s yoga training.

“I’m convinced we’re entering a golden age for ‘golden ager’ players.  Modern science is opening new doorways and players are taking advantage.  We experienced less long-term injuries than any other team in 2012.  It’s no coincidence that our players began flexibility training prior to the start of last season.  I really believe this is going to be part of the key that unlocks an extended career arc for players.  Teams that ignore free agents ‘of a certain age’ are going to find themselves left behind.”

The players patronizing Treetop clearly agree with Fingerhut.  It’s not just the grey-hairs limbering up, either.  Gregory Arnold may be 30 and in his prime, but he’s fully on board with the new form of training.

“Gloucester made a significant commitment to me,” explains Arnold, who was signed to a 4-year, $61,560,000 extension last March.  “I owe it to the organization and to the fans to make sure I’m out there every day, ready to go.”

Nobody doubts that Arnold, who has appeared in no fewer than 153 games in each year of the league’s existence, will be ready to go come April.  Thanks to the flexibility training craze that’s sweeping the league, Arnold’s elder peers may be ready to go – and staying ready – too.