Chicago Cubs Kyle Hendricks has a new training program

The Chicago Cubs Kyle Hendricks has a new training program, and he feels it’s going to be different from the past few seasons.

The Chicago Cubs Kyle Hendricks has adopted a new training program. Out is the old standard weight training and a fitness regimen. He has applied a different approach. And you know where it came from? Steve Cishek and Brandon Kintzler. I know, right?

The idea came after listening to them ramble about their trainer. So he gave it a shot. And you know what?  It worked. Not only did it have him throwing earlier in the season, but he had him moving the ball quite a bit more instead of ‘standard fitness.’ It was all coming together for Hendricks.

"“I was just getting very mechanical, I guess,” he said. “It wasn’t athletic. My arm path wasn’t smooth and easy. Also, I was just kind of fatiguing more than I would like to at the end of a season – especially in my lower half. So I made some changes. I feel really strong shoulder-wise, because I had that shoulder thing last year. Lower half feels a lot better, and I just feel more athletic overall. My mechanics kind of show it, so I’m just going to keep working on it.”"

Hardly put, he didn’t have to reinvent himself as a pitcher. On the contrary. He leads the team in innings (376), WHIP (1.14), FIP (3.70) and he leads the team in wOBA of below .300. It seems like everyone is enamored with him. Except him. Nope.

"“I didn’t like the trend that was going the last two years or so,” Hendricks said on Friday. “So I changed a lot of my offseason program, as far as training."

So as far as ‘reinventing’ himself? That wasn’t the case. Well, that was the case only Hendricks didn’t perceive as that. Chicago Cubs Hendricks gave this thought on the matter.

"“[It’s] a lot more new school kind of stuff – a lot more movement stuff and becoming more athletic,” he said. “Not just stuff in the weight room to get me ready to go pitch on the mound, but movement stuff so I can feel better moving around the mound, too."

With a lot of that out of the way, Hendricks can ‘be free.’ And be free is what he wants. That way, he can decide what new ‘changeup’ to throw.

With a lot of ‘new’ movement and lower body strength, as well as his shoulder impingement from last season, he should be good to go this year. The ‘professor’ doesn’t think he’s valuable? You try telling him that because I won’t.