Critiquing The Barry Bonds Workout Program

With Barry Bonds back in the news again for his perjury trial (WHY CAN'T THIS JUST GO AWAY!!), I thought we could go back and take a look at his workout routine. You can look for it yourself. It is easy to find, but the following workout was published in the September 2003 edition of Muscle & Fitness. All I did was Google it. This workout was put together by his trainer Greg Anderson (currently rotting in jail).

This workout is designed for Barry for his off-season and on-season work. He works out Monday through Friday and during the season will try to maintain that as best as his schedule will allow. The only difference between off-season and in-season workouts is the total number of sets that he will do. He reduces the total for his in-season workouts. He usually does 12-14 sets per workout, doing 3 to 4 sets for each exercise. He'll warm-up then do 10 reps per set.

Alright, so here it is the Barry Bonds Workout:

• Monday: Chest and Biceps - Standing cable flye; standing cable biceps curl; incline hammer machine press; seated one-arm dumbbell curl; flat-bench dumbbell press; bench push-up; and an exercise-ball crunch.
• Tuesday: Quads and Hamstrings - Single-leg extension; two-leg extension; lying hamstring curl; adductor machine; abductor machine; single-leg press; leg press; barbell squat; walking lunge
• Wednesday: Back and Abs - Wide-grip pulldown; close-grip pulldown; seated row; pull-up; low-back extension; standing calf raise; seated calf raise; crunch.
• Thursday: Shoulders and Triceps - Seated rear-delt machine; one- or two-arm dumbbell lateral raise; one- or two-arm dumbbell front raise; cable triceps pressdown (with straight bar or rope); standing machine dip.
• Friday: Quads and Hamstrings - Single- or two-leg extension; lying leg curl; adductor machine; abductor machine; unilateral or regular leg press; barbell squat; stiff-legged deadlift; seated leg curl; standing single-leg hamstring curl; exercise-ball crunch.

This is my thought on this workout. I think this is made-up and that Barry didn't do this workout a day in his life. If he did, his trainer isn't that good. I used to have a subscription to Muscle and Fitness and the magazine is geared towards the body-building culture. All the workouts look generally the same regardless if it is for an athlete, a male bodybuilder, a female bodybuilder, a fitness competitor, etc. The reps might change a bit here and there, but that is it.

This program looks like a typical bodybuilder routine. It is very machine based and has a lot of single movement exercises. Meaning it does not involve a lot of muscles for each exercise. No athlete trying to get better in their sport would do this workout unless he/she was trying to develop the muscles for show not for function.

The only thing positive that could be said about this program is that there is an emphasis on leg development. Legs are key in baseball and generating the power from the legs is imperative. But the core is sadly being neglected. Core is huge in all sports, but especially baseball and I'm sorry but the ball crunch and standard crunch, just ain't going to cut it for athletes.

So, I'm afraid we didn't learn much from this workout. What is interesting is if you do read the article from M&F's website, it shows a breakdown of all the supplements Barry was supposedly taking. The list was given to M&F by Balco's founder, Victor Conte, who did serve jail time for soliciting steroids. Take a look at it purely for curiosity's sake.