Apparently Russell Martin Does Yoga
By Joe K
It’s time for the National League to watch out, as Russell Martin’s new offseason regiment of yoga could make the twenty-six year old catcher
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"Russell Martin, the hard-nosed catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has taken up yoga.That’s right, the native of Chelsea, Que., best known for his dogged blue-collar work ethic and play-through-all-pain intensity, has made yoga an integral part of his off-season workout regimen for the first time this winter.“I’ve never felt better,” he said.Fear not baseball fans, the soon-to-be 26-year-old isn’t planning to trade in the tools of ignorance behind the plate to pursue the ultimate goal of unifying the body, mind and spirit into oneness.Rather, the two-time all-star is searching for new ways to keep his body healthy and strong throughout the 2009 season, eager to avoid the late-month swoons he’s experienced in each of his first three big-league seasons.“Last year, I remember all the way through spring training and the beginning of the season even, my body was tight,” Martin recalled last weekend at Baseball Canada’s annual awards banquet. “When you’re a baseball player, you have to feel loose and that’s kind of like prehabilitation, that’s what my dad calls it.“That was my main goal, to do some yoga, still do my explosive movement type stuff, because that’s all it is in baseball, reaction-type stuff, and flexibility. All those things, with a consistent work plan during the season, instead of seeing my numbers drop towards the end, hopefully I’ll see more of a stability and a consistency. That’s what I’m looking for.”"
There is no doubt that the Martin will need to stay fresh for the September stretch run if the Dodgers are going to seriously challenge for a World Series title or even a postseason birth. In his three seasons as the guy behind the plate for the Dodgers, Martin’s batting average has declined as the season has moved along. He’s batted .305 in April and May, .292 in June and July, and .262 in August and September. Not exactly the prime example of consistency.
I don’t know if that yoga program will help him at all, but from a fan’s perspective, at least he’s trying to become more reliable during the latter months of the season. But that effort to improve is really all fans can ask for at this point.