Help a skinny athlete become stronger...
 

Ok, so here's the skinny. (pun not intended ;) )

I am 18 years old and I've been playing baseball all my life. When I was a little kid, I was probably one of the best baseball players my age in the state. (California) "This kid is making it to the majors" were quotes that were thrown around. Anyway, as I got older, I remained skinny, and I never gained the physical aspect of the game that is needed to play in higher levels. (Power, Arm Strength) Last year, my senior year in high school, I still "managed" to hit .398, but I couldn't help but feel that I could have done so much better had I not been so weak. I talked to some college coaches and they all said the same thing.."You gotta get stronger."

Anyway, here I am in February, and I got 6 months to get myself in as best a shape as I can get for summer practice. I'm currently about 5'10 155. Ideally, I'd like to gain around 10 more lbs of muscle.
Help is greatly appreciated. Thanks. :D :cool:

My best advice to you, speak to a doctor. They can often set you up on a diet and provide you with the names of personal trainers if you're really serious about it.

I'm not an athlete, but I am the same size as you. I'm interested to hear what people have to say.

if your not lifting weights... start lifting! Get your coach or somebody who knows about the subject to get you on a set for each lifting day... eat alot.. of GOOD FOODS! no junk crap. There are tons of sites on what types of food u should eat for bulking up while lifting, lots of protein, etc. Just search around abit.

Diet and lifting is the key here. You want to lift for bulk - which means high weight, lower reps. Diet wise, you might want to eat more calories than you burn off, just to put on a little bulk. Don't go crazy though. Calculate your body fat % every few weeks and try to hover around the 10-12% mark. That should look good on you. Plan9 will be able to offer more insight.

best way to get arm strength personally is do a few things:
#1: Determine your diet
-The biggest problem nowadays is people feel that since they lifted weights or whatever for a hour they can stuff their faces with random shit for the next 2 days as long as they gain no weight, guess what WRONG.
-The key to building muscle mass is getting high protein and mid fat / carbs but dont completely cut them because you need all 3 to build muscle mass.
-If you want to go more in depth on diets etc go to this site its a nice guideline personally:http://t-mag.com/html/147mass.html

#2: Weight lifting itself
-Another big problem people have is they focus on one area of their body to improve but dont improve others which can cause major problems. If you dont exercise your entire body some parts of you can become to bulky and you can become overall weaker because your legs cant support your arms as easily.
-For arm strength focus on exercising your back for flexibility and do alot of Curls/Bench presses however things like squats do not hurt since speed is key in baseball also.

Honestly if you combine these two you will have the best results however some things are decided entirely by your own bodies, some people react differently to different diets since you will be doing this for 6 months and longer for baseball give it time and see what gives the best results.

However, I advise you see a trainer/doctor just to get their opinion but in general most people will get stronger without gaining body fat doing these 2 things