Every now and then, a player comes along who shakes the very foundation of baseball, and Shohei Ohtani is slowly etching his name as one such player. His dominance as a two-way sensation has many pitching him with some of the best names in baseball, like Babe Ruth! But transforming into that sensation is no walk in the park, and Shohei Ohtani actively works towards it both on and off the field.
When Ohtani isn’t dazzling fans on the mound or at the plate, he is busting it off at the gym, and his hard hits show the efforts he has been putting in. In a recent game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he smashed a 113.9-mph missile! Dave Roberts even compared him to iconic hitter Barry Bonds. Now, an older video of Ohtani dominating the weight room is going viral and reaching millions of his fans worldwide.
Shohei Ohtani’s gym shenanigans stun fans!
In the video that’s now going viral, the Japanese baseball icon is seen lifting a 550-pound deadlift effortlessly. This video is sending shockwaves across the fans, and right now it has crossed 4M+ views! Shohei Ohtani’s ability to lift such a weight comes from discipline. It’s not that he started lifting this weight just one fine day. He has been doing it over the years, and this is the fruit of his discipline. Ohtani, being a two-way player, fills in two different roles as a hitter and a pitcher. And they are essentially two different roles—the quintessential polar opposites and other halves of one another—which is why hardly any players attempt them.
And Ohtani’s discipline in working on himself and bettering himself has been widely talked about. Lars Nootbaar talked about it before, and he was bewitched, to say the least. When Nootbaar was asked what his max bench and squat were, he humbly replied, “Don’t even know man, Whatever Shohei’s it’s about a 1/3 of that. But Max bench Max Squat, I don’t if I’ve done that since like high school, I don’t know, maybe the bar (45 lbs)” and gushed.
Nootbaar even shared the story about Shohei Ohtani’s insane post-game workout routine. He said, “Shohei, it was after a game and he was doing like 5 sets of 5 and he was putting up almost 500 lbs on the squat rack just like causally like that, it was easy for him.” As they say, consistency and discipline are the real game-changers, and Ohtani is living proof. Plus, Nootbar isn’t the only one whom Ohtani has managed to amaze with his workouts!
Chris Taylor is gushing over Ohtani’s gym ethics
The Los Angeles Dodgers spent a whopping $700,000,000 for 10 years to clench Shohei Ohtani. And, needless to say, he is proving that their decision was right. Even with a UCL tear, he has been hitting and hitting hard. Just recently at the game with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Ohtani crushed a towering two-run home run—a 448-foot bomb off Mitch Keller—with an exit velocity of 113.9 mph. How else would he be able to do it, if not for all his strength? Ohtani brought life to the team, and Chris Taylor mentioned that even he was amazed by the training regime of Ohtani.
Taylor said, “I’ve been working out at the stadium off and on and I see Shohei there quite a bit. His work ethic is second to none, he’s super meticulous with everything he does. I don’t think I’ve seen someone take so long in between each and every rep, because he puts that much focus into it. Whether he’s doing dry swings in the cage or sprint work out on the field, he’s literally creating a game situation. He’ll have 20 dry swings in the cage and it’s gonna take him 20 minutes because he’s gonna take a minute in between every swing to visualize the situation. He’s gonna step out, take his breaths. It’s pretty special to watch, and I think that’s why he’s as good as he is.”
via Getty
Taylor also mentioned that when working out, Ohtani means all business. So no, it’s not going to be hanging out in the gym for him—it’s strictly training for the two-way star! So you know Lars Nootbaar isn’t the first person to talk about Ohtani and the way he has made an impact on the organization. It seems he always wants to give his best, and that kind of rubs on others.
