Let’s say you have a job that starts at 9 a.m. each day. But you have to show up at 6, because the computer takes a really long time to boot up and the previous day’s paperwork needs to be rechecked and the inventory gets pre-sorted and eight other things.
Then you can begin to relate to the new-normal workday for Mets captain David Wright as he continues his career following a diagnosis of spinal stenosis, a debilitating and chronic back condition that has turned the perennial All-Star into a 130-game on-base guy, in the best-case scenario.
A new feature in Men’s Fitness outlines the exhaustive routines Wright has adopted since last year, when he was limited to a career-low 38 regular-season games.
On an off day, the 33-year-old undertakes a 30-minute warmup before his 2½-hour rehab workouts, which are before he even thinks about doing any baseball stuff. It starts with core-stabilization exercises, which “address the six planes of lumbar spine motion — forward and back, side bend left and right, and rotation left and right.” His regular workouts focus on flexibility and balance — in one scene, he raises each of his legs, slowly, over a track-and-field hurdle — with almost no weight training. The old squat rack? “It would just crush my back,” Wright says.
Wright also described the arduous sequence he resorted to on a game day, after he returned to the lineup in late August: “John [Zajac, the Mets’ physical therapist] started working on my back, loosening it up, and from there I went on the [stationary] bike, then to the stretching cage. Then I did my back exercises and my warmup — skipping exercises, baseball movements, and all the exercises I did in rehab. From there I went to warm up batting-wise, hitting off a tee, first at 50 percent and gradually getting to 75 percent, then 100 percent, so I’d be ready for batting practice.”
The metamorphosis has been so profound that Wright was forced to revamp his throwing motion from third base (more legs, core and upper trunk) and his batting stance (“We had him sit back into his hip more and feel his weight more centered through his feet and core,” physical therapist John Meyer said).
Wright has appeared in three spring training games as he very slowly tries to ramp up for Opening Day on April 3. After going 2-for-3 in his debut last Friday, he went 1-for-6 in a back-to-back set on Sunday and Monday.
