The Real-Life Diet of MLB Slugger Eric Thames, Who Says Stretching Is Everything

Real-Life Diet is a series in which GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and everyone in-between about their diets and exercise routines: what's worked, what hasn't, and where they're still improving. Keep in mind, what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.

You wouldn’t know it by looking at him, but Milwaukee Brewers first baseman/outfielder Eric Thames doesn’t have much interest in lifting heavy weights. Yes, he pursued a bodybuilder physique in his younger days—one that hasn’t exactly dissipated—but now, at 32 years old and in the midst of a career reinvention after an unexpected stop playing pro baseball in Korea, Thames has prioritized something very different: stretching.

He can’t get enough of it. He loves yoga, especially yin yoga, which involves holding poses for so long that some people practically fall asleep. He thrives off the feeling that comes from stretching until his body feels like it’s permanently molded into a new position.

When Thames was an up-and-coming Major Leaguer, he struggled to stay in the lineup and show off the obvious strength that seemed like it should be in his repertoire. But he found that strength in Korea, and the key to his success wasn’t powerlifting—it was flexibility and mobility. Also: Far, far healthier food options than he’d been eating in America. In 2015, Thames won the Korean Baseball Organization MVP award, and in 2017, he made his MLB return with an entirely new fitness philosophy that paid immediate dividends. He hit 31 home runs for the Brewers, providing some unexpected and much-needed slugging. Last season was an injury-plagued slog, but this year, Thames has a career-high batting average (.268) with 13 dingers in 87 games.

After a recent batting practice session, Thames spoke to GQ about the best weightlifting strategies during a grueling season, his newfound cooking skills, and whether he could take John Cena—who he (jokingly) put in a headlock prior to a June game—in the wrestling ring.

GQ: I know for a while you had pulled back on using heavier weights. What’s your workout routine look like now?

Eric Thames: During the season, your workouts are more about not fatiguing. It’s getting a little pump just so your muscles are still working, and also to prevent injuries. What works best for me is a lot of resistance bands. I feel like those are more bang for your buck. A lot of bike, sprints, plyometrics. That, coupled with stretching. If I do weights during the year, I’ll get bulky and tired. Especially squats, my legs will feel like 1,000 pounds each on the field.

Is any of this position-specific? Like, does a pitcher have a different routine versus a position player?

For sure. Weight rooms are usually always pitchers, because they get so much time off. They’re throwing once every five days, so they can go in there and crush legs for a day and then recover. A lot of those guys don’t do lots of upper body work—it’s more so back, core, and a lot of legs. I would say position players focus more on bike, light legs, light arms, and then a lot of mobility, stretching, and foam rolling.

Yeah, I wanted to ask you about stretching. You once said you stretch for multiple hours a day. How does somebody stretch for that long?

[Laughs] It’s not all at once. I previously tore my quad because I was so tight, so bound up, doing workouts based on Flex magazine. I looked good in a uniform but it wasn’t really functional. My rehab for that was yoga. I did yoga every day for three hours, back-to-back hour-and-a-half classes. It was power yoga followed by yin yoga. Yin yoga is specific poses for four or five minutes—you’re just holding a long, long stretch. I remember when I first started, there were a lot of pregnant women and older women in the classes, and they were falling asleep while holding these poses. It’s supposed to be a relaxing class, but I’m dripping sweat and cramping up because I wasn’t flexible at all. Having to work through that, and doing research on gymnasts and contortionists—I’m really fascinated by that stuff and different bodies of work. In terms of flexibility, I need to sit in a straddle for like three to four minutes, where it hurts but your muscles relax into that stretch after a while.

Source: Gq.com

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