My 19yo son  needs to put a few pounds on this summer before going back to school. He is a college baseball player at a JUCO in Georgia.
Besides upping his calories, is the 5x5 workout better than a traditional workout with split body part days?

We have been training at home and he has put about 7 lbs back on after getting sick in February.
He started his freshman year at 160, then wasnt eating much and after getting sick dropped to around 140.
I was mad at him for not eating while away and losing the weight so we are working to het it back on.

TIA

At 19, any workout he does consistently while eating enough is going to grow him.

Did he ask his coach of they want him doing anything specific?

Nothing specific. Just needs to put aome weight back on while honing his skills.

Starting strength and adequate food.

The internet is full of baseball specific weightlifting programs.

He might even need to avoid some exercises based on what his coach wants him to work on.

I worked with a guy that pitched in a D1 school and I was asking him about the workouts they made him do. Pressing of any kind was pretty much forbidden, he had to focus a lot on squats, back work, rear delts, and tons of shoulder mobility.

Correct, no pressing.
We will do a landmine press where you kneel and push the weight up & away from you.

Why is pressing looked down upon? If you're doing the mobility work, I'm failing to see how strengthening shoulders is bad for a pitcher.

+1 to Starting Strength and adequate food to get him to put some weight back on. Do the program as prescribed with Squat/Press/Deadlift and Squat/Bench/Power Clean. Closer to the season, taper off the SS program and over to something more specific for him to focus on explosiveness.

I was told it was to prevent anything from tightening up. Throwing a ball is more skill based than strength based, you have to train for your sport.

I would imagine baseball players want a solid base, strong legs and back for hitting, and the ability to sprint.

Basic exercise physiology

Hypertrophy: high volume, lighter weight, short rest periods

Strength: low volume, heavy weight, long rest periods

It's a bit more broad than that. Basically the answer to either, at least for a period of time, is consistently following a decent program. When that program stops working, change to something that provides some different stimulus.

https://www.strongerbyscience.com/hypertrophy-range-fact-fiction/

My BS and Master’s are in Kinesiology and Exercise Science.

I'm not questioning your credentials, just trying to avoid confusion in people reading and starting out.

For the most part, it's hard to get bigger without getting stronger, and it's hard to get stronger without getting bigger, you just have to pick which you want to prioritize for a period of time.

It's why so many people usually recommend getting on a basic beginner program and eating like the food supply is about to run out, it gets you stronger, which makes it easier to add useful volume later if you decide you want to work bodybuilding or something.

I agree, the body will adapt to external stressors by increasing muscle mass and strength. There’s a little bleed through of each adaptation (almost) no matter the rep, set, percentage, and rest intervals.

OP, pulling exercises, dead lifts, back squats, front squats, lunges, split squats with the back foot on an elevated platform like a plyometric box or bench, shoulder internal and external rotation with his elbow by his side and arm raised to make a T, front and lateral raises, bent over rows with dumbbells and barbell, prone cobra raises, walking Romanian deadlifts, straight leg deadlifts, good mornings, glute bridges (hip thrusts).

As he progresses, look into the 2 plus 2 rule. Use that to gauge when to add weight.

My list isn’t end all be all, he’ll need plyometrics, Olympic lifting, core exercises, and other auxiliary exercises. It’s a good list over a cup of coffee.

Olympic lifting and plyometrics I wouldn’t go over 5 reps per set.

So a little update.
We were doing all home exercises for the month of april until the gyms opened.
Lots of push ups, squats, and dumb bell work that we had.

When the gyms opened, we started a new routine.
Basically 3 heavy exercises and 2 smaller exercises.

Monday
Bench
Incline DB
Modified shoulder press
Tricep exercise
Tricep exercise

Wednesday
Squats
Straight leg deads
T Bar Rows
Bicep
Bicep

Friday
Chest Machine
Incline DB
Deadlifts
Abs/forearms

He has upped his calories and has put on about 10 pounds of muscle.
He started at 160 last august, dropped a lot of baby fat from not eating and getting sick so he was at 140 when we started.

Now he looks a lot better at 150lb.
His strength has gone up across the board while maintaining good form and building a good base.
I can tell his confidence is up and is looking forward to returning  to school in august.

They are doing a modified fall season going from 25 to 15 games and having some showcases in front of 4 year schools.

Thanks for all the replies.

I'm confused.  I understood from earlier in the thread that pressing movements were strictly forbidden.  Yet he's been doing them twice a week.  What am I missing???

Overhead press is no bueno. Nothing above the head.
Bench press he is fine.

The other press is with the bar in fulcrum pressing a little up and away from body.
They are called Land Mine press.

He needs to get a food scale, a bathroom scale, and MyFitnessPal. Macro's don't matter other than protein (90% percent of the game calories and protein), he needs about a gram per pound of body weight. He needs to log his calories to figure out what he is taking in, and log his weight. If his weight is dropping then he needs to add calories. Eating is his job now. A better app is the Renaissance Peroidization (RP) Diet App, it is 15 a month and is an AI driven program that handles your diet.

As far as weight training. The starting strength stuff is okay, but its short on volume for adding size. I like the RP physique templates, grab the whole body one, they are having a sale. If hes a college athlete he should have a S&C coach.

Ask this guy.

Also your boy needs to ask his S&C coach.