Friday the 13th: Muscle Imbalances, Stiffness, & Increasing Throwing Velocity
Written on August 13, 2010 at 6:34 am, by Eric Cressey
1. I just realized that it’s Friday the 13th. Hopefully that epiphany doesn’t jinx this blog and make it suck. Prepare yourself either way.
2. In case you missed it earlier this week, today is the last day you can save $50 off of Muscle Imbalances Revealed, a discount that is only in place for my readers through THIS LINK. As I noted in my Muscle Imbalances Revealed product review earlier this week, it’s an excellent product and worth every penny. The sale lasts through tonight at midnight only.
3. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that I’m a huge advocate of soft tissue work based on anecdotal evidence. This week, however, I want to direct you to a great “case study” guest blog by physical therapist Trevor Winnegge over at Mike Reinold’s blog. Trevor writes about the importance of soft tissue release following SLAP 2 repairs. This is great information for both clinicians and those looking to be advocates for themselves following shoulder injuries, so definitely check it out.
4. Check out this excellent blog post from Bret Contreras on stiffness. A lot of folks think that being stiff is always a bad thing, but as Bret shows, there is a time and a place for everything – and it’s crucial for successful athletic performance.
5. Cressey Performance athlete Andrew Chin had a nice interview published at ESPN Boston the other day, and talks about his training at CP in some detail. Check it out: Player Perspective: Andrew Chin.
5. Tony’s out of town for a lovely romantic weekend with his significant other. He’s planning to serenade her, so we did a little trial run at Cressey Performance the other night. I think he did pretty well:
Hey, it beats techno, right?
6. One of my goals for the rest of 2010 is to really kick up the video content here at EricCressey.com. To that end, I am tentatively planning a video series for the blog that is all about exercise technique and how we teach certain lifts. I’m looking for ideas: what drills/exercises/lifts have been a struggle for you to learn? Please post some suggestions as comments below and you might see it in this blog in the next few months with a ton of detail. Thanks in advance for your ideas!
I would love to see the walking lunge or similar discussed. Most of the PT’s at the gym where I work utilize it but the clients compensate in so many terrible ways. I am constantly queuing my clients but have also found that for the regular 40’ish patron at a commercial gym (the majority of my clients) you need a long meticulous progression to get to a level where good safe lunge mechanics are possible.
Sorry it turned out so long winded, but maybe theres an article idea in there?
I would agree with the power clean, but more specifically what progressions you use and what athletes you have perform Olympic lifts. I know you do not perform Cleans with baseball players but I’m interested if you use any of the lead up variations like the Clean Shrug Pull with them.
Soft Tissue Work for Shoulders (i.e. external rotators with tennis balls/lax balls and how often to program it)
Standing Cable Rotational Pulls
Sumo Stance Deadlift
In addition to the videos, highlighting some of your exercise progressions or where the exercise fits in your progressions would be interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen your actual exercise progressions published anywhere. I know you have a unique approach to strength training with various heavy lift variations…would like to learn some of your progressions.
Regressions for single-leg Romanian deadlift. I feel like it’s one of the more complex unilateral lifts people have trouble with, especially when they lack the mobility to perform it.
Also while it hammers the hamstrings, I have trouble seeing way in to make it more difficult or another exercise to progress to after it.
I am in agreement with everything above – olympic movements utilization & progressions, exercise progressions in general, and also I’d like to see your approach to teaching hip hinging.
That is the one thing that I’ve always had the most difficulty teaching to male clients. My females usually pick it up without too much difficulty. But, for some reason, it’s a very unnatural movement for the guys – probably due to tightness/stiffness, etc. So, teaching RDL’s, Good Mornings, Pull-Throughs, etc. were a definite process with the male clients and it really limited my hip dominant movements in my exercise programming until they could figure it out.
I’m fairly a beginner, trying to learn this stuff from the Internet instead of a trainer. I’m struggling with ensuring I have proper form on things like squats, deadlifts, swings, etc.
A suggestion – include video shots from side on – I mean directly perpendicular. I think I’d learn more from seeing your deadlift that way.
Also, Olympic lifts and their variations (e.g. A2G squats, snatches). Oh, and thanks.
I was always struggling how to do cable chops and cable lifts properly, and then at your gym I saw a bunch of athletes and trainers do it in a two-phase way and it made perfect sense. I think it would be nice if you discuss some of those smaller exercises.
deadlift and squat videos would be great. a nice change would be to show it performed by 2 different body types ( 1 shorter guy vs 1 taller guy) and the different challenges to each individual.
Also, a video of a full 5-10 minute mobility/activation warmup would be great.
Thanks. Looking forward to the videos.
I would love to see exercises related to correcting foot over pronation for individuals with a neutral arch. That is, for individuals with no structural or neurological deficiencies.
August 13th, 2010 at 7:15 am
Power Clean
August 13th, 2010 at 7:57 am
I would love to see the walking lunge or similar discussed. Most of the PT’s at the gym where I work utilize it but the clients compensate in so many terrible ways. I am constantly queuing my clients but have also found that for the regular 40’ish patron at a commercial gym (the majority of my clients) you need a long meticulous progression to get to a level where good safe lunge mechanics are possible.
Sorry it turned out so long winded, but maybe theres an article idea in there?
Best regards, Poul
August 13th, 2010 at 7:57 am
I would agree with the power clean, but more specifically what progressions you use and what athletes you have perform Olympic lifts. I know you do not perform Cleans with baseball players but I’m interested if you use any of the lead up variations like the Clean Shrug Pull with them.
August 13th, 2010 at 9:21 am
I would suggest the following three…
Soft Tissue Work for Shoulders (i.e. external rotators with tennis balls/lax balls and how often to program it)
Standing Cable Rotational Pulls
Sumo Stance Deadlift
In addition to the videos, highlighting some of your exercise progressions or where the exercise fits in your progressions would be interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen your actual exercise progressions published anywhere. I know you have a unique approach to strength training with various heavy lift variations…would like to learn some of your progressions.
August 13th, 2010 at 9:48 am
.
EC,
It would be cool to see some explosive med ball stuff.
Rick Kaselj
.
August 13th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Regressions for single-leg Romanian deadlift. I feel like it’s one of the more complex unilateral lifts people have trouble with, especially when they lack the mobility to perform it.
Also while it hammers the hamstrings, I have trouble seeing way in to make it more difficult or another exercise to progress to after it.
August 13th, 2010 at 10:35 am
I am in agreement with everything above – olympic movements utilization & progressions, exercise progressions in general, and also I’d like to see your approach to teaching hip hinging.
That is the one thing that I’ve always had the most difficulty teaching to male clients. My females usually pick it up without too much difficulty. But, for some reason, it’s a very unnatural movement for the guys – probably due to tightness/stiffness, etc. So, teaching RDL’s, Good Mornings, Pull-Throughs, etc. were a definite process with the male clients and it really limited my hip dominant movements in my exercise programming until they could figure it out.
Thanks,
Chris
August 13th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
I’m fairly a beginner, trying to learn this stuff from the Internet instead of a trainer. I’m struggling with ensuring I have proper form on things like squats, deadlifts, swings, etc.
August 13th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
A suggestion – include video shots from side on – I mean directly perpendicular. I think I’d learn more from seeing your deadlift that way.
Also, Olympic lifts and their variations (e.g. A2G squats, snatches). Oh, and thanks.
August 13th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
I was always struggling how to do cable chops and cable lifts properly, and then at your gym I saw a bunch of athletes and trainers do it in a two-phase way and it made perfect sense. I think it would be nice if you discuss some of those smaller exercises.
August 13th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
deadlift and squat videos would be great. a nice change would be to show it performed by 2 different body types ( 1 shorter guy vs 1 taller guy) and the different challenges to each individual.
Also, a video of a full 5-10 minute mobility/activation warmup would be great.
Thanks. Looking forward to the videos.
August 13th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Relearn the BASICS: Deadlift & Squat and those moves. How to you teach a person to dead-lift the first time if they never did that exercise.
August 13th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
oops how Do you teach…
August 13th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
bench press, bulgarian split squat, glute ham raise, FRONT SQUAT, box squat, overhead press
August 14th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
You need to show us how to funnel that level of intensity into our training – the Karaoke guy.
August 14th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
I’d like to see how you teach the single leg romanian deadlift. Also the cable chop/cable lift which I still don’t ‘get’.
August 14th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Deadlift/Front Squat/Any and all lunges!
August 14th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Plyometrics
Some drills used for baseball pitchers and fielders
August 15th, 2010 at 2:55 am
I’d like to see a single leg deadlift while holding a dowel to the back, video.
August 16th, 2010 at 3:24 am
Nice story on Andrew Chin. I noticed he mentioned “long distance” and “cardio” in the article. Was this accurate?
August 16th, 2010 at 5:17 am
We are changing that, Rich!
August 16th, 2010 at 8:31 am
Common mistakes in deadlift technique — how to self-diagnose and fix
August 18th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
I would love to see exercises related to correcting foot over pronation for individuals with a neutral arch. That is, for individuals with no structural or neurological deficiencies.