Random Friday Thoughts: 9/26/08

Written on September 26, 2008 at 9:03 am, by Eric Cressey

1. We finally got our act together and put up the Elite Baseball Development Program page up on the Cressey Performance website. We’ve already got more than a dozen pro ball players committed for the off-season with several more just confirming schedules and accommodations. It should be a great time. We’ll be making this blog pretty interactive with videos as the guys get after it this winter in scenic Hudson, MA, the vacation destination of choice for guys who like to lift heavy stuff, run fast, dominate medicine ball walls, and throw wicked pissah fastballs.

2. Word’s gotten out that I’ve made myself a guinea pig for the Warpspeed Fat Loss program along with Kevin and Danny at CP. It’s the truth. Honestly, I took my before pictures and they weren’t nearly as bad as I expected to be, but I’m still going to go through with it. I won’t be doing the programming to a T, but in terms of diet, I’m 100% on board. We’ll see where it takes me; I’m not really worried about making it Warpspeed, to be honest; I just want to see some subtle changes and not lose strength.

3. Eric Chessen is doing a seminar in Hanover, MA on exercise for children with developmental disabilities. Eric specializes in autism and has some awesome ideas. Check it out HERE.

4. Also on the seminar front, Dr. Mike Maxwell has Dr. Stuart McGill presenting on October 25 in New Brunswick, Canada. Dr. McGill is absolutely fantastic in seminar and I’d highly recommend you check it out if you’re in that neck of the woods.

5. I got asked this week why strengthening the external rotators of the humerus drives the bench press up. The truth is that I don’t know that the external rotators have a huge direct effect on the bench aside from stabilizing the humeral head in the glenoid fossa. However, if you don’t have humeral head and scapular stability, it’s like trying to shoot a cannon from a canoe when you bench.

Probably more significantly, though, strengthening the external rotators is valuable because it indirectly helps you build strength by keeping your shoulders health for the long haul. I’ll take a guy who can train continuously for a year over a guy who trains nine months out of the year and nurses a bum shoulder the rest of the year.

That said, in the grand scheme of things, I’d put more emphasis on a number of other factors with respect to improving the bench press independent of actually benching.

6. Thought for the weekend: hindsight is definitely 20/20. Doh!