Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 12/19/16

Written on December 19, 2016 at 9:35 am, by Eric Cressey

It's been a quiet week on the blog, as my wife and I traveled up to Massachusetts for a long-time client's wedding and the last Elite Baseball Mentorship of the year.

I'll have some new content for you later in the week, but in the meantime, here's some great stuff to cover:

30 Days of Arm Care - I wrapped this up a few days ago. You can view all the videos on Twitter and Instagram using the #30DaysOfArmCare hashtag.

Are Weighted Baseballs a Wave of the Future? - Lindsay Berra wrote this article for MLB.com and interviewed me about our work with pro guys with weighted balls.

The Fitness Entrepreneur's Handbook - Pat Rigsby is one of the brightest business minds I've ever met - and certainly among the top guys in the business of fitness. I was thrilled when he asked me to write the foreword to this new book. This is a must read if you're in the fitness industry. 

5 Lessons on Coaching - I published this guest blog from former Cressey Sports Performance intern John O'Neil one year ago, and it was a huge hit. There are definitely some great coaching lessons in here. 

Top Tweet of the Week

Maybe the problem isn't the weighted balls. Maybe it's one coach giving an entire team of 14-year-olds the exact same weighted ball program.

— Eric Cressey (@EricCressey) December 15, 2016

Top Instagram Post of the Week

 

Today is Day 28 of #30DaysOfArmCare. My two-year-old daughter Addison is my special guest. Key takeaways: 1. As I noted in day 12 of this series, a more retroverted humerus (upper arm) gives rise to more lay-back during the throwing motion. It is theorized that this adaptation can protect both the shoulder and elbow. 2. We are all born with retroverted humerii (plural of humerus?), but over the course of our lives, we become more anteverted. 3. Throwing at a young age actually help to preserve this retroversion. It's why you will see more laid-back on a throwing shoulder than on a non-dominant shoulder. It's also why you will probably never see someone pick up baseball in their 20s and become a superstar pitcher. Basically, you need to warp bones to throw gas. 4. The secret is to do just enough throwing to preserve this positioning, but not so much as to create growth plate injuries. 5. "Throwing like a girl" is actually related to the amount of retroversion in place. If you don't have a retroverted humerus, you won't lay the arm back, and will instead just lead with the elbow. To that end, lots of dudes who never played overhead throwing sports actually "throw like girls." See first pitches from President Obama, 50 Cent, Carl Lewis, etc. 6. My kids are going to throw cheddar. Follow #30DaysOfArmCare and @cresseysportsperformance for more tips to keep throwing arms healthy. #cspfamily #armcare #baseball #mlb

A video posted by Eric Cressey (@ericcressey) on Dec 11, 2016 at 1:05pm PST

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