Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 3/10/18

Written on March 10, 2018 at 10:21 am, by Eric Cressey

Here's a special Saturday edition of Stuff to Read!

Bought-In - I posted a guest blog from Brett Bartholomew earlier in the week in light of the release of this new coaching resource from him. I've since had a chance to spend some time going through it, and it's been excellent. I'd highly recommend you check it out if you'd like to delve more into the coach-athlete relationship and optimizing adherence from your athletes.

EC on the Physical Preparation Podcast - It's been over a year since I joined my good friend Mike Robertson on his podcast, so we have plenty of good stuff to catch up on.

The Right Way to Stretch the Pecs - I saw someone really cranking on a pec stretch the other day, and it reminded me of this article I wrote for T-Nation nine years ago. The content still applies, even if I'm getting really, really old.

Top Tweet of the Week

Lyon Richardson: 93-97mph last night & struck out 11/12 hitters he faced (0 baserunners). Hit a HR, too. Most impressive part of his weekend, though, is that he was back in the gym at 9am today. Many athletes say they “want it,” but few appreciate how much work “it” really takes. pic.twitter.com/geLmkJkniP

— Eric Cressey (@EricCressey) March 3, 2018

Top Instagram Post of the Week

 

This #tbt is a video of alternating serratus slides on the @trxtraining suspension trainer, with a great demo from #mets pitcher @nsyndergaard. Some thoughts: 1️⃣One of the things we worked a lot on with Noah this offseason was differentiating between glenohumeral (ball on socket) and scapulothoracic (shoulder blade on rib cage) movement. Most pitchers get too much motion from the upper arm, and not enough from the shoulder blade. Notice how the scapula upwardly rotates around the rib cage - which takes stress off the front of the shoulder. 2️⃣ serratus anterior also helps to drive some thoracic flexion in a throwing population that often presents with a flat/extended thoracic spine (upper back). 3️⃣in a general sense, you could call serratus anterior the “anti-lat.” The latissimus dorsi drives a gross extension pattern and can be heavily overused in throwers; the serratus anterior works in opposition (scapular upward rotation, intimate link with the anterior core, accessory muscle of exhalation). 4️⃣add a full exhale at the “lengthened” position on each rep 5️⃣you could’ve observed the shoulder blades better if he was shirtless, but I figured Thor has already hit his weekly quota for shirtless social media cameos.😜 👍💪#cspfamily

A post shared by Eric Cressey (@ericcressey) on Mar 1, 2018 at 5:52pm PST

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