Because Alex Maroko is a good buddy of mine, I decided to make this webinar available to you at absolutely no cost. If you want to learn about the thought process behind each strength and conditioning program I write - for athletes that range from baseball players, to basketball stars, to professional boxers, to Olympic bobsledders - then look no further.
If You Read Alex's Daily Emails, Use His Special Show and Go Half-Off Discount Link Below Today for Big Savings!
In response to a recent blog, one reader posted a question about how I "structure" my approach to continuing education. As I thought about it, it's actually a more organized "ritual" than I had previously thought. Here are the key components:
1. I always have two books going at a time. One involves training/nutrition/manual therapy/rehabilitation. The other involves business/personal development. Noticeably absent from this list is fiction; I really don't have any interest in it, and couldn't tell you the first thing about Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. I'll usually have a book on CD in the car as well, but nowadays, my commute is non-existent (since we moved closer to the facility), so I have been doing more reading and less listening than previously.
2.Our staff in-service is every Wednesday at 10:30AM. This has turned into a great continuing education opportunity for all of us. While one person is "responsible" for presenting the topic each week, it always inevitably becomes a "think tank" among our staff and interns about how something applies to specific clients, unique issues, functional anatomy, or our programming or business model.
For instance, last week, I talked about how to assess shoulder external rotation and address any identified deficits on this front. We got to talking about which clients were using the appropriate mobilizations, how to perform them, and what would happen if they are performed incorrectly. Likewise, we talked about how certain people need to be careful about mobilizing their shoulders into external rotation because of extreme congenital laxity and/or extreme humeral retroversion.
Beyond just the benefits of helping our staff grow as a whole, for me, it has several distinct benefits. First, when I come back from a weekend seminar where I've learned something good, it's a great opportunity to "reteach" and apply it immediately. I'm a firm believer that the best way to master something is to have to teach it to someone else. Second, having pretty frequent "mini-presentations" keeps my presenting skills fresh for seminars when I may have 4-6 weeks between speaking engagements.
3. I get to at least 4-5 weekend seminars per year. I'm lucky in that two of these are generally Perform Better Three-Day Summits where I get to see a wide variety of presentations - with all my travel expenses paid because I present myself.
I think that every fitness professional needs to get to at least two such events per year. The good news is that with webinars and DVD sets, you can save a ton on travel expenses and watch these on your own schedule. A lot of people, for instance, have said that they learned more from our two-day Building the Efficient Athlete Seminar DVD Set than they did in years of college - with no tuition payment required, either!
That said, a ton of the education at such events comes from interacting with other fitness professionals, so you do miss out on the accidental "social" education.
4. I have one day a week where all I read are journal articles. Sometimes it is entertaining, and sometimes it's like reading stereo instructions. It depends on journal - and regular ol' luck with respect to what's going on in the research world. I'll keep it pretty random and just type in a search term like "sports medicine" or "strength training." We also have The Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies delivered to the office so that our staff can look that over.
5. I read a few blogs/newsletters each day in both training/nutrition/manual therapy/rehabilitation and business/personal development. I've listed several on my recommended resources page. There are loads more out there; these are just the tip of the iceberg and the ones that I tend to read more frequently.
6. I'll usually have a DVD set or webinar going as often as possible. We've got a great library in the office at Cressey Sports Performance, and I'm fortunate to have a lot of stuff sent to me for free to review here on the blog. I tend to prefer DVDs more than webinars, as I can watch them in fast-forward and make people talk faster to save time!
7. I talk to and email with a handful of other coaches about programming and business ideas and new things we're doing. I wouldn't call it a mastermind group, or anything even close to one in terms of organization, but it is good to know that whenever I want to bounce an idea off someone, I have several people I can contact. On the training side of things, a few guys that come to mind are Mike Robertson, Neil Rampe, Mike Reinold, Bill Hartman, and Tony Gentilcore. On the business side of things, I'm lucky to have Alwyn Cosgrove and Pat Rigsby as good dudes who are only an email or phone call away. I think that the take-home message is that if you surround yourself with the right people, answers that would normally elude you are really right at hand.
This post wound up running a lot longer than I'd anticipated, but hopefully you all benefited from it nonetheless. Have any continuing education strategies of your own that I have overlooked? If so, please post them in the comments section below.
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A while back, several industry notables launched a webinar series called Muscle Imbalances Revealed. To be honest, I had been approached about contributing on the project, but just didn't have the time to give the project the attention it deserved. Luckily for all of us, though, Rick Kaselj went through with pulling this together, and an excellent resource was born.
The product consists of seven webinars all aimed at identifying and correcting muscular imbalances in the lower body. Contributing to the project were Kaselj, Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, Dean Somerset, Kevin Yates, and Eric Beard. Rather than go into a ton of detail on each presentation (and I did take quite a few notes on each), I'll highlight the components from the set as a whole that stood out for me.
1. Rick Kaselj had some excellent information on the incidence of knee injuries and surgeries across various populations; they are definitely statistics to which I'll be referring for future blogs and presentations. His presentation on ACL return-to-function would be a tremendously valuable resource to any trainer or strength and conditioning coach who has never gotten a post-ACL athlete right after discharge from therapy. I remember when I saw my first post-ACL case; I literally went home and did 4-5 hours of research that night just to make sure that I was up to speed on where that female athlete should be, and what her restrictions were. Scarily, we knew a lot less back then than we do now - and that's what makes Rick's presentation so valuable: it's all the latest info all in one place. My only small criticism is that it could have used some more videos within the presentation, but that's nothing to write home about in light of the content he provides.
2. Bill Hartman dropped some serious knowledge bombs, as only Bill can. I found that I took the most notes during Bill's presentation. A few things that stood out:
a. Don't just think of it as thoracic mobility; think of it as rib mobility, too.
b. A lot of people overlook how much exhaling during a thoracic extension drill can improve the efficacy of the exercise. Try it!
c. Bill went to great lengths to discuss the differences between mobility ("the ability to achieve the desired posture or movement") and regular ol' flexibility.
d. He worked in a bit of Postural Restoration Institute flavor, and it was nice to see which specific exercises he was using the most in a group training setting, as we do quite a bit of it ourselves.
e. Bill demonstrated the quadruped extension-rotation with the arm maximally internally rotated behind the back; it's one I really like, and we'll be using it selectively with a few of our clients. T-spine mobility is so essential to glenohumeral internal rotation range-of-motion, and it seems like internal rotation is more quickly impacted than external rotation - so it makes sense to mobilize in this position.
f. While emphasizing ankle mobility, we can't overlook the importance of strengthening the anterior compartment of the lower leg.
3. Mike Robertson was excellent as well, although I didn't take quite as many notes as I did with Bill simply because I see and speak with Mike more often. I've written quite a bit about how the subtalar joint is a "torque converter" where pronation drives tibial/femoral internal rotation and adduction, plus anterior pelvic tilt.
In this presentation, Mike does a great job of taking it a step further and talking about how dysfunction at the pelvis can drive pronation from the top down; poor hip strength and mobility can definitely wreak havoc on the lower extremity. He also presents a great anteversion example, in case you haven't seen one.
4. Kevin Yates spoke to things in a much more general sense, and while I honestly didn't take a lot from his presentations myself, some of the up-and-comers in the industry certainly would. A few points he made that I did really like were:
a. As much has technology has improved our world, it's really screwed our bodies!
b. Injuries almost always occur while we are moving, not while we're stationary - so make sure that the bulk of your mobility work comes in a standing, dynamic context, not just from static stretching.
5. Eric Beard did a great overview of the shoulder girdle and the issues we face in this complex region. From reading this blog, you realize that I could talk about all shoulders, all the time - so it was impressive that Eric crammed as much quality content into an hour as he possibly could. I really liked his scapulohumeral rhythm images as well as his continued emphasis that shoulder injuries often take years to come to fruition; there are often just "incidents" that become the straw that breaks the camel's back.
6. Dean Somerset was last, but certainly not least. Dean spoke at length about the role of fascia in governing movement. In the past, I've written at length about how we may have terrible x-rays, MRIs, or other diagnostic imaging - and be completely pain-free. Well, as Dean discusses, we can have a boatload of pain, but absolutely nothing abnormal on these images. In fact, 85% of lower back pain has no definitive diagnosis - so what gives? Well, this is where fascia comes in. We're talking about the entire extracellular matrix of the body. It's proprioceptively-rich and incredibly strong - yet it doesn't really get any of the attention it deserves. Ever had annoying pain that went away with soft tissue work? Here's a rationale for "why" it went away. For related reading, check out my recent blog post, The Fascial Knock on Distance Running for Pitchers.
All in all, Muscle Imbalances Revealed was an excellent resource that I'd highly recommend you view. And, I think it's particularly valuable because you can conveniently watch it from the comfort of your own home or office without having to spend hundreds of dollars on travel and accommodations while taking time off from work. On an even cooler note, when I reached out to Rick and mentioned that I was writing this review, he went out of his way and provided a special discount offer for my readers. You can check it out at THIS PAGE.
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Here are a few blogs/articles you might want to read over:
A Quick Fix for Painful Push-ups - This one comes from the EricCressey.com archives; I was reminded of it by a reader inquiry yesterday and thought I'd bring it back to the forefront, as it's valuable information.
Adapting Vertical Pulls - Here's an innovative idea from Bill Hartman. I tried it out, and it seems to work pretty well. We'll be experimenting with it more with our new clients with shoulder pain moving forward.
Jays' Odd Couple are a Mound of Trouble - This is a great - and entertaining - article about CP athlete and Blue Jays prospect Tim Collins and his teammate Trystan Magnuson.
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A few months ago, I gave a two-day seminar to just over 80 fitness professionals and strength and conditioning coaches. Even with a seminar this long, I can never cover everything I'd like to cover - and it's generally because much of what I'd like to address relies on some prerequisite knowledge that the attendees may not possess.
With that in mind, at the attendees' request, I sent a follow up email to all of them with a list of some of the best resources - books/manuals and DVDs - that I've encountered along my journey of self-education.
Please keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list, by any means, but it does cover what I'd consider requisite reading to get a good foundation in a lot of the concepts I covered last weekend.
1. Any anatomy text will do, but I prefer texts that speak more to functional anatomy. Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy is very good, and I know of many physical therapists in the US who keep a copy of this book on hand for patient education. Kinetic Anatomy is also a solid text that speaks to functional anatomy, and I believe the newer version comes with a tag-along DVD. Lastly, our Building the Efficient Athlete DVD set was created in part to educate folks on the functional anatomy side of things that they may miss during a conventional college curriculum. I know of several facilities in the US that use it extensively for staff training.
2. Anything from Stuart McGill - While there are several schools of thought with respect to low back function and rehabilitation (and I'd encourage you to check out each of them), McGill is the one that resonates with me the most. You can find a lot of his research on Pubmed, but he also has several books (and a DVD) available that I'd highly recommend. For those of you who are interested in some science and some applied, go with Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance.
For those of you who are a bit geekier and want to learn a lot more about the clinical side of things, check out Low Back Disorders. If you are going to train clients or athletes, you need to understand back pain.
3. Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes by Shirley Sahrmann is probably the book that has influenced me more than any other in my career. It's worth every penny.
4. For shoulder stuff, I think that The Athlete's Shoulder is a great resource. It is written by physical therapists and surgeons, though, so it can get very clinical at times. Those of you who are more interested in actual practical applications would be more interested in our new Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set, which is the video of a seminar I did with Mike Reinold, who is actually one of the co-authors of The Athlete's Shoulder. If you enter the coupon code "reinold200osp" today only at checkout HERE, you can get the DVD set with free shipping today as part of Mike's "sale week" to celebrate his 200th post.
5. Muscles: Testing and Function with Posture and Pain - This is a newer version of Kendall's classic text, and it's an incredibly detailed resource that you'll find yourself referring back to time and time again. Several of the screens we use in our everyday assessments with clients and athletes were influenced in part or entirely by Kendall's text.
6. Gray Cook's work is fantastic. If you want quick, practical tips, check out Secrets of the Hip and Knee and Secrets of the Shoulder. Both DVDs give you some tips that you can immediately put into practice.
7. Anatomy Trainsby Thomas Myers is an excellent read to get you thinking more and more about the role of the fascial system. I saw Thomas speak this past weekend in Providence, and he was absolutely fantastic - so excellent, in fact, that I'll probably write up a blog with some quick notes from his lecture. And, I'll be reading this for the third time this week, too!
8. Bulletproof Knees - Mike Robertson wrote this manual and I can honestly say that I haven't seen a better product on the market with respect to information that can be quickly applied to clients with knee pain - both in terms of understanding it and correcting it.
9. Mike Boyle has some excellent products - including all the Functional Strength Coach DVDs (#3 was the most recent). You can always find some good reading at StrengthCoach.com. I believe they still have the 14 days for $1 trial period, and as part of that, you get his Designing Resistance Training Programs and Facilities book for free.
10. Anatomy of Breathing - I think it's valuable to appreciate the muscles involved in respiration and start to put them into your functional anatomy framework as soon as possible. This book is a very quick read, but you'll get that foundational knowledge and start to think about how all this stuff lines up.
11. 2008 Indianapolis Performance Enhancement DVD set - This is a product that has largely flown under the radar because it was overshadowed by several other products that were launched around the same time. However, the short vs. stiff discussion that Bill Hartman presented as part of it is well worth the cost of the entire DVD set.
12. Clinical Applications of Neuromuscular Techniques(Part 1 and 2) - These books read like stereo instructions, but they are insanely thorough. I recommend them to anyone who is really dorky like I am. They will definitely help you to collaborate with manual therapists and physiotherapists a lot more effectively.
13. Assess and Correct - Shameless self-promotion here, but I'm extremely proud of this product. It's a DVD set and four accompanying manuals that cover 27 assessments and 78 corrective exercises we use with our clients and athletes. If I had to recommend one of our products to a trainer, this would be it. Stuart McGill have us some extremely flattering reviews on Assess and Correct as part of his new DVD.
I should note that the countless journal articles I've read over the years are noticeably absent from this list, but you can easily access the abstracts of those pieces at www.pubmed.com if you search by whatever keyword relates to your area of interest. I find myself using it daily, and I'll generally follow up on these abstracts by getting the full-text articles. Also, in addition to the few resources I note below, you can find a more extensive collection of recommended readings on my resources page. This includes a collection of links to free blogs that I read daily. Many of my blog readers don't know that, in addition to this blog, I have a free newsletter where readers get exclusive content and early notice on things - so you'll definitely want to sign up HERE if you haven't already.
It's also been a matter of interacting with as many smart folks as possible, just making (and documenting) observations with our clients/athletes, and going to seminars. This list should get you started, though!
I turn 29 today. And, while a lot of people look at birthdays as a reason to feel badly about getting old, I like to think of them as a reason to reflect on the cool stuff that's happened in the past year. Or, at the very least, I look at a birthday as good blog content! So, without further ado, here are 29 reasons I'm smiling on my 29th birthday.
1. I'm still not as old as Tony! (okay, that was wrong).
2. Several of our high school athletes have gone off to college and been among the strongest (if not the strongest) in the weight room. The really rewarding aspect of it, though, is that they have an appreciation for the fact that it isn't just about strength; it's about combining that strength with a host of other factors - flexibility, soft tissue quality, etc. - to stay healthy. I just love that they are informed consumers and advocates for themselves.
3. Lincoln-Sudbury Baseball has been #1 in the state, according to the Boston Globe Rankings. We train over 30 players who are currently in the LS program, plus quite a few younger guys and LS alumni.
4. Along those lines, LS junior Carl Anderson was batting .500 with 6HR and 21 RBIs through the first 11 games. He was also 4-0 with a 0.78 ERA and 25K in 18 innings pitched.
5.
Enough said.
6. A reader sent me a great article in response to myIs Pitching Velocity Really that Important?Blog: Change-up has become Great Equalizer. Awesome article!
7. CP athlete and Toronto Blue Jays prospect Tim Collins has 32 strikeouts in 18 innings pitched. Opponents are hitting just .206 against him. He also made a surprise cameo in the office at CP the other day on his only off-day of the month and hung out for the whole afternoon. Tim, one of our college prospects, and I all went over to watch a high school game in which a lot of our guys were playing. It's pretty cool to see pro and college ballplayers coming back to watch high school kids' games when it's usually the other way around! It makes me really proud of the camaraderie we've built among all our clients at Cressey Performance.
8. A buddy of mine is involved with Humblecock clothing (www.humblecock.com), so he sent me some free goodies. I like this stuff! I passed out a few samples to my pro guys and they loved it.
9. Brian St. Pierre, our first employee at Cressey Performance, is unfortunately leaving us at the end of this week as he returns to school to do his master's degree. While we're really bummed to be losing him, I can say that I'm really proud of how tremendous a job he's done for us since early 2008, when we first hired him. He's improved tremendously as a coach and really turned himself into an industry leader (actually just had his first article published at T-Muscle HERE). It's funny how good things happen for great people who work hard. Check him out at BrianStPierreTraining.com.
10. Recently, a local scout informed me that the Massachusetts baseball class of 2011 was ranked as the 5th best in the country. In other words, our juniors here in little ol' Massachusetts are competing with the likes of Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina - where the populations are not only bigger, but they can also play baseball year-round. Whoever said that early sports specialization was necessary to compete with these big dogs doesn't understand development at all. While the Southern boys are having Tommy Johns and labral repairs in the winter, our guys are training their butts off and attacking things with a specific plan.
The results? At Cressey Performance alone, we have eight juniors verbally committed to play for Division 1 baseball programs - including Virginia, Vanderbilt, Boston College, and UCONN. And, there should be at least a half-dozen more on that list by the time everyone signs national letters of intent this fall.
11. Head over to Amazon.com and check out the reviews on Maximum Strength HERE. This sucker is getting more stars than an astronomy textbook!
12. It gets even better than that. In the next few months, I'll release a new product that'll blow the doors off of what I did with Maximum Strength. If you liked Maximum Strength, you'll LOVE this one. Subscribe to my newsletter at the right of this screen to be among the first notified.
13. Awesome!
By the way, when I was watching this video on YouTube, one of the recommended videos was Will Ferrell's 2003 Harvard Commencement speech. It is absolutely hilarious; talk about a way to make a graduation actually interesting!
14. In the past few months, I've gotten invitations to present in both St. Thomas and South Africa. For those of you who prefer visual representations of how sweet this is, please take note (respectively):
We still have to plan our honeymoon soon as well, so it's going to be a very sunny year for a couple of Bostonians!
15. It's getting to be that time of year when pitchers come in and act all surprised that they are hitting homeruns now. It just goes to show you that when you get more athletic, a lot of things fall into place - and not just in terms of pitching! Rotational power is rotational power; the hitting just requires more hand-eye coordination.
16. I've got my own office now! Unfortunately, it's still buried under boxes and clutter from the move, but it is nice to know that I have a little bit more organization coming to my life soon!
17. I am pretty darn proud of the Cressey Performance website. It's a huge improvement from our old one, and I'm psyched to have an online presence that reflects how much hard work we put into making CP a special place to train.
18. CP athlete and San Diego Padres prospect Will Inman has a 3.03 ERA through 38.2 innings pitched in AAA. Opponents are hitting just .221 against him. For those who aren't familiar with the Pacific Coast League, this is the single-hardest league in which one can pitch at any level of professional baseball. There are small ballparks and insane winds that turn pop-ups into 450-foot HRs. Will is doing awesome and we're all really happy for him; it's a lot of hard work rewarded.
19. This one really cracks me up. We uploaded this video of CP athlete Sahil Bloom back in October of 2007, and it's become the second most popular of all-time. The funniest part is all the 13-year-olds arguing in the comments section about how this is "just good for football players" and how they all throw 97mph at age 13.
The funniest part is that Sahil is now pitching consistently over 90mph - and doing so at Stanford. He's 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA through six outings in his freshman year. It's amazing that he's had this success just "training for football!"
20. The past year has brought some collaborative efforts for me that have been absolutely tremendous in not only enhancing my productivity, but also educating me (and my readers/customers). Matt Blake has brought a great new dimension to Cressey Performance with his pitching instruction and video analysis, and to EricCressey.com with his blog contributions. Nate Tiplady has been a huge addition to our programs with the Graston and ART services he provides to our clients. It was also great to collaborate with both Mike Reinold and Bill Hartman on projects for the first time, with Optimal Shoulder Performance and Assess & Correct, respectively.
At the end of the day, you are only as strong as your network, so I'd encourage you all to seek out collaborative efforts with other professionals who complement your skill set as well.
21. Slacker.com. This thing is an awesome source for music; I listen to it all the time when I'm at the computer writing programs.
22. Just got this feedback from a very happy Optimal Shoulder Performance customer:
"Awesome job on the OptimalShoulderPerformance DVDs with Reinold. I just finished watching them this past weekend (I need to get a life) and I found them extremely educational and helpful. I really thought the information you both provided complimented each other well. There were some variations to some movements that I will definitely be implementing into some of my programs."
While the financial side of things with product sales is nice, the thing that I actually enjoy the most is knowing that the information we're putting out is helping people to improve their bodies and stay out of pain. It's even better when I know it is helping a fellow fitness professional or some rehabilitation specialist, as it means that they're taking that knowledge to help more people beyond just themselves. At the end of my career, I really want to be known most for the always putting my athletes first and always doing my best to contribute to the body of knowledge.
23. On Tuesday morning, I had an absolutely terrible training session. I felt weak the entire time, and couldn't even stomach a shake post-training. About an hour later, every joint in my body hurt and I had a raging headache. That night, I was in bed early and was pouring sweat in my sleep.
I almost never get sick. We are taking once every 3-4 years. My attendance is so good at work that my business partner, Pete, has to force me to take days off. Surely, there is something to the idea that regular exercise and proper diet reduces one's likelihood of getting sick - and this is certainly demonstrated in the reduced absenteeism
Wednesday morning, I woke up feeling a ton better. It turned out to be a really productive day. This little experience reminds me that taking care of your body doesn't just prevent you from getting sick; it also helps you to bounce back quickly when the unavoidable illness happens.
24. CP athlete Danny O'Connor looks to run his professional boxing record to 12-0 this weekend at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. A huge CP contingent will be out to support him. Danny works his butt off five days a week at CP in addition to all his boxing training, and deserves all the success that comes to him.
25. Chris Howard is the newest addition to the Cressey Performance staff, and we're excited to have him on board. A former CP intern, Chris went on to massage therapy school and is now a LMT - on top of his CSCS and master's degree in nutrition. Needless to say, we're lucky to have a guy who brings so much versatility to our facility. I especially like Chris right now because he's motivated me to brush up on my anatomy knowledge since he just retook it all in school!
26. Bill Hartman is in town for a seminar at Northeastern this weekend, so it'll be a nice birthday present to catch up with him. He's joining us at CP today for the day. His blog is always full of good stuff, but chatting with him in person is even better!
27. Tony Gentilcore wrote a great two-part series called "It All Starts in the Kitchen." There are some great tips in there for those of you who might struggle on the diet side of things. Check out Part 1 and Part 2.
28. One of our pro baseball guys told me to check out the "Baseball Made Easy" series on YouTube, and it's absolutely hilarious. Check a few of them out:
29. I already knew I had the greatest girl in the world, but when she took me to a Sox game last night for my birthday for the third year in a row, I was reminded once again! Here we were last year - when I had more hair.
1. I thought I'd kick this post off with a little technique troubleshooting. Yesterday, one of the "guinea pigs" for my new project emailed this video to me and asked for some suggestions on bench press technique:
BP from Caleb Chiu on Vimeo.
My suggestions to him were as follows:
a. Your feet are antsy and jumping all over the place. Get them pulled up a bit more under you so that they can't move around. Then, focus on pushing them into the floor the entire set.
b. Get more air in your belly. Notice how the stomach sinks in? That's because you don't have any air in it!
c. Get a handoff. The #1 reason guys flair the elbows out is that they lose scapular stability - and you lose that the second you hand off to yourself.
2. I'm headed to a Postural Restoration Institute Myokinematic Restoration Seminar this weekend up in Portland, ME - while my fiancee and my mother work on stuff for the wedding. It is amazing what lengths guys will go to in order to escape wedding planning, huh?
Just kidding; I'm actually really excited about it. Neil Rampe of the Arizona Diamondbacks turned me on to the PRI stuff and it's really intrigued me from the get-go.
3. It's been a fun week around here with the start of the high school baseball season. I got over to help out with some warm-ups and movement training with the Lincoln-Sudbury guys during tryouts on Mon-Tue. In all, we saw 33 Lincoln-Sudbury high school baseball players - from freshman to seniors - this off-season, so it was pretty easy to pick up where we left off with them in the weight room. There was great energy, and lots of excitement about the new season.
4. Here's a great feature on Blue Jays prospect Tim Collins and his training at Cressey Performance.
5. I was interviewed last week for an article about pitch counts. It's now featured HERE.
"I was pretty excited when I received an e-mail from Eric and Mike saying that I was getting an advanced copy of their new Assess and Correct product. Mike and Eric have had a history of putting out top notch information and products and when I saw that Bill Hartman was also involved in this new product I knew that this was going to be even more special.
"Since I own a fitness facility, I'm always looking for cutting edge information that I can recommend to my trainers. After viewing the DVDs and reading through the manuals, my first thought was, 'Wow, a home run!'
"Finally, a product that I could wholeheartedly recommend to all of my trainers as an excellent go-to reference tool to enhance their abilities in assessing their clients needs; pinpointing their weakness &/or imbalances and then effectively addressing these findings to make sure their clients can achieve their goals safely."
Joe Dowdell, CSCS - Founder & Co-owner of Peak Performance, NYC
www.peakperformancenyc.com
Click here to pick up a copy of Assess and Correct.
7. Last, but certainly not least, CP athlete Danny O'Connor aims to run his professional boxing record to 11-o tonight with a bout at Twin River Casino in Rhode Island. Good luck, Danny!
I just got back from speaking at the NSCA Personal Trainers Conference in Las Vegas, so I'm a bit short on content as I play catch-up now that I'm back in Boston. Luckily, Bill Hartman put together an excellent two-part series on femoral anteversion as it relates to hip mobility. Check them out:
Hip Mobility: Femoral Anteversion - Part IHip Mobility: Femoral Anteversion - Part II
Along similar lines, this old video blog of mine might interest you:
Measuring Hip Internal Rotation
Here's some recommended reading for the week...
Effective Abdominal Training - I linked to a Bill Hartman post last week, and I'm going to do it again this week, because he puts out great stuff! Check out this post, which features a video on core control.
Youk's Diary: Good, Bad of Spring Training - CP client Kevin Youkilis will be keeping a blog on ESPN.com this season, and he gave us a little shoutout in the first one. In addition to checking out Youk's blog, I'd strongly encourage you to visit and donate to Youk's Hits for Kids, a charity Kevin founded that does some awesome stuff for underprivileged kids.
7 Habits of Highly Defective Benchers - This was one of the most popular articles I've ever written, so I figured it'd be worth a "rerun."
Last, but not least, don't forget that our spring training sale ends TONIGHT at midnight. Don't miss out on your chance to get 30% off! Click here for more information.
Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, and I recently participated on a roundtable with Pat Rigsby at his blog. The discussion is all about assessment and its role in the training process.
You definitely ought to check it out - not only for the content itself, but also the special offer in place for Assess & Correct. Here it is:
