Home Posts tagged "Jimmy Fund"

A Good Man Lost…

I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that this week's blogs won't start up for a few days, as I'll be flying out to Ohio tomorrow to attend the funeral of Chet Rodgers, who passed away on Saturday afternoon after a courageous battle with cancer. My friendship with Chet was a perfect example of just how powerful the internet is.  After reading one of my blogs about training pitchers, Chet contacted me last fall to ask some questions about baseball training - and these interactions led to his son, Chad, coming to train at Cressey Performance all winter.  Chad was a third round pick by the Atlanta Braves in 2006, and he had a phenomenal off-season - gaining 17 pounds and completely changing his body. I'll never forget the excitement in the email I received from Chet when he saw the before-after pictures and read about the pre-post testing numbers in power and flexibility improvements from Chad's off-season.  Chet was the best kind of Baseball Dad: one who respected and understood the game, and would do anything to make sure that his son was set-up for success - but without ever coming close to being overbearing. Chet was an avid exerciser - and actually completed the Maximum Strength program this winter, including a few visits to Cressey Performance himself.  On each of those visits, Chet made a point of rocking the Cressey Performance beanie around our facility, making sure to console me that going bald wasn't so bad, as it means that you can always wear a CP beanie. A regular reader of this blog, Chet and I emailed back and forth almost every day.  He was a regular churchgoer, long-time baseball coach and fan, and most importantly, a fantastic husband, father of two, and friend - and one of the most unconditionally positive and genuinely friendly people I've ever met.  Chet was, very simply, an incredible guy. It is all too ironic that Chet would pass away this weekend, as it was the weekend I helped out at Fantasy Day at Fenway Park to benefit the Jimmy Fund and Dana Farber Cancer Institute.  It seems only fitting that I could be involved in helping to raise money for cancer research with baseball as a backdrop. And, perhaps more significantly, my own father had (successful) surgery this morning.  I can say without wavering that hearing of Chet's passing on Saturday made it all the more important to me to be back in Maine to see my Dad and be there to tell him I love him before the surgery. To that end, while I'm sure only a few of you knew Chet Rodgers, I'm sure a lot of you have had a "Chet Rodgers" in your life at some point.  So, I'd encourage you to make a donation - of funds or your time - to support cancer research.  And, for those of you who can, I'd encourage you to give your father a call when you read this. In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been set up in Chet's honor to benefit the family.  For more information, please visit www.RodgersFund.com.
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Random Friday Thoughts: 2/6/09

1. First thing's first: in a newsletter last year, I told you all about Sarah Neukom, who works with the Jimmy Fund in organizing special events.  Sarah raised over $8,000 for cancer research last year in running the Boston Marathon, and a lot of you generously donated to the cause through the mention in this newsletter.  This year, Sarah's running again, and she'd love your support - this time to raise over $10,000 for a lot of people who could really use it.  I encourage you to check out www.SarahSaidSheWould.com and make a tax-deductible donation to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. 2. Tomorrow, I'm headed back to my old stomping grounds - Storrs, CT - to see my first UCONN men's basketball of the year.  The seniors on this year's squad were freshman when I was last in campus, so I'm still bleeding some Husky Blue.

3. While we're on the topic of big verticals, a lot of our pro guys are wrapping up their off-season training at Cressey Performance before heading out to spring training, so we're doing some post-testing to gauge the progress they've made.  Probably the most impressive of the bunch jumping-wise has been Blue Jays prospect Tim Collins, Baseball America's Low A Reliever of the Year in 2008.  Tim added 10.8 inches to his vertical jump in just four months to get it up to 38.7 inches.

4. Someone asked me yesterday if I felt that it was necessary to be on a caloric surplus on the Maximum Strength program.   My response was, "That'll work, but a big surplus isn't necessarily. You'll actually notice that the resounding them within the book with respect to my own progress over the years is that I've built relative strength, not just absolute strength. So, you could still see excellent results just eating at maintenance - particularly if the volume is lower than your recent programs."

5. If you are near the Philadelphia/ New Jersey area and interested in bodyweight training (and if you are a regular reader of this blog, chances are that you are), consider checking out a great one day seminar given by Beast Skills' Jim Bathurst.  The date is March 1st, and the seminar is actually two parts (one basic and one advanced), so anyone can attend and participate fully.  Jim knows his stuff (check out his impressive YouTube clips on the Beast Skills site) and the seminar will help anyone who wants to develop full body strength and stability.  Check out Jim's site for details.  The seminar is hosted by my good buddy, Shon Grosse, who is a great physical therapist in Colmar, PA.

6. Just a quick happy birthday shoutout to Padres prospect Will Inman.  Will's up in Boston from Virginia to get down with us this off-season before heading out to Phoenix on Monday for spring training.  Everyone give Will some love and check him out at WilliamInman.com.

Have a great weekend!

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Thoracic Spine Issues

Fantasy Day at Fenway Park

I’ll be making my Fenway Park debut on Saturday. I know it’s hard to believe, but it won’t be for my catching abilities, base-stealing prowess, or 95-mph two-seam fastball. Rather, I’ll be speaking on a panel at the annual Fenway Park Fantasy Day to benefit The Jimmy Fund. And, if people don’t give a hoot about listening to me, they’ve got a skills zone with batting cages, a fast-pitch challenge, and accuracy challenge on top of loads of contests and tours. I’ll be sure to snap some photos for you.

This is an absolutely great cause, and while I know most of you won’t be in attendance, I’d highly encourage you to support the cause with a donation to the Jimmy Fund. What they are doing is something very special, and I’m honored to be a part of it.

Subscriber Only Q&A Q: One quick question. As a trainer, I'm sure you've come across certain clients who have a problem with their thoracic spine (mild hump) and need to work on mobilizing this region. Other than foam rollers, are there any other techniques or methods that can be used? Maybe there's a book or video out there I could purchase that gives me a better understanding of how to implement some new methods?

A: Thanks for the email.  It really depends on whether you're dealing with someone who just has an accentuated kyphotic curve or someone who actually has some sort of clinical pathology (e.g. osteoporosis, ankylosing spondylitis, Cushing’s Syndrome) that's causing the "hump."  In the latter case, you obviously need to be very careful with exercise modalities and leave the “correction” to those qualified to deal with the pathologies in question.

In the former case, however, there’s quite a bit that you can do. You mentioned using a foam roller as a “prop” around which you can do thoracic extensions:

Thoracic Extensions on Foam Roller

While some people think that tractioning the thoracic spine in this position is a bad idea, I don’t really agree. We’ve used the movement with great success and absolutely zero negative feedback or outcomes.

That said, I’m a firm believer that the overwhelming majority of thoracic spine mobilizations you do should integrate extension with rotation. We don’t move straight-ahead very much in the real-world, so the rotational t-spine mobility is equally important. Mike Robertson and Bill Hartman do an awesome job of outlining several exercises along these lines in their Inside-Out DVD; I absolutely love it.

With most of these exercises, you’re using motion of the humerus to drive scapular movement and, in turn, thoracic spine movement.

The importance of t-spine rotation again rang true earlier this week when I had lunch with Neil Rampe, director of corrective exercise and manual therapy for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Neil is a very skilled and intuitive manual therapist, and he had studied extensively (and observed) the effect of respiration. He made some great points about how we can’t get too caught up in symmetry. Neil noted that we’ve got a heart in the upper left quadrant, and a liver in the lower right. The left lung has two lobes, and the right lung has three – and there’s some evidence to suggest that folks can usually fill their left lung easier than their right. The right diaphragm is bigger than the left –and it can use the liver for “leverage.” The end result is that the right rib winds up with a subtle internally rotated position, which in turns affects t-spine and scapular positioning. Needless to say, Neil is a smart dude – and once I got over how stupid I felt – I started scribbling notes. I’m going to be looking a lot more at breathing patterns as a result of this lunch.

Additionally, it’s very important to look at the effects of hypomobility and hypermobility elsewhere on thoracic spine posture. If you’re stuck in anterior pelvic tilt with a lordotic spine, your t-spine will have to compensate by rounding in order to keep you erect. And, if you’ve shortened your pecs and pulled the scapulae into anterior tilt and protraction, you’ll have a t-spine that’s been pulled into flexion. Or, if you’ve done thousands and thousands of crunches, chances are that you’ve shortened your rectus abdominus so much that your rib cage is depressed to the point of pulling you into a kyphotic position.

On the hypermobility front, poor rotary stability at the lumbar spine can lead to excessive movement at a region of the spine that really isn’t designed to move. It’s one reason why I like Jim Smith’s Combat Core product so much; he really emphasize rotary stability with a lot of his exercises. Lock up the lumbar spine a bit, and you’ll get more bang for your buck on the t-spine mobilizations.

As valuable as all the t-spine extension and rotation drills can be, they are – when it really comes down to it – just mobility drills. And, to me, mobility drills yield transient effects that must be sustained and complemented by appropriate strength and endurance of surrounding musculature. Above all else, strength of the appropriate scapular retractors (lower and middle trapezius) is important. You can be very strong in horizontal pulling – but have terrible posture and shoulder pain – if you don’t row correctly.

Not being cognizant of head and neck position can lead to a faulty neck pattern:

Cervical hyperextension (Chin Protrusion) Pattern

Here, little to no scapular retraction takes place. And, whatever work is done by the scapular retractors comes from the upper traps and rhomboids – not what we want to hit.

Then, every gym has this guy. He just uses his hip and lumbar extensors to exaggerate his lordotic posture and avoid using his scapular retractors at all costs.

Another more common, but subtle technical flaw is the humeral extension with scapular elevation. Basically, by leaning back a bit more, an individual can substitute humeral extension for much of the scapular retraction that takes place – so basically, the lats and upper traps are doing all the work. This can be particularly stressful on the anterior shoulder capsule in someone with a scapula that sits in anterior tilt because of restrictions on pec minor, coracobrachialis, or short head of the biceps. Here is what that issue looks like when someone is upright like they should be. A good seated row would like like this last one – but with the shoulder blades pulled back AND down. We go over a lot of common flaws like these in our Building the Efficient Athlete DVD series.

Finally, don’t overlook the role that soft tissue quality plays with all of this. Any muscle – pec minor, coracobrachialis, short head of the biceps – that anteriorly tilts the scapulae can lead to these posture issues. Likewise, levator scapulae, scalenes, subclavius, and some of the big muscles like pec major, lats, and teres major can play into the problem as well. I’ve always looked at soft tissue work as the gateway to corrective exercise; it opens things up so that you can get more out of your mobility/activation/resistance exercise.

Hopefully, this gives you some direction.

All the Best, EC Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive a Copy of the Exact Stretches used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!
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