Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. We missed last week's installment of recommended reading in light of the 4th of July, but today I've got a little extra for you to make up for it.

Physical Preparation Podcast with Mike Young - This was an awesome podcast interview from Mike Robertson that delved extensively into the topic of plyometrics.

Specificity, Delayed Transmutation, and Long-Term Progress - I was reminded of this video during a conversation with our CSP-MA pitching coordinator, Christian Wonders. He commented on how several coaches have remarked lately that a lot of our rising juniors and seniors seem to surge once June/July roll around. It's surprising to them, but not to us.

How to Guarantee You'll Have a Hard Time Getting Client Results - This was a great post from Tony Gentilcore on the topics of setting goals and creating autonomy and competency in clients.

Top Tweet of the Week

"Scap does the lifting & elbow comes along for the ride." Good upper back, scap & humeral positioning helps minimize elbow extension stress. pic.twitter.com/JwnGo85xUh

— Eric Cressey (@EricCressey) July 2, 2017

Top Instagram Post of the Week

 

I have long been a fan of the speed #deadlift for a variety of reasons (check out the link in my bio to learn more). This is one of my favorite approaches to training speed #deadlifts. Work up to a weight that still feels really fast (in this case, 365), then hit two more sets each time you add two chains. Stop when the bar speed slows down. This is an extra 120 pounds at the top, so it can help you to be fast off the floor and carry that momentum through any sticking points partway up. Pulling against chains probably had a greater influence on my deadlifting success than any other strategy I've ever employed. #cspfamily #powerlifting #speeddeadlift

A post shared by Eric Cressey (@ericcressey) on Jun 26, 2017 at 7:10am PDT

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I have a love/hate relationship with the lats. On one hand, you need strong lats for all sorts of athletic endeavors, from throwing to sprinting. On the other hand, if they're too overactive, a host of different injuries/conditions can result. With that in mind, preserving full latissimus dorsi length is important, and that's why we incorporate a lot of stretches on this front. It's important that those stretches are done correctly, though, and in today's video, I want to discuss one big mistake we commonly see in this regard.

Speaking of upper body work, if you're interested in learning more, be sure to check out my new resource, Sturdy Shoulder Solutions.

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