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Correcting Posture Q&A

This week, we take a little break from the "Random Tips" series to return to a Q&A.  Enjoy.

Subscriber-only Q&A

Q: In your "Neanderthal No More" series, you seem to imply that flat feet can be reversed. Is this true? I seem to have somehow either acquired flat feet since high school (or the process at least started in high school). I am now 20 years old. I'm not sure how I acquired my flat feet, but I think it may be from a lot of vertical jump training and plyometrics that I did in high school, when I played basketball. In retrospect, I didn't know what I was doing and I certainly did not have a sufficient strength base for plyos, as I was about 5'11'' and a mere 132 lbs. at my playing weight.  I now have patellofemoral problems, including patellar malalignment, overly tight IT bands, and chondramalacia in the right knee as a result of the improper patellar tracking.

I started wearing orthotics in the summer of 2006, but don’t feel that they’re an optimal solution.  Is there a way to reverse flat feet?

EC: Yes, I think so.  For some reason, as an industry, we’ve accepted that we can improve thoracic spine rounding, eliminate forward head posture, and correct anterior pelvic tilt (all postural distortions) with exercise modalities.  Nobody has even ventured to say that we need braces for the back and neck to correct these problems; MOVEMENT has done the trick just fine.

Nonetheless, for some reason, we don’t view the feet as equally dynamic and mutable portions of our body.  They’re just those things we stuff in our shoes on a daily basis.  We’ve eliminated movement by stuffing in orthotics, wearing high heels, buying Nike Shox, and taping ankles in our athletes.  My feeling is that if a foot can go flat, it can go “un-flat.”

It never surprises me when I see flat feet in basketball players.  They tape ankles and wear ten-pound high-top sneakers with lateral rigidity and a big heel lift.  Most of them are insanely quad-dominant, which just plays into the anterior weight-bearing nature of their movement.

Don’t get me wrong: there are instances when orthotics are worthwhile.  Some people have structural foot deformities that can really be helped with these implements.  I just haven’t found these instances to be as prevalent as the podiatrists who make a living fitting people for orthotics.

My recommendation would be to make a serious effort to train more barefooted (we do a lot of our mobility drills on the turf).  Additionally, work on various ankle mobilizations that improve dorsiflexion range-of-motion.  You can find some good options (for free) from Bill Hartman HERE.  I also like to use lateral tilts and a few toe pull variations from the Z-Health discipline for pronators; I’ve found them to be very good at improving dorsiflexion ROM in cases where the issue is more of a joint “jam” than an Achilles flexibility issue.

And, as Bill mentioned, it never hurts to improve the soft tissue quality of the lower leg.

Lastly, I encourage athletes to look at their footwear.  Those with “acquired” flat feet generally respond quite well to minimalist shoes like the New Balance Minimus.  Give yourself some lateral mobility and reduce your heel lift and you’ll see some pretty remarkable improvements in a matter of 4-6 weeks.  I’ve actually seen a few athletes lose one-half a shoe size just from these protocols, as they’ve gotten their arches back.

And, of course, if your knees are bugging you, you also need to spend some time working on mobilizing the hips and reducing strength deficits in this area.  For a great read on this front, I highly recommend Mike Robertson’s Bulletproof Knees manual, which does an excellent job of summarizing the origin of knee problems in user-friendly language.

Cressey Performance Shaker Bottles Now Available

These 32oz. polycarbonate bottles are fantastic for protein shakes - especially when you're like me and you have 800 high school athletes who love to spill protein powder on the floor when trying to cram it into an undersized water bottle. These bottles are now available for only $13.99 with FREE SHIPPING.  Buy one now! NSCA Northeast Region State Clinic: Last Reminder Only a few more weeks until I speak at the NSCA clinic in Smithfield, RI on October 6, 2007.  For more information on the event, email kevin.brochu@performbetter.com. Also on the seminar front, I just want to extend a big thank you to everyone who made it out for my presentation at last weekend's M-O Expo in Woburn, MA; it was great to meet everyone. That does it for this edition.  We'll be back soon with some new content - and most likely an announcement on some big seminar plans at Cressey Performance! All the Best, EC
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Five Thoughts from Nick Grantham

Five Thoughts from Nick Grantham

While in the UK earlier this year for six days, I had a chance to really get to know Nick Grantham, one of the brighter minds you'll encounter on the other side of the Atlantic.  Nick was a great host - and is also an outstanding coach.  Here are a few insights he offered for our newsletter series: 1. The Power of Myofascial Release: I never realized something as simple as a tennis ball or foam roller could have such a significant impact on my athletes’ ability to train. If you want your athletes' muscles to be in optimal condition, I strongly recommend that you get them to foam roll before the training session. Why? Check out what Mike Boyle has to say on the matter, and if you want to read about "the body's bubble wrap," get a copy of Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers.

2. Supersets: Not in the traditional sense. During the past twelve months, I've started to superset remedial exercises into the main training stimulus (e.g. A1: Squat, A2: Ankle proprioception jumps. This is a very time effective way of training and it means that I know for sure that any remedial work that is needed is actually getting done. In the past I hoped my athletes would take care of business. Now I know they do - and it's transformed the quality of training.

3. Pool Work: The pool is not just the domain of the swimmer. I use the pool all the time for athlete coming back from fitness to develop cardiovascular conditioning, strength, proprioception and balance, flexibility and even speed and power (yes you heard me correctly SPEED and POWER). In fact, don't wait until you are injured to find out the benefits of water workouts. I strongly recommend that athletes competing in sports with high impacts (pretty much everyone) should spend some time unloaded. The pool is great - especially during the competition season - as it allows you to train without the same stress on the musculoskeletal system.

4. Back to Basics: Too often we think about the 2% that will give our athletes the edge. We get so caught up searching for the 2% that we forget about the other 98%! This holds true for training and is certainly true for one of the most neglected areas of training: recovery. If you are jumping in and out of cold baths and wearing the latest compression garments, but have a crappy diet, an average training program and poor sleeping habits, get a grip because you are wasting your time. Get the basics right first, the 98%: eat well, train optimally and rest, and THEN think about getting clever.

5. Aqua Balls!: I discovered a great use for the stability ball; I filled it with water! Stay with me; this makes it a very unpredictable training tool. We have used it to great effect when rehabbing shoulders. Pressing and holding patterns are taken to a whole new level when you have a ball in your hands filled with seven liters of water! I first saw this when I was visiting the rehab centre for the Birmingham Royal Ballet; I saw the principle dancers lifting the ball overhead and thought, “I can use that with my athletes.”  And there you have it: the AQUA BALL!

About Nick Grantham Nick Grantham is committed to helping athletes optimize their potential through the provision of individualized, athlete centered strength and conditioning programs.  Specializing in the area of fitness training and athletic preparation, Nick has helped numerous athletes achieve their goals through his unique understanding of sport science and athletic preparation. Nick began his coaching career at the Lilleshall Sports Injury and Human Performance Centre where he worked for the British Gymnastics Team. Since then he has continued to work as a strength and conditioning coach, successfully implementing his innovative training strategies. Nick has trained many of the countries elite athletes, including Olympic and Paralympic finalists, World, European and Commonwealth Games medalists and professionals in a multitude of sports, including Netball, Cricket, Hockey, Skiing, Professional Football, Rugby League, Rally Driving, Boxing and Ultra-Endurance Running. Nick has become recognized as a specialist in athletic preparation and has helped athletes of all levels achieve their personal goals and ambitions.  For more information, check out www.winningedgefitness.co.uk. All the Best, EC
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Random Thoughts from Todd Hamer

Random Thoughts from Todd Hamer

Todd Hamer is one of the most high-energy coaches I've ever encountered.  However, unlike many coaches who attempt to use their energy to make up for a lack of knowledge and experience, Todd is a guy who really knows his stuff and understands how to coach.  He really cares about his athletes and knows how to speak their language.  Enjoy. 1. Watch your athlete’s feet! When an athlete is squatting, all of the force they are creating is being transferred through the feet. When your athlete begins the descent, do their feet stay flat on the ground? When they get to the bottom of their squat, do their shoes roll in or out? Or, can you see the weight shift forward? I have noticed that even when a squat looks good, if you really look at what the feet are doing, you can follow the chain to where the problem is and then fix that.

2. I was put on this earth to kill the word “core.” Every day, someone says to me, “my core is weak.” The reason that I am here to kill this word is because it means nothing. Define the core? When someone says their core is weak, to me it means they are weak. We have been so overexposed to the “core” that we have forgotten how to get stronger. It has been shown time and time again that all the muscles that people call the “core” are worked in a squat, clean, overhead squat and many other multi-joint movements. So get away from the core and get strong. I promise you can get a six pack.  For more information, check out Jim Smith's Combat Core Manual.

3. Train more odd lifts. I (like many others) was to dogmatic in my approach to training athletes. People like DieselCrew.com and EliteFTS.com have helped me think more about how I am training my athletes. Why do we use barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags ect? Why not trees and stones. It is important to get your athletes off the platform and away from the known and into the unknown. Sports are chaotic events; do not be afraid of some chaos in your training.

4. 90% of athletes overthink.  What is the training age of your athletes? This is a question that you should ask yourself about every one of the people you train. The younger the training age, the less advanced the program should be. Most athletes want the newest craziest exercise and program. The problem is that most athletes just need to get stronger and more mobile. This can be accomplished with just working hard and sticking to the basics. Most of the time if an athlete’s squat form improves, then his mobility will improve along with his strength levels. Quit looking for the Holy Grail of training and start training.

5. Extend your network.  Your network is everyone to whom you speak; make it larger. I have been lucky to be able to learn from and share ideas with hundreds of strength coaches, personal trainers, doctors, rehab specialists, and many other professionals. Each of these people have taught me something new about what I do. This is true for both business and personal facets of my life. I often hear other strength coaches say they will not listen to someone because they don’t work with athletes or they do not know what I do. So what? We must bring people in this field together if we ever want our field to grow.

About Todd Hamer

Todd Hamer has been working in the strength and conditioning field for seven years and has held positions at Marist College, the Citadel, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania State University, and George Mason. He is now the head strength and conditioning coach at Robert Morris University.  Todd has also worked as a personal trainer and consultant in several different facilities throughout his career.  In his spare time, Todd is a competitive powerlifter with best lifts of a 545 lb squat, a 375 lb bench, and a 500 lb deadlift. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, he received his bachelor's of science degree in exercise science from Penn State in 1999 and his master's of science degree from the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia in August 2002.

Until next time, train hard and have fun!

All the Best,

EC

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Overuse Injuries and Knee Braces

Yesterday morning, Tony Gentilcore and I got out to the local track to do some sprinting work.  After we had wrapped up our 45-minute session, as we walked off the track, we noticed a 20-something year-old female runner on the ground banging out crunches in what we estimated were sets of 800.

What caught my eye even more than her elite training protocol  (insert sarcastic smirk here), though, was a knee brace so large that it looked like a giant octopus had devoured her leg.  Geek that I am, I started pondering things over.

Most people would say that she’s probably got an overuse injury from all the running.  I wouldn’t disagree.

To take it a step further, though I immediately started thinking about why she had a dysfunction/ imbalance that could be predisposing her to pain with all that running.

Think about what happens with a crunch: trunk flexion.

As Mike Robertson and I described in our Building the Efficient Athlete DVD set, in the process, we actually make ourselves more kyphotic (rounded over at the upper back) via a shortening of the rectus abdominus, which pulls the rib cage down toward the pelvis.  Just check out the points of attachment in the image below and you'll see what I mean:

In most cases, when we round over at the upper back, as a compensation to keep us upright, the lumbar spine tends to become more lordotic – meaning that the natural lumbar arch is exaggerated.  Go to a more lordotic position, and you’ll “trigger” an increased amount of anterior pelvic tilt (associated with shortening/tightness of the hip flexors, including the rectus femoris, psoas, iliacus, tensor fascia latae, among others).

We know that the hip flexors play a very important role in knee health; the rectus femoris actually attaches to the patella, too.   In addition to the pull these muscles have on the leg, they also tend to force one into anterior weight-bearing (already a problem in most females, thanks to evolution and high-heeled shoes).

Just imagine how great that knee would feel if she swapped the thousands of crunches for some foam rolling, lacrosse ball work, and glute activation and hip and ankle mobility drills.  Success in training (and corrective exercise) is all about the opportunity cost of your training time and effort; you just need to select the drills that give you the most bang for your buck while ironing out imbalances that help you to move more efficiently. Building the Efficient Athlete Food for thought.  Enjoy the rest of the week, everyone. EC
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Newsletter #71

With our high school athletes back in school (and many of them in-season), it's nice to have a little more free time during the day to catch up on writing - and that means a regular schedule for newsletters here at EricCressey.com.  This week, we've got a subscriber-only Q&A, and then a continuation of our Expert Tips compilation - this week with Joe Dowdell.

Subscriber only Q&A

Q: Dancers and yoga practitioners are notoriously known for their extreme flexibility, which can be a problem if not balanced with strength.  How so?

A: Hypermobility can definitely be a problem.  All movements require a delicate balance between mobility and stability.  Some joints demand more mobility at the expense of stability (e.g. shoulders), whereas others require more stability at the expense of mobility (hips).  It's one of the reasons that we're always emphasizing stabilization work at the glenohumeral joint, scapula, and lumbar spine and mobility work at the hips, ankles, adn thoracic spine.  When you push the balance between mobility and stability out of whack too far in one direction (e.g. hypermobility), ligaments aren't as effective as joint stabilizers and muscle length-tension relationships can be negatively affected. It's something that a lot of us have been doing from an "isolationist" perspective for quite some time (I remember trying to make sense of it back in graduate school in one of my classes with Dr. David Tiberio), but it wasn't until guys like Mike Boyle and Gray Cook put it out there that we realized this "alternating joints" approach explained a lot of dysfunction we see - and how to prevent it. Now, we're at the next frontier: optimizing training protocols to correct the problems.  I'm always experimenting with new ways to mobilize the thoracic spine and ankles while trying to figure out the optimal combination of mobility, activation, joint mobilizations, and soft tissue work to get the job done.  It's not much different than fat loss; we know now that aerobic exercise is an inferior fat loss modality and that strength training and high-intensity interval training are superior, but we're just looking to find the optimal blend to make things work perfectly.  Compare Alwyn Cosgrove's Real World Fat Loss and Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training and you'll see a ton of similarities, but the subtle intricacies of the programs are different. As the saying goes, it's a process, not a destination.

Five Tips from Joe Dowdell

I first met Joe Dowdell last July when Mike Robertson and I presented our Building the Efficient Athlete seminar at his facility in New York City, but his reputation had undoubtedly caught my attention well before we met up for the first time.  Joe has a reputation for getting results in clients from supermodels, to actors and actresses, to professional athletes.  As perhaps my greatest testament to Joe's abilities, I got him in touch with two NBA guys who needed a good trainer this off-season while living in NYC, and both the athletes and their coaches have been thrilled about the results they've attained. Below, Joe shares some thoughts on the science and business of training. 1. Every time you attend a conference or lecture, make sure you are an active listener and only ask questions if you truly don’t understand a topic or make a comment if you have something of true value to add to the lecture. In addition, if you do ask a question or add a comment, make sure that your question/comment is well formulated and to the point.  Nothing is more annoying to other attendees than having to listen to an individual who simply likes to hear themselves talk.

2. Try to learn from as many experts in the field as you can.  Instead of going by what others may think or say about “expert A” or “expert B,” you should attend a seminar or lecture given by that individual(s) and listen to what they actually have to say.  Then, you can formulate your own opinion as to whether you agree or disagree with them. If I listened to what some of my peers said about an expert and never sat in a room with that individual, I would have missed out on some very valuable information.

3. If you are the owner of a gym and/or the Director of Personal Training at a fitness facility, you should always remember to lead by example.  If you don’t train yourself hard; don’t attend educational seminars; don’t dress like a fitness professional; don’t clean up after yourself on the training floor, etc., then how can you ever expect your trainers to do the same?

4. Many years ago while attending a seminar given by Tom Purvis, I heard two terms that have stuck with me and I have consistently applied with the training of my clients as well as myself.  They are Micro-Progression and Strategic Variation. Since that time, stuck with me when training myself and others. All too often trainers progress their clients way too fast, which often leads to compensation patterns and eventually, if left unchecked, to injury.  In addition, many trainers change their clients' programs too quickly or too often. More often than not, these changes are not the result of a well thought out game plan; but, rather, they are done in a haphazard fashion.

5. Remember that recovery and regeneration is an extremely critical component to the success of your athlete or client.  Make sure when planning your athletes or client’s training programs that you build in some regeneration sessions.  These sessions do not have to be very long.  They can be as short as 10 minutes of contrast showers to 15-20 minutes of foam rolling and static stretching to 20-30 minutes of an aerobic recovery run.  If my client or athlete is strength training and performing high intensity intervals for a total of 4-5 hours per week, then I like to make sure that they are getting at least 45-60 minutes of regeneration in that week as well.

About Joe Dowdell

A personal trainer and strength coach, Joe Dowdell is one of the most highly sought-after fitness experts in the world.  His motivating teaching style and unique expertise have helped transform a clientele from the worlds of sport, entertainment, media and finance.  Dowdell is founder and co-owner of Peak Performance Strength & Conditioning Center, a 10,000-square-foot loft in NYC.  Dowdell currently serves on Fitness Magazine’s Scientific Advisory Board and is the Technical Editor for Women’s Health Magazine. In addition, he is a published author and a regular expert contributor to an array of national and international publications, including Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Women’s Health, Fitness, and Oxygen. www.PeakPerformanceNYC.com. Until next time, train hard and have fun!

EC

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Newsletter #70

With the summer winding down, it's time to get back on track with a regular schedule of weekly newsletters.  Fortunately, we've got plenty of content in the works - including quite a few more contributions to our "random thoughts" series from some of the best in the business.

Cressey Performance Updates

Many of our athletes have headed back to college, and our high school athletes are getting back into the swing of the school year.  Normally, in this industry, that would mean that we're about to catch a little vacation time.  That couldn't be further from the truth in our case, though; the renovations are still taking place.  All our equipment is now in, and the walls and flooring are both complete.  We're just wrapping up the window work - and will be putting down the turf in a few weeks.  Keep your eyes and ears open for an announcement on a grand opening at Cressey Performance.

Five Tips from Mike Boyle

Many people know that Mike Boyle has probably trained more high-level athletes than anyone on the planet right now.  What many people might not know about Mike is that he's helped countless coaches in their career paths; you'll find "Boyle Disciples" all over collegiate and professional strength and conditioning and in the private sector.  To that end, I thought it would be great if Mike targeted his random thoughts to the up-and-comers in the business (I know, I know; it's not exactly random).

1. There are only two ways to learn: experience and reading. If you think you can get good in this field in a 40-hour week you’re crazy. If a 40-hour week is your goal, find a new field. Read Alwyn Cosgrove and Jason Ferruggia’s article “The Business.”

2. Train clients or athletes at least 20 hours a week.  This is the proving ground for your booksmarts.  Ideas are just that; see if you can implement them.

3. If you want to succeed in the field, get yourself in shape.  I frequently joke about the fact that I don’t look the part.  I’m not very muscular and am old and bald – but I’m in reasonable shape for 47.  At 27, you will NOT get the benefit of the doubt.  No one wants an overweight trainer or a skinny trainer.  They expect you to look the part.  You don’t have to be huge, and you don’t have to be ripped, but you need to look like you exercise.

4. Never ask a client to do something you can’t demonstrate.  You don’t have to be able to do exercises with huge weights, but you must master the exercises.  Beside the fact that many people learn visually, how can you ask a client to something you can’t?

5. Read one self-help book for every field-related book.  It’s called personal training for a reason. It’s about a person and his/her goals.  Your knowledge of people will be as important as your knowledge of the subject matter.  Years ago, someone asked me what the key to my success was.  I told them that it was my ability to get people to do what I wanted them to do.

You can find an interview I did with Mike at T-Nation a while back HERE. About Mike Boyle

Mike Boyle is one of the most sought after coaches and speakers in the area of performance training and athletic rehabilitation. In fact, Mike’s client list reads like a "Who’s Who" of athletic success in New England and across the country. Boyle has been involved in training and rehabilitation with a wide range of athletes, from stars in every major professional sport, to the US Women’s Olympic teams in soccer and ice hockey. In addition Mike has served as a consultant to some of the top teams in the NFL, NHL, as well as numerous Division 1 athletic programs.

Mike brings a depth and breadth of knowledge that is unmatched in the industry, with ten years of experience at the professional level and over twenty years at the collegiate level. Mike’s work has been featured in the media on HBO RealSports, ESPN, CNNSI, as well as in Sports Illustrated and USA today.  In both 2004 and 2005 Men’s Journal named Boyle one of the top 100 trainers in the United States.

Mike’s innovative series of live seminar DVD’s have set a new standard for industry education. Functional Strength Coach Volume 1 and 2 and Advanced Program Design continue to get rave reviews. In addition, Mike’s two books have assisted in the education of literally thousands of coaches and trainers.

To learn more about Mike’s training techniques, purchase products, or to participate in forum discussions visit Michaelboyle.biz. That'll do it for today's newsletter. We'll be back soon with more content - and some updated Cressey Performance pictures! All the Best, EC
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Five Random Thoughts from David Barr

In this week's update, we've got five tips from David Barr - but first a few quick notes.

How's this for a testimonial?

I received this email on Friday:

Hi Eric,

I don't know if you remember me, but I was in contact with you early this year.  I'm a bobsledder on the Canadian Team. I was doing one of the programs in your Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual and I made it onto the Americas Cup team because of it.  We went to Lake Placid and won two bronze medals. I have been training full time with the Canadian national team and have seen great progress. My lifts have gone up a crazy amount and I've gained almost 40 pounds while keeping around the same BF% since starting with your programs. Going into a training camp this Saturday, I’m 18 and competing with 28-year-old men. My goal for this season is to make it on a Europa Cup team. I would like to thank you for the off-season manual.  It helped a ton – and next off-season I would love to come down to Boston to do some work with you. Thanks,

Adam Keller

Another name to watch out for in the years to come! For more information on the programs to which Adam was referring, check out The Ultimate Off-Season Manual.

Five Random Thoughts from David Barr

1. Soreness = Muscle Growth.  In the 1990s, we “realized” that soreness is just a result of the muscle inflammatory response, and has little to do with actual growth.  However, consider the following: if Arachadonic Acid (AA) is the fatty acid that gets converted to prostaglandins (PG) during inflammation: a) Blocking the conversion of AA to PG prevents both soreness and muscle growth b) Increasing levels of AA increases levels of PG, soreness, and muscle growth c) The most damaging type of training yields the greatest soreness, strength and muscle gains 2. Short workouts aren't as great as you think.  In the late 1990, it became all the rage to keep workouts to less than 45 minutes.  It was believed, based on scientific evidence, that training for longer periods would result in a temporary decrease in anabolic hormone levels.  Now, we realize (irony intended) that the impact of acute hormonal regulation is minimal, and it is far better to have a stimulating workout – even if it takes longer. 3. Apparently, pre-training meals suck?  In spite of the evidence to show that pre-workout meals result in the greatest observable increases in muscle protein synthesis (the acute measure of muscle growth and recovery), people still refuse to use them.  Considering that they also provide a tremendous increase in blood flow during training, which every newbie seems to be after, shouldn’t everyone be using them? 4. Faith vs. Reason.  People are going to believe what they want even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Sadly, this even results in people getting upset by the mere presentation of data that contradicts a belief. In the supplement world, if you add in the fact that the placebo effect accounts for >60% of the resulting effect, you’re just asking for people to freak out. 5. Protein Pulse Feeding.  The idea of spiking blood amino acids with protein, similar to the way in which we spike insulin with carbs, is the most anabolic nutritional revolution since whey protein was developed. Protein pulsing: not just for post-workout meals! About David Barr David Barr is a strength coach and scientist, with research specialty in nutrition and its impact on performance and body composition. In addition to his work for NASA at the Johnson Space Center, David's research career has involved everything from the cellular basis of muscle breakdown to work on critically ill catabolic patients. He holds certifications with the NSCA as well as USA Track and Field, and can be contacted through his website: http://www.RaiseTheBarr.net. That'll do it for this update.  We'll be back later this week with more new material. All the Best, EC
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Quick Tips from Kelly Baggett: Part 2

Six More Tips from Kelly Baggett

6. Improving performance is not that complicated. When looking to improve our own athletic performance or that of the people we’re training or coaching, what most people fail to understand is that the basics are responsible for 90% of the results and way more people screw up due to over-complication, or improper application of the basics, than those that screw up due to lack of cutting-edge material to insert into their routines, diet, or recovery protocols. All the fancified mumbo-jumbo offered by the countless gurus of the profession usually exists to:

A. Make them sound smart

B. Separate people from their money

or

C. Appeal to the curiosity of readers who like to delve into the 10% that isn't covered by the basics. (note: A lot of stuff I'm writing here falls into that 10%)

If athletes are somewhat coordinated on their feet, have decent posture, flexibility, and muscular balance, are lean, relatively strong throughout their body, and can accelerate a lot of weight through either a clean or weighted squat variation, they're going to be good athletes. It shouldn't take long to learn "general" concepts related to proper flexibility, coordination, injury prevention, body composition, strength, explosiveness, reactivity, and conditioning.

7. Acid Buffers are a very useful and under-rated supplement when it comes to increasing work capacity and tolerance to high intensity activity. If you're trying to avoid or improve "neural fatigue," this is where it is. The body will maintain its PH range in a narrow range regardless of how you eat, but the important thing is what your body has to do to maintain that proper PH. Sub-clinical low-grade acidosis increases cortisol and occurs in most people due to the increased consumption of grains and reduced consumption of veggies and fruits. It also tends to naturally occur in response to stress of any kind. This includes: caloric restriction, intensive activity, and lack of sleep.

Low-grade acidosis is, in my opinion, one reason why people dieting are more prone to lose strength. So how do you fix it? Eat your veggies and fruits. One pound of green veggies per 50 pounds of bodyweight per day is ideal. Vegetable juicing is a good idea. Additionally, a couple of extra grams of sodium and potassium bicarbonate (baking soda or Alka-Seltzer) can be useful, as can extra magnesium, glutamine (a teaspoon with each meal), and l-carnosine. If you pay attention to how you feel, you can eventually get to a point where you know when to supplement with extra buffers. The acidic state is associated with a “wired out” anxious stressed out type energy. The alkaline state is associated with relaxation. If you're feeling too relaxed, lay off the buffers. If you're feeling stressed, add them in.

8. Genetic variants in the RAS/Angiotensin/ACE gene have a lot to do with individual differences in body-fat distribution patterns, insulin sensitivity, muscle fiber type, and health. Variants in the ACE gene cause some people to produce more or less ACE than others. The high ACE variant makes some people naturally strong with a lot of fast twitch fiber. They tend to respond to weight training with great strength increases. On the other hand, it also tends to make those same people more susceptible to high blood pressure, depression, visceral fat accumulation, and heart disease. Having the lower ACE genotype makes some people have a propensity to be scrawny and better at endurance activities with soft looking muscles and subcutaneous fat storage patterns. Here's a high-ACE poster child - lots of visceral fat.

9. Studies showing that anabolic steroids don’t increase aggressiveness and other abnormal psychological characteristics are nearly always university studies using typical college males as subjects. Steroids are known to amplify existing psychology. If you're naturally happy, you get more happy. If you're aggressive, you get more aggressive. If you're prone to mood swings, you get more moody. The problem is, there are probably quite a few baseline psychological differences between a typical university student and a typical bodybuilder. I'd like to see a steroid study using prison inmates as subjects. Bottom line: Despite how steroid users like to point to this and that study showing steroids don't have any effect whatsoever on the “asshole meter,” in the real world, I have my doubts. People who derive enjoyment from self-inflicted torture (a.k.a.- lifting weights) aren't always exactly normal in the first place!

10. I get a lot of questions from athletes writing me asking what to do to improve their unilateral jumping. Some people simply can't jump off one foot worth a darn. As I discuss in my Vertical Jump Development Bible, although strength qualities and bodyweight do play a factor, based on my observations and experience, a lot of this is due to structural balance and posture.

Basically, it has to do with your style of gait and how that impacts your natural leverages and muscle recruitment. Some people walk and run with a tendency to pull their center of gravity. They take big steps forward and tend to walk (and run) way back on their heels. Other people have a tendency to chase their center of gravity. When they walk and run, their feet stay more under their body. There will still be some heel strike, but not to the same extent. This style of gait lends itself to better use of the hip extensors and better top running speed and unilateral jumping. If you sit in a mall or other busy place and just observe people walking it's pretty easy to see the difference in gait patterns. The point is that if you struggle with your unilateral jump you also probably do not to move well on your forefoot and activity in your hip extensors is minimized in your daily activities due to your posture.

A good way to cue correct posture is to stand on a stair step, place both heels off the edge and lower the heels, like doing a calf stretch. Push the heels fairly hard and tighten the thighs and keep them tight. Keep contact with the rail for balance. Make sure you stand up straight and you will line up in "perfect posture." What it does is bring the center of gravity where it belongs and forces the body to align itself correctly. Additionally, it never hurts to get in the habit of contracting your glutes at heel strike whenever you walk around.

11. Everyone is aware of the importance foam rolling and stretching for soft tissue health, but few people are aware of the impact of nutrition. I challenge anyone with multiple chronic adhesions, trigger points, or tendonitis to give up all wheat (gluten), corn, legumes, and dairy products for a week. Eat as many whole meats and veggies as you like and make rice-based foods your only source of starchy carbs. See if your tissues don't feel better. Our consumption of Agricultural era foods is still relatively new for humans. We can't fully digest and assimilate many of the proteins, lectins, and other components of these foods unless they are processed and cooked beforehand. If a food has to be highly processed and cooked before we can eat it, it's logical that it might not fully agree with us. Thus, many of us will have some degree of subclinical inflammatory reaction to these foods. These reactions are generally "hidden" allergies that cause symptoms like muscle pain, joint pain, tendonitis, fatigue, gas, and moodiness. If you eliminate the aforementioned foods and feel like crap with hardcore cravings for the first few days, you're on the right track (note how many people literally feel sick when going from a standard "eat whatever ain't nailed down" powerlifting diet to a clean diet). The withdrawal symptoms prove that you are "food addicted." Ninety percent of the time an addictive food is a reactive food. Fortunately, the craving will pass after a few days and you'll feel much better. About Kelly Kelly Baggett is a sought-after performance and physique coach from Springfield, MO. He has authored three books, including, The No-Bull Muscle Building Plan, The Vertical Jump Development Bible, and The Ultimate No Bull Speed Development Manual. You can read more of his articles by visiting his website, www.higher-faster-sports.com. Please enter your email below to sign up for our FREE newsletter.
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Quick Tips from Kelly Baggett: Part 1

This week's contribution comes from Kelly Baggett, one of the most knowledgeable and versatile guys in the industry.  Kelly and I go back 6-7 years, yet he never ceases to amaze me with his creativity and ability to get results fast. 1.  It's been said that your muscles don't know how much weight you're lifting; they only know tension.  This is true.  I can also assure you that your joints DO know how much weight you're lifting and will eventually let you know about it if you train heavy enough for long enough.  The large majority of people over the age of 65 have some degree of "wear and tear" arthritis.  That's without subjecting their joints to 45 years of heavy weights.  Keep that in mind if you want to be just as active at 75 as you are now.  For optimal long-term joint health, not only should you pay close attention to structural balance, but in my opinion, the majority of the time you shouldn't be lifting anything that you can't lift with a two-second pause at the hardest part of the movement.  This will ensure you're directing tension to the muscles instead of the connective tissue.

2.  Anterior pelvic tilt is not necessarily the bad guy most people think.  From an athletic standpoint, you won't find many fast and explosive athletes without a propensity to have some degree of anterior pelvic tilt because it puts the hamstrings at a leverage advantage.  In contrast, you probably won't find ANY top-flight athletes with posterior pelvic tilt.  You rarely hear anyone talk about posterior pelvic tilt and weak hip flexors but it is common enough, particularly in women.  Posterior pelvic tilt (also called flat back posture) results in weak or lengthened hip flexors and can also be caused by tight abs and glutes.  Don't assume you need lots of psoas hip flexor stretching until you've verified that you do in fact need it.  Here's what flat back posture with posterior pelvic tilt looks like:

3.  Insulin sensitivity is kind of overrated for fat loss and a lean body.  A certain degree of insulin sensitivity is desirable, but, from a body composition perspective, being overly sensitive to insulin is just as bad as being insensitive to insulin.  As a "storage" hormone, improved insulin sensitivity allows the body to better store ingested nutrients both in muscle AND fat cells.  Insulin sensitivity improves as one gets leaner and leaner.  That's one of the reasons it gets harder to shed fat when one is much leaner.

In a given group of people, you can predict future fat gain by measuring both the sensitivity to insulin and the amount of insulin produced in response to a given amount of carbohydrates.  The fattest populations of people and the fattest adults will be very sensitive to insulin at an early age.  In contrast, insulin resistance could be looked at as a way the body tries to rid itself of excess nutrition.  The body senses nutrient excess and inhibits storage. Providing they exercise, an insulin resistant person will tend to have an easy time shedding fat and building muscle because the exercise increases storage capacity in the muscles at the expense of fat cells.  That's one reason why people with more fast twitch muscle fibers have an easier time getting and staying lean, even though they are naturally more insulin resistant than those with more slow twitch fibers.

The take-home point?  When trying to drop fat, it's not a bad idea to intentionally manipulate insulin sensitivity...in a NEGATIVE direction.  You can do this by ingesting caffeine and other stimulants and by following a low carb diet.

4.  There is actually less stress absorbed into the foot WITHOUT shoes than with shoes.  Remember that the next time you decide to treat your feet to a huge pair of cinder blocks – otherwise known as basketball shoes.  One of the easiest ways to improve movement efficiency and coordination is to get a hold of a pair of Nike Frees and/or train barefoot on grass.

5.  Look at the wear on your shoes.  If they're worn more to the inside you probably have pronated feet (you walk on the insides of them).  If they're worn more to the outside you probably have supinated feet (you walk on the outsides of them).

Stand with your feet about 12 inches apart and look straight ahead.  Hold this position for a few seconds while you take note of how your weight is distributed over the soles of your feet.  Now tip your pelvis forward slowly so that you assume a Donald Duck-type posture with your chest up and backside stuck out behind you.  Note how your weight shifts forward and toward the insides of your feet. Now slowly roll the pelvis backward until your rear end is tucked underneath you.  You should notice that your weight moves backward and toward the outside of your feet.

What you have just proved is that anterior pelvic tilt (rear stuck out) will produce pronation and posterior pelvic tilt (rear tucked under) will produce supination (rolling outward of the foot).  If you have pronated feet it's usually a good idea to stretch the hip flexors and strengthen the glutes.  If you have supinated feet it's often a good idea to strengthen the hip flexors and lower back while stretching the glutes.

About Kelly

Kelly Baggett is a sought-after performance and physique coach from Springfield, MO. He has authored three books: The No-Bull Muscle Building Plan, The Vertical Jump Development Bible, and The Ultimate No Bull Speed Development Manual.  You can read more of his articles by visiting his website, www.higher-faster-sports.com.

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One-Sided Back Pain

Before we get to the content, I wanted to quickly pass along a few announcements:

1. I just confirmed that I’ll be speaking at a seminar in Montreal, Quebec on October 20-21.  Three other speakers have already been confirmed, and the organizer is waiting on a fourth. Trust me – with these names, you won’t be disappointed!  Keep an eye out for more information in upcoming newsletters.

2. Through Thursday at 7PM, Nate Green’s Standing on the Shoulders of Giants will be on sale for $49 (regularly $97).  I contributed a bonus interview on this collection of interviews with some very knowledgeable industry veterans, and anyone who considers himself an “up and comer” in the business would be wise to purchase a set.  Check it out: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.

Now, to follow up on my newsletter from earlier this week, here are random thoughts 6-10 from me.

6. Incorporate posterior capsule stretching in overhead throwing athletes.  There is considerable research demonstrating that glenohumeral internal rotation deficit (GIRD) is highly correlated with shoulder injuries in overhead throwing athletes.  Incorporating a very simple sleeper stretch daily can dramatically reduce the risk of shoulder problems in such athletes; if you aren’t including this stretch in your program, you shouldn’t be allowed to train overhead athletes!

7. One-sided back pain is almost always related to a lack of hip external rotation and hip extension range of motion.  If your hip doesn’t externally rotate sufficiently, you’ll compensate by rotating more at your lumbar spine.  If you don’t have terminal hip extension (thanks to glutes that actually fire), you’ll compensate with lumbar hyperextension.  Extension-rotation syndromes are a good 80% of lower back problems.  Work on hip mobility and stabilize the lumbar spine, and you’ll be golden.  Aggressive soft tissue work with the foam roller and lacrosse ball is useful on the TFL/IT band, quads, adductors, piriformis, and gluteus medius.

For others, the rotational deficit will be in internal rotation.  Know how to assess both and you’ll be able to head off problems before they set in.

8. Direct training for the subscapularis is a commonly overlooked training initiative that can yield tremendous results.  This is especially true in the aforementioned overhead throwing athletes who have tightness in the posterior capsule.  This is also a common problem in those who have noteworthy amounts of scar tissue on pectoralis major - and this is often exemplified when someone has an uneven lockout while bench pressing.  When infraspinatus and teres minor are doing a lot of work and getting scarred up as a result, you know that there is a good chance that the subscapularis isn't doing its job in depressing the humeral head.  Run a lift-off test to check subscap function, and then correlate your findings with scar tissue in the posterior capsule. My favorite exercise for improving subscap function is the prone internal rotation; you can find a video HERE.  Avoid the common substitution patterns of flexing the wrist, anteriorly tilting the scapula, and extending the elbow.  Think 90/90 in terms of shoulder and elbow angles. 9. Vanilla protein powder is really versatile.  I'm far from a gourmet chef, but I've come to the conclusion that if I put Vanilla Metabolic Drive in a blender with some ice and water, I can make pretty much anything taste tolerable.  Yesterday, just for the heck of it, I used spinach, broccoli, and blueberries - and I didn't even need to pinch my nose to drink it.  I guess you could call that the lazy man's Greens Plus... Of course, you could always pick up a copy of Precision Nutrition, which includes the Gourmet Nutrition cookbook, and actually make it taste good. 10. The rhomboids aren't as innocent as you think.  Typically, the rhomboids are "tossed in" with the lower and middle traps as the "good" scapular retractors.  In reality, with the line of pull of the rhomboids, you basically have a muscle group that in many ways parallels the function of the upper traps - which we know contribute to scapular dysfunction and shoulder, upper back, and neck pain. I've seen a lot of upper body problems resolve with dedicated soft tissue work - both in the form of massage and rolling the upper back with a doubled tennis ball (masking taped together) - on the rhomboids. We'll be back next week with more expert tips!  Until then, train hard and have fun! All the Best, EC
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