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?

Five Tips from Joe Dowdell

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.

About Joe Dowdell

EC

Cressey Performance Updates

Five Tips from Mike Boyle

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.

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.

How's this for a testimonial?

Hi Eric,

Adam Keller

Five Random Thoughts from David Barr

Six More Tips from Kelly Baggett

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Perhaps it's because I read so much or simply because the majority of my time is devoted to training and nutrition, but I've always got about a million loosely-related things bouncing around in my head.

Some might think that this is a bad thing, as I'd be too distracted to accomplish anything. That couldn't be further from the truth, though. In fact, I honestly think that it allows me to see important relationships — finding kinetic chain compensation patterns; correlating injuries with dysfunction; and considering interactions between training, nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle — that might otherwise be overlooked.

As I thought about the popularity of that article, I couldn’t help but wonder if some of the industry notables with whom I speak on a daily basis have some great stuff along these lines rattling around their brains on a daily basis – so I asked them!

In each of the next several installments, you’ll hear over random tidbits (over a hundred in all) from various specialists in the “biz” in their areas of expertise.

This week, I’ll get the ball rolling with ten of my own.  Here are the first five:

1. Footwear – or lack thereof – is one way to change the training stimulus.  I’ve written quite a bit about how all my athletes and clients do their warm-ups barefooted, but I think that we really have four primary stimuli from which to draw.  The majority of our weight-room training should come from the first two categories:

a. Barefoot

b. Flat-soled shoes: Chuck Taylors, wrestling shoes, Nike Frees

c. Elevated: cross-trainers, running shoes

d. Ultra-elevated (use sparingly): Olympic lifting shoes

We spend a lot of time discussing sets, reps, rest intervals, and the like – but nobody really ever pays attention to how footwear can alter a movement – just like grip width or thickness, or hand/foot position.

2. Use a neutral grip for easy transition to powerlifting style benching.  Many people struggle with making the switch from “bodybuilder-style” (elbows flared) bench pressing to a more shoulder-friendly “powerlifter-style” (elbows tucked) bench approach.  You can easily expedite this process by doing all your bench assistance pressing with dumbbells using a neutral (palms facing-in) grip.

3. Try Lynx Grips.  These are awesome implements for three main reasons.  First, they’re a portable thick bar that you can take anywhere.  Second, making a barbell or dumbbell mechanically wider can distribute forces on the wrist and hand more evenly, providing less stress to those coming back from upper extremity injuries.  And, third, these implements are a great alternative to gloves for women who want to avoid calluses, but don’t want to lose their grip on the bar.  Use one as a substitute for gloves, and two on top of one another to create a great thick handle.

4.  In an untrained lifter, deadlifts are a guaranteed 15 pounds of muscle mass.  Think about it: you’re using your entire upper back, glutes, hamstrings, core musculature, and forearms.  If you haven’t done anything with these muscles before, they’re going to get bigger quickly.  Put 100 pounds on a newbie’s deadlift and you’ll bump him up a shirt size in no time.  This principle can also be applied to experienced lifters who haven’t deadlifted in the past; leg curls just won’t get the job done to the same extent that heavy deadlifts and rack pulls will.  For added upper back emphasis, try snatch grip versions.

5. Don’t force clean-grip front squats on anyone.  I’ve seen athletes get great results on front squats with using the cross-face grip and modified clean grip with straps – neither of which place undue stress on the wrists of unprepared individuals.  This, in my opinion, is just one of those “do what feels right” issues.  Don’t be so quick to throw the cross-face and modified clean grip with straps (photo credit to Mike Boyle) under the bus; we aren’t squatting for wrist performance!  If you’re comfortable with the clean grip and have the flexibility, though, by all means, go for it.

We'll be back in a few days with tips 6-10 from me.  For now, I'm off to the new facility to train athletes amidst the renovation madness!

On Friday, July 13th, I officially made the move to open my own facility.  Since my return to Boston last year, business has taken off like I couldn’t possibly have imagined, and it was time to go for it.  While we’re still making a ton of renovations and some of the equipment purchases won’t arrive for another few weeks, Cressey Performance is already in full-swing; my athletes and clients are practically kicking the door down.

Located in Hudson, MA, the facility is roughly 4,500 square feet, including:

-Roughly 2,500 feet devoted to strength training equipment

-a 40-yard straightaway for sprinting (soon to be turf)

-roughly 1,000 feet of open space for movement training

-two offices

The facility itself is a subdivision of a 16,000-square-foot space we’ll be sharing with America’s Pastime, a baseball training facility that has eight batting cages and two pitching mounds.  I work with a ton of baseball guys, so we’ve basically created a place where they can hit, throw, sprint, and lift all in the same trip.  We’re also exploring the possibility of a second smaller location closer to the city where I can work in a more individualized context with my higher-level athletes.

I consider myself really fortunate to have onboard two guys – Pete Dupuis and Tony Gentilcore – who will be great assets for years to come.  We’ll be dealing with a ton of young athletes, and both these guys have a lot of experience with that population (Pete has coached high school soccer for five years, and Tony is still certified as a teacher in NY state).  Pete will be handling the business side of Cressey Performance so that Tony and I can focus on our strengths: coaching athletes and helping people to achieve their fitness goals.

Logistics aside, I have to get a bit sentimental here and say that having my name on a facility like this means more than you can possibly imagine.  Many of you know that I went through some tough times years ago because I was a young athlete who never had guidance in terms of training and nutrition.  I really could have used a place like this years ago.

I’ve coached professional and Olympic athletes, set world records in powerlifting, published two books, created nine DVDs, written over 200 articles, and spoken all over the US and abroad, but the truth is that all of that doesn’t even feel remotely significant when I think about the difference Cressey Performance will be able to make for thousands of young athletes in the years to come.

When I go back to my hometown of Kennebunk, ME and see generations of students and parents raving about what a difference my mother (a local teacher) has made in their lives, I can’t help but think that it would be a great position for me to be in 25 years from now.  In the context of our industry, Mike Boyle is a perfect example of what someone who really cares about his athletes can do over an extended period of time.  I consider myself very fortunate to have guys like Mike, Alwyn Cosgrove, Dave Tate,John Berardi, and Jason Ferruggia as friends and mentors; this certainly would never have come to fruition without them.

I want to take a moment to thank two vendors – Perform Better and Elite Fitness Systems – for all their help in pulling this thing together on such short notice.  You won’t find better service anywhere.

It’s been an incredibly busy and exhausting three weeks thus far, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say thank you to all of you readers and customers for helping me (in one way or another) to get to where I am today.  Thanks for your continued support, and my apologies for being out of the loop as we’ve worked to pull this all together.  Please keep an eye out for the official launch of www.CresseyPerformance.com – and information on a grand opening.  Renovations should be complete early next week, with the remainder of our equipment arriving by the end of the month.

In the meantime, you can support the cause by picking up a Cressey Performance T-Shirt from our PRODUCTS page.

Some other quick notes:

-A huge thanks goes out to everyone who attended my Program Design workshop at Equinox in NYC on July 22 (yes, I really went to New York amidst all this).

-My co-author Matt Fitzgerald and I just submitted a new book to our editor at Avalon Publishing; it’ll be released in the Spring of 2008.  I’ll be filling you in on more details soon.

-I highly recommend you check out a great interview with Dr. Jeff Volek at T-Nation.  I was fortunate enough to study under Dr. Volek (among others) at the University of Connecticut, and he’s absolutely brilliant.  You won’t be disappointed with this interview.

All the Best,

EC

EC on the Fitcast

More Feedback on Muscle Gaining Secrets

NYC Seminar Update

Blog Updates

Congratulations to Kevin Scanlan

Cressey Performance athlete Kevin Scanlan of Lincoln-Sudbury capped off his state championship year by winning the Massachusetts State Player of the Year from the Boston Globe.  Additionally, Kevin was selected to the Boston Herald All-Scholastic team, and has been named a Louisville Slugger All-American Honorable Mention.  Kevin finished the season 12-0 with nine shutouts and 0.14 ERA – and he’s already hard at work preparing for fall-ball at the University of Maine.

The Lincoln-Sudbury baseball team finished the year at 26-1 with a #6 ranking in USA Today East Region.

Muscle Gaining Secrets

Given my crazy schedule, I think I might be the last guy in the world to review Jason Ferruggia’s newest product after he sent it my way last week, but I wanted to throw Jay a quick thumbs-up on a job well done.  Muscle Gaining Secrets is a product that absolutely every beginning lifter should be required to own.  When I think back on all the money and time I wasted on silly supplements, garbage muscle magazines, worthless exercises, and terrible training programs, I can’t help but want to beat my head against a wall.  Among the items I liked the most about Jay’s e-book and the several accompanying bonuses:

-Easy-to-understand approach to carb cycling

-Very thorough Q&A

-Good individualization for those everyone from the absolute beanpoles to those who tend to store fat easily

-Cuts through a ton of supplement hype and tells you which few are worthwhile

-Excellent Interview with Keith Scott about preventing and correcting imbalances

-Fantastic Interview with Jim Wendler on everything from training techniques, to programming strategies, to attitude adjustments

Jay includes a ton of sample programming and a straightforward approach to explaining the why and how instead of just the “what.”  If you’re just getting started and are in need of direction – or you’re trying to get from that intermediate to advanced stage – this e-book is a great option for you.

Muscle Gaining Secrets

Perform Better Tour Wrap-up

Last Sunday marked the final stop on the 2007 Perform Better Tour: Providence, Rhode Island.  It was a great opportunity to catch up with various friends in the industry and dozens of longtime readers.  I want to take this moment to thank everyone who made the trip out for my speaking engagements in Atlanta, Chicago,and Providence.  Chris Poirier and the Perform Better crew earn my highest praise for putting on some tremendous events with outstanding attention to detail.  I highly recommend you checking out the tour next year; I know that I can’t wait to go back on the road with it!

Also on the Seminar Front…

I’ll be giving a one-day program design workshop at Equinox in New York City on Sunday, July 22nd.  Limited spots are available, so don’t delay in contacting Geralyn Coopersmith for more information at Geralyn.Coopersmith@equinoxfitness.com.  Hope to see you there!

New Article and Contribution

For those of you who aren’t looking to pack on slabs of muscle, here are a few other options for you:

Weight-Room Movements for Cyclists: Part 3 (by me)

You Can’t Run in These, Girl! (great review of what high heels do to your body, by Yael Grauer)

We've also been updating daily with the blog at www.EricCressey.Blogspot.com, so be sure to check in frequently for Q&A, updates, training videos, and random diatribes!

All the Best,

EC