I posted five years ago about How to Use the Acumobility Ball for Upper Extremity Health and Performance, so it seems long overdue for me to share one of the ways we're using it a bit further down the chain: on quadratus lumborum (QL). Here's a quick tutorial, courtesy of Cressey Sports Performance - Florida coaches Andrew Lysy and Ian Connors:
As a brief follow-up, take a look at the anatomy of QL, which has attachments on the ilium (pelvis), L1-L4 (spine), and 12th rib:
It can contribute to lateral flexion and extension of the spine, and also is a accessory muscle of inhalation. And it can hike the pelvis. In short, it'll often serve as a "fake" glute that substitutes lumbar extension (low back arching) and hip hiking for motion that should be occurring at the hip. It's a common player in extension based low back pain, and can limit thoracic rotation. QL trigger points can refer all over the place, too; it's not uncommon for it to present as a sciatica pain pattern, or even refer to the anterior hip.
It's a slam dunk when you see one hip that's hiked up on static posture assessment, and we'll follow this self-myofascial release drill up with some hip shifting drills based on what we see on our assessment (particularly with respect to hip rotation and straight leg raise). We'll usually integrate some positional breathing drills that emphasize posterior pelvic tilt as well. All that said, two drills that you probably can't go wrong with on this front are a lean away lateral line stretch (5 full exhales) and prone hip extension iso hold off table.
This one is a "keeper" in our daily warm-up series, so give it a shot and see how you like it. Also, just a friendly reminder that the Acumobility team was kind enough to set up a 10% off discount for my readers; you can get it by entering the coupon code CSP10 at checkout at www.Acumobility.com.
Enter Coupon Code CSP10 for 10% off.
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We were overdue for a new CSP T-Shirt debut, so we figured we'd celebrate with a bunch of new colors in our classic home plate design! All shirts are $24.99 plus shipping. Just click on the bolded hyperlinks below to add them to your cart.
Back in 2010, I got an email from Tim Ferriss asking if I'd be willing to help out a friend of his. Apparently, he met some dude from New Zealand while in a coffee shop in Argentina and they really hit it off. This guy happened to be a retired rugby player with an extensive history of shoulder problems. I happily obliged, and the friendly Kiwi made the trip to Massachusetts to train with us for about a month.
He got a healthy shoulder, and the Cresseys made a wonderful new friend in Chris Ashenden.
More specific to today's blog, though, is the fact that we were witnessing the beginning of an incredible brand. While there, Chris was preparing to launch Athletic Greens (now AG1).
As a brief background, Chris was working to overcome some significant G.I. issues, and had been really disappointed in the supplement industry as a whole as he had investigated various options to complement his dietary changes.
Companies often sourced garbage ingredients to keep their margins high, and there weren't products out there that allowed consumers to efficiently supplement. Rather, people had to take dozens of pills to try to derive comprehensive benefit, and even then, many of the compounds were low quality or competed with each other. The industry was expensive, inefficient, and ineffective - not to mention shockingly unregulated.
With Athletic Greens, he broke from that stereotype. AG1 was the first to put this much nutritional content into one product, at this quality. And, in doing so, AG1 took the opposite approach; a synergistic comprehensive approach that made it very easy to have the power of great daily foundational nutrition in one simple daily (and tasty) habit.
Pioneering the new and future way of getting and replacing a multivitamin, multimineral and nine other products in one including adaptogens, pre and probiotics for gut health, and specialized extracts to support cellular health and key bodily functions.
I have consistently used the product since its inception, and in adopting the approach of continual innovation, they continue to build on their reputation for quality and research and are currently on AG1’s 53rd iteration. Each iteration drives more innovation, value and quality back to the customer based on the latest research. This approach of consistently innovating and disrupting your own product and raising the bar is really hard to copy. As perhaps the best example, one large supplement company once asked Chris if they could take his formula and package it with their label on it. When they investigated the ingredients, they pulled out because the margins weren't high enough to make it worth their while. Sourcing such high quality raw materials wasn't good for their bottom line.
Nonetheless, AG1 has thrived. You'll find it as a NSF certified resource in loads of professional sports clubhouses, and on the recommendation lists of some of the health and human performance industries' most progressive people, including Dr. Peter Attia, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.
As perhaps my highest praise, my mom and wife both take it daily, and many of our athletes swear by it. I trust Chris and his company with my family's health.
If you're looking to make a similar investment in both your short and long-term health with AG1. I recommend you to head to www.AthleticGreens.com/cressey and claim my special offer today – 10 FREE travel packs – with your first purchase. I’d encourage you to give it a shot.
Further, with full disclosure, when AG1 took their first ever investment in 2021, Chris reached out to some of his longest supporters and customers, and offered us the ability to participate. It was a no-brainer to take the next step to support a product and company I believed in this much, so since 2021, I have been both an investor in and advisor to AG1.
Cressey Sports Peformance - Florida is home to hundreds of pro baseball players from all over the world, at all different levels of play throughout the off-season. They move to FL to train and develop with our awesome team of coaches that collaborates to create the synergy players need to thrive. We're able to individualize the experience from start to finish, as we feel that is what makes athletes successful. Whether we’re working with a first-year minor leaguer or one of our Cy Young Award winners, the right “mix” is slightly different for everyone. It is this detailed individualization – along with our world-class facilities, coaches, and services – that we will bring to a first-of-its-kind summer program, The CSP Pro Experience.
Here's what this 10-week (6/5/23 - 8/12/23) program entails:
2 Movement Assessments (1 entrance and 1 exit)
2 Proteus Power Tests (1 entrance and 1 exit) and accompanying reports for targeted force-velocity profiling for rotational athletes
10 weeks of Individualized Strength & Conditioning Programs ALWAYS monitored by our team of coaches
All bullpens will take place on dirt mounds in cleats with supervision from our coaches – and applicable technology present.
Pitchers who need to get innings as part of their overall developmental plan can easily throw against live hitters on the showcase field adjacent to our facility.
Athletes participating in this program will begin and end by throwing a bullpen on Theia, our brand new biomechanical markerless motion capture system. Our system records the athlete using an 8-camera setup. The cameras give us the ability to upload the data collected and produce a 3-dimensional visual model of their bullpen session. Using the markerless motion capture system, we will be able to provide a service to athletes at arguably the best quality/accuracy in the country in a real life, on-field environment. That model will explain, in detail, what the athlete is doing on the mound with respect to biomechanics, and provide a number of visual tools that will help us better understand the pitcher’s delivery. We will use this to put together a report outlining what they do, how they do it, why they do it, and – most importantly – coaching interventions.
We will be capping this program to ensure exclusivity and to make sure each athlete gets the time and coaching they deserve. This program will sell out quickly, so delaying enrollment may restrict your ability to gain access. You can learn more by reaching out to CSPFlorida@gmail.com.
With the growth of our Palm Beach Gardens, FL facility, we are opening up position for the right candidate to join our team as a strength and conditioning coach.
To that end, we'll be hiring a strength and conditioning coach to join the CSP-FL team this spring (prior to the busy summer season). This position will primarily be involved with the strength and conditioning training of professional and amateur athletes (particularly in the baseball realm), but will also include daily work with general population clients and post-rehab cases.
Responsibilities for this position include:
Strength and conditioning coaching in both semi-private and personal training formats
Performing assessments
Writing programs
Participating in staff and intern educational in-services
Qualification Requirements:
Experience working with athletic populations, particularly baseball
Willingness and ability to collaborate with sports medicine professionals
Strong interpersonal skills
Proficiency in written communication and with Microsoft Excel
Familiarity with social media platforms
Nationally recognized certification
Desire to work as part of a team
Applicants can submit resumes and cover letters as a single PDF document to CareersatCSP@gmail.com. The deadline for applications is March 4, 2023.
Cressey Sports Performance is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will be considered regardless of race, gender, creed, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship status, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected under local, state, or federal laws.
Heavy pronators get all the attention, but supinators warrant some special considerations as well. My high arches have survived over two decades on hard gym floors, and this strategy is one reason why:
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I've already highlighted the top articles I put out at EricCressey.com in 2022, so now it's time for the top guest posts of the year. Here goes…
1. Exercise of the Week: Barbell Drop Split-Squat- Cressey Sports Performance - MA coach Ethan Dyer introduced a single-leg progression that delivers some extra benefits over classic lunges and split squats.
2. 5 Warm-up Options to Improve Hip Extension - The ability to access hip extension while the opposite hip flexes is crucial in sprinting, throwing, hitting, and a myriad of other athletic endeavors. In this article, Cressey Sports Performance - Florida coach Dylan Lidge outlined a few dynamic ways to challenge hip extension in a warm-up.
3. 5 Drills for Dynamic Trunk Deceleration - Cressey Sports Performance - Florida coach Eduardo Valle shared five deceleration drills that are helpful for just about any type of athletes, but especially in the rotational realm we live in on a daily basis.
4. 4 Training Principles to Make the Most of Your Speed Work- There's a heavy bias toward contralateral pressing and rowing in today's strength and community world, and as Ethan Dyer (again!) shared in this article, we need to give ipsilateral options some love.
5. Wall March Variations for the Win - Wall marches are drills that have been used commonly over the years in the strength and conditioning and track and field communities. Unfortunately, many coaches don’t appreciate how much you can build on the basic wall march to teach a number of different movement competencies. In this article, Dylan Lidge shared some of our favorite variations on this classic drill.
I'll be back soon with more highlights from 2022.
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With 2022 winding down, I'm using this last week of the year to direct you to some of the most popular content of the past 12 months at EricCressey.com, as this "series" has been quite popular over the past few years. Today, we start with the most popular articles of the year; these are the pieces that received the most traffic, according to my hosting statistics.
1. Why We Shouldn't Compare Kids in Sports- One of the more concerning trends I’m seeing on the youth sports scene is the how often the youngest kids are compared to their peers. In this article, I dug in on the problems with this approach:
2.Positions vs. Pressures- About 15 years ago, I attended a two-day course with Dr. William Brady, a well respected chiropractor and manual therapist in the Boston area. During the event, he said, "Biomechanics is a combination of physics and biology. Put another way, it is the study of load applied to human tissue." It was the most succinct and encompassing definition of biomechanics that I'd heard, so I frantically scribbled it down in my notes - and I've had it in the back of my mind to this day each time I've evaluated movement. This article explains why.
3. Why You Can't Feel Your Serratus Anterior Working- I received an inquiry from a follower who asked why it's so hard to "feel" serratus anterior targeted exercises. There's a fair amount to unpack in this regard, so I recorded this video on the topic.
5. Exercise of the Week: Supported Elbow CARs - This was my New Year's Day 2022 post, and it stood the test of time as one of the most popular pieces of content for the year.
I'll be back soon with another "Best of 2022" feature. Up next, the top guest posts of the year!
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We often use an anterior counterbalance to improve an athlete's ability to get depth, particularly on squat patterns. However, I've found that cueing a reach at the same time gets us even higher quality movement. A quality reach drives the scapula into rotation around the rib cage via the serratus anterior instead of just a dump into scapular anterior tilt. Think of it as the difference between an active and passive counterbalance. As you can see in the video on the right, adding a light band can help an athlete feel that reach better.
And while I've got your ear, don't forget about the current Black Friday/Cyber Monday 25% off deals we having going on right now. You can learn more HERE.
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Just like everyone else on the planet, I'm offering some great Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. We're just going to kick it off a week early so you have time to sort through it all! From now through next Monday (11/28) at midnight, you can get 25% off the following resources by using the coupon code BF2022 at checkout.
These eight resources can be purchased through my secure website:
Sturdy Shoulder Solutions- My most recent product release delves going into a ton of depth on some important topics with respect to upper extremity evaluation, programming, and training. Learn more HERE.
CSP Innovations - A collaborative effort by the Cressey Sports Performance staff about a variety of topics. Learn more HERE.
The Specialization Success Guide - A great resource for those looking to pursue strength gains on the big three (squat, bench press, deadlift). Learn more HERE.
The Ultimate Offseason Training Manual - This was the first book I wrote, and it's stood the test of time because of how much of the writing was based on principles that'll last forever. Learn more HERE.
