Written on March 12, 2010 at 9:35 am, by Eric Cressey
1.I spent about 2.5 days in Las Vegas earlier this week to present at the NSCA Personal Trainers Conference. I really enjoyed the event, as it was a chance to interact with a lot of new people (I don’t speak out west very often) and hopefully help some enthusiastic, up-and-coming trainers add to their skill sets. In my last presentation, Shoulder Assessment and Corrective Exercise, (to about 50 people), when I asked who had heard of scapulohumeral rhythm, not a single hand went up. I was very surprised that this was something that hadn’t been covered sufficiently in undergraduate curricula or the certification process, as it’s really important, in my eyes.
The good news, however, is that Mike Reinold and I covered this topic (and many others) in great detail in our Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set. We’ll be making the final revisions in the next few days, and it should be available within 2-3 weeks. If you want to be among the first notified of the awesome one-week only pre-sale price, definitely subscribe to my free newsletter HERE.
2. If you’re looking to have some fun and help CP athlete Kevin Youkilis raise some money for a great cause, check out the “Facial Hair Frenzy” fundraiser at Youk’s Hits for Kids. For each dollar you donate, you get one vote for which facial hair style – Goatee, Mustache, Clean Shaven, or Fu Manchu – Youk rocks on opening day.
3. All my “guinea pigs” for my new project are completing Phase 1 today/tomorrow, and will be embarking on phase 2 on Monday. The feedback has been great thus far, and I’m pretty excited for the June/July release of the comprehensive program (which, unfortunately, still remains unnamed). The beginning of each new phase means that I have to do about 45-50 exercise demonstrations, and that fun 90-minute task was yesterday.
4. In What I Learned in 2009, I alluded to the fact that we’re doing more ground-to-standing transitions in our training, and mentioned that Rollover Get-up and Go Starts were one of those drills. Unfortunately, the video was accidentally omitted from the article, so I thought I’d feature it here. Thanks to Blue Jays prospect Tim Collins for the demonstration.
5. We’re picking out the color schemes for all the rooms in our new house this week, and I have to be honest here. While I’m unbelievably excited about moving into a new house, I am likely going to jab a hot poker in my eyes if I have to stare at a color sample for another 20 minutes to determine the difference between “nantucket fog” and “james river gray.” The humor in all of this is that my fiancee is an optometrist and has come right out and said that she believes me to be partially color blind – which means that I shouldn’t even be allowed to have an opinion on the matter in the first place!
Up next, picking out a refrigerator and mailbox. And here I was thinking that I’d get a mini-vacation now that the baseball season was underway!
I was thinking about ordering Assess and Correct, now I see this new shoulder dvd.
For the recreational athlete which dvd set would you recommend? I do have some shoulder issues (you emailed me recently after I sent you my MRI results), but I also have some left ankle issues after having a severe sprain a few years ago that I handled incorrectly.
Maybe you’ll offer a package deal? A discount for both dvd sets????
Thanks again for the great information you’re always putting out in your blog!
You are a guy – you shouldn’t be pickin out colors anyways. I was fired from this job 15 years ago (I have been married 20) – for picking out Red Sox – Red & Blue for my daughter’s nursery.
EC: Is that some kind of special New England color wheel you two are working off of?
I’ve actually mentioned scapulohumeral rhythm to some golf pros as I feel it’s kind of important to the swing and they told me to kindly stop making up words. Have you done any research on how the shoulders should function during a golf swing? There aren’t a lot of injuries to golfer’s shoulders as compared to low backs but a lot of swing flaws are rooted in a poor shoulder pattern.
I’m one of the guinea pigs, Phase 1 was great, the warmups have involved more effort and focus than my entire old workout. I’ve found that foam rolling my groin for several minutes straight in the middle of a crowded globogym is one way to get attention.
Steve, I would recommend Assess & Correct, as it covers both upper and lower body.
Nick, lots to consider…shoulder ER/IR/total motion, scapular stability, cervical spine function, and t-spine mobility. Problems with any of the four may not present directly in the shoulder, but will often be closely related to elbow or lower back pain.
Cool that you are teaching getting up and running.
Do you teach the opposite (falling?) I believe that learning how to fall safely is a key to athletic performance (even for pitchers), but I don’t have any direct data from pitchers; so curious on what you have found.
Keep up the good work
rock on
Mike T Nelson PhD(c)
March 12th, 2010 at 10:08 am
I was thinking about ordering Assess and Correct, now I see this new shoulder dvd.
For the recreational athlete which dvd set would you recommend? I do have some shoulder issues (you emailed me recently after I sent you my MRI results), but I also have some left ankle issues after having a severe sprain a few years ago that I handled incorrectly.
Maybe you’ll offer a package deal? A discount for both dvd sets????
Thanks again for the great information you’re always putting out in your blog!
March 12th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Eric –
You are a guy – you shouldn’t be pickin out colors anyways. I was fired from this job 15 years ago (I have been married 20) – for picking out Red Sox – Red & Blue for my daughter’s nursery.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:32 am
EC: Is that some kind of special New England color wheel you two are working off of?
I’ve actually mentioned scapulohumeral rhythm to some golf pros as I feel it’s kind of important to the swing and they told me to kindly stop making up words. Have you done any research on how the shoulders should function during a golf swing? There aren’t a lot of injuries to golfer’s shoulders as compared to low backs but a lot of swing flaws are rooted in a poor shoulder pattern.
I’m one of the guinea pigs, Phase 1 was great, the warmups have involved more effort and focus than my entire old workout. I’ve found that foam rolling my groin for several minutes straight in the middle of a crowded globogym is one way to get attention.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Steve, I would recommend Assess & Correct, as it covers both upper and lower body.
Nick, lots to consider…shoulder ER/IR/total motion, scapular stability, cervical spine function, and t-spine mobility. Problems with any of the four may not present directly in the shoulder, but will often be closely related to elbow or lower back pain.
March 12th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Is lumbar flexion nothing to worry about in these drills? (since they’re unloaded)
Or am I just misconstruing Tim’s back?
March 12th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Cool that you are teaching getting up and running.
Do you teach the opposite (falling?) I believe that learning how to fall safely is a key to athletic performance (even for pitchers), but I don’t have any direct data from pitchers; so curious on what you have found.
Keep up the good work
rock on
Mike T Nelson PhD(c)
March 13th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Eric, I TOLD you to call it Maximum-er Strength!