Written on September 13, 2010 at 3:09 am, by Eric Cressey
1. In today’s big news, I simply want to tell you to be on the lookout for a HUGE week here at EricCressey.com.
First, we’re going to be having some awesome content in conjunction with the launch of my new product, Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better.
Expect some awesome video content and more details about the product over the next week – but if you want to see it, you need to make sure that you are signed up for my newsletter. If you haven’t already done so, you can subscribe using the following opt-in form (which will also get you access to a sweet deadlifting tutorial):
Along these same lines, the new and improved EricCressey.com will be debuting alongside the launch of Show and Go on the 20th. It will blow our current set-up out of the water.
2. I’m going to be relatively brief today, as I’m headed down to Reebok’s corporate headquarters in Canton, MA this morning to film some videos on the needs and benefits of strength and conditioning. I’ve been down there a few times with some of our pro guys who have endorsement deals when they’ve shopped in the athlete/employee store, and the entire “campus” is pretty darn impressive:
3. The good folks at Men’s Health tracked me down for an on-the-fly video tutorial in the lobby at Perform Better in Providence back in June, and the video is now available online. It goes through a few example of thoracic and glenohumeral joint mobility drills we use with our athletes. A special thanks goes out to CP intern Dave Rak for his help in demonstrating this while I was coaching it.
4. While this article isn’t as shocking to those of us in the fitness industry who are appalled at the ridiculously low standards our industry has set for allowing someone to become a personal trainer, I’m sure it was to the general public who read it. And, it’s very well written. Check it out: For a Price, Area Firm Certifies the Novice as a Fitness Expert. Sad, but true.
5. My fiancee and I have a minor league pitcher staying with us for a week while he’s in town to get evaluated and do some training on a post-rehab stint. He’ll head back to his hometown through the end of the year, and then come back to train with us for the nine weeks leading up to spring training.
On Thursday night, we were watching the NFL season opening in my living room – and I was writing programs on my laptop. He commented something along the lines of “Damn, you really do work all day, don’t you?” As I thought about it, I guess I really do. I’m usually up at 6AM to make breakfast and see my fiancee before she heads off to work, and then I go right to writing/consulting work up through about 10:15AM, when I head over to the facility, get in my lift, and then coach from 12PM to 6PM or so. Then, it’s back home – often to do more programming, answer emails, and – right now – finish up this new project.
He asked me what my ultimate career goal was, and I told him that it essentially amounted to doing my writing in the morning, and then coaching my pro/college guys during the day, and then 1-2 hours of high school guys right after school. He looks at me and goes, “That’s still a nine-hour day, man!”
As you can probably tell, I’m not particularly good about shutting things down. The reason is really simple: I love what I do. I still need to get better at turning it off more often, though!
6. On a related note, our pro baseball off-season is in full swing now. I did one evaluation on Wednesday and three on Thursday – on top of the guys who have already started up (or are working off some of our programs elsewhere in the country before they come up). It should be a great crew of guys getting after it, and we’re all really excited about what the next six months has in store for us. Thus far, the most entertaining moment has been Royals’ prospect Tim Collins’ triumphant return to Cressey Performance – where he walked around the gym and high-fived all 20 or so clients (even the ones he didn’t know) who were in the facility at the time.
7. Our boy is back – and the offer to train for free at CP still stands for him!
Lots more PRI stuff with our right handed guys, especially those who present with a classic left AIC pattern. We’ve also jacked up our manual therapy approach while at the same time applied more ways to reduce soft tissue restrictions without having to even put hands on guys (breathing stuff, for the most part).
I tried to submit this comment a few minutes ago, but I got an error message about a “duplicate comment.” So I’ll try again.
Eric, your methods and videos have been extremely helpful to me these past few years. So I don’t like to be negative about anything; however, I believe your advice on how to perform the side lying extension/rotation is a recipe for increased shoulder problems. Having trainees internally rotate the shoulder and point the thumb down during the “cross-body” part of the movement is a bad idea as it encourages shoulder impingement. Doing it in this fashion has messed up my shoulder and has aggravated a previous shoulder impingement problem that I had made a lot of progress on (by using some of your other methods).
I think you need to re-think the way you’re describing how the movement should be done. Your encouraging trainees to put the shoulder in a potentially harmful position (internally rotating the shoulder with the thumb turned down). Honestly, doing it like this is not a good idea.
In short, I disagree with you wholeheartedly. Horizontal adduction/internal rotation is half of a very valuable PNF pattern that has been used with great success as part of both rehabilitation and prehabilitation patterns. Every major league pitcher and football quarterback uses it on every throw. Swimmers perform it as well. It’s crucial because it teaches athletes to find the right balance between glenohumeral joint movement and scapulothoracic movement.
However, like any exercise, it cannot be applied to everyone uniformly – and that’s why we pre-screen. You’ll also notice that nowhere in that video do I recommend it to someone who is symptomatic. In the presence of symptoms (as you seem to have experienced currently/recently), we’d use a different modality or limit the range of motion. I know all too well that internal rotation, horizontal abduction, and protraction are not well tolerated in symptomatic cases of impingement.
“In the presence of symptoms (as you seem to have experienced currently/recently), we’d use a different modality or limit the range of motion.”
Eric, for guys like me who have had trouble with impingement in the past, can you give a short description on how we can still perform the side lying rotation/extension while at the same time doing as much as we can to avoid impingement?
In other words, how “much” of a range of motion? And can I still benefit from the exercise by doing it with my palm flat and facing down rather than with my thumb pointing down? Having the palm face down as the arm starts to cross over the body “feels” safer on the shoulder–at least to me. And does the arm have to come down to the hip? Can it come straight across the body and still produce a benefit?
Finally, if you could do another blog video at some point showing how to best do this movement while taking maximum steps to avoid impingement risk, it would be greatly appreciated. I have a feeling there are some other “impingement history” guys who may have similar questions/issues.
And thanks again for your response and help. I really appreciate it.
September 13th, 2010 at 4:00 am
The cover of the new product looks great, EC. Looking forward to it.
September 13th, 2010 at 7:47 am
Awesome! Is “Show and Go” going to be in hard-copy format or as an e-book?
September 13th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Any significant changes to the training template for the baseball guys this year?
September 13th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Remember that time EricCressey.com had like 40 comments about dogs…
September 14th, 2010 at 5:25 am
Haha, that guy again..
September 14th, 2010 at 5:28 am
It’ll be a purely online “resource.” I put that in quotation marks because it’s a lot more than a book – and I’m not sure the term does it justice.
September 14th, 2010 at 5:30 am
Rich – always!
Lots more PRI stuff with our right handed guys, especially those who present with a classic left AIC pattern. We’ve also jacked up our manual therapy approach while at the same time applied more ways to reduce soft tissue restrictions without having to even put hands on guys (breathing stuff, for the most part).
September 14th, 2010 at 5:30 am
That kind of made me feel like David Hasselhoff on a vacation to Germany, Greg.
September 22nd, 2010 at 7:13 pm
I tried to submit this comment a few minutes ago, but I got an error message about a “duplicate comment.” So I’ll try again.
Eric, your methods and videos have been extremely helpful to me these past few years. So I don’t like to be negative about anything; however, I believe your advice on how to perform the side lying extension/rotation is a recipe for increased shoulder problems. Having trainees internally rotate the shoulder and point the thumb down during the “cross-body” part of the movement is a bad idea as it encourages shoulder impingement. Doing it in this fashion has messed up my shoulder and has aggravated a previous shoulder impingement problem that I had made a lot of progress on (by using some of your other methods).
I think you need to re-think the way you’re describing how the movement should be done. Your encouraging trainees to put the shoulder in a potentially harmful position (internally rotating the shoulder with the thumb turned down). Honestly, doing it like this is not a good idea.
September 23rd, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Jeff,
In short, I disagree with you wholeheartedly. Horizontal adduction/internal rotation is half of a very valuable PNF pattern that has been used with great success as part of both rehabilitation and prehabilitation patterns. Every major league pitcher and football quarterback uses it on every throw. Swimmers perform it as well. It’s crucial because it teaches athletes to find the right balance between glenohumeral joint movement and scapulothoracic movement.
However, like any exercise, it cannot be applied to everyone uniformly – and that’s why we pre-screen. You’ll also notice that nowhere in that video do I recommend it to someone who is symptomatic. In the presence of symptoms (as you seem to have experienced currently/recently), we’d use a different modality or limit the range of motion. I know all too well that internal rotation, horizontal abduction, and protraction are not well tolerated in symptomatic cases of impingement.
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
“In the presence of symptoms (as you seem to have experienced currently/recently), we’d use a different modality or limit the range of motion.”
Eric, for guys like me who have had trouble with impingement in the past, can you give a short description on how we can still perform the side lying rotation/extension while at the same time doing as much as we can to avoid impingement?
In other words, how “much” of a range of motion? And can I still benefit from the exercise by doing it with my palm flat and facing down rather than with my thumb pointing down? Having the palm face down as the arm starts to cross over the body “feels” safer on the shoulder–at least to me. And does the arm have to come down to the hip? Can it come straight across the body and still produce a benefit?
Finally, if you could do another blog video at some point showing how to best do this movement while taking maximum steps to avoid impingement risk, it would be greatly appreciated. I have a feeling there are some other “impingement history” guys who may have similar questions/issues.
And thanks again for your response and help. I really appreciate it.