Home Baseball Content Random Thoughts on Sports Performance Training: Installment 4

Random Thoughts on Sports Performance Training: Installment 4

Written on August 1, 2014 at 6:57 am, by Eric Cressey

In light of the recent launch of The Specialization Success Guide, I feel like there have been a lot of posts on the site lately on the topic of powerlifting. With that in mind, I thought I'd shuffle things up with a bit more discussion about training in a broader sense, so let's talk some general athletic development.

1. We don't any regular barbell bench pressing with our baseball guys, and it's even pretty rare for us to use dumbbell bench pressing in their programs. This is, in part, because we want to utilize movements where the scapulae can move freely, as opposed to having them pinned down on a bench. In light of this exclusion, we're often ask: what do you do instead?

The answer, as many of you know, is landmine presses, push-up variations, and cable press variations. However, what a lot of people might not realize is that another good option is to simply replace a press with some kind of overhead hold variation, whether it's a Turkish get-up or bottoms-up carry.

One other variation I really like is the kneeling overhead hold to stand. I'll often use this with beginners who might need a little stepping stone before they get to the Turkish get-up. In addition to getting some great reflexive rotator cuff work, we're driving scapular upward rotation in a population that really needs it. Still, that doesn't mean that everyone is ready for it. Watch the video to learn more:

2. It's not uncommon at all to see medial (inside) elbow pain in lifter.s This usually comes from the tremendous amount of grip work one does in combination with lots of loaded elbow flexion. Usually, when these issues pop up, cutting back on lifting volume and modifying exercise selection is imperative.

However, what a lot of folks fail to appreciate is the impact that supplemental conditioning work can have on the overuse pattern. Just imagine how much abuse your common flexor tendon is taking when you hop on the rowing machine for 20 minutes to log a few thousand meters, or add in some barbell or kettlebell complexes. These are very grip-intensive approaches and need to be incorporated carefully - and certainly not all the time. Cycle them in, and then cycle them out.

As an example, I'm someone who deals with medial elbow irritation here and there, and most of the time, it's when I'm doing more work on the rower. As such, I've learned that one rowing session a week is really all I can handle if I'm doing my normal upper body training workload.

3. Having a good hip hinge is a huge contributor to athletic success, and to that end, we include toe touch progressions with a lot of our athletes. Without a doubt, the biggest mistake I see with athletes doing a toe touch is the substitution of knee hyperextension for hip flexion. Here's what that looks like:

photo-68

You'll notice that there really is absolutely no posterior shift of the center of mass, and he stays in plantarflexion (calves don't stretch). This is something you'll see really commonly in athletes with very hypermobile joints. I've demonstrated it before with the following video; you'll notice that this loose-jointed athlete can actually get a crazy toe touch without any sort of hip hinge, as he's blocked by the wall. Hypermobile athletes will always try to trick you!

Every time you allow them to use a faulty hip hinge pattern, you're giving them two opportunities to work themselves closer to an ACL injury. First, you're putting them in a position where the glutes can't control the femur, and where the hamstrings are too overstretched to really help stabilize the knee effectively. Second, knee hyperextension is commonly a part of the typical ACL injury mechanism (especially in contact injuries where an opponent tackles an athlete low); do we really want to be going to this dangerous end-range over and over again in our training? With that in mind, when coaching the hip hinge, you want to ensure that the athlete establishes and maintains a slight bend in the knee; the "soft knees" cue usually works well.

4. I've often heard people talk about how prone bridges (front planks) are useless if you can already do quality push-ups. While I can certainly appreciate this line of reasoning, I think it overlooks two things.

First, most people rattle through push-ups pretty quickly, so the time under tension may actually be considerably lower than what one would get on a prone bridge.

Second, you can make a prone bridge considerably more difficult via a number of different means, and my favorite is adding full exhalations on each breath. This is something that's very difficult to "sync up" with push-ups, but the benefits are excellent: more serratus anterior recruitment, better posterior tilting of the pelvis, better anterior core engagement, and relaxation of overused supplemental respiratory muscles.

So, don't rule out bridges just yet! I love them as a low-level motor control exercise at the end of a training session - and after the loaded core work (chops, lifts, etc) have been completed.

Have a random thought of your own from the past week? Feel free to post it below; I'm all ears!

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11 Responses to “Random Thoughts on Sports Performance Training: Installment 4”

  1. Daniella Dayoub Says:

    #3 is a killer one for helping people with that assymetrical ASIS. The reality is almost all of us have it to some extent. Great tool

  2. Michael Says:

    Do you incorporate any rowing with your baseball players?

    Thanks

  3. David Mathews Says:

    What is proper pushup form pertaining to the
    scapula. Do you pinch together and lock down like
    on the bench press. Or do you let the scapula move freely? What about dips also? Thanks!

  4. Eric Cressey Says:

    David,

    Definitely let the scapula move freely. Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI0gKiXGyyg

  5. Eric Cressey Says:

    Michael,

    For strength (weight room exercises), yes. For conditioning (on the rowing machine), no.

  6. Coach Bill Says:

    Can you show how you utilize the landmine for your baseball players. Do you use the landmine to predominantly train the anti-rotaters ?

  7. Gary Says:

    Hey Eric – great post, long time reader of yours. I am curious as to more of your line of thought to the first point.. It makes a lot of sense about not wanting to pin down the scapulae but what about the development of max strength using the bar or dbs? Do the risks out way the rewards which is why you choose not to implement the heavy horizontal pressing? Thanks.

    Gary Vesper

  8. Rudy Says:

    In this article you said you don’t do any bench press variations with your baseball guys. In your High Performance Handbook you have bench press variations, are those ok with baseball guys or do you replace them?

  9. Eric Cressey Says:

    Rudy,

    Check out the section in the main guide on modifying the program for overhead athletes; it should answer your questions.

  10. Eric Cressey Says:

    Bill,

    We do a lot of landmine press variations; you can check them out on my youtube page at http://www.youtube.com/ecressey. That implement can also be uses for actual landmines, which are an anti-rotation exercise.

  11. Eric Cressey Says:

    Gary,

    Who says you can’t develop max strength without benching? “Strength” is really relative to the task at hand, so for me, the most important consideration is “does it carry over?”


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