Here’s this week’s list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:

Who Are “They,” Anyway? – This was an outstanding post by Mariana Bichette, who – as a MLB wife and the mother of a minor leaguer and 15-year-old ballplayer – has a tremendous perspective on everything from player development to scouting, not to mention how parents can best handle the teenage baseball years. I hear about parents talking about “well they ranked this kid as #4 in his class in Kentucky” (or whatever other number/state) on random blogs or showcase websites. If you liked my recent article, 20 Ways to Prepare Young Athletes for Success, you’ll love everything Mariana writes. Look around her website and you’ll see what I mean.

Roman’s Road Rules – This article from my buddy, John Romaniello, is a great resource to anyone who travels regularly but still wants to eat clean and train regularly.

Vitamin D Deficiency Rampant in Patients Undergoing Orthopedic Surgery, Damaging Patient Recovery – Vitamin D has gotten a lot of attention in recent years, and with good reason; it clearly has some serious implications in terms of our health on the musculoskeletal and endocrine fronts (just to name a few example). This article at Science Daily certainly verifies that, and serves as a good follow-up the study a few years back that demonstrated players with deficient pre-season Vitamin D levels were more likely to get hurt over the course of an NFL season.