Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 5/18/18

About the Author: Eric Cressey

Happy Friday! I’m a few days late with this post in light of our spring sale as well as some speaking-related travel I had this week. The good news is that the travel gave me some time to do some reading/viewing/listening and come up with some additional recommendations for you. Check them out:

Complete Youth Training – This is Mike Boyle’s great new resource for those who work with young athletes. He touches on everything from the problems with early specialization to age-specific training stages. It’s a good investment for parents and coaches alike. I loved how his perspective as a parent coalesced with his commentary as a strength and conditioning coach and business owner. It’s on sale for $50 as an introductory discount.

The Best Team Wins – This was a recommendation from my buddy Josh Bonhotal, who’s spent the past several years at the Purdue basketball strength and conditioning coach. Whether you’re a coach or involved in a business in any way, this is a great book that’ll teach you a lot about your interactions with athletes, fellow coaches, employees, and co-workers.

Prioritization and Success for Strength and Conditioning Success – I was reminded of this older post of mine this week when chatting with an up-and-coming strength and conditioning coach about how I’ve approached career development since I entered the industry.

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I think the long head of the triceps is a really overlooked structure in the development of both shoulder and elbow pain in throwers. Many people forget that it crosses the shoulder joint – and therefore effectively links the scapula to the lower arm. 🤔 In the late cocking phase of throwing, it’s working eccentrically to prevent excessive elbow flexion while storing elastic energy that can be released on the subsequent elbow extension of the delivery. In other words, you can view the long head of the triceps as somewhat of a “mini-lat,” as the lat serves this similar store-release function (albeit with different functions) – and they both work as shoulder extensors. 💪 It’s also interesting in that it’s one of the few muscles where the trigger point referral patterns can work up and down, as opposed to just down. I’ve seen some throwers where treating triceps has been a game changer in terms of everything from elbow, to shoulder, to neck pain. 👇 The long story short is that you have to give the triceps some love with quality self-myofascial release/manual therapy and make sure that you preserve tissue length (by stretching into shoulder flexion and elbow flexion simultaneously). Swipe right for some ideas. Thanks to @andrewmillettpt for the dry needling and manual therapy and @oneilstrength and @sooo_deep for the exercise demos. #cspfamily

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