Home Posts tagged "Corrective Exercise" (Page 5)

Stuff You Should Read: 2/8/10

Good stuff from the past and present for this week's recommended reading: The Law of Repetitive Motion Part 1 and Part 2 - These back-to-back newsletters from last June are, in my mind, must-reads if you're training clients and want to understand how injuries occur. Thoracic Mobility is a Myth? - Bill Hartman answers a reader's question on thoracic spine mobility in great detail.  It's definitely worth a read.
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Random Friday Thoughts: 2/5/10

It's been a while since I've published a Random Friday Thoughts blog.  So, I guess you could say that this is some random randomness.  Enjoy. 1. Anyone who tells you that being a strength and conditioning coach is just about training doesn't realize that it goes far beyond that.  This off-season, we've helped our pro guys out everything from composing a best man's toast to tying a tie.  We've even come full-service to offer haircuts in the office.

2. Jacob Hiler recently interviewed me about vertical jump training; check it out HERE. 3. I got some great feedback on Assess and Correct via email the other day from Jon Hochberg: Just wanted to commend you on your latest product, Assess and Correct (kudos to Mike and Bill as well, of course).  As a purchaser of most all of your products, I found this to be your most mature - not necessarily in terms of content, but in terms of presentation and delivery.  Assess and Correct does not merely list corrective exercises, but outlines an integrated process that each athlete, regardless of level, can navigate through.  From the body photos at the beginning of the manual, to the exercise listings and the demonstrations on the video, the user has a complete road map in front of him that he can use for the rest of his career, especially since you grouped the progressions into sensible categories.  I think the manual in conjunction with the videos is the real key here.  I can read about what I need to do, and if I need a more clear demonstration, I can look it up in the video chapters and watch it for more clarification.  It's nice when someone else puts in the hard work and does the research for the rest of us, so that we have a clear picture of where to go next.

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Thanks to Jon for the feedback.  You can pick up your copy of Assess and Correct HERE. 4. My buddy Jim "Smitty" Smith at DieselCrew.com is doing a great fundraiser for Haiti relief efforts.  Check it out here. It's a great idea for a great cause. 5.  Another easy way to keep track of me is on Facebook, for those of you who have it.  Just consider yourself forewarned that if you post questions on my wall about why your shoulder hurts or ask "what's your biceps workout, bro?," I'll delete you as a friend faster than Tony Gentilcore can say "I love techno."  Life's not fair sometimes; sorry. 6. I don't know what this picture has to do with anything, but I thought that it was great.

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7. Quote of the week: "The higher up you get, the more hot air you encounter."  It rang true when one of my athletes this week informed me that - according to some local trainer (who I've never met, but apparently is a competitor of ours) - I was responsible for a nearby pitcher's elbow injury.  This was remarkable, considering I've never even met or talked with this pitcher, let alone assessed him, programmed for him, or trained him! I know we get a lot of industry up-and-comers reading this site, and perhaps the best career advice I can give you is to ignore what other people say.  Listen to your customers/clients/athletes, your staff, and your family; those are the opinions that matter.  If I spent hours each day arguing on internet forums with my critics, I'd be wasting time that could otherwise be spent with the former three groups: the ones that matter. 8. I'm keeping a diet log this week for the first time in about three years.  I've gotten so accustomed to just maintaining my weight without really thinking about it that I figured I actually ought to check and see just how many calories I'm taking in on a daily basis.  It definitely makes you think about what you eat a lot more! 9. Here's a great little piece about two Cressey Performance athletes - Billy Bereszniewicz and Adam Ravenelle (both of Lincoln-Sudbury) - who have committed to play Division 1 baseball. 10. Short one today, as I've got a bunch to do before the weekend. We've got a full schedule here at CP on Saturday, and then I'm back to my old stomping grounds at Gampel Pavilion at UCONN to watch the basketball team play Depaul.

Then, it's house/condo "shopping" on Sunday.  I'm getting all grown up before your very eyes...

Have a great weekend!

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The Six Kinds of Seminar Attendees

On Sunday, we hosted Neil Rampe of the Arizona Diamondbacks for a Myokinematic Dysfunction seminar at Cressey Performance.  It was a great experience, and Neil did a very thorough job of highlighting the different schools of thought with respect to addressing movement impairments.  In particular, Neil spent a lot of time on two schools of thought: Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (discussed in this post) and the Postural Restoration Institute. There was some advanced stuff being discussed, and we had a wide variety of professions and ability levels represented in the audience.  There were athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, personal trainers, physical therapists, and chiropractors in attendance.  And, they ranged in age from 20 all the way up to 55 (or so).  After the seminar, I got to talking with Neil about how it's interesting to think what each person takes away from a seminar based on their age, occupation, and experience level.  It led to me coming up with the six kinds of seminar attendees: 1. The Experienced, Open-minded Attendee - This individual may have similar experience in similar fields as the presenter.  If he gets just 2-3 good tips over the course of the seminar, he's thrilled.  The more experienced you get, the more you appreciate the little things you can add (or subtract) to refine your approach. Example: Last year, I spent about 95% of Greg Rose's presentation at Perform Better in Long Beach nodding in agreement, as he and I both deal with a ton of rotational sport athletes (him with golf, and me with baseball).  He did, however, introduce one new thoracic spine mobility test that I absolutely love and use to this day.  I might have only picked up one thing, but it was a hugely valuable for me. 2.The Experienced, Close-minded Attendee - This individual may be very experienced in a similar realm as the presenter, but isn't openminded enough to realize that a professional on his level still might have things to offer to improve his approach.  These are usually the people who claim to be "old school" - which essentially applies that they only have experience doing the same thing for 25 years.  This is one kind of "there's nothing new here" person. 3. The Experienced Attendee from a Different Field - This individual might be excellent at what he does in a semi-related field, but completely new to the material presented at a seminar.  The challenge here is to learn what can be applied in that other realm. Think of a pitching or track coach attending a strength and conditioning seminar - or a S&C coach attending a pitching or physical therapy conference.

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4. The Intimidated, Lazy Beginner Attendee - There are times when a beginner attends a seminar and has little to no clue what's going on during the event and is completely intimidated by what he doesn't know.  And, as a result, the attendee claims that he will never need the information anyway.  These folks should either change their attitudes or pick a different industry, as they are the second kind of "there's nothing new here" person. 5. The Motivated Beginner Attendee - This attendee is identical to the intimidated beginner, but rather than getting insecure about his lack of knowledge on the subject, he uses it as motivation to study further and find a way to get to where he wants to be.  This may be an understanding of how to apply bits and pieces of what the presenter taught, or a desire to become an expert in the same topic the presenter covered.  You see this quite a bit in the fitness industry, as exercise enthusiasts who aren't in the industry will actually attend seminars just to learn about better training practices - just like I might tend a talk by an economist, for instance. 6. The Middle of the Road Attendee - This individual is somewhere between a beginner and an expert in the material being covered.  My experience has been that the "middle of the road" folks only attend seminars (at least the ones at which I've presented) if they genuinely care about getting better, not just for CEUs (the intimidated/lazy beginners do that).  I find that this is probably the biggest group of the six. Groups 5 and 6 are the ones who have loved our Building the Efficient Athlete seminar the most, as it either complemented their college anatomy and kinesiology curriculum nicely, or helped to take the place of it altogether (for those who didn't attend school).

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Think about this for yourself and start to consider where you fall in the context of these six categories.  And, more importantly, how does your "placement" in this scheme dictate the next 2-3 seminars you're going to attend?  Do you want to completely get outside your realm of expertise and see something entirely new, or do you want to hone in on your specialty and see if you can come up with a few new tricks to take you to the next level?  There isn't a correct answer on this, other than that you need to keep getting out to see others in action to get better! On a related note, I've got a busy spring of seminars booked, so if you haven't already, check out my schedule page for details.
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3 Corrective Exercise Mistakes Fitness Professionals Make

Thought you all might be interested in a recent interview I did for Rick Kaselj of ExerciseForInjuries.com: 3 Corrective Exercise Mistakes Fitness Professionals Make For more details on some of the concepts I discuss, I'd encourage you to check out Assess & Correct.

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Consistently applying the information on this DVD for a few minutes each day should help anyone remain limber and injury free for a long time. Not only does it show you what to do in terms of fixing your problems, but it also shows you how to assess where you're at in terms of muscle balance and flexibility, so you can see how you're improving or regressing in those areas over time and in what areas you might need more work. It definitely makes a great addition to anyone's training library. -Kelly Baggett
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A Great Assess and Correct Review

I'm not back from Florida until Tuesday, but in the meantime, I just wanted to give you a quick heads-up on a thorough review Laree Draper just did on Assess and Correct: Breaking Barriers to Unlock Performance.  If you're on the fence about picking up a copy, you won't want to miss this, as it'll answer a lot of your potential questions.  You can check it out HERE.

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Measuring Hip Internal Rotation

Q: Inspired by your articles on T-Nation, I've started to measure IR/ER/Total shoulder rotation deficits using a goniometer.  I did have another question, however: you mentioned in an article that Hip Internal Rotation Deficit (HIRD) is a serious problem among baseball pitchers and hitters due to the asymmetrical front leg blocking in both mechanics. I absolutely agree, and I use corrective exercises and stretches to help alleviate these problems. However, I lack a good way to test for this; do you have any suggestions? A: We check hip internal rotation in the seated position.  Basically, you just have the individual sit up tall at the end of a table, and position the hips and knees at 90 degrees.  Then, without allowing the hip to hike, you internally rotate the femur. This is one of the many assessments on our new DVD set, Assess and Correct, and it's featured on page 50 of the tag-along e-manual.  Check it out:

For more information on how to correct the problem - and assess for other issues like this, check out www.AssessandCorrect.com.

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A Few Days in Arizona…

Sorry, everyone, for being a bit MIA of late.  I'll use today's post as a quick catch-up on what's been going on, and what is on tap for EricCressey.com in the months to come. Last week, I flew out to Phoenix on Tuesday to attend a seminar with Dr. Pavel Kolar.  With the exception of just a few of us, everyone in attendance was a strength and conditioniong coach, athletic trainer, or physical therapist with a major league organization.  For those who aren't familiar with Kolar, he is somewhat of a "rehabilitation rockstar"  in the Czech Republic, with "clients" that include Jaromir Jagr, Roger Federer, Petr Korda, countless world-class track and field athletes, multiple Czech Olympic teams, and the president of the Czech Republic himself.  Needless to say, he's a really smart dude; otherwise, people all around the world wouldn't be paying to hear him give seminars in Czech (yes, the majority of the seminar was through a translator). All of us in attendance are probably still trying to wrap our heads around his ideas, but Kolar presented a very interesting perspective on dynamic neuromuscular stabilization (DNS) based on developmental kinesiology.  The "Cliff's Notes" version is that the central nervous system and muscular system it governs are immature at birth, and must go through a very specific adaptation process to achieve anatomical maturation.   In rehabilitation down the road, examining this sequence of events during the first few years of life - from rolling over, to crawling, to standing up, to walking - can help us to understand how we must re-educate the nervous system to optimize function in those with aberrant patterns. According to Kolar, one can have altered stabilization patterns for any of three reasons: 1) abnormal early development, 2) abnormal training methodology, and 3) trauma.  Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, it's not that easy.   Sequencing of patterns - from the feet all the way up to the head (and including things like diaphramatic breathing and optimal tongue positioning) - is what's important...NOT recruitment of specific muscles. So, while EMG of the vastus medialis, posterior rotator cuff, lower trapezius, transversus abdominus, and loads of other muscles that's important, it's how all those muscles work together that's important. All in all, it was an awesome seminar that really tested those in attendance.  A pessimist would have walked away from it saying that it was too complex and that it couldn't be applied right away.  The optimist (and I'd include myself in this camp) left realizing that there were a lot of things I'm anxious to research and integrate in one's programming to get our clients back to their "roots" of rolling and moving from ground-based to upright movements (think sprint-start from the ground and Turkish Get-ups). We're also looking a ton more at breathing patterns in all our athletes - especially after spending a few days in AZ with my buddy Neil Rampe, a great manual therapist with the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Most people don't realize that the diaphram is both a respiratory and postural muscle, so if you're not using it properly, it'll interfere with both oxygenation and muscular activity. Fun stuff.  Just trying to get better...
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Assess and Correct Now Available!

Today's a really exciting day for Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, and I - and hopefully for you, too! You see, after months of planning, filming, and editing, our new product, Assess and Correct, is now available at www.AssessAndCorrect.com.  And, for the first week ONLY, we're making the product available for $30 off what will be the normal retail price.

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  • DVD #1: Your Comprehensive Guide to Self-Assessment
  • DVD #2: Your Individualized Corrective Exercise Progressions
  • Bonus #1: The Assess and Correct Assessment E-Manual, which is a guide to which you can refer to in conjunction with DVD #1.
  • Bonus #2: The Assess and Correct E-Manual, which includes written cues and photos for each recommended drill in DVD #2 so that you'll have a resource you can take to the gym with you.
  • Bonus #3: "The Great Eight Static Stretches" E-Manual, which shows you eight additional flexibility drills that we use on a regular basis in addition to the drills featured in the DVDs.
  • Bonus #4: The "Optimal Self Myofascial Release" E-Manual, which shows you the soft tissue methods and techniques we use with our clients and athletes.
  • Bonus #5: "Warm-ups for Every Body" E-Manual, which is a collection of two sample warm-up templates for 19 different sports/scenarios.
Again, this introductory offer will end next Sunday, November 1 at midnight EST.  For now, though, I'd encourage you to head over to www.AssessAndCorrect.com to check out some of the sample videos from the DVDs - including the introduction in which we discuss our rationale for creating the product.
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Stuff You Should Read: 9/16/09

I'm headed to a Sox game tonight and have plenty to do around the facility before I go, so I thought I'd just use today to throw out a few quick reading recommendations: Re-Building the Reverse Hyper - This great newsletter from Mike Robertson goes into some excellent detail on the biomechanics of a very controversial exercise - and how we can make it safer and more effective. Wiggling Their Toes at the Show Giants - This is a piece in the NY Times that is actually surprisingly good.  It goes hand-in-hand with my recommendation of Born to Run from a few weeks ago.  Definitely check both the article and the book out. Super Bowl Super Shakes - Dr. John Berardi just published this collection of shake recipes this week.  It's definitely worth checking out if you're looking for some new ideas to add variety to your diet.
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Mobility Exercise of the Week: Hand Switches

For more mobility exercises, be sure to check out Assess and Correct: Breaking Barriers to Unlock Performance.

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