Of course not - but, at least the title caught your attention!
Truthfully, as my fiancee can attest, I don't understand much about women, but I do know a bit about training them. In fact, I devoted my entire 100th newsletter to this topic; you can check it out HERE. And, I've watched this scene at least 147 times, taking careful notes each time, so I think I have all the relevant anatomy covered.
At risk of digressing, though, the main purpose of this blog post is to give my local female readers a heads-up on a new offering at Cressey Performance: the CP Women's Training Group. In case you find me to be boring in describing it, check out Tony Gentilcore's blog from the other day, as he goes into more pertinent and impertinent detail. Here's the basic idea:
1. Women gather at CP to commence training twice a week for 75 minutes per session (or however long it takes to achieve uber-awesome status for the day; we really aren't that picky with time).
2. Prior to said training, women go through a series of flexibility and stability screens, and technique instruction - and are given individualized programming.
3. During said training, women not only get leaner, stronger, and healthier, but also get nutrition education - and generally, at least one or two rants from Tony on what the latest made-up media garbage is with respect to fitness.
4. Said women leave said training happy. They may even make new friends and opt to pose in front of the CP logo, engaged in a collective smile.
In addition to our previous female clients, we've already got several ladies started up, including some of the CP athlete Moms who thought we were all about only baseball training baseball players. Truth be told, they're getting stronger, leaner, and healthier already, and pretty soon, they'll be throwing dirty fastballs, too (okay, I'm kidding about the last part).
For more information on the group - including a cool one-time only start-up special, drop my business partner Pete an email at cresseyperformance@gmail.com, or give us a call in the office at 978-212-2688.
PS - If you're still hesitant, check out what some current clients have to say about CP (for the record, they encouraged us to post their ages; we aren't that insensitive):
"I have trained with the CP team for almost two years now, and I can honestly say they are my favorite people to be around and train with. They are all well educated in their fields of training, diet, and nutrition. I travel over 45 minutes to Hudson to every Saturday to get my dose of informed training, humor, and camaraderie. It's a bit of a drive for me, but I do it because these guys are special. I have never regretted the day I walked into CP and started lifting. I would encourage any women out there, at any age, to do the same."
Deb DiRocco, 50- Reading, MA
"When I began training at Cressey Performance my ultimate goal to was to "fit into my jeans." A year and a half later I have not only surpassed my goal, but have also discovered a newfound appreciation for weight training. The staff at CP are always positive, energetic, and patient with every one of their clients (take my word for it!). "
Michelle Elwell, 32-Cambridge, MA
Again, that's cresseyperformance@gmail.com, or 978-212-2688. Hope to see some of you at the facility!
1. I'm writing this on Thursday night as Bill Hartman, Mike Robertson, and I collaborate across several states (them in IN, and me in MA) to finalize the plan of attack for the DVD we'll be filming out in Indy on Saturday. We're really struggling to decide which of the following two costumes we want Mike to wear.
I supposed we could just dress him up as a viking with tassels and get the best of both worlds. I guess you'll just have to buy the DVD to find out for yourself.
2. I just read this week that researchers here in Boston are going to be looking into why girls hate guys who listen to techno the role of Vitamin D and fish oil in reducing the risk of cancer, heart disease, and strokes.
3. We are going to be revamping the Cressey Performance website pretty soon, so be sure to keep an eye on it in the weeks to come.
4. Speaking of CP, a huge congratulations goes out to Cressey Performance athletes Sahil Bloom and Justin Quinn, who were both named to the Spring 2009 Boston Globe All-Scholastic Team.
From the write-up: "Bloom was MVP of the Dual County League Small, posting a 6-0 record with 3 saves, a 0.90 ERA, and 61 strikeouts in 46‚ innings. He finished his career 22-6 with a 1.95 ERA." And, "Quinn was MVP and won the batting title in the Dual County League Large, batting .488 with five home runs. The four-year starter finished his career with a .386 average and 20 home runs." Nice job, fellas!
6. If I get one more email this week from someone trying to sell me a supplement in a pyramiding scheme, I'm going to flip my s**t. If you need a pyramiding scheme to sell something, then it's a crap product in the first place. And, if you have people who know NOTHING about the product they're pushing, then you have an entirely crap business model, too.
Actually, now that I think about it, these supplement pitch emails are amusing. I might start posting them as blogs to discuss the commonalities of cheeseball supplement pimps - as I began to cover in item #13 HERE.
Off to Indy tonight. Hopefully those pleasant, patient Midwestern folks can calm me down. Have a great weekend!
Today, we've got the first ever Cressey Performance Intern Hazing Poll. Here's how it works....
Posted below are three videos of our interns getting dominated by a delightful assortment of torturous exercises. We really didn't expect them to look good doing this, but hey, that's the whole point, right? Anyway, you, the readers of EricCressey.com get to rank the interns from 1 to 3 (1=first place, 2=second place, 3=third place) based on the following criteria:
1. Artistic Mastery
2. Fashion (nice shoes, Roger)
3. Proximity to Vomiting
4. Time to Completion
5. Number of breaks in action
6. Inferiority to Mike Roncarati, the most diesel CP intern of all time, who could eat these kiddies for breakfast (way to be, Mike!)
7. Inspiration (someone out there was having a bad day until they watched these videos and realized that things could have been a lot worse).
Voting will be closed Monday night, June 15th at midnight. The winner really won't receive anything, but futility is really the name of the game anyway. Oh, feel free to suggest some torture for next Thursday for these guys.
Without further ado, the candidates:
Candidate #1: Phil "The Thrill" Gauthier
EC Commentary: He plays the grunting card nicely. Good speed...compared with a 12-year-old girl's performance on this medley. Push-up technique was probably the best of the bunch, although I don't think it's going to get him any Cirque Du Soleil tryouts.
Candidate #2: Alex Nash "and Burn"
EC Commentary: Admittedly, I was stretching out one of our pitchers while he was doing this, so I'm shooting from the hip on his on-camera presence rather than relying on my experience on Thursday. Eyewitnesses reported that he demonstrated the worst push-ups in CP history. I would have liked to see a jog back to the sled after finishing the overhead keg lunges, too. I will give him some credit for not losing his breakfast, as the omelet and oatmeal was flying after pushing the sled last week.
Candidate #3: Roger "Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun" Lawson
(Note: Roger took so long that the first camera's battery died, and we had to rush to grab a second digital camera in the office. There was a good two minutes of grunting, sweating, and weird spasm-like movement during this brief hiatus)
EC Commentary: Roger certainly took the grunting to a whole new level; in fact, was he crying at one point? I think I actually heard him blurt out, "My mother didn't love me, and I never learned to read!" I can't be sure, though. I'll give him some style points for managing to get caught in the batting cage net like a tuna; that was graceful. He also earned some drama points for the repeated collapses on the keg lunges, not to mention an artistic mastery bonus with the swift sniper roll during the sled-to-keg transition.
So what do you think, world? Cast your votes as replies to this blog, ranking these guys from 1 to 3 (1 being the best). And, don't forget to suggest some torture for Installment 3.
I've written previously about the many flexibility deficits we see in baseball players (particularly pitchers). One of the biggest issues we face is a loss of elbow extension range-of-motion. This adaptive change most likely occurs because of the insane amounts of eccentric muscle action required to decelerate the 2,500 degrees/second of elbow extension that occurs during pitching. You'll find some serious shortness/tissue restrictions in biceps brachii, brachioradialis, brachialis, and all the rest of the muscles acting at the elbow and wrist.
Unfortunately, it's not an area you can really work on with the foam roller or baseball, as it's in a tough spot. For that reason, we prefer using The Stick - and hold it in place with the j-hooks in a power rack. Here is how it works when rolling out the anterior forearm musculature (this same technique can be utilized on the elbow flexors):
Follow that up with some longer duration holds of this stretch, and you'll get that elbow extension back in no time.
For the entire Cressey Performance foam roller series, click HERE.
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used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!
If you're an intern here at Cressey Performance, it's not enough to just get smarter, become a better coach, and refine your vacuuming prowess. You have to get diesel, too.
This summer's crop of interns began to learn that the hard way last Thursday when their introductory challenge, the 16x16 sled relay, was proposed to them. Lucky for them, we only used three plates (instead of four). Also lucky for them, they were assisted by Alex Hill, an 17-year-old Cressey Performance athlete (and recent Wayland High School graduate) with about 1.5 years of training experience with us under his belt. As you'll see, he crushes them.
In watching this video, you'll realize:
a) Interns do not know how to turn a sled without flipping it over. Just imagine them trying to parallel park their cars.
b) They went out of order. And, they stopped early - and then realized that there was more to do. Poor, confused souls.
c) They struggle with double-knotting their shoelaces.
d) They got dominated by a high school athlete (oops...already said that)
e) Several of the intern trips resembled this dude:
f) The sleeve monster attacked two of them prior to this challenge.
g) Roger's last trip was painful - quite possibly as painful to watch as this.
This Thursday, we'll be teaching them about the birds and the bees, and then crushing them with something else. These boys will be diesel by the end of the summer if it's the last thing we do.
Today's blog will serve as somewhat of a rant on how pro athletes and their training and nutrition are marketed to consumers. I'll talk about a few examples, but first I'll pose a question: does NASCAR really need an official laundry detergent? Anyway, I digress; let's get to the meat and potatoes.
About once a week at Cressey Performance, we get a sales pitch - either via email, phone, or in-person - from a supplement salesman. Generally, this person is not a regular exerciser, and almost all of the time, he/she shows very little knowledge of the product. However, this individual always has plenty of confidence in its efficacy - which shouldn't be surprising, as these folks are almost always involved in some kind of supplement pyramiding scheme. Needless to say, I get pretty tired of it.
Usually, these salesmen drop the "It's the official <insert product genre here> of <insert pro sports team here> and <insert popular athlete here> swears by it." An example might be "It's the official calf raise apparatus of Cressey Performance, and Tony Gentilcore swears by it."
Earlier this week, I heard that "XYZ is the official juice of ABC and JKL swears by it" - where ABC is a MLB team. I couldn't help but laugh, as 74% of my athletes are baseball players (many of them pros) - so you could say that I know nutrition at the pro level pretty well. If there is going to be an official drink of Major League Baseball, it's probably some kind of beer. If you think they are pounding this magical Kool-Aid, you've got another thing coming.
Perhaps my favorite marketing scheme is when a magazine publishes a workout program from some pro athlete - and I know it's just flat-out untrue. How can I be so sure? I know their strength coach! We've known for quite some time that editors write the programs for pro bodybuilders in some of the older muscle magazines out there, but nobody seems to grasp that they often do the same for the athletes they profile. About two years ago, I heard that a 6-10 NBA guy notorious for his long arms and defense and rebounding prowess could bench press 455 pounds.
First off, I knew his strength coach, who told me that he would be lucky to do half that amount.
Second, the risk-reward of that 455 bench press is completely out of whack, and I know there is no way a strength coach (at least one who would like to keep his job at the pro level) would even let an athlete with a huge contract attempt that weight.
Third, I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen anyone bench that much raw. In each case, they were shorter guys with short arms and big bellies to shorten the range-of-motion. A 455-bench press is a HUGE raw bench, and the chances of an athlete in a sport with such a huge aerobic component hitting it are slim to none.
Just some food for thought: buyer beware when you hear claims like these. Feel free to share some of your favorite examples below.
I turn 28 today, so in hopes of distracting myself from the painful realization that I'm starting to go bald, I thought I'd focus on the positives of my existence in contexts that would appeal to you. Below, you'll find 28 of my favorite things - most of which are at least loosely related to fitness, nutrition, strength and conditioning, and sports.
1. Favorite Nickname: Power Alleys. This seemed like a good starting point, as power alleys are bald spots. Credit for this one goes to Mets pitching prospect Tim Stronach.
2. Favorite Thing About Cressey Performance: The camaraderie among the athletes/clients. I think the hard thing to appreciate about our facility without experiencing it first-hand and being there on a regular basis is that it's as much about the environment and attitude as it is about the expertise and programming. I'm psyched that we've not only created an environment where clients can improve physically, but one in which they can thrive socially, too.
3. Favorite Book I've Read Related to Fitness:Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes, by Shirley Sahrmann. This book got me thinking more about dysfunction and less about pathology. Quality of movement is often far more important than anything a MRI or x-ray can ever tell you.
4. Favorite Book I've Read Unrelated to Fitness: This is a top-up between The Tipping Point and A Prayer for Owen Meany. They might be taken over, however, by one of the gifts I just got for my birthday from CP Client Steph Holland-Brodney.
5. Favorite DVD I've Watched:The Indianapolis Performance Enhancement Seminar DVD Set. Bill Hartman's presentation on "Stiff vs. Short" alone makes this a fantastic resource, and the rest is just gravy. I reviewed it HERE.
6. Favorite DVD I've Co-Created: The Building the Efficient Athlete DVD set. I think I'm most proud of this resource because it's something that provided something I so desperately wanted - but couldn't get - during my college education. Effectively, it's a resource that blends book memorization with real-world practice with a focus on functional anatomy, assessments, and troubleshooting common exercises.
7. Favorite Seminar I've Attended:The Perform Better 3-Day Functional Training Summit. Each year, they get better and better. Check out Chicago or Long Beach this year if you missed Providence.
8. Favorite Athlete of All Time: Barry Sanders. I can't imagine an guy with better kinesthetic awareness, body control, or ability to turn a complete disaster of a play into a 90-yard touchdown run - while carrying two defensive linemen on his back.
9. Favorite Athlete of All-Time that you've probably never heard of: Jerry Sichting. He played for the Celtics from 1985 to 1988, and I'll always remember the night Sichting - at a heigh of 6-1 - got in a fight with 7-4 Ralph Sampson during the 1986 NBA Finals. At the time, I was a five-year old shadow boxing in my living room yelling at the top of my lungs.
10. Favorite Place to Visit: Fenway Park
11. Second Favorite Place to Visit: Gampel Pavilion at the University of Connecticut. It's an incredible environment in which to watch college basketball, and it's also where I spent just about all my time from 2003 to 2005.
12. Favorite Exercise: was this ever in question?
13. Favorite Sites I Visit Just About Every Day: T-Nation.com, MinorLeagueBaseball.com, ESPN.com, Sports.Yahoo.com, WilliamInman.com, 38Pitches.com, ShawnHaviland.Blogspot.com, MetrowestDailyNews.com, StrengthCoach.com, MikeReinold.com, RobertsonTrainingSystems.com, BillHartman.net, AlwynCosgrove.Blogspot.com, DieselCrew.com, PrecisionNutrition.com, BrianStPierreTraining.com, Tony Gentilcore's Blog, Boston.com, BarstoolSports.com, Facebook.com, EricCressey.com.
14. Favorite Kind of Injury to See (weird category, I know): Labral Tears (SLAP lesions), or really any kind of shoulder or elbow pain in pitchers. You've got so many potential causes that it's kind of fun (for me, not the athlete) to go through a process of elimination to see what combination of factors caused it. There are all the classic flexibility deficits in pitchers, plus scapular instability, poor thoracic spine mobility, plus faulty mechanics, plus inappropriate training volumes, plus weak lower bodies. It's kind of like peeling back the layers on an onion to see what shakes free. It's also a great scenario to illustrate what I talked about with respect to diagnostic imaging in #3 from above. All of these guys will have labral fraying and rotator cuff partial thickness tears at the very least; it's our job to fix them up and make them work efficiently in spite of these structural deficits in situations where surgery isn't warranted.
15. Favorite Class I Took in School: Gross Anatomy. Yes, I cherished the semester I spent with a bunch of cadavers.
16. Favorite Healthy Food: Apple-Cinnamon Protein Bars from John Berardi's Gourmet Nutrition Cookbook. Admittedly, I often just eat the batter before it ever gets cooked. Not good, I know.
17. Favorite Piece of Equipment We Have at CP: Giant Cambered Bar. Along with the safety squat bar and front squat set-up, this bad boy has allowed me to keep squatting even though my right shoulder decided a long time ago that traditional back squats weren't a good idea. It's also a great asset for working with overhead throwing athletes who should avoid the externally rotated, abducted position under load.
18. Favorite Thing About Having a Blog: I can write a lot more casually than in my newsletter, which tends to be more geeky. And, I can post videos of this kid rocking out:
19. Favorite Mobility Drill: Walking Spiderman w/Overhead Reach. I love this drill because you're covering so many things at once. You'll get thoracic spine extension and rotation from the reach, and hip flexor and adductor length in the lower body from the lunge angle. Keep an eye out for more new movements along these lines in the months to come as we film the sequel to the Magnificent Mobility DVD.
20. Favorite Pastime I Had to Give Up: Fantasy Baseball/Basketball. During my sophomore year of undergrad, I finished fourth in the world in NBA.com's Virtual GM contest. Long story short, if you want to be really good at fantasy sports with that kind of set-up, you've got to put a lot of time into it - and realize that it won't make girls like you. You'll also find yourself watching games in which you'd otherwise have absolutely no interest. I couldn't do it half-ass (aside from the CP Fantasy Football League), so I gave it up.
21. Favorite Inedible Toy: Rubber Steak.
Suffice it to say that Fire & Ice wouldn't allow us to eat a birthday cake inside their restaurant on Saturday night in celebration of my awesomeness. So, in celebration of their suckiness, none of us (16 in all) will ever eat again - and I was reduced to gnawing on dog toys.
22. Favorite Birthday Excitement: Apparently, it's going to be taking my car in to get work done, buying a new laptop, and then coaching 'em upat CP. There will also be a dominant upper body lift at CP that will undoubtedly feature Kevin Larrabee missing 300...again...and again).
24. Favorite Strength and Conditioning Coach Who is Having Surgery on my Birthday: Josh Bonhotal, Chicago Bulls. I talked with Josh yesterday and he informed me that he was finally having his ACL fixed today in celebration of my birthday. Nothing says "Happy Birthday, Buddy" like taking a chunk out of your patellar tendon and turning it into an anterior cruciate ligament. It's kind of like planting a tree on Earth Day. What a nice gesture.
25. Favorite Article Series I've Written:A New Model for Training Between Starts (Part 1and Part 2). These articles were actually picked up by Collegiate Baseball Magazine as front-page features, and I received a lot of great feedback about them. If there is one thing I do before I retire, it's convincing the world of the evils of distance running for pitchers. I'd put the Shoulder Savers series in a close second
26. Favorite Supplement: Fish Oil. It's followed closely by Vitamin D. You need both - and probably a lot more than you think. I'm a simple guy when it comes to this stuff.
27. Favorite Random Website a Buddy Texted to Me Last Week: www.EasyCurves.com. This thing is hilarious. A special thanks goes out to Jesse Burdick for making me just a little bit dumber with that.
28. Favorite Sign of Athlete Dedication for the Month: We have two college pitchers up here fromPennsylvania for the month to work on getting bigger, stronger, faster, and more flexible in hopes of a nice velocity jump on the mound, and the obvious injury prevention benefits of such training. That's all well and good - until you hear that they got an unfurnished apartment in Hudson, MA. These guys are sleeping on mattresses on the floor, and all they brought were a few lamps, a TV, some books, and a whole lot of enthusiasm and motivation. That's committment to training - and just the kind of guys we like to have around Cressey Performance.
What kind of sacrifices are you making to get better and move closer to your goals? I'm not sure that sleeping on a mattress on the floor is necessary, but it says a lot.
With that in mind, I'm not taking today off. There is work to be done and I love to do it, birthday or not.
(note: this post is sarcastic; don't take me too seriously)
There comes a time in every man's life when he realizes that mediocre just isn't going to get it done. He wakes up in the morning, sleep-walks through the day, and then comes home - only to fall asleep and do it all over again. There just isn't something that makes him want to jump out of his seat and bust a move to the music of life!
(let it be known that this kid has an invitation to be a fully-covered Cressey Performance scholarship athlete)
Not everybody has rhythm like this dude. So, the rest of us have to look elsewhere to find the mojo that defines our destiny. Think about some of the greatest television men of our generation...
MacGyver could blow stuff up with just paperclips and a teaspoon of barbeque sauce. Chicks dug him.
George Constanza always found the best parking space available. Always. Chicks dug him.
If you really think about it, it comes down to skills. As Napoleon Dynamite would say, "You know, like nunchaku skills, bow-hunting skills, computer-hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills."
Now, here's a life lesson that is going to be a harsh dose of reality for some of you. There's a very good chance that you aren't good at anything. Seriously, you might not have any skills period - and certainly hardly enough to distinguish you from the guy next to you.
You're talking to an optimist, though, so I'm not going to dwell on what you do poorly. Instead, I'm going to help you to look elsewhere to get ahead in the world. And, that alternative is Cressey Performance's "Girls Will Want to Make Out with You" Majestic Fleece, which is now available for pre-order.
This is the same kind of fleece that your favorite major league baseball teams wear, and with it, you'll be able to pick up girls like you're a reliever throwing out pick-up lines from the bullpen. In fact, recent clinical trials have found that wearing CP gear instantly increases one's awesomeness by 57%.
These fleeces also protect against sunburns, and can be used as pillows, parachutes, and protective equipment for trapping furry woodland creatures. These fleeces have changed the lives of countless individuals. Brian St. Pierre is one such individual:
I couldn't have said it (or read it) better myself, Brian. Amen, brother.
From now through next Wednesday only, you can pre-order one of these fleeces for just $54.99 plus shipping. At checkout, let us know if you want a medium, large, or extra-large.
PS - In case you're wondering, these fleeces won't shrink up in the wash - or at the awesome pool parties to which you'll be invited thanks to your newfound awesomeness.
1. Last weekend, my girlfriend and I headed down to Florida for a quick three-day escape to warm weather, but today, we'll be shooting up to Southern Maine to visit with my mother's class. She's a teacher at my old stomping grounds, Kennebunk High School (Go Rams). I'll be chatting with her students about fascinating topics such as:
a. how to make a fried egg without a spatula
b. how I became a ninja without ever receiving a degree in ninjalogy from an accredited institution
c. why Tony Gentilcore's knee sleeves smell worse than...well...anything
d. why they should wear belts and stop turning the brims of their baseball caps off to the side
2. I had a new article published yesterday at T-Nation: Seven Habits of Highly Defective Benchers
In reality, this article could have been called "Why Kevin Larrabee has missed a 300-pound bench press 931 times."
And, a second attempt, just because the first one was sooooo close...
Don't worry, Larrabee; you're still my boy.
3. Speaking of writing, I actually got started on a new project this week. Things quiet down a bit for me during the high school baseball season, so it is when I focus more on seminars, writing, and rescuing kittens from trees.
4. This week's 16x16 sled relay went a lot more smoothly than last week. In fact, we beat our best time by about 45 seconds. We've got one more week of this madness, and then we'll find something new for the Thursday insanity.
5. Just a quick note of congratulations to the Lincoln-Sudbury hockey team, whose season came to an end with a tough loss in the state semifinals last night. Nine guys from the team trained with us last off-season, and these guys deserved all the success that came their way. Nice job this season, fellas.
