Shawn Haviland is a Cressey Performance athlete who started up a blog a month or two back. The Oakland A's drafted Shawn out of Harvard in the 33rd round in 2008. He actually wrote up a piece about training at CP:
5 Things I have Learned (So Far) from the Guys at Cressey Performance
Shawn started out as a janitor at M.I.T. before he solved a complex math problem left on a chalkboard - and that led to instant baseball success. Or maybe that was Good Will Hunting...
1. I have seen a lot of guys who have hamstrings pulls in their health histories, but I don't recall ever coming across any studies that show that shooting yourself in the leg expedites recovery time.
The sad truth is that you'll probably have dozens of kids around the country with hamstrings strains shoot themselves in the leg in hopes of returning to play sooner because "Burress does it." I'll stick with soft tissue work, glute activation, and sprint mechanics training...
2. I got a question the other day about how we approach rest periods for our medicine ball work, and while it could be somewhat of a long, detailed response, I can probably respond even better with a simple, "We are always trying to slow guys down because they rush through them." Usually, our rest intervals are in the ballpark of one minute between sets. So, here's a little sample of what one of our professional pitchers did yesterday:
A) Side High Box Step-ups w/Leg Kick: 2x4/side
B1) Overhead Med Ball Stomp to Floor: 4x8 (5kg)
B2) Side-Lying Extension-Rotation: 3x8/side
C1) Recoiled Shotput: 3x3/side (4kg)
C2) Wall Hip Flexor Mobilizations: 2x8/side
D1) Recoiled Shotput: 3x3/side (2kg)
D2) Lying Knee-to-Knee Stretch: 2x30s
E1) Crow Hop to Overhead Med Ball Throw: 5x2 (2kg)
E2) Multiplanar Hamstrings Mobilizations: 2x5/5/5/side
So, as you can see, we use mobility work between sets to slow the guys down and address range-of-motion deficits they might have at the same time. A lot of these drills can be found on Magnificent Mobility (lower body) and Inside-Out (upper body).
4. For some good reading - particularly with respect to nutrition - check out Brian St. Pierre's blog.
5. I'm going with Joseph Addai over LenDale White this weekend. Thanks to everyone for the feedback from Tuesday. Fingers crossed...
6. Happy Birthday to Cassandra Forsythe-Pribanic! Cass and I go way back, and she's been a great friend and resource for me all along the way. If you're looking for top-notch female-specific nutrition and fitness resources, you definitely ought to check out The New Rules of Lifting for Women and the Women's Health Perfect Body Diet, both of which Cass or co-authored.
That'll do it for this week. I've got some sweet content in line for next week, so stay tuned. Have a great weekend!
I knocked off Gregg T. this week in fantasy football, 84-56, to bring my winning streak to three and catapult (yes, it was that dramatic) myself into a three-way tie for second place in our league at 7-5. It was pretty redeeming, as Gregg talked a lot of smack a few weeks ago when he heard that I was terrible at bowling.
You see, Gregg's bowled a few 800+ games (he defies conventional bowling scoring systems) and has enjoyed all the fame and fortune that goes along with dominating in a sport with so much international acclaim. In fact, each time he walked from the car to Cressey Performance to train, he was swarmed by adoring fans. He'd usually walk in the door, gather up all the women's underwear that had been thrown at him, sign a few autographs, and then get his lift on.
This week however, Gregg T. was outdone by Greg J - Jennings, that is. If you didn't see it, Jennings (a Green Bay WR who carried my team this week) put on a show last night in spite of his team getting beaten like a rented mule. And, he held on to this pass, where his helmet strap was permanently implanted in his cerebellum.
Fortunately, Gregg redeemed himself when he sent along this article to me for blog material:
Obese Have Right to 2 Airline Seats
Apparently, if you're "functionally disabled by obesity," you can get two airline seats for the price of one. Yes, you read that right: being heftier affords you extra luxuries (most notably, avoiding the possibility of ever having to sit next to another obese person, which is something that I think would convince anyone to lose weight).
It will be interesting to see if they go by Body Mass Index (BMI), which will probably rank every individuals who is actually dedicated to lifting weights as obese. At 5-8. 190-195, I am literally on the border between "overweight" and "obese." Forget First Class; I'm flying Fat A**!
Kidding aside (okay, not really; I'm never serious), this opens us up to a lot of dangerous precedents that could be the fallout from this court ruling:
1. Smelly people get two deodorants for the price of one.
2. Folks who are seven feet tall get to go on the amusement park rides twice because they're twice as tall as the minimum height.
3. People who are soft tissue nightmares get two massages for the price of one (as if massage therapists aren't burning out too fast already)
This list could go on and on. Dangerous precedent, indeed.
Thanks for the link, Gregg. Sorry I had to inflict such violent fantasy football dominance on you.
In my newsletter earlier this week, I introduced you to Danny, a Cressey Performance client who had made some awesome progress on theWarpspeed Fat Loss diet over the course of 28 days. In reality, though, there’s quite a bit more to that story.
You see, Danny had actually made a lot more progress than that since December of 2007 when he really committed to kicking a** and taking names. As was the case on Monday, a picture is worth a thousand words; here are the ten-month progress pictures:
In my last newsletter, I told you that this wasn’t just about “Hooray for Danny” or “Horray for Warpspeed Fat Loss” – although both definitely deserve all the credit in the world! Rather, I’m a firm believer that anytime someone is successful, you have to look at what they’ve done right – and these are the three things so important for Danny’s success.
1. Danny got involved with a great training crew. I don’t care who you are: a training crew will always yield better results. Danny actually lifts quite a bit with our staff nowadays. Hell, with all he’s learned, he’d be a great addition to our staff!
Obviously, I firmly believe that our job is to hammer on technique in a coaching-intensive set-up early on when someone trains at CP. However, I think that our longer-term responsibility is to create the most motivating environment possible in which to carry out our programming.
Additionally, Danny had a great “crew” at home in the form of a very supportive wife who helped him on the diet side of things. It always helps to have someone along for the ride at home; I’ve seen a lot of people “sabotaged” by unsupportive family members.
2. Danny’s goal from the get-go was always performance. The physique stuff took care of itself when he just focused on getting stronger with each session and attended to his nutrition. Along the way, he got his first 300-pound bench and deadlifted well into the 400s.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again: train for performance, put the right stuff in your mouth, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the physique improvements you see. It’s a theme that resounded in my Maximum Strength book.
3. Danny realized that you can always get a training effect in spite of injuries. When he first came to us, Danny had been dealing with some pretty significant neck spasms. In fact, when we went to work on some bench press technique the first night, he was pretty nervous that 95 pounds on the bar would trigger a spasm. Toss in a testy lower back, shoulder, hamstrings, and adductor strain, and you’d think that Danny would have been on the shelf for months. In reality, he didn’t miss a training session, as he appreciated that there was always something he could do to get better around those issues – and get better he did!
These factors for success are just the tip of the iceberg, and they'll be different for everyone. However, it's important to recognize them early-on and use them to your advantage, as getting leaner, stronger, faster, and healthier isn't always peaches and cream.
The Truth About Unstable Surface Training: An Athletic Trainer's Perspective
“As someone who has both rehabbed injured athletes and trained healthy people for over 18 years, I can honestly say that Eric Cressey’s The Truth about Unstable Surface Training is a breath of fresh air."Being a certified athletic trainer and a strength and conditioning coach has afforded me a unique perspective in the training world. I have watched personal trainers, strength coaches, athletic trainers and physical therapists use and abuse unstable surface training.
"Eric has combined his in-the-trenches experience with research to uncover the truth behind unstable surface training. This book is a must-read for anyone that trains, rehabs, or coaches, people in anyway. Yes, that means Physical Therapists, Athletic Trainers, Personal Trainers, and Strength Coaches.
"I hope that this book will help to 'stop the madness' of a training fad that has gotten out of control and help to support the proper uses of unstable surface training.
"I know I will be referring this work to my network of athletic trainers, strength coaches, physical therapists and personal trainers.”
Keith Scott, MS, CSCS, ATC
Certified Athletic Trainer, and Strength and Conditioning Coach
www.BackToFormFitness.com
5 Reasons to Get Excited
Reason #1: If you’re a fitness professional, the simple fact that you are reading this newsletter puts you ahead of most of your peers.
A few weekends ago, Mike Robertson and I went to a seminar where – out of about 175 folks in attendance – the two of us were probably the only non-physical therapists. Truth be told, the seminar organizers didn’t mandate that attendees be PTs – and they haven’t in the 25+ years that they’ve been putting on great events like this.
During the talk, one of the presenters remarked (and yes, this is a quote – and it was directed to all the physical therapists in the audience) “there is absolutely no reason for any of you to ever refer out to a fitness trainer. You can do everything they do.”
You’d think that Mike and I – as possible the closest things to trainers in the audience – would have gotten a little miffed on behalf of our profession. Truthfully, though – almost as if we shared some sixth sense – we looked at one another, shrugged, and nodded in agreement with him. As a gross generalization, it’s the truth: there are a lot of instances where people would be better off training on their own post-rehab than they would be with a trainer, as a large percentage of trainers are grossly misinformed. We have seen some crazy stuff (I elaborated on a great example HERE).
Need proof? The title of the seminar was "A Unique Approach to the Shoulder, Knee, and Spine." I’m pretty sure that trainers deal with shoulders, knees, and spines every day – just like physical therapists. And, I can guarantee that there were more personal trainers with 100 miles of this event than there were physical therapists – yet there wasn’t a single personal trainer in attendance.
Then, let’s put it in dollars and cents. If you go to salary.com and compare the median annual benefits, 401K, and salary package total, here’s what you see:
Physical Therapist:$97,373
Personal Trainer: $73,692
Fitness Trainer: $55,262
Think about it this way: if you were a physical therapist, would you refer out to someone if you weren’t confident in their abilities to bridge the gap with the work you’d done? If they screw up a post-rehab patient, it reflects back on you and makes you look bad in a doctor’s eyes – and that’s a doctor you’re probably trying to win over – sometimes with expensive marketing pitches! It’s a “safer” play to simply not refer out to a personal trainer, as you can assume that they make less than you, have less education, and don’t understand what you do (as evidenced by seminar attendance like this; you don’t interact with them at all).
We know that this isn’t always the case; there are certainly a lot of people out there who break from this stereotype. Still, if you are a personal trainer, it’s to your advantage to get as smart as you possibly can with respect to getting/keeping people healthy – and you should pat yourself on the back for reading newsletters like this. And, to take it a step further, you should work to cultivate good relationships with physical therapists and doctors; I know that it has been a huge part of our success at Cressey Performance. It’s been a goal of mine in my writing and product creation (particularly Building the Efficient Athlete) to do more education for personal trainers and strength coaches.
This leads me to… Reason #2: It looks like we’re going to offer mentorships on a limited basis at Cressey Performance. Last week alone, I had three different people (each of whom stopped by to check out our facility for a single-day) tell me that Cressey Performance needs to get with the program and offer mentorships. To be honest, it's something I've been pondering for the past month or so, and we're really thinking about putting something special together. Itt would be tight-knit: no more than 6-8 attendees at a time. If you want to learn about functional anatomy, training folks around injuries, preventing injuries, managing overhead throwing athletes, or a host of other topics, it’ll be a good fit for you. Plan on training hard while you’re in town, too; we don’t coddle people. If you'd be interested in something like this, drop us an email at cresseyperformance@gmail.com and let us know. Our first offering will likely be January of 2009.
Reason #3: I had a new article published at T-Nation last week; check it out:22 More Random ThoughtsReason #4: A Free Research Review Sampler
The Research Review Service is an online, subscription-based service for exercise specialists and manual therapists looking to stay current on emerging scientific literature. Each week, these folks review and contextualize a newly published, peer-reviewed article in the area of chiropractic, physiotherapy, rehabilitation, sports injuries, acupuncture, or exercise sciences. All reviews (now over 160 of them) are posted in the growing Research Review Service online database, which is fully keyword searchable. This week, Dr. Shawn Thistle, founder and president, has made a sample available at no charge to our readers. You can download it HERE.
If you like it and want more information, visit www.researchreviewservice.com, or email Dr. Thistle at shawn@researchreviewservice.com. Enjoy!
Reason #5: New Blog ContentMaximum Strength and Interval TrainingIntermittent Fasting: New Diet Solution or Passing Fad?Random Friday Thoughts
All the Best,
EC
1. My girlfriend is good at pullups.
2. Nice front squat, Clark (430).
3. Not to be outdone, here's a 350 bench and then an easy 315x3 from me.
4. Last night, I managed to convince one of our new high school pitchers that the YMCA dance was good for shoulder health (Y=lower trap activation, M=pec minor stretch, C=external rotator stretch, A=lat stretch). He totally went for it - but when I asked him if he knew the dance, he looked at me like I had two heads. I guess I'm finally getting old and recognizing the generational gap between my high school guys and I...
5. My girlfriend and I are moving back to the city next week. I'll be ten minutes from Fenway - yet my commute to work is only five minutes longer. Not too shabby - and it'll be nice to be back closer to all the action.
6. Here is a great review on Maximum Strength and Art of the Deload.
7. I've been here (to a degree). Not making weight is the worst feeling in the world - and I can only imagine how rough it is when it's for the Olympics. My heart goes out to him. Poor guy.
8. As a bit of an experiment, we're moving to lighter medicine balls with our guys for our throws over the next few months - particularly with our overhead variations. It'll be interesting to see what happens when we jack up the speed and lower the load a bit - and if it works, I'll need to brainstorm a bit more on which loads are appropriate for which exercises.
9. Speaking of medicine balls, one of my online consulting clients told me the other day that they have "several" BOSU balls at his gym, but ZERO medicine balls. People really don't have a clue what functional is anymore, do they?
10. In the most random thought of the week, if you want to be my friend on Facebook, put your shirt on in your profile picture. If you're that in love with yourself, you probably don't need friends, weirdo.
Have a good weekend!
We opened Cressey Performance on July 17, 2007. Amidst all the lifting, jumping, sprinting med-ball-stomping, and blaring of loud music, we neglected to actually make a website - until now.
www.CresseyPerformance.com
Enjoy.
An EricCressey.com Exclusive Interview with Mike Roussell – and a Special Offer!
A while back, Alwyn Cosgrove and Mike Roussell introduced a new product together. Both these guys are really bright (and good friends of mine), but to be honest, this summer at Cressey Performance was crazy and I never got around to checking it out - until last week. Frankly, I'm pretty annoyed with myself for waiting this long, as Warp Speed Fat Loss blew me away. I emailed the guys right away about an interview for this newsletter, as I think this product would be right up a lot of our readers' alley. Mike agreed - and also decided to throw a special offer our readers' way. So, without further ado, Mike Roussell...
EC: There are about 6 million fat loss products out on the market right now. What sets Warp Speed Fat Loss apart from the rest of them?
MR: Warp Speed Fat Loss is different from a lot of the other fat loss stuff out there today (even stuff that Alwyn and I have previously made) for a few major reasons. The most important one that Alwyn and I focused on while building and tweaking this program is that we wanted the diet and exercise to work together in a synergistic fashion and not as two separate components. So, the Warp Speed Fat Loss diet is specifically set up to work with the Warp Speed training program; calorie manipulation and carbohydrate cycling, for instance, are both “in tune” with the program.
EC: I noticed that right away. A lot of people overlook synergy in training and nutrition, just focusing on one or the other at a single time. You really took the guesswork out of this, didn’t you?
MR: Yes, and that’s the second big difference with Warp Speed Fat Loss. We tell you EXACTLY what to do. There is no wiggle room. I think a lot of times people don’t give specific instructions because they don’t have 100% confidence that their system works. We have tested and tweaked this enough to know that it works. So, in the program we tell you exactly what to eat every single day and exactly what to do for training. It is black and white. Follow this exactly and lose a bunch of weight FAST. It is pretty cool.
EC: You make some bold claims about how quickly people can drop body fat with a program like this – but the results thus far seem very promising. Can you please fill our readers in on them a bit?
MR: You are correct. We do make bold claims, but we didn’t make them up. People went on our program and started losing 15-20lbs in 28 days. So we decided to start saying “Hey – do this and lose 15-28lbs in 28 days.” Your readers will be familiar with Bill Hartman and Mike Robertson; they both used the program (actually, I don’t believe they used Alwyn’s training, but they used the diet). Bill lost 17lbs in just over 3 weeks; he wanted to lose 10lbs. Mike lost 12lbs in 2 weeks (I emailed him back and called him a liar – but it turned out to be true).
EC: Yeah, I figured Robertson would be reluctant to skip his step aerobics class on Alwyn’s recommendation. He loves those 1980s leg warmers.Those guys are in-tune with the industry and know what it takes to succeed from years of watching clients get lean. What about others who don’t do this for a living?
MR: One of the best email’s I’ve gotten is from Paula Gawlas in Scottsdale, AZ. She said, “Your program rocks! I've exceeded my goals! I am so happy because whereas before every morning I would have to search for some pair of ‘elastic’ somethings to wear, now I know I can wear anything in my closet! (And there's a lot in my closet, so I can go weeks without doing laundry now!).
I work out at an LA Fitness here in Scottsdale and a girl was watching me work out and she questioned me about my program. Thought it was some sort of national challenge! I told her about you guys--I kind of hate saying "fat loss" at this point because I don't have any more fat to lose, but I just love the total body workouts! So thank you, thank you!
EC: Rave review, indeed. What blew me away the most was the amount of time you put in to the meal plans. When all is said and done, you’ve got about 350 pages of meal plans; that’s insane! Why so many, and what makes these meal plans different?
MR: Yes you are right; it is INSANE. The reason why there are so many meals plans is because I wanted everyone to have a meal plan that fit their body. So, I created meal plans for bodyweights ranging from 115lbs to 240lbs in five-pound increments. This way the program will automatically be tailored to the person the second they download it. Initially we didn’t have meal plans lower than 125lbs but people asked for them so I put them together.
On a side note, this is really a gem for trainers, as you have so many meal options to use with your clients.
EC: Let’s talk training. What tricks does Alwyn have up his sleeve? How much synergy is there between the diet and training components? Would an athlete be able to use your dietary recommendations with his current training model and still get appreciable results?
MR: For best results, you need to do the diet and training together. As I mentioned, though, Bill and Mike modified AC’s training program and it still went really well. The training program that Alwyn put together is really awesome. It is different from anything else that he has released. There are no barbell complexes in the program at all. Instead, he uses Metabolic circuits, some heavy weight, low-rep stuff, and a mixture of interval and steady state cardio.
EC: What about athletes? Is this suitable for them?
MR: We’ve gotten the question about athletes using the program before. In an ideal scenario, an athlete would not use the program until he/she has 28 days to fully dedicate to it. 28 days isn’t very long – especially when you consider most transformation contests are 84 days.
EC: Awesome stuff. You’ve got a special deal on this e-book for our readers today, right? Please fill them in.
MR: Yeah. So the price of Warp Speed Fat Loss has recently increased to $97 but since you are as big of a Patriots fan as I am, Alwyn and I will knock $20 off the price for your readers. Here’s the special link for that discount:http://www.warpspeedfatloss.com/ec_deal.php
This link will be good until – Monday September 22nd
EC: Thanks for taking the time, Mike. Here’s that link again, folks:http://www.warpspeedfatloss.com/ec_deal.phpNew Blog ContentRandom Friday ThoughtsAn Epic BattleFeedback on Maximum Strength
Have a great week!
EC
