This past Friday, I received the terrible news that my Uncle Marty had passed away extremely unexpectedly at the age of 57. The world lost an absolutely amazing man – and certainly the best uncle I could have possibly imagined – with his passing. While it was a tough weekend of grieving for our entire family, as Monday rolled around, we all started fondly reminiscing about our memories of him.
My uncle was one of my biggest sports influences, particularly with respect to my youth soccer career. There were always pick-up games going on in his yard – whether it was soccer, wiffleball, or basketball. He arranged for me to go to soccer camp on a number of occasions, and he was always someone with whom I could talk soccer – or anything, for that matter. Uncle Marty would take my cousins, my brother and me to U.S. National Team, professional, and college games all the time. In fact, one of my fondest memories of him was seeing the U.S. National Team play Greece in a 1994 World Cup Qualifier at the Yale Bowl. We got there hours before the game started so that we could play pick-up games in the parking lot.
As I thought more about these experiences, I began to realize just how much my uncle – a youth soccer coach himself – had influenced me as a strength and conditioning coach. Below are a few key lessons I learned.
1. Show up; your presence alone always matters.
As you can imagine, Uncle Marty wasn’t just one of my biggest influences; he was one of my biggest fans. I’ll never forget the night he drove all the way up to Maine from Connecticut to watch me play in my first varsity soccer game. After the game, left me a hand-written note (before email was around) about how proud he was of me for such a big achievement. It would have been really easy for him to just get the report from my mom over the phone and call to congratulate me, but instead, he drove six hours just to watch me play only 15-20 minutes. I remember how much it meant to me to be able to play in front of him, because in spite of all the soccer time we’d spent together, he had never seen me play in an actual game until then. I don’t remember the score of that game, whether we won or lost, or even what team we were playing, but I distinctly remember his presence and that note.
This is one reason that I always emphasize to our staff that we need to get out and watch our athletes during their seasons. And, even if we can’t see every game, we need to keep track of them and do our best to reach out to them and know that we care. Wins and losses are very temporary in our minds, but friendships are for life.
2. Always be calm.
In the 30 years I knew my uncle, I never once heard him yell. Ever. He didn’t even raise his voice, or ever get flustered. Uncle Marty wasn’t shy, by any means, but he was a pensive and effective communicator – and had unbelievable patience. This was the case whether he was a soccer coach or at work as an accountant/CFO: always calm and collected. I think a big reason for his success on this front was that he was unbelievably prepared; he took a ton of pride in preparation for everything that he did, whether it was long days at work, or even just preparing dinner.
This is something I’ve tried to emulate as a coach. I very rarely yell, and have a tremendous amount of patience when it comes to long-term athletic development, as I firmly believe that we have put in the right amount of preparation so that things should work if we just communicate effectively with our athletes. It’s been my experience that extreme “highs” and “lows” are counterproductive in the life and development of a young athlete, so we try to be a stable, patient influence in their lives.
3. Always be positive.
There is enough negativity in the world – particularly in the world of sports. The pressure in youth sports is over the top, and we’ve never had more stories of over-the-top parents yelling at kids, coaches, and referees/umpires at Pee Wee and Little League games. Sadly, when you look at the behavior of many professional athletes, it doesn’t get much better. In fact, this week in MLB alone, two high profile players both had DUI and hit-and-run charges against them.
Meanwhile, there are thousands of outstanding coaches doing the right thing, and they don’t get the attention they deserve. My uncle was one of those guys.
His attitude – win or lose – was always the same, whether he was a coach or fan. I simply never saw him get down about sports, even though he was one of the biggest sports fans I knew (particularly for UCONN basketball). Uncle Marty had perspective, and he could always make people laugh, even if it only took a few candy corns.
My rule is simple: be unconditionally positive – especially when dealing with young athletes. Kids don’t have bad days unless someone else projects that behavior on them. My uncle coached hundreds – if not thousands – of kids as head of the youth soccer program in his town, but I never heard of him having a bad experience with a single one of them.
4. Always be approachable.
After my uncle’s passing, we were looking at some photos from this past Thanksgiving at our house. One that jumped out at me was a picture of my uncle on our living room couch chatting with a Cressey Performance athlete. This athlete had moved out from Colorado to train for an extended period of time, so I invited him to spend Thanksgiving with our family. They’d never met before, but wound up chatting for almost an hour.
That was Uncle Marty. While he wasn’t an extrovert, by any means, he was a tremendous listener with a great demeanor, and for that reason, he could talk with anyone. In fact, after my sister-in-law met Marty for the first time, she called my wife the next day just to comment on how easy it was to talk to him. At our wedding, he tied a purple napkin into a pirate hat, put it on, and danced all night long. Sure enough, by the end of the night, he had 135 new friends: everyone in attendance.
I’ve always wanted to come across as an approachable guy, both as a coach at our facility, and as a presenter on a seminar tour. I try to do more listening than talking, and don’t like closing the door to my office – ever.
These four attributes are really just a few examples of why he was such a special man in not only my life, but in the lives of everyone he met. I’m not sure that a single blog post does justice to the fact that I lost an uncle, coach, mentor, friend, and unconditionally positive influence.
However, I think it does remind us that we can draw inspiration as coaches and trainers from all walks of life, not just seminars, books, DVDs, and coursework. I hope all of you have an Uncle Marty in your lives, too.
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Yes, you read that correctly; we are hiring another strength and conditioning coach at Cressey Performance!
This is the first time we've ever posted a job externally, as all previous hires have been from our internship program. In this case, we'll be opening this opportunity up to the masses. A few quick notes:
1. The application deadline is March 10.
2. We'll be selecting a candidate by April 15, and the position will begin on May 15 (this date is negotiable).
3. Please, please, please read the application instructions carefully! We have a specific email address in place for all job-related submissions and inquiries, and it will be a big bottleneck if applicants start emailing and calling us directly via our normal business email and phone number. Thanks for understanding in this regard.
You can learn everything you need to know by downloading the application instructions and job description PDF at the following link: CP Job Description and Application Info
Hope to hear from you soon!
Anyone who has ever broken or burned a finger will tell you that you just don't appreciate how much you use your hands until you don't have access to one for a bit. Obviously, you partially lose your ability to do things - but what many folks might not appreciate is that you also lose some of your ability to sense things, as the hands contain a tremendously amount of sensory receptors relative to the rest of the body. In fact, the tiny folds in our skin on the fingertips that comprise the fingertip are there because they increase the surface area of the hands - which allows us to get more sensory receptors where we need them. Cool stuff, huh?
Why then, do we not give the hands any love when it comes to soft tissue work? We'll foam roll our hip flexors, lats, and other large muscle groups (which are certainly valuable), but we'll ignore one of the most sensory-rich parts of our body - and one that is constantly active (and overused, in some cases) throughout the day. We grip, type, and flip people the bird - but we never really pay attention to soft tissue quality in this region...until today, that is.
If you look at the structure of the hand, you'll see that it has a large fascial, the palmar aponeurosis (we'll call it the palmar fascia to keep things simple). This structure has an intimate relationship with the muscles/tendons and ligaments of the hand, and serves as a link between the forearm and fingers.
Based on the size alone, you can see that it has plantar-fascia-caliber importance even if it isn't weight bearing. You see, of the five muscles that attach via the common flexor tendon on the medial epicondyle at the elbow, four cross the wrist joint and palmar fascia on the way to the hand, where they work to flex and abduct or adduct the wrist, and flex the fingers.
Loads of people have tendinopathies going on up on the medial elbow (Golfer's Elbow), but they only work on this spot (called a zone of convergence). Meanwhile, the soft tissue quality might be just as bad further down at the wrist and hand, adding tension on an already over-burdended common flexor tendon. Think about it this way: if you had a pulled hamstring up by your glutes, would you only work to improve tissue quality at that spot, or would you work all the way down to the posterior knee to make sure that you'd improved some of the poor tissue quality further down as well?
Below, massage therapist and Cressey Performance coach Chris Howard talks you through two different ways to work out the kinks in the palmar fascia and surrounding regions, but keep in mind that it'll always be more effective to have a qualified manual therapist do the job - and that's certainly someone you should see if you have any symptoms whatsoever.
We've found that quite a few of our pitchers comment on how the ball seems to come out of their hand easier after this work. Usually, they're the guys who have the most stiffness along the forearm, particularly into wrist extension and supination.
Give it a shot at your desk at work and see how it feels.
At Cressey Performance, we're getting to the time of the year when things gradually start to slow down for us. For many business owners, this is a source of frustration, as they worry about paying the bills when things get quieter. I, on the other hand, view it as a source of excitement, as it signifies that the beginning of baseball season is at hand, and our athletes will have an opportunity to put all their off-season hard work into action on the baseball field.
You'd be surprised, however, at how many collegiate and professional players get genuinely worried about how they'll be managed once they get back to school or their organizations. In the private sector, we can individually manage guys with their unique needs in mind, but in collegiate and professional, because of the larger volume of athletes (and fewer coaches per athlete), limited training time, and additional competing demands (i.e., practicing and playing games), player development can be quickly stunted. Believe it or not, 2012 was the first year that Major League Baseball mandated that every minor league affiliate have a strength coach on staff; many teams didn't have anyone (in-person, at least) watching over their highly-touted prospects during critical minor league development periods.
That said, though, there are some colleges and professional organizations who are doing a solid job of managing guys - and I wanted to use today's post to highlight four areas in which they're getting the job done effectively.
1. Synergy - As I outlined in Weight Training Programs: You Can't Just Keep Adding, we have a limited recovery capacity, so if you're going to add something to a program, you have to take something away. Unfortunately, this "give and take" gets overlooked in some team settings. As an example, a strength and conditioning coach, athletic trainer, and pitching coach might all prescribe different rotator cuff exercises for their players without knowing that an overlap is taking place. Or, a strength coach might prescribe a challenging lower body lift, then have a pitching coach send his players to run poles - only to have the head coach tack a very taxing practice on top of an already hefty workload. If you're always adding, but never taking away, it's only a matter of time until athletes break down. As such, communication among coaches, medical and strength and conditioning staffs, and players is absolutely essential for optimal synergy.
2. Individualization - I'm constantly amazed at how - even at the highest levels - players aren't managed on a case-by-case basis. That is, of course, until they get hurt and need unique rehabilitation prescriptions. Just imagine how much less rehabilitation would be needed if players were simply managed more individually on a proactive basis so that injuries didn't occur nearly as often. Additionally, we'd be much more likely to see late-round draft picks and undrafted free agents become MLB superstars if they were managed differently than already-talented players who are just coddled on their way to the big leagues. I think you'd see more stories like Tim Collins'.
I also see this as a huge competitive advantage for college coaches on the recruiting side of things. Not everyone can boast beautiful weather, an amazing baseball complex, a pristine academic reputation, and beautiful girls everywhere when recruiting prospects, but being able to guarantee an individualized approach to development goes a long way in making up the difference.
3. Specificity - You'd be amazed at how many folks in the baseball world have absolutely no knowledge of exercise physiology or the unique demands of baseball - but are still prescribing strength and conditioning programs for baseball players. Some of what I have seen is so atrocious that the players would have been better off doing absolutely nothing. I've seen programs with 10+ mile runs, kipping pull-ups to failure, 1-rep max bench presses, and high rep clean and presses. I seriously can't make this stuff up.
The most common justification for this type of garbage is that coaches want to build mental toughness. Well, I'm here to tell you that there are much better ways of doing that, as your mental toughness won't mean much when your pitchers are having surgeries or throwing 74mph and well on their way to those surgeries.
When we discuss throwing a baseball, we are talking about the single fastest motion in all of sports. General training is absolutely valuable, but if you don't have the specific nature of that throwing motion - and the adaptations it creates - in mind when we implement that general training, you're asking for problems.
4. Effort - The best program on the planet won't do any good if it isn't executed with loads of effort and attention to detail. If you have issues like players skipping warm-ups, athletic trainers refusing to do manual therapy, and coaches showing up late to practice, whatever is written on the paper doesn't matter at all.
At the end of the day, these four factors are just a few of many that will ultimately determine how effective a baseball strength and conditioning program is. Unfortunately, many of these factors are outside of a player's control, so what do you do?
Very simply, control what you can control.
Educate yourself so that you can be your own best coach. Optimize your nutrition and get plenty of sleep. Write down what has and hasn't worked for you so that you can refer back to it down the road and avoid making the same mistakes twice.
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Today's guest post on sodium intake comes from current Cressey Performance intern, Jordan Syatt.
Sodium intake is a highly controversial topic within the fitness industry, mainstream media, and even the medical community. Very simply, everyone wants to know: "Is salt bad for you?" Nobody seems to have a clear-cut answer.
While many are quick to demonize the tasty mineral, I’ve long wondered if the evils associated with salt are the result of poorly constructed and misinterpreted research or actual cause for concern.
In an attempt to settle the debate once and for all, I began to dig up all the research I could find pertaining to sodium intake, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and general health.
To make things as simple as possible, I’ve outlined my findings below. I think the results may surprise you!
Sodium Intake: What Does the Research Say?
First and foremost, high-blood pressure is perhaps the most prevalent risk factor associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Bearing in mind that CVD is currently the world’s leading cause of death, any information we can find to aid in reducing the risk of CVD is of the utmost importance.
Therefore, considering it is well established that diets excessively high in sodium may result in increased blood pressure (BP), it should come as no surprise that doctors and health professionals alike strongly encourage maintaining a low-sodium diet in the long-term. Epidemiological researchsuggests high-salt diets may not only affect blood pressure (BP) and thereby cardiovascular disease (CVD), but could also “increase the risk of stroke, left ventricular hypertrophy and renal disease.”
Perhaps worst of all, great sodium consumption tends to cause water retention, thus giving leaner individuals a noticeably “softer” appearance. In other words, their abs won’t appear to be as cut-up.
What the hell, salt!?!?
Based on the information provided above, it would appear as though high-salt diets are the primary cause of illness, death, and guys making excuses for why they don’t look as lean as they should.
We should probably cut it out of our diet, right?
Not so fast.
While high BP is certainly a major risk factor of cardiovascular disease, recent researchhas clearly shown the ratio of sodium intake to potassium intake within the diet has a much greater effect on BP than sodium (or potassium) alone.Other studies have confirmed this finding and even the USDA recommends individuals place an emphasis on increasing potassium-rich foods and/or lowering sodium intake in order to lower BP.
While excessive sodium consumption can have a negative impact on BP (thus increasing one's risk of various diseases), simply increasing the amount of potassium consumed on a daily basis holds the same benefits as lowering salt intake. As low-sodium diets are rather difficult to maintain in the long-term, placing an emphasis on potassium-rich foods may help individuals keep BP in check without causing undue stress notably in social situations.
In addition to the ratio of salt to potassium within the diet, other factors such as age, gender, genetics, activity level, and body fat are tremendously significant in determining ones risk of high BP, CVD, and other related illnesses. Not surprisingly, exercise and weight losssignificantly reduce the risk of CVD. As such, rather than solely focus on reducing salt intake, beginning an appropriate training routine and maintaining a healthy body weight would most likely be the ideal first step in preventing CVD.
Finally, one need only look at the extremely high amounts of sodium in processed foods to understand why greater sodium consumption is associated with high BP and CVD. I’d venture to guess that those individuals who base their diets largely on processed foods are not only consuming too much salt, but are also not eating enough potassium, neglecting to exercise, failing to get an adequate amount of sleep, not maintaining an appropriate body weight, nor living a healthy lifestyle in general.
Taking the above into consideration, is it really the heavy sodium consumption causing high BP and CVD? Or, could it possibly be the overall sedentary lifestyle, overconsumption of processed foods, being overweight, etc?
I bet it’s the latter.
If otherwise healthy individuals are eating a diet largely consisting of whole/unprocessed foods, consuming adequate potassium, regularly exercising, and maintaining a healthy bodyweight, they can probably stop worrying over the minutia and feel free to add a dash, or two, of the ever-so-tasty mineral.
My General Recommendations:
Individuals should maintain a diet largely consisting of whole/unprocessed foods and make a concerted effort to acquire enough potassium on a daily basis. Examples include, but are not limited to, baked potatoes, cooked spinach, bananas, oranges, and cooked beans. For a detailed list of potassium-rich foods, click HERE. Additionally, I encourage individuals to follow an appropriate strength and conditioning program designed specifically for their individual needs.
Note: those who already have high blood pressure, first and foremost, you must consult with your primary care physician and follow his/her directions, as various anti-hypertensive medications can interact differently with food and exercise. Plus, you want to find out why you are hypertensive in the first place in order to individualize your treatment approach.
I hope you enjoyed this article, and if you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.
About the Author
Jordan Syatt is a strength training and nutritional consultant out of Boston Massachusetts. He is Westside Barbell Certified, currently interning at Cressey Performance, and studies Health Behavior Science at the University of Delaware. In addition to actively competing in various Powerlifting Federations, Jordan works with a diverse population of clientele, focusing on fat loss, mass gain, and athletic performance. Jordan is the owner and operator of www.syattfitness.com. Feel free to contact him directly at: jsyattfitness@gmail.com.
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Here's my first list of recommended reading for 2012:
How to Pick a Gym in 2012 - This was a Yahoo Sports article to which I contributed. If you're looking for a place to train in 2012, give this a read first. Then, ignore it all, move to Hudson, MA, and train at Cressey Performance!
4 Reasons Everyone Should Squat with Chains - Mike Robertson has an excellent compilation here. It makes me realize how spoiled we are to have chains.
My Personal Journey to Hell and Back - This was an outstanding post from Jason Ferruggia on where he's been over the past decade. If you need motivation, look no further.
Orioles Prospect Oliver Drake on his Training at Cressey Performance - We've been doing some videos with our pro guys on their training experience with us; here's the first installment:
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In continuing with our "Best of 2011" theme to wrap up the year, today, I've got the top EricCressey.com videos of the year.
The Cressey Performance Elite Baseball Development Video - This was something that we needed to do simply to outline how we approach off-season development for our baseball clients, but it ended up being a lot of fun to be a part of, as a lot of the staff and athletes took a genuine interest in how it'd turn out. A special thanks goes out to Matt and Jamie at Lasting Memories Videotaping for making it happen.
Tyler Beede Draft Reaction - This was a fun night not just because of the obvious excitement of having 120 people at your house (yes, this is my living room), but because it was awesome just to appreciate just how far Tyler had coming as a person and an athlete since he started training with us back in 2008.
How to Create a Real Strength and Conditioning Program - This is one of the webinars I created around the re-launch of Show and Go back in October.
How to Create an Imbalanced Strength and Conditioning Program that Works - I released this webinar just a few weeks after the first one, as I was feeling the "webinar mojo" and this had been a topic I'd want to cover for quite some time.
Those were my top five videos of the year, but there were definitely plenty more you may have missed. Luckily, you can check them out on my YouTube Channel.
I'll be back tomorrow with one last "Best of 2011" feature.
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We’re putting in a pre-order for our new Cressey Performance Hooded Sweatshirts and I thought I’d open this one up to the EricCressey.com readers out there. These sweatshirts are made by New Balance and are widely praised by the 50 or so of us who got in on the initial order.
Highlights (courtesy of New Balance) include:
- "Set-in sleeve construction"
- "Rib Knit Cuffs, Waistband, and Side Panels for style and comfort"
- "3 panel Jersey-lined hood with draw cord"
- "Kanga pocket for easy storage"
- "Body – 80% Cotton, 20% Polyester"
- Screened “CP” logo
We have found that these sweatshirts run a little bit large. More specifically, unless you’re 6’3/225lbs, you’re not going to want to order an XL. This is what an XL will look like on you, if you're 5-7, 175 pounds like Tim Collins.
At 5-8, 190 pounds, I wear a large - and it's slightly big.
We will be accepting orders until next Wednesday (January 4th). The cost will be $59.99 per sweatshirt, plus shipping/handling. All pre-ordered sweatshirts will ship by 1/25/12.
The following sizes are available: XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL. Please just indicate in the comments section of the order form what size you'd like. CLICK HERE to order.
Also, if you'd like to complete your winter CP attire, you can pick up a CP beanie, too:
With 2011 winding down, I'll be dedicating this week to the best content of the year, based on traffic volume at EricCressey.com. I'll kick it off today with my most popular articles from the past year.
1. My New Favorite Training Shoe - This post received more than 3,000 views more than #2. Apparently, footwear is a topic about which folks were anxious to read, and I gave a detailed review of all the minimalist footwear options I've tried - and folks shared it a ton. Additionally, based on feedback on my Twitter account, a lot of people purchased the New Balance Minimus based on my recommendation and have absolutely loved it.
2. Your Arm Hurts? Thank Your Little League, Fall Ball, and AAU Coaches. - This post received well over 1,000 Facebook "shares" and loads of Tweets, and I'm hopeful that this is indicative of parents, coaches, and players learning about how to approach arm care and throwing programs intelligently. I think it was also popular because it was a good blend of scientific evidence and simple, everyday logic.
3.Tim Collins: Why Everyone Should Be a Kansas City Royals Fan (at least for a day) - This was my favorite post of the year, as it was a chance to celebrate a good friend and long-time Cressey Performance athlete who is everything that is right about Major League Baseball. As a cool little aside, traffic to this article played a large part in having "Tim Collins" trending on Twitter during his MLB debut on Opening Day in March.
4. Weight Training Programs: You Can't Just Keep Adding - It sounds like many of my readers were glad to hear that I was doing some writing on managing training stress. There is a lot of common sense in this one, but sometimes, that's what people need!
5. Strength Training Programs and Squat Technique: To Arch or Not to Arch? - Here's a very misunderstood topic in the area of strength and conditioning technique. You'll be happy to know that I'll be addressing it in great detail in the new Functional Stability Training resource that Mike Reinold and I are releasing soon.
6. Shoulder Hurts? Start Here. - In this piece, I outlined three sure-fire strategies that just about everyone can employ regardless of their shoulder issues.
7. Healthy Food Options: Why You Should Never Take Nutrition Advice from Your Government - One of the biggest surprises for me in 2011 was that my readers absolutely ate up (no pun intended) nutrition content, and summer Cressey Performance intern Tyler Simmons' guest blog perfect example. He shared some great (and controversial) thoughts in this guest blog.
8. Correcting Bad Posture: Are Deadlifts Enough? - People want results, and they want them fast. This post touched on whether or not the deadlift could be an optimal "shortcut" for getting to where you want to be.
9. Why the Gym's Out-of-Business and the Porn Store's Thriving - This was proof that I can write about just about anything. Don't ever expect to see a content drought here at EricCressey.com. The timing for this was really good, as I got the idea to write it right around the time that we released The Fitness Business Blueprint.
10. Lifting Heavy Weights vs. Corrective Exercise: Finding a Balance - I can definitely see how folks found this topic so interesting, as it's a very challenging balance to strike. In fact, it was even a very challenging piece around which to wrap my brain!
This wraps up our top 10 posts of 2011, but I'll be back soon with more "Best of" highlights from 2011. Next up, I'll list my top product reviews of the year.
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I get ideas for content at EricCressey.com from a wide variety of sources: clients at Cressey Performance, seminars, DVDs, books, or even just current events that may have parallels in the fitness industry. That said, though, I always love hearing reader suggestions, as I think it's important to give my audience a feeling of ownership with my site, as you're the ones who make it possible and worthwhile for me.
To that end, I'd absolutely love to hear some suggestions on topics you'd like covered at EricCressey.com in 2012. Additionally, if there are particularly mediums (e.g., videos, webinars, individual articles vs. series) that you prefer, please let me know. The 2011 year was a huge growth year at EricCressey.com, and I'm confident that 2012 will be even better - especially with your feedback.
Please post your comments, suggestions, questions, constructive criticisms, and anything else you'd like to "throw out there" in the comments section below. Thanks!
