Home Posts tagged "Crossfit"

The Best of 2018: Strength and Conditioning Articles

With 2018 winding down, I'm using this last week of the year to direct you to some of the most popular content of the past 12 months at EricCressey.com, as this "series" has been quite popular over the past few years. Today, we start with the most popular articles of the year; these are the pieces that received the most traffic, according to my hosting statistics.

1. The Study Every Trainer and Coach Should Read and Understand - Good movement matters - and here's the research that helps to demonstrate why.

2. How to Use the Acumobility Ball for Upper Extremity Health and Performance - I'm a huge fan of the Acumobility ball, and in this detailed video-oriented post, I discuss how we utilize it for specific work in the upper body.

3. Crossfit and Confirmation Bias - Write a blog that mentions Crossfit and get great traffic? Go figure.

4. Making Movement Better: Duct Tape or WD-40? - Should you add stability or mobility to fix a problem? Give this article a read to find out.


Source: http://laughingateverydaylife.com/2016/07/duct-tape-vs-wd40/

5. Why You Shouldn't Look Up When You Lift - It drives me bonkers to see lifters looking up at the ceiling during squats, deadlifts, and even arm care exercises. In this post, I discuss why that's the case.

I'll be back soon with another "Best of 2018" feature. Up next, the top videos of the year!

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Crossfit and Confirmation Bias

Last month, I published a blog about the importance of building strength in the teenage years. In case you missed it, you can read it here.

The gist was that strength is foundational to many other athletic qualities: power, stability, endurance, and even mobility. In short, building strength in untrained lifters is low-hanging fruit that can have a massive impact on other domains. However, if you train many of the qualities higher up on this pyramid early in a training career, you don't see very profound changes to athleticism. It's why the kid who just does agility ladders doesn't get much more agile, and the cross-country runner can't go faster just by running slow.

As is always the case with my new articles, I sent it out to my newsletter list - and there are always a dozen or so people who'll reply to the article. One, in particular, stood out for me:

"This reads as an incredible endorsement of multimodal training like Crossfit! Which highlights the very different skills in the article! Thanks for sharing!"

This is an incredibly well-intentioned person, but unfortunately, he could not be any more incorrect. And, it's a nice illustration of the confirmation bias we often encounter in the training world.

This gentleman really loves Crossfit, and that's fine. He can train a bunch of different qualities and have a lot of fun. That does not mean, however, that concurrent training of all these qualities is a way to optimize long-term athletic development in teenagers (or any age of athletes).  His confirmation bias leads him to believe that what he enjoys (and likely what has worked for him) will be good for every scenario he encounters.

Sure, you can build a lot of these qualities simultaneously, especially in untrained individuals. However, you are not going to develop a 95mph fastball or run a 10-second 100m dash if you're consistently rowing 1000m, doing sets of 15 power cleans, or rocking kipping pull-ups like they're going out of style. And, you're going to have a much harder time staying healthy as you embark on these goals, as each sport has unique energy systems requirements and position-specific demands. How often do you see aggressive hip-shoulder separation, appreciable single-leg work, and end-range shoulder external rotation in the typical Crossfit program?

Again, if you want to do these things, by all means, go for it and have fun - but don't confuse them with a plan that's optimized for athletes. Random programming might keep training novel, but it delivers random results - and athletic success is much more the result of targeted efforts to meticulously address the growth windows one can identify. In short, you can't take general solutions to specific problems.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 12/9/13

Here's this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:

Crossfit: The Good, Bad, and Ugly - I enjoyed this candid look at a controversial topic, courtesy of Mark Rippetoe.

I Know What to Do; Why Am I Still Not in Shape? - Precision Nutrition delves into a discussion about how knowledge doesn't really matter without application - and they help you to make application happen with easy-to-apply strategies.

Strength Exercise of the Week: 1-arm Band Rotational Row w/Weight Shift - I discussed this exercise in quite a bit of detail with our Elite Baseball Mentorship attendees this morning, and it reminded me of this post from last year.  It's a great exercise we like to use with our throwers.

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Register Now for the 2nd Annual Cressey Performance Fall Seminar

I’m psyched to announce that on Sunday, September 22, we’ll be hosting our second annual fall seminar at Cressey Performance.  As was the case with our extremely popular fall event last year, this event will showcase both the great staff we're fortunate to have as part of our team.  Also like last year, we want to make this an affordable event for everyone and create a great forum for industry professionals and fitness enthusiasts alike to interact, exchange ideas, and learn.

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Here are the presentation topics:

Cracking the Crossfit Code - Presented by Eric Cressey

Let's face it: Crossfit is here to stay.  With that in mind, it's time for someone to take an unbiased look at how we can make coaches and fitness enthusiasts successful within the scope of this training system.  In this presentation, Eric will look past the emotions people have with respect to this approach, and discuss rationale ways to accentuate the positives while offering solutions for the shortcomings. In short, the goal is to bring people together, not drive two sides further apart.

Training Joe vs. Jane:  Do Women Need to Train Differently Than Men? – Presented by Tony Gentilcore

Should women avoid lifting appreciable weight?  What are the most effective strategies for training women through pregnancy? Is there such a thing as an ACL-Prevention Program?

In this presentation, I will discuss many of the common misconceptions and "myths" relating to training female athletes.  I intend to provide extensive responses and feedback to some of the most frequently asked questions I have encountered relating to the art of strength training for women.

Insulin: The Hormone, The Myth, The Legend – Presented by Brian St. Pierre

Carbs spike insulin and insulin causes fat gain. So, cut the carbs and you'll end up lean and healthy. End of story. Or is it?

While the Paleo and low carb camps loudly proclaim that carbs and insulin are the enemy, the latest science suggests otherwise. In fact, we're starting to learn that high insulin is an effect of being overweight, not a cause. In this session, Brian will explore the real relationship between carbs and insulin, discussing some of the common myths about insulin, and sharing some practical eating strategies you can put into action immediately.

Integrating Corrective Exercise for Performance Enhancement – Presented by Mike Reinold

Often times, muscle imbalances, alignment issues, and movement impairments can lead to injury and decreased performance.  However, corrective exercises are often unsuccessful for various reasons.  By focusing on several key principles, you can maximize your ability to apply corrective exercises to optimize movement and enhance performance.

Getting To Know Your Athlete: Understanding Learning Styles to Be a More Effective Coach – Presented by Chris Howard

In this presentation, I will discuss the different learning styles and how knowledge of this information is helpful in becoming a more effective coach.  I will also delve into the differences between introverted and extroverted clients and how it is necessary to coach and assess them differently.

CP3

Excellence In Group Training – Presented by Greg Robins

Group training, small group training, and bootcamps are here to stay. Let me help you understand how I manage the variables associated with group training to optimize a less than ideal scenario. The information presented will be sure to help everyone from the strength and conditioning specialist to commercial fitness professional alike.

The Role of Physical Therapy in a Strength and Conditioning Facility – Presented by Eric Schoenberg

Physical Therapy earns little respect in strength and conditioning circles due to the inability of traditional PTs to properly progress a patient from injury to high-level activity.  This lack of versatility has contributed to an increased role of the strength and conditioning professional in the care of the injured athlete.  But, is there a role for Physical Therapy in the training world?  Physical therapist Eric Schoenberg will share his thoughts on why partnering with the right physical therapist can add great value to your business and improve results for your clients.

Location:

Cressey Performance,
577 Main St.
Suite 310
Hudson, MA 01749

Cost:

Regular – $149.99
Student (must present current student ID at door) – $129.99

Date/Time:

Sunday, September 22, 2013
Registration 8:30AM
Seminar 9AM-5:30PM

Continuing Education:

0.7 NSCA CEUs (seven contact hours)

Click Here to Sign-up (Regular)

or

Click Here to Sign-up (Students)

We’re really excited about this event, and would love to have you join us! However, space is limited and each seminar we’ve hosted in the past has sold out quickly, so don’t delay on signing up!

If you have additional questions, please direct them to cresseyperformance@gmail.com. Looking forward to seeing you there!

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 3/12/13

Here's this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:

Some Thoughts on Crossfit - I thought Patrick Ward did an excellent job writing up this post, which features a review of a recent study performed on the efficacy of Crossfit.

Elite Training Mentorship - In this month's update, I contributed an in-service on evaluating and managing "tight hamstrings" as well as a few articles and exercise demonstrations. Vaughn Bethell and Tyler English also contributed some excellent stuff, so check it out!

Unilateral Work: Don't Forget the Upper Body - I wrote this blog post over at Men's Health almost two years ago, but was reminded of it during a conversation I had with an athlete this week.  It seems like as good a time as any to bring it back to life!

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 11/20/12

Here's this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:

The 4-Hour Chef - Tim Ferriss' book is now available, and it looks to be fantastic.  My wife and I actually had dinner with Tim in San Francisco back in February when he was immersed in the writing process.  We talked at length about how the scope of the book had grown incredibly from a cookbook only all the way up to becoming a book of lessons on how to learn and become highly proficient on any task - with cooking as a medium through which to do so.

I'm actually buying a few copies of this as Christmas presents, including one for my mother, who is a high school principal with a big interest in finding innovative ways to get kids excited about learning - and learning faster.  As a bonus, she likes to cook and eat healthy: win/win! 

The Virtual Squat Seminar - This was a great post from Jim Wendler over at T-Nation.  He covered a lot of what you need to know in order to squat safely and effectively.

All the Hype Behind Kipping Pull-ups - My good friend and business partner, Tony Gentilcore, goes into "dangerous territory" by covering the kipping pull-up, but actually presents a very "neutral" argument that I think anyone can appreciate, regardless of how they feel about Crossfit.

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Strength Training Programs: Is Cross-Training Necessary?

As I noted earlier in the week, I’m two weeks in to the new Lean Hybrid Muscle program and really enjoying it.  It’s a pretty significant change of pace from what I might call my normal programming that’s geared toward predominantly increasing strength and overall athleticism – but it’s working extremely well.  As the saying goes, “The best program is the one you’re not on.” This temporary paradigm shift got me to thinking that it'd be a good idea to bring in the LHM creators, Mike Westerdal and Elliott Hulse, in for an interview to talk about whether this kind of cross-training is necessary in a strength and conditioning program.  Here goes...

EC: Whenever you see people who are successful across multiple disciplines, you look for commonalities in the way that they prepare themselves.  Mike, you’ve done well for yourself in powerlifting, and Elliott, you’re an accomplished strongman competitor.  What do you believe to be the most important factors governing one’s success in strength sports?  I figured that before we talk about what might need to be changed from time-to-time, we ought to talk about what should always stay the same. EH: In my experience there are only a handful of tired and true principles that govern success and achievement in all areas of life.  Whether you are a strength athlete or a stay-at-home-mom, the same principles apply.  Like Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “methods are many, but principles are few.” So, instead of spouting off some of my training methods here, I will share three foundation principles that I tend to value and refer to most when taking aim towards any particular goal - strength or otherwise. The first is CLARITY.  It is paramount that we know exactly what effect we would like our actions to produce.  You cannot hit a target that you can’t see. The next is COMMITMENT.  Most people have a vague and fuzzy idea of what they want, but even worse is that most think of these things as “nice-to-haves,” as opposed to “I-WILL-haves.”  The difference between someone who is “trying” to win because it would be nice and the person who DOES win is commitment.  Winners commit 100% to reaching their goal.  They never have a backdoor to escape and never take “no” for an answer.

The third principle governing one's success is DISCIPLINE!  I once heard that discipline is, “doing what you have to do, whether you feel like it or not.”  I like to think of myself as a robot.  Once I set my mind on a particular target, I must then put fickle emotion aside and continue to do everyday what I set out to do from the get-go...whether I “feel like it or not.” MW:  Elliott is a tough act to follow when it comes to success.  A lot of people - myself included - like listening to him not only because of his strength and conditioning knowledge but also because of his general leadership when it comes to personal development in other areas of life as well. Eric, this a great question.  I’ve actually had the privilege of interviewing hundreds of different athletes for a book I published at Critical Bench.  It included in MMA fighter, powerliftes, strongman competitors, bodybuilders, pro athletes and industry experts.  I’ve thought a lot about this and really tried to figure out the common denominators when it comes to excelling in sports.

It almost never has to do with an exact training method or style.  Guys get huge with heavy lifting and guys get huge with volume training.  Powerlifters have attained world class status having trained with  Westside as with Sheiko training.  What it really comes down to is a few other factors that I’ll list below: -You have to surround yourself with other successful people: people that are already in a place where you want to go.  If you hang around with a bunch of lazy deadbeats you’re going to get dragged down with them.  Instead, find people that are the best at what they do and try to make them a part of your life. -To take this a step further you have to visualize yourself or imagine yourself becoming what you want before it’s ever happened.  If you don’t already think you can bench press 600 pounds there’s no way that will ever manifest itself in real life until you brain can accept it as reality. Now you may think this is hocus pocus talk, but when they asked Joe Montana what it felt like to win the Super Bowl.  He said it felt like the other 300 times I won it.  The reporter said, “300 times?”  “That’s right” Montana replied, “I’ve been winning the Super Bowl in my backyard since I was 12-years old.”

-The next thing I see from a lot of successful strength athletes is sacrifice.  Many things in life are possible, but you have to decide if what it takes to reach that goal is worth the sacrifice.  The energy you exert on a certain sport may affect your energy levels for other areas of your life.  During a heavy powerlifting cycle, I’m toast even when I’m not training.  I find myself resting a lot more.  So you have to ask yourself.  What exactly do you want and are you willing to do what it takes to achieve the goal?  So guys who get to the very top level often sacrifice things like certain social events, for example. -My cousin is a successful business owner and recently gave me a valuable lesson that I believe can be applied not only to business, but also to strength sports.  He told me to just keep showing up.  It sounds pretty simple but most people don’t have the consistency to just keep showing up and stick with something until the end.  Lots of small steps over a long period of time add up. Unfortunately, it’s very rare that you’ll find a secret shortcut or magic bullet.  Just keep showing up and over time you’ll get better. -My last point is similar to my first point.  I mentioned surrounding yourself with successful people.  You also need to eliminate negativity from your life and your training.  If people are complaining about bad luck, aches, pains, circumstances and a host of other problems, you can’t let that stuff get into your head.  I swear these things happen to these people because that’s what they think about and talk about all the time.  Why not spend your time with people who are focused on where they are going and what they want?

EC:  Great points - and definitely a lot of stuff that I've seen in my successful clients and training partners, too. Back to the subject at-hand, though: "cross-training" within a strength training program.  How often do you guys intentionally deviate from your “normal” programming – whether it’s to shake things up for specific physiological reasons or just to get a little mental break? MW:  As a competitive powerlifter I trained the same way for several years straight.  This is not the fault of the sport, but I was doing the same kind of training for too long.  I believe that the lack of conditioning and doing the same strength exercises for too long eventually led to me gaining some unnecessary weight and even contributed to a lower back and shoulder injury. Now, I love powerlifting and if your only goal is one-rep max strength, it’s the way to go. I wanted to drop a weight class, heal up some injuries, and get some of my athleticism back, though, so it felt good to try a more hybrid program.  If you compete in any specific sport you need to train for that sport.  However, at this stage of my life I have multiple goals and feel that training for them at the same time is working since I’m not trying to be the absolute best at any skill set.  I do want to compete again and when I do I’ll have to cut back on the conditioning and hypertrophy work and focus more on nervous system training again.  For now, though, I’m really enjoying the feeling of being more well rounded and athletic.

EH: As a professional strongman I had followed a pretty similar program of power-building mixed with strongman implements for about 3 years straight, never “mixing it up.”  This not only led to weaknesses in some areas of overall health and performance, but also created the muscular imbalances that caused me to tear my biceps tendon last spring. Now, I am committed to working towards multiple performance goals within 12-24 month periods so as to avoid the lopsidedness that caused my injury.  For example, I have gone from competing as a pro strongman to running a 10 mile “psycho race” called the Tough Mudder this spring.  Next, I am going to qualify for the Crossfit games before building my lifts back up to compete in a raw power lifting meet in the winter. This may sound crazy to most people, but I’m going to give it a try. It doesn’t mean that my new approach is the right one for everyone, but I’d like to see if it is possible to excel in multiple fitness qualities at once.  And I do recognize balance as a foundational principle as well. EC: How long do these “cross-training” periods typically last? EH: If you mean “periods” as in using hybrid training for only a portion of time during the year, then I would say “forever” – unless you are a professional athlete or bodybuilder who needs to excel in one fitness quality over another in order to compete in your sport. If building a leaner, more functional and athletic physique is your goal, then I invite you to use this type of training all the time.  The beauty of hybrid training is that you can adjust your parameters in order to emphasize one quality over another. For example, if building muscle mass is your goal, then you would continue to use more strength and hypertrophy work over conditioning – but without totally ignoring the latter.

MW: That would depend on who you’re asking.  If you compete in a sport with a specific skill set like powerlifting this would be more an off-season conditioning program to do for a couple months.  I see a lot of powerlifters train 12 weeks for a meet followed by two weeks completely off.  Of course, there are deload weeks in the meet cycle as well.  I’ve seen guys throw together three of these 12-week cycles back-to-back.  After that, they usually know they need a break or their body forces them to slow down.  Adding in some cross training workouts or hybrid training could be beneficial at this time for a couple months. Now if you don’t compete in a specialized sport I truly believe you can train “Hybrid Style” all year long.  You’ll feel good, look good and have great conditioning.  If you decide to compete in any one area of fitness you’ll need to focus more on that area, though, to be competitive. EC: How about when you return to your “conventional” programming?  What kind of favorable adaptations (or unfavorable de-adaptations) have you seen? MW: The biggest advantage I can see when returning to powerlifting would be injury prevention.  With the different programming, I get a chance to work on any imbalances and heal up any nagging injuries.  The health benefits are there too.  The reduction in body fat and the cardiovascular conditioning helps me perform better on dynamic training days. The down side is that my one-rep max strength takes a bit of a hit and I have to get the nervous system re-adjusted to doing really heavy weights.  I am really glad that Lean Hybrid Muscle has powerbuilding days so that I can maintain some strength. In my case, coming from a powerlifting style of training, strength was down a bit.  However, for someone that has never trained with triples, doubles. or singles they could absolutely increase strength while following this program. EH: The fact is that if you are working toward excellence in one particular fitness quality and you incorporate too much training from a contradictory quality, your performance will suffer.  I make no claims otherwise and my experience tells me it’s true.

So, the leaner more conditioned Elliott Hulse no longer has the strength to log press 365 lbs over head, I can no longer front squat 455 lbs.  So, strength has been lost. However, things are far more balanced, where now I can only front squat about 365, I can also run a mile under seven minutes and I don’t bend over panting for air after climbing a flight of stairs, like the bigger, stronger version of me did. Ha! EC: Not a bad tradeoff at all! Thanks so much for your time, fellas. For more information on Mike and Elliott's strength and conditioning programs, check out Lean Hybrid Muscle. Sign-up Today for our FREE Newsletter and receive a detailed deadlift technique tutorial!
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Stuff You Should Read: 4/4/10

I'm about to head out to go to Fenway Park for the season-opening Red Sox vs. Yankees game.  So, with the baseball season officially underway, I thought it'd be good to kick this week off with a collection of baseball-related recommended reading material.  Of course, you can certainly always find plenty of great stuff on the Baseball Content Page here at EricCressey.com.  That said, here are just a few personal favorite articles that I've written (it was tough to just pick a few, as I love writing about this stuff!): Crossfit for Baseball Developing Young Pitchers the Safe Way Risk-Reward in Training Pitchers Weighted Baseballs: Safe and Effective or Stupid and Dangerous? And a few baseball books that I'd highly recommend: License to Deal (great look at the sports agent/representation industry)

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Moneyball

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And some favorite baseball-related DVDs:

The 2009 Ultimate Pitching Coaches Bootcamp DVD Set

Optimal Shoulder Performance (just released last week, and only around at the introductory price for a bit longer)

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The Best of 2009: Articles

In place of "Stuff You Should Read" this week, I thought it might be cool to direct you to our most popular pages and videos for 2009, according to our website statistics.  Presumably, these are the ones that people forwarded to friends the most, and/or the ones that caught the most people's eyes.  This excludes pages like the homepage, baseball content, products, etc.  Here we go: Medicine Ball Madness - This piece outlined some of the medicine ball work I do with both my baseball guys and the rest of our clients.  It was so popular that it actually led to me deciding to cover this topic at my Perform Better talks for 2010. Hip Internal Rotation Deficit: Causes and Fixes - This Q&A on what the lying knee-to-knee stretch does actually led to a discussion of the who, what, when, where, why, and how. Front vs. Back Squats - This is a different kind of discussion on a debate that's been going on for years. Crossfit for Baseball - Controversial?  Yup.  I got a little hate mail for this one, but on the whole, I think I was pretty fair with how I approached it. "Quad Pulls" and Sprinting Warm-ups - This article discusses how the term "quad pull" might not be the most accurate one out there - and, more importantly, how to avoid them. A Common Cause of Hip Pain in Athletes - This piece discusses femoral anterior glide syndrome, a term coined by Shirley Sahrmann. Next, we'll feature the most popular product reviews of 2009.
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“My Coach Says I Shouldn’t Lift…”

I got this question in person from the parent of a new athlete the other day and thought I'd turn it into a blog post, as I've received the email before on many occasions. Q: I read with great interest your blog on Crossfit for Baseball, but my question would be what your response would be to a coach that insists that baseball players shouldn't lift weights PERIOD?  My son's baseball coach is completely against it. A:  This is definitely going to be one of those "where to even begin" responses, but I'll do my best.  Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'll start with a quote directly from my e-book, The Truth About Unstable Surface Training: "...resistance training exercises performed on stable surfaces have been demonstrated effective in numerous research studies with respect to improving a variety of athletic qualities, including:
  • muscular strength (5)
  • power (5)
  • aerobic endurance (53)
  • running efficiency (54)
  • anaerobic endurance (5)
  • rate of force development (66,90)
  • hypertrophy (5)
  • reactive strength (66,90)
  • agility (47)
These qualities transfer to improved performance in a variety of sporting tasks, including vertical jump (74), throwing velocity (79), sprinting speed (22), and running economy (53)." (FYI, these numbers are references from the e-book, so if any of you would like the exact studies, please just request them in the comments section) Now, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that your coach IS NOT looking to field a team that lacks agility, sprinting speed, jumping prowess, throwing velocity, rate of force development (think of a catcher's pop time).  In fact, even those who are clinging to a worthless training initiative like long-distance running for pitchers can get closer to their chosen training effect (as silly as it is) from lifting! Taking this a step further, we know that resistance training can enhance immune and endocrine function, so players will get sick less often and feel better when game time rolls around. And, just as importantly, remember that resistance training is one of the foundations of modern physical therapy.  Would your coach tell a physical therapist that resistance training as part of a rehabilitation program was inappropriate? Of course not!  How in the world it is within his scope of practice to tell a kid that lifting is bad for him - either in terms of increasing injury potential or decreasing performance - is completely beyond me.  Throwing a baseball is the single-fastest motion in sports; you simply don't decelerate 7,500 degrees/second of humeral internal rotation without at least a bit of muscular contribution. And, let's not forget that an ideal strength and conditioning program encompasses a lot more than just strength exercises. It includes good self massage work (foam rollers, etc), mobility training, sprinting/agility/plyos, and much, much more.  It begins with a detailed assessment to determine what mobility or stability deficits may lead to injury down the road.  It may also be the only avenue through which an athlete learns proper nutrition. The fundamental problem is that many baseball coaches think of garbage like this when they hear the words "lifting weights:"

Can someone please tell me how my "biceps will develop" with this?  Only at "Expert Village" does the biceps EXTEND the elbow.  Yikes.

Ouch.

The take-home message is that a lot of coaches think that lifting programs are either a) a waste of time or b) flat-out dangerous.  Sadly, as the videos above demonstrate, in many cases, they're right. However, completely contraindicating lifting can really stunt the development of players and predispose them to injuries.  Throwing is dangerous when done incorrectly, and so are sprinting, fielding ground balls, and taking batting practice.  We don't contraindicate those, though, do we?  We educate athletes on how to participate in these training initiatives properly.

I can tell you that at Cressey Performance, each one of our pro baseball players lifts four times a week, throws the medicine ball 2-3 times a week, and does supplemental movement training 2-3 days per week during the off-season - and they continue lifting during the season (at a lower frequency and volume).  This is true of both position players and pitchers.

Our high school guys get after it as well; I don't know of many other private sector facilities in the country who have eight high school guys throwing 90mph+ before the age of 18 (with several more right on the cusp of this milestone).  Something is working.

And, beyond just the direct training benefits of this system, there is something to be said for the camaraderie strength and conditioning does for teammates on top of regular practices.  The fact that kids actually requested this says volumes!

Hopefully, blogs like this - and bright coaches who are "in the know" - will help to spread the word about what safe, effective training is - and where to get it.

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