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

Elite Training Mentorship - In this month's update, I go into a ton of detail with a video on scapular assessment and its implications for program design and coaching. I've also got two exercise demonstrations and an article to accompany what the rest of the ETM crew has provided for great content this go-round.

The Low-Down on Levers - This is an excellent post by Dean Somerset - as we've come to expect from Dean, by this point!

Why You Should Fill Your Company With Athletes - I found this article at Forbes.com really interesting.  We always hear people talk about how athletics prepare kids for real life, but nobody ever discusses exactly how they do so.  This article was the first thing I've read that went down that road.

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Most people try to segment their core stability work into multiple categories when they are writing strength and conditioning programs.  As I discuss and demonstrate in today's video, though, they aren't as easy to subdivide as one might think:

If you're looking for more assessment, coaching, and programming strategies with respect to core stability exercises, I'd encourage you to check out our resource, Functional Stability Training of the Core. It's available in both online-only and DVD versions.

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It's been a while since we covered some strength training coaching cues that you'll want to have in your back pocket, so here's installment 7.

1. Follow your hand with your eyes.

It goes without saying the improving thoracic (upper back) mobility needs to be a big priority for many athletes.  However, individuals can lose out on the benefit of thoracic mobility drills can be performed incorrectly if one only moves through the shoulder and not the upper back.  Greg Robins covers that problem in this video, in fact:

To help ensure optimal technique, I encourage athletes, "Follow you hands with your eyes." It always seems to "right the ship" with respect to movement of the humerus.

2. Ease the bar out.

One of the biggest mistakes I see both lifters and spotters make is just picking UP the bar and handing it out from the pins on the bench press. This causes a lifter to lose his upper back tightness and start the lift from an unstable platform. Plus, the bar is more likely to drift excessively toward the hips, as opposed to staying right in the path the lifter prefers.

With that in mind, another Greg Robins video complements this tip well; check it out:

3. Get the chest to the floor before the chin.

Push-up variations are an incredibly valuable inclusion in just about any strength training program, but unfortunately, the technique goes downhill quite frequently, particularly under conditions of fatigue.  Everyone knows that we need to monitor core positioning so as to avoid excessive lumbar hyperextension (lower back arching).  However, what a lot of people may not realize is that this "sag" is only one potential extension-bias fault. 

You see, people who are in extension will find all the ways they can to shift away from a neutral posture and toward a more extended posture.  Take, for example, this shoulder flexion video. The individual doesn't just go into lumbar extension and a heavy rib flare to get his arms up overhead; rather, he also goes into a forward head posture.

I liken this to patching up a hole in a leaky roof - only to find a leak starting up somewhere else.  It's important that we patch them all!  With that said, with push-up variations, you can either cue "make a double chin" or tell folks that the chest should make it to the floor before the chin. As long as you've already controlled for excessive arching of the lower back, the cue will be spot-on.

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

Hacking Sleep: Engineering a High Quality, Restful Night - Brian St. Pierre goes into great detail on how to improve sleep quality in order to optimize recovery and fitness progress.

What You Need to Know About GIRD - Mike Reinold put together a great review of the literature and outlined the common mistakes he sees with respect to glenohumeral internal rotation deficit (GIRD).  This is stuff that Mike and I discuss literally every week, so I'm glad he's finally put it into a comprehensive article.  If you're a coach who is universally prescribing sleeper stretch to all your players, this is must-read material; you'll reconsider it after you're done.

Injuries are an Opportunity - Andrew Ferreira is a CP pro guy in the Twins system, and he offered this great insight on how you can't just have a pity party when you get hurt; you have to use it as an avenue through which you can get better.

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It's time for this week's recommended strength and conditioning reading:

Insider Secrets to Movement Prep - This is a new "compilation" product from all of us at Elite Training Mentorship.  It's a series of videos from all the guys - me, Mike Robertson, Tyler English, Vaughn Bethell, Dave Schmitz, Steve Long, and Jared Woolever - who regularly contribute on this membership site.  If you have questions about planning a training, practice, or competition warm-up, this is a great resource for you.  The package includes 10 videos, plus several articles and exercise demonstrations.  It's on sale today through Sunday for just $29.95.

9 Great Ideas to Improve Your Workouts - Everyone loves Dan John - and rightfully so: his articles are always great.  This one was no exception.

Who Says You Can't Get After it After 80? - This was a fun blog post from my business partner, Tony Gentilcore, about a client of ours who is over the age of 80 and still crushing it in the weight room. 

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Today's guest post comes from CP coach, Greg Robins.

In the past 2.5 years, I have made some pretty solid strides with my deadlift. I’m still no world record holder, but I’m continuing to make progress. Most of this can be credited to a much more focused effort on raising the max number I can lift. Another large amount is likely the result of gaining about 30lbs.

That aside, anyone can eat a lot and want to lift more. Below is something I find has been key in my ability to pull 3x my body weight (595lbs at 197lbs), and over 600lbs since then.

If you want to lift more weight you need to learn to
intelligently overload from time to time.

I like to read the training logs and watch interviews with lifters who are stronger than me. One commonality I find with a lot of them is the waved use of overload techniques. Once someone has garnered a decent amount of strength, I have my reservations on “speed” training – namely, its use for the acquisition of more maximal strength. [Note from EC: I disagree completely, but this blog is all about being open-minded to new thoughts and techniques!].

Instead, I have seen more carryover from using block pulls. A block pull is simply an elevated deadlift, with heights from 1-6 inches in height.

I prefer the blocks to rack pulls because the technique is more true to a conventional pull. Most notably, the slack remains in the bar, and must be pulled out by the lifter. This is really crucial, because you want to attack these heavier weights and learn what it’s like to initiate a lot of force into a heavier bar.

In a 12-week block of training, I might use block pulls for 3-4 weeks. My training partner and I generally hit these the month before a meet, or the month before hitting weights off the floor upwards towards 90-100%. Thinking back, every weight that I have ever pulled from the floor in the past two years has come off the blocks first. 

Over the rest of the article, I want to give you some guidelines on how to fit these in, as well as how to perform them correctly.

Let’s start with the technique. Below is a video detailing the proper technique, as well as some common flaws in the block pull.

Now that you know how to do them, the obvious next question is, “where do they fit in?”

As I alluded to before, I usually place these in after eight weeks of focused training. In those previous eight weeks I would recommend you work from a high volume-low intensity phase to a mid volume-mid intensity phase, and then insert the block pull after your regular deadlifts during a high intensity-low volume phase.

The first way to overload with block pulls is by adding weight to the bar. For example, let’s say you pull a single from the floor at 90% of your 1RM. Then you could finish the session with pulling a single or two from blocks at over 90%. With this approach, the blocks should be used to eventually pull a weight over 100% of your predicted max from the ground. I have been successful hitting 110% of a 1RM from 4.5in blocks. It’s important to note, though, that on a day where you will be over-reaching on the block pull, you’d want to make that your lightest day from the ground.

The next is to overload your training through the addition of volume. This can be done via adding reps to a set, or by adding sets. In either case, we are going to use the blocks to increase the volume, as opposed to doing more volume from the floor. In this approach, let’s say you hit the same 90% of your 1RM from the floor. From there, you could go in either of two directions:

1. You could hit and additional 2–3 singles from blocks at that 90%.

2. You could take that 90% for a set (or sets) of 2 to 3 reps from the blocks.

In both scenarios, we are overloading. Personally, I tend to go more in the direction of adding reps to a single set, because that is overloading in the sense that you might not be able to do that from the ground.

There you have it: a single lift that has had tremendous carry-over into my maximal strength on the deadlift. And, it’s helped out a lot of lifters even better than me! Be careful not to abuse the block pull or make into a “ego-booster” rather than an intelligent tool to add overload in both intensity and volume to your strategy for improving the deadlift.

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I often do technique critiques for my online consulting clients by having them send me video demonstrations of them performing their exercises.  With that in mind, I recently did one as a favor to a friend, and in the process, came across what I thought was a great example of how some quick adjustments could yield big-time benefits.  Hopefully this serves as a good "teaching moment."  First, here's his report to me:

"I've been lifting around this weight for a while - 120kgs 1x5. Think my best might have been late last year around the 130kg mark, but have had a niggling back injury that's been slowing things down a bit."

Here's his video:

Here was my feedback:

1. I would bring the feet a bit closer together. You always want your elbows outside your knees, but not in front of them...like this:

2. Along those same lines, try to get your hands in tight to the sides of the legs, too. If you were to keep your hands where they are, but bring the feet in to where they should be, the gap between your arms and the sides of your thighs would be too much.  You want them essentially touching.

3. Think of trying to use the weight of the bar to pull yourself into the bottom position and puff the chest up. I should see the logo on your shirt a lot easier from the front position.  You're kind of just dropping into that bottom position, not going down to get it.

4. The double overhand grip is fine, but you don't see a lot of people pulling huge weights with it outside of the super freaks. Unless you're willing to put in the time and effort to master the hook grip, I'd go to alternate grip.

5. Think about putting force into the ground, not just lifting the bar.  This is the big one for you, and it's why the bar wants to drift away from you instead of staying closer to the body, which is a bar path you want.

If I was programming for you, in month 1, I'd do speed deadlifts (10-12 sets of 1) at 60-75% of one-rep max on one lower body day; the heavy focus would be on driving the heels through the floor and being fast at the start.  Then, I'd let you pull heavier with the trap bar on the other day for sets of 2-4 - just to keep strength up while you're grooving the pattern.  The trap bar doesn't allow you to get out in front with the load quite as much.  

If you're looking for some great programming advice, I'd encourage you to look into Dave Dellanave's great manual, Off the Floor: A Manual for Deadlift Domination.  If you're looking for more coaching cues like I outlined above, definitely check out my free video, Mastering Deadlift Technique.  You can get it by subscribing to my free newsletter in the opt-in box below.

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

How Concern Over Pitcher Usage Can Actually Give College Coaches a Recruiting Advantage - I've been very outspoken in the past about how prior overuse invariably winds up predicting future injury, and this article reflects on the topic as well - including a mention of CP athlete and Vanderbilt Tyler Beede. If you're looking for a good complementary resource, check out this page, which tracks the highest pitch counts in D1 baseball each season.

Real Core Training: Offset Loading: I have to show some love for former CP intern Kyle Arsenault for having his first article published at T-Nation.  It came out great!

Interview with Me - I appeared on the "Smart Science of Slim" podcast.  You can check it out here on YouTube:

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I've talked quite a bit in the past about how much I like bottoms-up kettlebell exercises to get great "reflexive" firing of the rotator cuff and scapular stabilizers in a more unstable environment. I'm also a big fan of carrying variations - so it gets me pretty pumped up when I can combine the two!  With that in mind, today, I want to talk about the 1-arm Bottoms-up Kettlebell Carry.

This is an exercise that I really like to utilize with a lot of our baseball players early in the off-season, as it teaches them to relax the latissimus dorsi to allow proper scapular upward rotation to take place.  My two biggest cues are to "keep the biceps quiet" and "don't let the lower back arch."  If you do these two things, chances are that everything else will "click" just right.  Check out this video for a more detailed coaching tutorial:

I like to program 2-4 sets of 30-40yds on each arm. We'll often use this in place of a pressing exercise with our baseball guys, particularly in the early off-season when we're working to establish optimal scapular upward rotation after a long season.  Give it a shot for yourself and you'll find that it'll quickly be a great addition to your strength training programs, whether you're a throwing athlete or not!

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Today's guest post comes from CP Coach, Greg Robins.

Since this website first launched, Eric has gone to great lengths to focus on coaching cues you can use to fine-tune your technique on a number of strength exercises.  If you check out his YouTube page, you’ll be greeted with hundreds of videos, many with thorough instructions on now only the “how,” but also the why.

With that said, when I’m working with lifters in person, I always find myself stressing the “little” things to them. In reality, these “little” tips are a really BIG deal. They’re not something taught in the typical exercise science curriculum, nor are they something that crosses the mind of someone who hasn’t taught hundreds of people how to do an exercise. In fact, even people who have spent decades in the gym tend to pass over these sorts of things because they have just become second nature to them.

Taking the time to teach someone these things will set them up for continued success, as well as keep them from having to learn many small lessons the “hard way.”

The number one thing I stress to lifters is to not overlook the set-up. It’s imperative that lifters know how to get in place for an exercise before actually demonstrating the movement. I will usually reference the following phrase:

“Hard start, easy finish”

I’m not sure where I heard this phrase originally, but it has stuck with me for many years. It is obviously applicable to more than lifting weights, and a solid reminder that the harder we work at the start, the smoother the sailing thereafter.

In terms of exercise technique, the more stock you put into your set-up, the better your form and performance will be thereafter.

If you are a coach, MAKE IT A POINT to teach people where to set the pins on the squat rack, how to position the body, their feet, the bar, the weights, etc.  These small tips will make an enormous difference in shortening the learning curve and making exercises more effective as well as safer.

Below, I’ll discuss and demonstrate five set-up points for different lifts. These tips should help out with your own efforts in the gym, as well as with those you may be instructing.

1. Watch your foot position on Bulgarian split squats.

2. Make sure the pins are set correctly to allow you to “get tight” on back squats.

3. Teach the hip thrust from the finish position.

4. Don’t butcher the feet-elevated inverted row set-up.

5. Avoid these common rotary stability set-up mistakes.

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