I love writing features with multiple installments because it really allows me to dig deep into a topic of interest. It's like writing a short book, with each blog being a different chapter. That said, here were a few of my favorite features from 2012 at EricCressey.com:
1. Quick and Easy Ways to Feel and Move Better - This weekly series was largely put forth by Cressey Performance coach Greg Robins, and it includes five tips for taking your nutrition and strength and conditioning programs to the next level. I contribute here and there, but the majority of the praise goes fully to Greg. Here are the five most popular posts from this series in 2012:
Here's a little sample of the kind of content Greg kicks out each week:
2. Coaching Cues to Make Your Strength and Conditioning Programs More Effective - I started this (ongoing) feature in early 2012, and it was a huge hit. Apparently, people love the idea of having some cues they can use in place of having a qualified coach right there with them. Here were the ones we ran this year:
3. Increasing Pitching Velocity: What Stride Length Means and How to Improve It - This three-part series was very popular with my baseball audience, as preparing the body for an appropriate stride is key to pitching success.
In continuing with our “Best of 2012″ theme to wrap up the year, today, I’ve got the top EricCressey.com videos of the year.
1. Four Must-Try Mobility Drills - This video was part of an article I had published at Schwarzenegger.com. You can check it out here.
2. Cleaning Up Your Chin-up Technique - It's one of the most popular exercises on the planet, but its technique is commonly butchered. Learn how to avoid the most common mistakes.
3. 8 Ways to Screw Up a Row - Rowing exercises are tremendously valuable for correcting bad posture and preventing injury, but only if they're performed correctly.
4. My Mock/Impromptu Powerlifting Meet - After being away from competitions for a while, I decided to stage my own "mock" powerlifting meet just to see where my progress stood. I wound up totaling elite (1435 at a body weight of 180.6) in about two hours.
5. Cressey Performance Facility Tour - We moved to a new space within our building back in August, and this was the tour I gave just prior to the doors opening.
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 another “Best of 2011″ feature.
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With 2012 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. 5 Reasons You Have Tight Hamstrings - This article received about 24,000 more views than the next most popular post of the year. I guess a lot of people have tight hamstrings!
2.Are Pull-ups THAT Essential? - People love controversy, and when you call into question the risk/reward of one of the most sacred strength training exercises of all time, that's exactly what you get!
3. The Superset Survival Guide - This article, which featured my "Top 10 Supersets," got a ton of Facebook shares and Retweets.
Since this series was so popular this year, I figured I'd try to squeeze in just one more collection of suggestions before the 2012 wraps up. Here are three more coaching cues for your strength and conditioning programs:
"1. Pull the elbows to your hips."
As I discussed a while back in my Cleaning Up Your Chin-up Technique post, you want to be careful about extending the humerus past neutral at the top position of a chin-up. If the elbow moves behind the body In this position, the humeral head can glide forward, irritating the biceps tendon and anterior capsule. Additionally, the thoracic spine becomes excessively kyphotic, and the scapula may anteriorly tilt, closing down the subacromial space and exacerbating impingement on the rotator cuff tendons. Here’s what the bad looks like:
I’ve found that encouraging athlete to pull the elbows to the hips prevents this excessive humeral extension, and it also makes athletes stricter with their technique; they have to get the chest to the bar instead of just reaching with the chin and creating a forward head posture.
Conversely, if you encourage many young athletes to “just get your chin to the bar,” you get some garbage kipping concoction that looks like Quasimodo on the monkey bars with his pants on fire.
"2. Keep the biceps quiet."
Piggybacking on our previous point, just like excessive humeral extension can create anterior (front) shoulder stress, uncontrolled external rotation can be equally problematic, as the humeral head will once again want to glide forward if it isn’t appropriately controlled by a combination of rotator cuff recruitment and scapular stability.
If an athlete feels external rotations in the front of his shoulder even in what appears to be the correct position, he’s performing them without monitoring humeral anterior glide. If this occurs, I’ll have him place his opposite hand on the front of the shoulder to monitor any kind of anterior glide of the humeral head, and encourage him to “keep the biceps quiet.” I’d say that 90% of the time, athletes are good to go once this correction takes place. In the other 10% of cases, we’ll regress the athlete to supine and prone external rotations, as well as manual resistance “holds” at the 90/90 position.
"3. Try to touch your butt to the ceiling."
The yoga push-up is one of my favorite push-up variations. Just like all other push-up variations, it gives our shoulder blades freedom of movement, which is important when you consider that they’re essentially stuck in place during bench press movements.
I especially like the yoga push-up because it doesn’t just combine protraction/retraction, but also involves near-full humeral flexion. By elevating the humerus further, we force athletes to work on getting more scapular upward rotation.
If you tell an athlete, “Push your butt away from the floor,” you get greater recruitment of serratus anterior and upper trapezius to really get that last bit of scapular upward rotation – and, at the same time, get some good thoracic spine extension.
That wraps up this installment of cues. If you like what you're reading, I'd encourage you to check out the Muscle Imbalances Revealed - Upperseries, which features a collection of outstanding webinars from some really bright guys in the industry. Rick Kaselj, who organized the collaborative effort, has the product on sale at a great discount with a 60-day money-back guarantee. You can check it out here for yourself.
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Here's this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:
Like Swings, Offseason Workouts Evolve with Time - Evan Drellich from MLB.com interviewed me for this feature on how professional baseball players change their training approaches from one offseason to the next. He did a great job with the article.
Warm-up - Here's an incredibly thorough piece on warming up by Mike Robertson, one of my co-creators on the Assess and Correct DVD set.
The TRX Y is a fantastic exercise for correcting bad posture and strengthening the muscles surrounding the shoulder girdle. Unfortunately, it's easy to fall into bad traps with technique on this exercise. In today's post, I discuss some of the more common problems we see with the TRX Y - as well as the coaching cues we use to correct them.
The TRX Y is a tremendous addition to your corrective exercise and strength training programs, so be sure to put these coaching cues into action to reap all the benefits of performing this movement.
Here's this week's list of tips to fine-tune your nutrition and strength and conditioning programs, compliments of CP Coach Greg Robins.
1. Improve your squat by starting neutral.
2. Remember: “Everything should made as simple as possible, and not simpler.”
At Cressey Performance, we are fortunate to be in an environment where we are constantly learning.
As an example, this past week we had a spectacular in-service delivered by Eric Schoenberg of Momentum Physical Therapy and Performance. Eric is someone with whom we work closely. I respect Eric immensely as he has the rare ability to make things simple. When I hear him speak, I am reminded of the quote from Albert Einstein:
"Everything should made as simple as possible, and not simpler."
In his presentation, Eric made one point in particular that really hit home with me.
His talk mainly focused on helping us create a united front on how we coach many of the arm care and movement drills used by our athletes; as many of them swing between his clinic and our gym floor. When pressed with questions on the specifics of these exercises (where should the shoulder blades be, what muscle are making this happen, that happen, etc?) he stressed the importance of making the movement just look and feel good.
If it looks good and feels good, it’s probably good. If it looks like poop, and feels like poop, it’s probably poop.
Makes sense, right? Everyone is a little different, and everything may measure out to be a little different, but it holds true in the majority of cases.
However, there are times when it might look good to the eye and feel fine to the athlete, but not actually be good. These are the cases we don’t want to make simpler. As an example, what if an overhead squat looks phenomenal, but when you assess the individual on the table, you notice considerable tissue shortness at the hips? These individuals may have phenomenal core stability to overpower their stiff hips, but still need to work hard on tissue length to prevent injury.
Focus on making things look good, and know what “good” looks like, and you’ll be in a great position 90% of the time. However, don’t ever forget about that 10%.
3. Get out of extension before bridging exercises.
4. Make water less boring.
I strive to drink a gallon of water every day. And, 80% of the year, I accomplish that objective just fine. I don’t dislike the taste because, well, it doesn’t taste like anything.
However, I guess the lack of taste is why I sometimes find myself falling off the wagon. When I can’t stand the thought of drinking another ounce of water, I simply spice it up. For many of you, doing so may be just what you need to start making hydration more enjoyable. It seems like a stupidly obvious suggestion, but I guarantee that half of the people who read this don’t drink enough water. I also guarantee they would if it tasted like something worth putting in their mouth.
We all know the benefits of cooking ahead of time. If you are struggling to drink enough water, then prepare a few gallons of flavored water ahead of time, too. Squeeze in lemons, limes, grapefruit, oranges, or anything else you want to include. Spread throughout the entire gallon, the squeeze of half of an orange is going to add a trivial amount of calories to your intake; don’t get worked up about it.
5. Overhaul your dishware for portion control.
Here is an easy tip to control portion size without even thinking about it. Take a look at your dishes: I’m willing to bet they are pretty massive. If you’re in the market for new kitchenware, or just looking for a strategy to reduce calorie intake, consider downsizing your plates and bowls. If there’s less to fill, you will be forced to consume a smaller helping.
Additionally, this is a great strategy for damage control at holiday parties. Many times, people will offer dinner plates and smaller plates for appetizers and desserts. Choose the smaller plate and limit yourself to what you can fit on top. This is another simple tip, but an incredibly effective way to make your nutrition program more successful if you struggle with portion control.
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Here's this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:
Invincible Immunity - This is an article I wrote all the way back in 2002. While it's over a decade old now, the information is still valuable, especially with cold and flu season upon us!
Player Interview: Steve Cishek of the Miami Marlins - Current CP intern Jay Kolster interviews long-time CP client and Marlins closer Steve Cishek on everything from pre/post-game routines, to strength and conditioning, to advice for up-and-coming players. This is excellent stuff.
7 Tips for Dominating Seminars - This was an awesome post from Mike Robertson that everyone in the fitness industry should read prior to attending seminars. It'll help you guarantee that you'll get the most of these learning experiences.
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It's been a while since I introduced a mobility exercise of the week, so I figured I'd introduce a new one that we use with a lot of our athletes nowadays.
The alternating lateral lunge with overhead reach gives you all the benefits - adductor length, hip hinge "education," and frontal plane stability - that you get with a regular lateral lunge variation. However, by adding in the overhead reach, you get a greater emphasis on optimal core stabilization and mobility and stability at the shoulder girdle.
In this position, we'll coach different athletes with different cues.
If it's an athlete who is stick in an exaggerated lordotic posture, we'll cue him to engage the anterior core and keep the ribs down as the arms go overhead.
If it's a "desk" jockey who is very kyphotic, we may have to actually cue him "chest up" because he's so rounded over; we have to bring him back to neutral before we even worry much about the anterior core involvement.
If it's a high school athlete who has really depressed shoulder blades, we will actually cue him to shrug as he raises the arms to complete scapular upward rotation in the top position.
Conversely, if it's a client is already very upper trap dominant, we may have to cue a bit more posterior tilt of the scapula during the overhead reach.
In other words, this is a great example of how you can take a good exercise and make it even more effective, especially if you individualize coaching cues as much as possible. Try it for a set of five reps per side as part of your warm-up and let me know how it goes!
Yesterday, a reporter for MLB.com came by Cressey Performance to interview a few of our major leaguers. While there, he asked me my take on whether or not I thought players' off-season preparation changes dramatically from year to year. My answer was something to the effect of:
The fitness and strength and conditioning industries as a whole change significantly each year, so that would certainly be the case in baseball, which features throwing - the single fastest motion in all of sports - and alarmingly high injury rates at all levels. Guys certainly have mainstays that they stick with regardless of the points in their career, but with innovation as prominent as it is in our field, I change quite a few things each year with how we prepare our guys.
With that in mind, I thought I'd highlight four things that have forced innovation in the way that we train athletes and general fitness folks alike.
1. New Research
There are more scholarly journals - and research review services summarizing these publications - than ever before. Even if you aren't trained in research methods, you can easily get access to interpretations of these research studies via those who are. And, just by looking around online and attending seminars, you can see how other coaches and trainers in the field are integrating this new research in their programs.
2. Better diagnostic procedures, physical therapy treatments, and surgical interventions.
Nobody had ever heard of a sports hernia or femoroacetabular impingement before the last 10-15 years, yet nowadays, they're incredibly common diagnoses in athletes involved in violent extension and rotation. And, taking it a step further, when you can diagnose something, you have to be able to treat it - whether it's conservatively or surgically. Diagnostics, surgeries, and PT all give rise to the need for more trainers to understand new conditions - both from prevention and post-rehabilitation standpoints.
3. More competition.
When you're King Crap on Turd Mountain, there really isn't much incentive to try to better yourself. Nowadays, though, while the fitness industry at times is perfectly described as "Turd Mountain," there is no definitive "King Crap." This is especially powerful when you consider that the industry is moving toward more and more specialization. People are focusing on specific athlete/client populations and still not differentiating themselves as the absolute best. As a result, everyone who wants to be near the top really has to bust their butts.
As an interesting parallel to this, try to name a major professional sport where one athlete is so far superior to all the rest. I'll give you Usain Bolt, but in every other major discipline, there is a far more even playing field. I think innovations in strength and conditioning have played a big part in that. Outstanding fitness can make up for a lot of what high level athletes may lack in raw talent/skill.
4. An aging clientele.
Anyone who has outstanding client retention can attest to this: people change over the course of the many years that you train them. I've trained 13 year-olds who have gone on to be taken in the MLB draft. I've written letters of recommendation for former high school athletes to get into medical school. I've watched how career and financial success can change exercise adherence both for the good and bad. And, I've learned that training single athletes is much different than training those athletes when they're married and have children. Heck, pretty soon, I'll be training their kids, too!
Aside from these social factors, people's bodies change. There may be fluctuations in life stresses that may impact what they can do in the gym. There may be aches and pains over the years around which you have to work. An offensive lineman might decide he wants to lose 100 pounds after his playing career is over. A client may even finally have a hip replacement they've been putting off for a decade.
The point is that you have to be educated in order to adjust to clients as they evolve as people. And, in order to do that, you have to be educated - and stay educated.
This is one reason why I'm so proud to be a part of the Elite Training Mentorship team. Twice each month, this site updates with in-services, exercise demonstrations, case studies, sample programs, and webinars to keep you up-to-date on what's going on with the fitness industry.
I'm excited to announce that through tonight at midnight, you can get 30 days of Elite Training Mentorship for just $1 - and to sweeten the deal, we're offering the entire Fitness Business Weekend seminar (twelve 45-60 minute presentations) as a bonus to those who sign up. This is an absurdly good value, so don't miss out. Click here for more information.
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