Rethinking Interval Training
I love interval training, but one of the problems we commonly run into - particularly if someone isn't prepared physically to sprint, or doesn't have a place to do it because of weather restrictions - is that repetitive, low-amplitude motions are our only options. In other words, it has to just be cycling, elliptical, or stairclimber. While slideboard work, medicine ball medleys, barbell complexes, and sled pushing definitely help to work around these problems, when it comes down to it, many of them still don't give certain folks the variety they need in their exercise programming.
In our Building the Efficient Athlete seminar, Mike Robertson and I spoke about the law of repetitive motion: I = NF/AR
In this equation, injury equals the number of repetitions multiplied by the frequency of those repetitions, divided by the amplitude of each repetition times the rest interval. While you can attack each of these five factors differently (and I will in a future newsletter), the take-home point with respect to today's discussion is that simply increasing the amplitude - or range-of-motion - in one's daily life can reduce (or eliminate) the presence or severity of overuse conditions.
For that reason, I often substitute one or both of two different training modalities for client's interval training.
The first is dynamic flexibility circuits with little to no rest between sets. In this scenario, we program 2-3 different mobility/activation drills for each inefficiency the athlete displays, and then combine them in a series of drills. Ideally, as many of these drills are done in the standing position as possible. Let's say a client has poor thoracic spine mobility, a horrific Thomas test, bad glute function, and poor hip external rotation. Here's what his circuit might look like:
a) 1-leg supine bridge
b) wall hip flexor mobilizations
c) 3-point extension-rotations
d) cradle walks
e) overhead lunge walks
f) walking spiderman with overhead reach
g) yoga push-ups
h) 1-leg SLDL walks
(you can find videos of many of these exercises in the Assess and Correct DVD set, and I'll have more information on the rest down the road)
Is this circuit going to completely "gas" an athlete? Absolutely not. However, it is going to make him/her better in light of the inefficiencies I outlined above - and you don't have to leave the gym exhausted to have improved.
The second option is to simply take a series of resistance training exercises with a corrective emphasis (sometimes integrates with the drills outlined above) and put them in a series of supersets. For these exercises, the load utilized should only be about 30% of 1-rep max. I outlined this option a while back in my article, Cardio Confusion. Here's an example I used with an online consulting client recently:
A1) Overhead broomstick walking Lunges (3x10/side)
A2) Push-ups (3x12)
B1) Face pulls (3x15)
B2) Body weight only reverse lunges (3x10/side)
C1) 1-leg SLDL Walk (2x6/side)
C2) Band external rotations - arm adducted (2x15/side)
D1) Behind-the-neck band pullaparts (2x15)
D2) Bowler Squats (2x10/side)
This series is preceded by foam rolling and a dynamic flexibility warm-up, and can be followed by more "traditional" interval training.
Like I said earlier, I'm still all for both traditional and non-traditional interval training. Initiative like I outlined above, though, can serve as a nice change of pace and work in corrective exercise while keeping the heart rate up. Be as creative as you'd like and you'll see great results; the sky is the limit in terms of the combinations you can use.
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The nicest thing about baseball season is, obviously, the fact that I get to watch a ton of baseball and see their off-season dedication pay off on the field. Another nice perk, though, is that I get about six weeks to gather my thoughts, spend a little extra time on writing/consulting, and just tie up loose ends on little projects here and there.
One such project from last week - which clearly wasn't so little - was cleaning my desk at Cressey Performance. As you can see in the picture below (numerically labeled for the sake of explanation below), it was something that really needed to get done.
1. Water Bottle...likely from 2003.
2. One of my old business cards - and it's serving an important purpose: covering up the strawberry protein powder stain on #3.
3. Stained picture of my fiancee Anna and I. For the record, she spilled it, and it was her shake - but this relationship isn't about blame, is it, honey?
4. That's a world record deadlift certificate. I'm pretty sure it was a 567.5 deadlift at a body weight of 163 in my last meet as a junior back in 2005. However, I've received so many awards for my devastatingly good looks since then that it's all a blur (kidding, folks; they were all for my charming wit and personality).
5. Fiancee's watch. I've been engaged two weeks and she's already all up in my business!
6. Packing tape - to keep my mouth shut after my comment on #5.
7. Laptop, and I need a new one. Suggestions? I'm too big of a wuss to make the leap to a Mac.
8. Ball signed by all of my in-person pro baseball players from this past off-season. I get hounded all the time for my autograph, so I thought I'd turn the tables on someone.
9. DVD of my presentation from Ron Wolforth's Ultimate Pitching Coaches Bootcamp in December. This set is fantastic, and it would be worth checking out.
10. Digital camera: quite possibly the most useful thing you can have kicking around if you are a strength coach. It's an awesome way to give athletes instant visual feedback, or to take videos of "team building."
11. Cell phone. Yes, I know it's white, but they were out of the black ones, and I needed a phone right away. I make up for it by being a text message rock star.
12. Keys, which are under something, meaning that I'll probably lose them when I go to leave for the night.
13. Desk: you'll notice it isn't a very nice one, and the reason is pretty simple. I'm a slob and don't really need anything better.
14. I-Pod, because I'm very 21st century-ish.
15. Waldo (of Where's Waldo? fame). Actually, it's an envelope I should have mailed to my brother a few days ago. Crap.
16. Royalty statement for Maximum Strength. Since we haven't earned any royalties, I guess you could just call it a piece of paper. Then again, reading these things is like perusing stereo instructions written in Chinese, so I'm assuming they'll always just be pieces of paper to me.
17. Sunglasses, because MC Hammer taught me that you're only cool if you wear sunglasses inside.
18. Two plaques I received for speaking at the Maine NSCA Symposium. One of them was the first annual Dr. Richard LaRue award. I definitely need to hang 'em up before I spill something on them.
19. This is a drawer filled with almonds, chewing gum, plastic forks, kryptonite, and Tony's manhood (he'll get it back when he stops listening to techno).
20. Basketball signed by the 2004-2005 UCONN women's basketball team. A lot of the girls on this year's national championship team were freshmen during my last year on campus. In hindsight, I never really got much stuff signed by the athletes with whom I worked, but this was one I actually got around to snagging.
21. This month's NSCA Journal, the focus of which was entirely baseball. Some of it was good (weighted balls meta-analysis), and some was absolutely atrocious (the take on pitchers distance running, to which I am ademantly opposed).
22. Free t-shirts, quite possibly the coolest perk of being a strength coach. Here, we've got shirts from the SF Giants (Steve Hammond), Nobles & Greenough (Ben Knott), and Stonehill College (Clark Leger). Thanks, guys!
23. Sticky note...as if a note could actually organize me!?!?!?
24. Journal article on glenoid dysplasia. I always try to have something right on-hand to read if I get a spare minute.
25. Business cards for local physical therapists with whom we work: it never hurts to have a great network.
26. Business cards for a local sports psychologist (all the CP staff members need to spend time with him to put up with my crap).
27. Dry erase board, also known as the center of my universe.
28. Health history for a client I had just evaluated. I use my notes to write his program.
29. Signed picture from USA Bobsled driver Bree Schaaf - and it reminds me that I have a bunch of other stuff like this that I need to hang up in my office!
30. Lincoln-Sudbury Baseball 2007 State Championship Plaque. Bring home another one this year, fellas!
31. Towel - originally brought to work for showering purposes, but it eventually got devoted to towel pull-ups full-time!
32. Boots that I should have taken home months ago when winter ended.
33. Warm-up pants that I always have on-hand in case I need to catch a bullpen. Putting catcher's gear on top of shorts is not comfortable.
34. My supplement stockpile. Chance favors the prepared mind, so I try not to ever get caught shorthanded on the calories front at work.
Fortunately, this is all pretty cleaned-up by now. I feel pretty out-of-sorts as a result, though!
1. First off, a little recognition for the Lincoln-Sudbury baseball team and coaching staff; LS baseball was was ranked #1 in Massachusetts by the Boston Herald this week. The guys ran their record to 10-0 with a 12-3 win yesterday. Just about every varsity player on the LS squad trains at Cressey Performance, and when you watch them get after it - whether it's the off-season or in-season - it's no surprise why these guys are doing special things. Here's are the starting RF, LF/RHP, 2B, and SS getting after it back in early March. You won't find a high school team in the country who trains harder or smarter than these guys.
Keep up the good work, fellas!
2. One of the first things I learned as a writer in the fitness industry was that it was best to avoid writing about religion and politics. Still, I'm going to just come right out and ask: why the hell do we need a photo of a presidential plane with two F-16 fighter jets over New York City, anyway? Are they trying to sell this sucker on EBay?
This one came at a price-tag of $328,835 to taxpayers - and that doesn't even include the wasted wages on the thousands of citizens who fled their places of employment. Whether you are a Republican or Democrat, this has got to make you want to go elwell on someone (inside joke, but I'm sure the rest of you catch my drift).
2. I've written previously on the tremendous benefits of increasing one's dosage of Vitamin D through supplementation. In particular, it seems to have a great effect on chronic musculoskeletal issues, particularly in darker skinned individuals in Northern climates. Well, add one more benefit to the list.
According to British researchers, daily supplementation with Vitamin D cut prostate specific antigen levels by more than 50% in some patients with prostate cancer. This marker is used as an indicator of the severity of prostate cancer.
3. I just got an email with some awesome feedback:
"I just finished your Maximum Strength program and had great success! Here are the stats:
Pre Max Strength
Bench Press = 300
Squat = 350
Deadlift = 425
3 Rep Pullup = Bodyweight + 15 lbs
Post Max Strength
Bench Press = 335
Squat = 385
Deadlift = 440
3 Rep Pullup = Bodyweight + 55 lbs
My weight stayed the same at 195 lbs at 5'10". Thanks for a great program!!!
-James Wigington"
Click here to pick up a copy of Maximum Strength!
4. Someone asked me the other day, "when a person presents with little or no level of asymmetry, is it safe to say that no pain = no problem in this case?"
My answer would be that it is definitely not safe to say that. While asymmetry is often a good predictor of injury, it doesn't tell us everything about an individual's current state. A lot of folks have bilateral strength/stability/flexibility deficits, and it's just a matter of where they wind up breaking down first.
5. Movement of the Week: The Spin Kick (pants optional)...
1. Tonight, my girlfriend and I are headed up to Maine for the weekend. I am giving two presentations tomorrow at the NSCA Maine Symposium. Lucky for me, both presentations are on topics that have been big interests to me: training for overhead throwing athletes, and instability training (this is closely related to the content of my e-book, The Truth About Unstable Surface Training.
2.Speaking of instability training, in the book, I outline several progressions to increase the stability challenge (to, in turn, train balancing proficiency). One of these methods is to simply raise the center of gravity. It could be simply moving from a dumbbell forward lunge to a barbell forward lunge, or you could make it even tougher by bringing the barbell overhead.
The higher up the center of gravity goes, the tougher it is to stabilize.
3. On the topic of new new projects,I'm working on what I think will be one of the best series I've ever written - right up there with the Shoulder Savers Series. So far, it's looking like a three-parter, but if I keep rolling like I am right now, it might have 857 installments. Keep an eye out for it, as Part 1 will be the next thing I submit to T-Nation.
3. Here's an interesting compilation of the healthiest fast food choices out there. To be honest, I don't think the grading scale was tough enough on them. If Wendy's, Taco Bell, and McDonald's all get a B+, I shiver to think what warrants a C, D, or F...
4. I often gets questions about what we look for in an ideal Cressey Performance intern. While I could probably list off about 50 qualities I like to see in someone, without a doubt, the first prerequisite is to actually get your application in on time. We have received over five applications in the WEEKS following our March 15 deadline for summer internship applications. They not only lost out because we'd already picked our interns, but also because it tells me that they probably wouldn't have done very well with respect to following directions anyway!
5. Speaking of ways to "stand out" in your field, the up-and-comers in the crowd definitely ought to check out this great blog post from Mike Reinold.
6. Nice first outing yesterday for Weston pitcher and CP athlete Sahil Bloom. Our boy took a no-hitter into the final inning, and ended up with 14K. Congrats to Lincoln-Sudbury on moving to 4-0 this week, too.
That'll do it for today. I should be back with some cool news on Monday, so keep an eye out for the blog and newsletter. Have a great weekend!
First off, a big congratulations goes out to Lincoln-Sudbury’s Kevin Scanlan, a Cressey Performance athlete who pitched his first career no-hitter last week. With a 3-0 record, 0.35 earned-run average, and 40 strikeouts in 20 innings pitched, Kevin is the top-ranked pitcher in the competitive Dual-County League here in Massachusetts – en route to pitching for the University of Maine next year. Kevin is also batting almost .500 at the clean-up spot and playing first base when he isn’t pitching. Great job, Kevin!
Cressey Performance has become somewhat of a breeding ground for the 7-1 Lincoln-Sudbury baseball team, with seven of the athletes training with me. Stay tuned for more of the same success in the months and years to come!
Nipples
As you may have heard, there was a great feature article in the Boston Globe about Stephanie Holland-Brodney, one of my clients who ran the marathon. And, needless to say, the picture that accompanied the article served as great blog material:
The School of Hard Nipples
Self-deprecating humor is the best kind, right?
With the help of Jon Boyle, we’ve really upped the content considerably on the blog over the last few weeks. Be sure to check it out at www.EricCressey.com on the homepage - and by all means, please spread the word. The more popular it gets, the more content we’ll pack into it each day. In the meantime, here are a few of the more popular ones from the past few weeks:
1. Water Bottle...likely from 2003.
2. One of my old business cards - and it's serving an important purpose: covering up the strawberry protein powder stain on #3.
3. Stained picture of my fiancee Anna and I. For the record, she spilled it, and it was her shake - but this relationship isn't about blame, is it, honey?
4. That's a world record deadlift certificate. I'm pretty sure it was a 567.5 deadlift at a body weight of 163 in my last meet as a junior back in 2005. However, I've received so many awards for my devastatingly good looks since then that it's all a blur (kidding, folks; they were all for my charming wit and personality).
5. Fiancee's watch. I've been engaged two weeks and she's already all up in my business!
6. Packing tape - to keep my mouth shut after my comment on #5.
7. Laptop, and I need a new one. Suggestions? I'm too big of a wuss to make the leap to a Mac.
8. Ball signed by all of my in-person pro baseball players from this past off-season. I get hounded all the time for my autograph, so I thought I'd turn the tables on someone.
9. DVD of my presentation from 
