We’re excited to welcome Atlanta Hawks head strength and conditioning coach Mike Irr to the latest podcast to discuss some lessons he's learned in the NBA realm that have tons of applicability to baseball populations. Mike speaks to the complexities of the load management discussion, the challenges of onboarding new athletes, and key considerations for writing programs for athletes with respect to both sport and individual specificity.

A special thanks to this show’s sponsor, AG1 by Athletic Greens. Head to http://www.athleticgreens.com/cressey and you’ll receive a free 10-pack of AG1 travel packets with your first order.

Sponsor Reminder

This episode is brought to you by AG1 by Athletic Greens. AG1 is your daily foundational nutrition; it has 75 whole-food sourced ingredients designed to support your body’s foundational nutrition needs across five critical areas of health: 1) energy, 2) immunity, 3) gut health, 4) hormonal support, and 5) healthy aging. It is the new and future way of getting a multivitamin, and a whole lot more. Head to www.AthleticGreens.com/cressey and claim my special offer today – 10 FREE travel packs – with your first purchase. I use AG1 daily myself and highly recommend it to our athletes as well. I’d encourage you to give it a shot, too – especially with this great offer.

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I hope you all had a great weekend. My wife and I had a fun time in Chicago over the weekend at the Perform Better Summit and got a chance to catch the White Sox/Indians game. Here are a few good reads for the weekend:

2017 Cressey Sports Performance Fall Seminar - We just announced that this popular annual event will take place October 22 at our Massachusetts facility. We hope you can make it!

Mike Irr on Winning an NBA Championship - I've been friends with both Mike Robertson and Mike Irr for close to 15 years now, so how can I not love this podcast? There are some excellent insights from Irr, who just won a world championship with the Golden State Warriors.

Skills Capture a Niche: Relationships Help You Retain It - This was a great post from my business partner, Pete Dupuis. He discusses the concept of niche development in the fitness industry.

Teammate - I just finished David Ross' autobiography and really enjoyed it. I'd highly recommend it to any baseball player, coach, or parent without hesitation.

Top Tweet of the Week

If Mom put on your sunscreen, carried your baseball bag, & dropped you off a Gatorade in the dugout, you definitely didn't "grind" today.

— Eric Cressey (@EricCressey) July 27, 2017

Top Instagram Post of the Week

 

Catcher @jake_clinard knocks out a set of plate-loaded slideboard lateral lunges. -- This is one of my favorite exercises for enhancing hip mobility and stability in multiple planes of motion at the same time. The counterbalance in front helps the athlete to get a clean hip hinge without moving through the spine. And, the slideboard increases the eccentric challenge and makes the athlete more cognizant of not racing through reps. -- Resist the urge to hold more than 10 pounds in the hands, though, as it usually makes technique worse. You're better off going to a DB or KB in the goblet position if you want to progress the loading on this one. -- Nothing better than building strength through full range-of-motion if you want to preserve that ROM over a long season (or lifetime!). This kind of work is huge for catchers for preserving mobility as the season progresses. #cspfamily #catching #mobility #centralcatholic #hudsonma #teamnb #sportsperformance #performbetter

A post shared by Eric Cressey (@ericcressey) on Jul 27, 2017 at 7:59am PDT

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Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend. Here's some good strength and conditioning content from around the 'Net over the past week: 

Approach the Process with Joy: A Podcast with Mike Irr - Mike has been a friend for over a decade, dating back to our University of Connecticut days. He's now head strength and conditioning coach and a physical therapist for the Golden State Warriors. He's a perfect example of how great things happen for great people, and this podcast will show you why.

Historic Performance Podcast with Brijesh Patel - Another old friend and UCONN buddy, Brijesh ("B") Patel, is head strength and conditioning coach at Quinnipiac. B's work in the isometric training realm has influenced me, and he chats about it here.

When the Scale Sucks: 7 Better Ways to Know if your Nutrition Plan is Working - Alex McMahon authored this great post for Precision Nutrition. We often put down the scale, but folks rarely offer alternative "outcomes" to evaluate when improving nutrition and fitness approaches.

Top Tweet of the Week:

Top Instagram Post of the Week: 

 

Definitely winning hump day!

A photo posted by Eric Cressey (@ericcressey) on Aug 24, 2016 at 12:17pm PDT

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

Research: Gaining Hip Rotation Without Stretching - My UCONN buddy Mike Irr wrote up this excellent research review, and did an equally solid job with discussing implications of its findings and recommendations for future research. 

Why Nobody Except Your Mom Reads Your Fitness Blog - The popularity of my business partner's guest blog (here) reminded me of this post I wrote last year.  I think you'll find it to be entertaining!

Scapular Stability and Push-ups - Dean Somerset wrote up an entertaining, video-packed post on how push-up variations fit in with your scapular stabilization programs.

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