Sorry for the lack of content this week; I've been pretty swamped with everything from family stuff to all the regular goings-on at Cressey Performance. And, most specific to this blog, I've got a few sweet announcements on events that were just getting finalized...
First, registration is now open for the 2009 Ultimate Pitching Coaches Bootcamp on December 4-6 in Houston, TX at Ron Wolforth's Baseball Ranch - and I'm (again) really excited to be among those presenting. You can sign up HERE.
Second, Mike Reinold and I have confirmed a date for our one-day shoulder seminar here at my facility just west of Boston. We'll be officially announcing the details on Monday of next week - and I'll have more information in a few days (including a special early-bird registration discount code for only my readers). Here's a little teaser:
Testing, Treating, and Training the Shoulder: From Assessment to High Performance
This will be a 50/50 lecture/lab split, and we'll be limiting enrollment to optimize the interaction we have with attendees. Keep an eye out!
This is precisely why none of my friends dress up in giant socks. If I am going to celebrate something, I want everyone with a 100% unobstructed view (none of this half-ass piggyback stuff).
2. This weekend pretty much wraps up the baseball season for all my high school guys. It's interesting how coaches and athletes' level of excitement about baseball changes over the course of the season - and this is true of all levels. When the season starts, the players are fired up, and the strength coaches are ready for some down-time after a ton of hard work in the off-season. Mid-season, the coaches are always fired up and prepared to get the guys in because they can never get as much training in as they need, but the players are just trying to find a day's rest whenever they can. By the end of the season, the players are tired of baseball and fired up to lift - and the strength coaches are fired up to start building some freaks after not having ideal training scenarios for the previous 6-7 months.
So, I guess you could say that mid-August kicks off the funnest time of the year for everyone. And, I can honestly say that each year, I get more and more excited about the off-season. Coming in to this off-season, we've got five high school guys (four of whom will be juniors this year) throwing over 90mph - and several more who are right on the cusp of it. This is really exciting for me because it's proof in the pudding that if you get guys in a good training program at an early age, you can really expedite their development - and keep them healthy in the process. We're going to have fun this winter!
3. Funny story: as I've mentioned before, I have a Facebook account, and loads of my readers are my internet "friends." A lot of these folks are in the fitness industry, and as you can imagine, I get loads of invites to join these people's groups - whether they're for bootcamps in Istanbul, online education programs, product sales, or training styles. Initially, I was a nice guy and accepted all of the invitations - but over time, I wound up getting so many emails that my inbox was overflowing and I didn't have time to read anything, let alone the good stuff. So, I started being more selective.
Unfortunately, some people don't get the point when I turn down their invitation. Recently, these folks with a new fat loss program for general population folks invited me to join their group, and I declined. Now, six days later, I've received NINE more invitations to join their group. Is that what they call pressure selling?
This is like back in college when you sat down in a big lecture class only to discover that the guy next to you was eating potato chips, coughing non-stop, and taking cell phone calls in the middle of class - basically doing anything he could to make noise. You move to another seat, and he follows you...NINE times.
Really, I'm just not interested, dude. Does that make me a bad person?
4. This week, I started up a new book - and a big one at that. My fiancee looked at me last night like I had two heads, and asked, "Are you reading a textbook?"
My response was, "Yeah, I guess I am."
It's pretty funny that back in undergrad, I hated reading textbooks - probably because they were forced on me (both in terms of content and deadlines). Now, years later, I have blown through a chapter a night simply because I picked the book and I decided when I wanted to read it. I guess it's true that experience yields perspective.
Oh, by the way, it's Clinical Application of Neuromuscular Techniques, Volume 1: The Upper Body, by Leon Chaitow and Judith Delany. So far, it's fantastic. Anyone who has ever questioned the benefits of foam rolling should be forced to read the first chapter, which outlines several benefits that are commonly overlooked (there is a lot more to this than just the "tissue quality" argument). You have to consider the role of the autonomic nervous system and lymphatic system as well.
5. This book was actually recommended to me by Mike Reinold, who actually had a good blog whether or not curve balls are more dangerous than other pitchers for young throwers. It's a great comprehensive look at the topic.
Speaking of Mike, he and I have been throwing around the idea of doing a shoulder-specific seminar - from rehab to high-performance - at my facility this winter at some point. We'd only open it up to 30 people at the absolute most, so there would be a lot of hands-on learning and direct interaction. If you'd be interested, please drop me an email at ec@ericcressey.com.
Back to the Friday randomness...
1. A few weeks ago, Matt Fitzgerald (my co-author from Maximum Strength) and I filmed a series of "Monday Minute" segements for Competitor.com. Basically, it's a weekly one-minute exercise demonstration and description along with the rationale for that exercise. Here's this week's:
Wasn't that fun?
2. One of the resounding themes at this past weekend's Perform Better Summit in Long Beach was "invest in yourself." It's no coincidence that all the presenters at this year's event agreed that devoting time, effort, and funds to continuing education was a huge part of their success. In a dynamic field like fitness/strength and conditioning, if you're not getting better, you're falling behind.
Alwyn Cosgrove wrote a good blog the other day about how he and his wife Rachel have used this mindset to establish one of the best staffs of trainers in the country. Likewise, Mike Reinold published an essential list of the best titles in physical therapy, athletic training, strength and conditioning, manual therapy, etc. here last week. Just being around guys like Alwyn and the rest of the presenters makes you want to get better and better, and reading stuff like this from Mike reaffirms that mindset. Not coincidentally, this weekend preceded my twice-a-year book buying shopping spree. I purchased ten books online last night and can't wait to start devouring them.
So, I guess the question for the weekend is, "What are you doing to get better?" Let's hear what you are going to do in the next week to set yourself apart in your chosen field. Are you going to read a book? Attend a seminar? Watch a colleague in practice or call him/her to talk shop? If you're not getting better, you're falling behind.
3. This is the most flat-out atrocious piece of journalism I've seen in my entire life:
Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin
Talk about skewing research to tell the story to which you're clearly biased in order to generate some controversy! There is no mention of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or the difference among different types of exercise (steady-state cardio, interval training, resistance training). There isn't any discussion of visceral versus subcanteous fat loss.
And, it isn't that exercise won't make you thinner; it's that exercise combined with increased calories may not make you thinner. In other words, exercise is good, but morons are bad.
This is a perfect example of a journalist who clearly knows NOTHING about exercise interviewing a bunch of experts and then presenting one side of a story without making some very important qualifying statements (trust me, I've seen this multiple times before when freelance writers have interviewed me for stories for mainstream magazines). In this writer's case, those qualifying statements should be:
a. "Research has shown that exercise in conjunction with a maintenance or reduction in calories does increase fat loss as compared to maintaining or reducing calories alone."
b. "I really am in no way qualified to write this article. In fact, I'm probably not even smart enough to turn on a treadmill, so they just put me on this hamster wheel in my cubicle to make me feel somewhat qualified to discuss exercise."
Honestly, I could go on all day ranting and raving about this, but such rubbish journalism isn't even worth my time. Instead, I'd just encourage you to give up Time Magazine altogether for publishing such crap. I know I will be doing so.
Have a good weekend.
Here's this week's list of resources to check out:
Risk-Reward in Training Athletes - This old newsletter of mine highlights indivividual physical and situational differences among athletes, and spotlights the work of one Cressey Performance athlete who made tremendous progress with these individual factors playing a key role in how that training was approached. If you play or coach baseball, this is a must-read.
Are Tennis Elbow Straps Effective? - This blog post from Mike Reinold provides a great overview of these commonly used rehabilitation adjuncts.
In the Trenches: Michael Boyle - Mike Robertson's newsletter last week featured this audio interview with Coach Boyle.
Here's this week's list of great reads:
If We Know We Shouldn't, Why Do We Still? - This blog post from Dr. Jason Harris is a fantastic commentary on the overuse of diagnostic imaging - particularly with lower back pain patients - and the negative impacts these diagnostic results can have on patient outcomes and ease of treatment. I learned about Dr. Harris' blog through Mike Reinold and have been a regular reader every since; the information is fantastic (THIS was by far my favorite post; very good info).
The True Role of the Rhomboids - This is an old newsletter from some guy named Cressey. Not sure if he knows his arse from his elbow.
Five Pounds is Gold - I really liked this article from Myles Kantor. It's short, but makes an outstanding point - using world-record deadlifter Andy Bolton as the example.
It's been a while since my last dose of Friday Randomness, but when you're got so much intern hazing going on, it's hard to even imagine topping that kind of content!
1. I recently contributed to another T-Muscle feature; check out Advice You Don't Want to Hear: Volume 2 for a little dose of tough love. I'm the last one down.
2. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself. My fiancee's been out of town since Monday morning, and while the fridge is just about empty and I'm down to one pair of clean underwear, the place didn't burn down, and I didn't put an eye out.
3. Here's a quick takeaway from a great Elbow Biomechanics talk by Mike Reinold earlier this week...
Obviously, in dealing with loads of baseball guys, I see a lot of elbow issues come through my door. The overwhelming majority of those folks are medial elbow pain, but we also see a fair amount of lateral elbow pain - even though we program for these individuals very similarly, as their inefficiencies are pretty much identical. I've seen it in practice, but never actually gotten the numbers on the forces involved.
The same medial tensile force that can wreak havoc with an ulnar collateral ligament or ulnar nerve also applies approximately 500N on the radioulnar joint during the late cocking (maximum external rotation) phase of throwing; that's about one-third of the total stress on the elbow. This lateral area also takes on about 800N of force at the moment arm deceleration begins (elbow extended out in front). As always, a picture is worth a thousand words:
I always knew it was going on, and always worked to prevent problems in the area, but suffice it to say that it was nice to get some numbers on this. If you see these issues, you've obviously got to look at mechanics, but more importantly, tissue quality, all the common flexibility deficits we see in pitchers, and overall strength of the rotator cuff, scapular stabilizers, core, lower body, and muscles acting at the elbow to provide valgus stability. For more information, I highly recommend you check out the 2008 Ultimate Pitching Coaches Boot Camp DVD set.
4. Bill, Mike, and I film our new DVD next weekend out in Indianapolis, so I'm going to end this one here and get to work on finishing up the script. Stay tuned on this front; we are excited about how thorough this is.
Have a great weekend!
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used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!
If you asked my fiancee (or anyone who knows me well, for that matter), she would tell you that I work all the time. If I'm not training athletes, I'm training myself, reading research, or writing programs or articles about training. My life pretty much revolves around it - and I'd be lying if I didn't say that it is challenging to get to everything.
To be very honest with you, I'd probably make more money if I just stayed home and wrote articles and books all day. It's a direction quite a few folks in this industry have taken, in fact. You'd be surprised at how many well-known internet personalities in the exercise world don't see athletes anymore; they just stay home and write about what life would be like if they actually did train people. Or, they talk about what they used to do when they worked with folks, or what they've seen in the research of late.
Now, I'm all for research. And, given my articles, books, and DVDs, I'm all for sharing knowledge that I've gained. However, I'm a huge believer that you can't add to the body of knowledge unless you are out in the trenches working with people. You'd be surprised at how many researchers and writers could never get results in the real world. Why? Because people - attitudes, emotions, individual differences, etc. - get in the way.
This is why I have so much respect for those who are "in the trenches" and derive a significant portion of their income from in-person training. I enjoy articles, blogs, seminars, and products from guys like Alwyn Cosgrove, Mike Boyle, Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, Mike Reinold, Jim Smith, Brijesh Patel, Nick Tumminello, and dozens others because these are all guys who are in the real world working to help people. Unlike those who just write, they are constantly getting feedback from clients/athletes on what works and what doesn't; theories don't go untested. If I was a consumer, I'd actually go out of my way to make sure the person writing a book or article was actually seeing clients/athletes before purchasing it.
A few years ago, I never would have even thought to make this promise, but the internet certainly changes things. And, that's why I'm promising today that I'll be training athletes for a long time, and the day I stop training athletes is the day that I stop writing and speaking about training, too.
In place of our normal "Random Friday Thoughts" blog, I just wanted to use today as an announcement of something I think is really cool, convenient, and forward-thinking.
Anthony Renna has done a great job with the Strength Coach Podcasts, and now he's taken it a step further with the introduction of the Strength and Conditioning Webinars. As the name implies, a webinar is a seminar done on the web. So, you view a speaker's Powerpoint presentation while he does the voice-over on it.
It's super-convenient for presenters because we don't have to travel anywhere to give it, and we can deliver it while in our boxer shorts and beat-up old t-shirts. And, it's convenient for the audience for that exact same reason, but also because it's a bit of a lower price point (no facility rental fees to cover) and because it's convenient as heck. You can watch it at your convenience and don't have to be there "live" - and you can rewind to listen to it again if there is something that doesn't quite make sense.
Essentially, Anthony has addressed a lot of the shortcomings of traditional seminars - yet still brings together a bunch of great minds. Thus far, he's recorded webinars with Mike Boyle, Alwyn Cosgrove, Tim Vagen, and Tim Yuhas. In the future, you'll see folks like Gray Cook, Mike Robertson, Mike Reinold, Lee Burton, me, and a whole bunch of other super-talented and smart strength and conditioning coaches, physical therapists, aned athletic trainers.
If you look around, most webinars are going for $25-30 each. Conversely, Anthony is only charging $29.99/month for a membership to StrengthandConditioningWebinars.com. It's even cheaper if you pay up front for the year!
Even better, if you sign up before Monday, June 8, you can get an unbelievable deal- only $19.99 a month for as long as you are a member, or again, even cheaper if you sign up for the whole year- only $199.
You'll get two webinars a month guaranteed from the world's top coaches, bonus webinars, and access to presenter forums, all for $19.99 a month.
This is seriously a great deal and it is truly a one-time offer. After June 8, the price goes up.
So go to StrengthandConditioningWebinars.com, sign up for the Special Pre-Launch Offer before June 8 and start watching webinars right away.
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Subscriber-Only Q&AQ: I have a question about your 22 More Random Thoughts article from October of 2008 on T-Nation. In the stretch for the hips found above #10, I can't tell is that athlete bridging or are the hips on the ground. Also, can you please explain exactly what is stretched and how a little bit about how it corrects out-toeing of the feet?
A: Sure, no problem. Here's the lying knee-to-knee stretch, for those readers who missed the original article:
First off, it's a stretch for the hip external rotators, and the athlete is not bridging up. However, it's also useful to do the stretch in a more hips-extended position, as a small percentage of athletes will feel it more in that position. To perform this stretch, we'll do the exact same position, but have the athlete set up atop a stability ball (which keeps the femurs in a more extended position).
Poor hip internal rotation range-of-motion is something you'll see quite frequently in soccer players, hockey players, and powerlifters, as all spend a considerable amount of time in hip external rotation. Likewise, I monitor this closely with all my baseball pitchers, as front leg hip internal rotation deficit is a huge problem for pitchers. When the front hip opens up too soon because of these muscular restrictions, the arm lags behind the body (out of the scapular plane). As such, it isn't uncommon for pitchers with elbow and/or shoulder pain to present with a significant hip internal rotation deficit.
There is also a considerable amount of research to suggest that hip rotation deficits - and particularly, hip internal rotation deficits - are highly correlated with low back pain. There was a great guest blog post at Mike Reinold's blog recently that highlights all this research; you can check it out HERE. My personal experience with hundreds of people who have come my way with back pain overwhelmingly supports this "theory" (if you can even call it that). It's my firm belief that this is one of the primary reasons Mike Robertson and I have gotten so much great feedback on our Magnificent Mobility DVD from folks who have seen a reduction (or altogether elmination) in back pain. Teach folks to move at the hips (particularly in rotation) instead of the lumbar spine, and whatever's going on in their low backs calms down.
Our goal is a minimum of 40 degrees of hip internal rotation. This is measured in the seated position (hips flexed to 90 degrees).
In addition to the classes of athletes I mentioned earlier, we also need to watch out for hip internal rotation deficit (HIRD) in the general population because of what happens further down the kinetic chain. We all know that overpronation at the subtalar join is a big problem for a lot of folks. This can occur because of a collection of factors, from poor footwear (too much heel lift), to muscular weakness (more on this in a second), to mobility deficits (particularly at the ankle), to congenital factors (flat feet). To understand how pronation affects the hip external rotators, you'll need to listen to a brief synopsis of subtalar joint function...
During the gait cycle, the subtalar joint pronates, to aid in deceleration. Basically, the foot flattens out to give us a bigger base of support from which to cushion impact, and from there, we switch back over to supination to get a rigid foot from which to propel. The picture below shows what our foot looks like when we have too much pronation.
Here's where our hip gets involved. Physical therapist John Pallof once called the subtalar joint a "torque converter," and it really stuck with me. What that means is that while the subtalar joint allows motion in three planes for pronation/supination, it converts this motion into transverse plan motion where it interacts with the tibia. And, as you can imagine based on the picture above, when you pronate, you increase tibial internal rotation. This, in turn, increased femoral internal rotation. Taken all together, we realize that increasing pronation means that there is more tibial and femoral internal rotation to decelerate with each step, stride, or jump landing.
The hip external rotators are strong muscles with a big cross sectional area, so they can take on this burden. However, over time, they can get balled up from overuse. As a result, the hip will sit in a more externally rotated position all the time - and the feet simply come along for the ride. That said, as I wrote HERE, it isn't the only cause of this foot position, so be sure to assess thoroughly and individualize your recommendations.
Also, a quick side note, be careful using this stretch with individuals who have previously experienced medial knee injuries, as the valgus stress can be a bit too much for some folks.
New Blog ContentRandom Friday ThoughtsFor High School Pitchers, No Grace PeriodDoga? Seriously?CP Athlete Featured at Precision Nutrition
I encourage you to check out this Precision Nutrition Athlete Profile on Cressey Performance athlete and Oakland A's minor league pitcher Shawn Haviland. Shawn completely changed his body this off-season and had a nice velocity jump from 87-89 to 91-93mph - and he's off to a good start for the Kane County Cougars. A lot of this can be attributed to him making huge strides with improving his nutrition.
Have a great week!
EC
