Q: What do you think of Bodyblades and how - if at all- should they be incorporated into a pitcher's routine?
A: As many of you know, I'm a fan of integrating rhythmic stabilization drills that train the true function of the rotator cuff: maintaining the humeral head in the glenoid fossa. I wrote about it in some depth HERE, and Mike Reinold and I spent quite a bit of time on it in our Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set.
Of course, if you compare the perturbations to stability that the Bodyblade provides, it appears to simulate some of what you'd get with a rhythmic stabilization drill. So, it's probably a good alternative to a pitcher who doesn't have a training partner, therapist, or coach who can provide those destabilizing torques. Shirts, apparently, are optional.
That said, to me, using a Bodyblade is a more closed-loop (predictable) drill, whereas manual rhythmic stabilizations are more open-loop (unpredictable). So, it goes without saying that the benefits of "surprise" stabilization probably extend a lot further - and they don't cost a penny. Moreover, I've heard claims about the Bodyblade being an effective way to build muscle, which (outside an untrained population) just isn't going to happen. There are also much better ways to train the core.
In the same grain as Monday's post on lower back pain, today, I thought I'd highlight some of the common findings in diagnostic imaging of the shoulder, as these findings are just as alarming.
Do you train loads of overhead throwing athletes (especially pitchers) like I do? Miniaci et al. found that 79% of asymptomatic professional pitchers (28/40) had "abnormal labrum" features and noted that "magnetic resonance imaging of the shoulder in asymptomatic high performance throwing athletes reveals abnormalities that may encompass a spectrum of 'nonclinical' findings." Yes, you can have a torn labrum and not be in pain (it depends on the kind of labral tear you have; for more information, check out Mike Reinold's great series on SLAP lesions, starting with Part 1).
This isn't just limited to baseball players, either; you'll see it in handball, swimming, track and field throwers, and tennis as well. And, it isn't just limited to the labrum. Connor et al.found that eight of 20 (40%) dominant shoulders in asymptomatic tennis/baseball players had evidence of partial or full-thickness cuff tears on MRI. Five of the 20 also had evidence of Bennett's lesions.
The general population may be even worse, particularly as folks age. Sher et al. took MRIs of 96 asymptomatic subjects, finding rotator cuff tears in 34% of cases, and 54% of those older than 60 - so if you're dealing with older adult fitness, you have to assume they're present in more than half your clients!
Also, in another Miniaci et al. study, MRIs of 30 asymptomatic shoulders under age 50 demonstrated "no completely 'normal' rotator cuffs." People's MRIs are such train wrecks that we don't even know what "normal" is anymore!
As is the case with back pain, these issues generally only become symptomatic when you don't move well - meaning you have insufficient strength, limited flexibility, or poor tissue quality. For more information on how to screen for and prevent these issues from reaching threshold, check out Optimal Shoulder Performance from Mike Reinold and me.
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Q: I recently opened up my own place to train athletes, and wanted to thank you for all of the knowledge you have passed along, as it has been a big factor in designing my own training philosophy. The majority of my athletes are baseball and football players in the high school and collegiate level, and I had question for you regarding my baseball players specifically.Nearly every player I work with (and for the most part every pitcher I have worked with), has tight shoulders due to over-use, being imbalanced, and weak. I have them performing a ton of upper back work in comparison to pressing movements, rotator cuff work, sleeper stretches, and myofascial release. It helps greatly, but they still seem to never get back to a full range of motion or an actual natural throwing motion. Because of this, I was wondering what you thought about adding in shoulder dislocations using a dowel rod or broomstick to help with shoulder mobility.Because the players I work with are either in college because of their ability to play baseball, or have a chance at being drafted or getting a good college scholarship from their arms, I want to make sure that everything I do makes them better instead of hurting them in the long run for what looks like a quick fix when they are with me.I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have on helping increase shoulder mobility and the shoulder dislocation exercise, in particular.
A: First off, thank you very much for your kind words and continued support.
Unfortunately, to be blunt, I think it would be a terrible idea and you would undoubtedly make a lot of shoulders (and potentially elbows) worse.
Most pitchers will have increased external rotation (ER) on their dominant side, and as such, increased anterior instability. If you just crank them into external rotation and/or horizontal abduction, you will exacerbate that anterior instability. Think about what happens in the apprehension-relocation test at the shoulder; the relocation posteriorly pushes the humerus to relieve symptoms by taking away anterior instability.
We are extremely careful with who we select for exercises to increase external rotation, and it is in the small minority. Most pitchers gain ~5 degrees of external rotation over the course of the competitive season, as it is. If we are going to have them do mobilizations to increase ER, it's only after we've measured their total motion (IR+ER) as asymmetrical and determined that they need ER (a sign is ER that is less on the dominant shoulder). And, any exercises we provide on this front are done in conjunction with concurrent scapular stabilization and thoracic spine extension/rotation - as you'd see in a side-lying extension-rotation drill.
Here, you've got supination of the forearm, external rotation of the shoulder, scapular retraction/posterior tilt, and thoracic spine extension/rotation occurring simultaneously on the "lay back" component. And, the opposite occurs as the athlete returns to the starting position. Again, to reiterate, this is NOT a drill that is appropriate for a large chunk of throwing shoulders who already have crazy external rotation; it's just one we use with specific cases of guys we discover need to gain it.
With the broomstick dislocation, you're going to be throwing a lot of valgus stress on the elbow - and as I noted in my recent six-part series on elbow pain, pitchers already get enough of that. To read a bit more, check out Part 3: Throwing Injuries.
While we're on the topic, be careful about universally recommending sleeper stretches. There is going to be a decent chunk of your baseball players that don't need it at all. In particular, if you have a congenitally lax (ultra hypermobile) athlete (high score on Beighton laxity test), a sleeper stretch will really irritate the anterior shoulder capsule and/or biceps tendon.
These players don't really need to be stretched into IR; they just need loads of stability training. You'll find that these guys become more and more common at higher levels, as congenital laxity serves as a sort of "natural selection" to succeed for some people. So, universally prescribing the sleeper stretch becomes more and more of a problem as you deal with more and more advanced players and could be jacking up multi-million dollar arms. You'll even find guys who can gain 10-20 degrees of internal rotation in a matter of 30 seconds - without any shoulder mobilizations - just with the appropriate breathing patterns. It just doesn't work for everyone. Honestly, the only way to know is to assess; each pitcher is unique.
The obvious question then becomes "why are you seeing shoulder "tightness.?" Is it postural? Is it an actual range of motion you've assessed? Is it guarding/apprehension in certain positions? And, what is a "natural throwing motion?" They said Mark Prior had "perfect mechanics" and he has been injured his entire career.
What is "natural" is not what is "effective" in many cases, so you have to appreciate that throwing is an unnatural motion that may be necessary for generating velocity, creating deception, and optimizing movement on a certain pitch.
It might seem like shameless self-promotion, but I would highly recommend that you pick up the DVD set Mike Reinold and I recently released: Optimal Shoulder Performance.
It covers all of this information in great detail, plus a ton more. Baseball players - and particularly pitchers - are a unique population as a whole, and within that population, each one is unique.
I'd also strongly encourage you to check out Mike Reinold's webinar, "Assessing Asymmetry in Overhead Athletes: Does Asymmetry Mean Pathology?" It's available through the Advanced CEU online store.
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used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!
Q: I would like to know what the main differences are between floor presses and pin presses in the power rack, obviously with the same range of movement. Usually, in talking about injury at the shoulders, the advice is to drop full range of motion in the bench press in favor of floor press; does the pin press in the power rack - starting around middle point - accomplish the same thing? In a strength program for a healthy individuals, do these two similar movements have same utility?
A: My experience with the pin press is that it is not as effective as a floor press or board press because the lifter isn't in a good position to appropriately "set" the scapular stabilizers to lock the shoulder blades down and back. As a result, the lifter tends to shrug up - which allows the shoulder blades to anteriorly tilt - which can exacerbate the shoulder impingement that may already be occurring.
Moreover, I believe that it is important to have a lifter lower the bar, as opposed to starting from a dead-stop. This way, we not only teach eccentric control of the muscles acting at the shoulder girdle, but we also train the movement by learning the appropriate bar path. Considering the number of individuals who take the bar too high on the chest and let the elbows flare out when benching, I think it's important to use movements like board presses and floor presses in lieu of the pin press. Otherwise, we won't get rid of clowns like this.
That said, generally speaking, I prefer board presses first, followed by floor presses, and then (if at all) pin presses. These, of course, come much later than push-up variations and (usually) dumbbell exercises.
For more information on the specific return-to-pressing progressions that we use with the athletes and clients we see with shoulder impingement, AC joint issues, and a host of other shoulder conditions, check out the Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD Set.
A few months ago, I gave a two-day seminar to just over 80 fitness professionals and strength and conditioning coaches. Even with a seminar this long, I can never cover everything I'd like to cover - and it's generally because much of what I'd like to address relies on some prerequisite knowledge that the attendees may not possess.
With that in mind, at the attendees' request, I sent a follow up email to all of them with a list of some of the best resources - books/manuals and DVDs - that I've encountered along my journey of self-education.
Please keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list, by any means, but it does cover what I'd consider requisite reading to get a good foundation in a lot of the concepts I covered last weekend.
1. Any anatomy text will do, but I prefer texts that speak more to functional anatomy. Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy is very good, and I know of many physical therapists in the US who keep a copy of this book on hand for patient education. Kinetic Anatomy is also a solid text that speaks to functional anatomy, and I believe the newer version comes with a tag-along DVD. Lastly, our Building the Efficient Athlete DVD set was created in part to educate folks on the functional anatomy side of things that they may miss during a conventional college curriculum. I know of several facilities in the US that use it extensively for staff training.
2. Anything from Stuart McGill - While there are several schools of thought with respect to low back function and rehabilitation (and I'd encourage you to check out each of them), McGill is the one that resonates with me the most. You can find a lot of his research on Pubmed, but he also has several books (and a DVD) available that I'd highly recommend. For those of you who are interested in some science and some applied, go with Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance.
For those of you who are a bit geekier and want to learn a lot more about the clinical side of things, check out Low Back Disorders. If you are going to train clients or athletes, you need to understand back pain.
3. Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes by Shirley Sahrmann is probably the book that has influenced me more than any other in my career. It's worth every penny.
4. For shoulder stuff, I think that The Athlete's Shoulder is a great resource. It is written by physical therapists and surgeons, though, so it can get very clinical at times. Those of you who are more interested in actual practical applications would be more interested in our new Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set, which is the video of a seminar I did with Mike Reinold, who is actually one of the co-authors of The Athlete's Shoulder. If you enter the coupon code "reinold200osp" today only at checkout HERE, you can get the DVD set with free shipping today as part of Mike's "sale week" to celebrate his 200th post.
5. Muscles: Testing and Function with Posture and Pain - This is a newer version of Kendall's classic text, and it's an incredibly detailed resource that you'll find yourself referring back to time and time again. Several of the screens we use in our everyday assessments with clients and athletes were influenced in part or entirely by Kendall's text.
6. Gray Cook's work is fantastic. If you want quick, practical tips, check out Secrets of the Hip and Knee and Secrets of the Shoulder. Both DVDs give you some tips that you can immediately put into practice.
7. Anatomy Trainsby Thomas Myers is an excellent read to get you thinking more and more about the role of the fascial system. I saw Thomas speak this past weekend in Providence, and he was absolutely fantastic - so excellent, in fact, that I'll probably write up a blog with some quick notes from his lecture. And, I'll be reading this for the third time this week, too!
8. Bulletproof Knees - Mike Robertson wrote this manual and I can honestly say that I haven't seen a better product on the market with respect to information that can be quickly applied to clients with knee pain - both in terms of understanding it and correcting it.
9. Mike Boyle has some excellent products - including all the Functional Strength Coach DVDs (#3 was the most recent). You can always find some good reading at StrengthCoach.com. I believe they still have the 14 days for $1 trial period, and as part of that, you get his Designing Resistance Training Programs and Facilities book for free.
10. Anatomy of Breathing - I think it's valuable to appreciate the muscles involved in respiration and start to put them into your functional anatomy framework as soon as possible. This book is a very quick read, but you'll get that foundational knowledge and start to think about how all this stuff lines up.
11. 2008 Indianapolis Performance Enhancement DVD set - This is a product that has largely flown under the radar because it was overshadowed by several other products that were launched around the same time. However, the short vs. stiff discussion that Bill Hartman presented as part of it is well worth the cost of the entire DVD set.
12. Clinical Applications of Neuromuscular Techniques(Part 1 and 2) - These books read like stereo instructions, but they are insanely thorough. I recommend them to anyone who is really dorky like I am. They will definitely help you to collaborate with manual therapists and physiotherapists a lot more effectively.
13. Assess and Correct - Shameless self-promotion here, but I'm extremely proud of this product. It's a DVD set and four accompanying manuals that cover 27 assessments and 78 corrective exercises we use with our clients and athletes. If I had to recommend one of our products to a trainer, this would be it. Stuart McGill have us some extremely flattering reviews on Assess and Correct as part of his new DVD.
I should note that the countless journal articles I've read over the years are noticeably absent from this list, but you can easily access the abstracts of those pieces at www.pubmed.com if you search by whatever keyword relates to your area of interest. I find myself using it daily, and I'll generally follow up on these abstracts by getting the full-text articles. Also, in addition to the few resources I note below, you can find a more extensive collection of recommended readings on my resources page. This includes a collection of links to free blogs that I read daily. Many of my blog readers don't know that, in addition to this blog, I have a free newsletter where readers get exclusive content and early notice on things - so you'll definitely want to sign up HERE if you haven't already.
It's also been a matter of interacting with as many smart folks as possible, just making (and documenting) observations with our clients/athletes, and going to seminars. This list should get you started, though!
1. I'm headed to Providence first thing tomorrow to speak at the Perform Better Summit. If you're in attendance, be sure to introduce yourself and say hello; it's always great to meet my readers.
2. It's the time of year where all the all-star and league MVP awards are handed out around here as playoffs are just getting underway. Here's a great article about one Cressey Performance athlete, Carl Anderson of Lincoln-Sudbury, who won the Dual County League MVP as he set school records for homeruns and RBIs: Diamond Natural, If a Bit Rough
3. Likewise, another CP athlete, Jeff Bercume in the Oakland A's organization, just got a little love: Bercume's Game Going North.
4. HERE is some recent research to support the use of accommodating resistance in the form of bands in resistance training. Many of us in the powerlifting community have anecdotally been able to verify its efficacy, but it's nice to see some research out there that confirms what a lot of folks have insisted for quite some time.
It's important to interpret this research with caution, though. Using bands on top of free weight resistance is fantastic, but it can really beat up your joints if you use it for too long without taking a break. I always found that the added eccentric stress really beat up my shoulders and elbows on the bench press if I used bench presses against bands in my training cycles for more than three weeks without a break from them.
5. Researchers from the University of Nebraska report that energy expenditure in untrained college students is the same on ellipticals and treadmills when working at a self-selected intensity. An unnamed researcher from the Cressey School of Hard Knocks reports that working at a "self-selected intensity" on these modalities requires about as much effort and coordination as watching NASCAR.
Call me crazy, but I think most college-age folks would be better off hitting things with sledgehammers as exercise; it's just way more badass.
6. Here's another solid testimonial we just received on Optimal Shoulder Performance:
"Eric and Mike did a great job of taking complex information and making it easy to understand for the viewer. I really liked the collaboration between the clinical side of things, and the training side. I now have a much better understanding of how to effectively assess the shoulder. More importantly, I am now better equipped to take that information and improve the training strategies and techniques for my clients."
-Danny McLarty, CSCS
Click here to pick up a copy of Optimal Shoulder Performance for yourself.
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On the recommendation of Mike Reinold, my co-creator of the Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set, we've been using forearm wall slides as part of our warm-ups and shoulder health programs for the past year or so. A variation is also featured on our Assess & Correct DVD as both an assessment and corrective drill.
With this exercise, the goal is to get to about 135 degrees of shoulder flexion without shrugging. In other words, you're checking just how well you upwardly rotate the scapulae. A good progression for this is the forearm wall slides with band, where you simply wrap a band around the wrists. The pull of the band forces your shoulder into internal rotation, so the external rotators (posterior rotator cuff and posterior deltoid) have to work isometrically to resist that movement. As I learned from physical therapist Tim Tyler at the MGH/Harvard Med Sports Medicine 2010 conference recently, it also improves recruitment of the lower trapezius while decreasing anterior deltoid and upper trapezius activity. In other words, it's one of the best bang for your buck scapular stability and rotator cuff exercises out there:
This is Part 4 of a series specifically devoted to elbow pain in athletes. Be sure to check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 if you haven't already.
As I presented in Part 3 of this series, there is absolutely nothing healthy about throwing a baseball, as the body is being contorted to extreme positions as the arm accelerates in the fastest motion ever recorded in sports. These outrageous demands warrant a multi-faceted approach to protecting pitchers from injury. In my eyes, this approach consists of four categories, and that's what I'll cover today.
1. Avoiding Injurious Pitching Mechanics
Let me preface this section by saying that I do not believe there is a single mechanical model that governs how one should pitch. Everyone is different, and those unique traits have to be taken into consideration in determining what is or isn't considered potentially harmful. For instance, only a tiny fraction of the population could ever even dream about pitching like Tim Lincecum because of ideal blend of congenital laxity and reactive ability he possesses.
I've trained Blue Jays left-handed pitching prospect Tim Collins for the past three seasons. At a Double-A game earlier this year, Tim introduced me to his good buddy Trystan Magnuson, a right-handed pitching prospect who is also in the Jays system. While Tim was a whopping 5-5, 131 pounds when he was signed right out of high school (now 5-7, 170), Trystan stands 6-7. Check out this picture I recently came across from spring training:
Anyone who thinks these two are going to throw a baseball with velocity and safety via the same mechanics is out of his mind. As an aside, if you're interested in watching both of them throw, there is some decent warm-up footage of both HERE.
While we can never expect all pitcher to fit the same mechanical model, we can look to the research (a great 2002 study from Werner et al. is an excellent place to start) to educate us about certain factors that predispose pitchers to increased elbow stress. To start, leading with the elbow too much increases valgus stress by about 2.5N per degree of horizontal adduction that the arm must travel. The problem with this is that every successful pitcher you'll ever see leads with the elbow to some degree, so it becomes an issue of "how much" and "when."
Getting to maximal external rotation too early also increases valgus stress on the elbow. According to Fleisig et al. (1995), the typical thrower is going to have about 67 degrees of shoulder external rotation at stride foot contact. The more external rotation there is, the more elbow stress you'll see. Unfortunately, this is one contributing factor to one's velocity, so these results must be intepreted cautiously. If you take away that external rotation, you may take away a few miles per hour. Again, the same goes for horizontal abduction.
Lower extremity sequencing problems can also wreak havoc on an elbow. Pitchers who fly open early tend to let their arm lag behind their body, increasing valgus stress in the process and making it harder to get good contribution from the lower half.
Likewise, guys who stay closed and throw across their body can wind up with medial elbow issues. If a pitcher maxes out his shoulder internal rotation and scapular protraction in coming across his body, the only choice to continue getting that range of motion is the elbow. If you create more range of motion, you have to slow down more range of motion.
This last point kicks off a brief, but important discussion. Many pitchers stay closed to improve deception. Others use it to help them get movement on sinkers.
Changing these mechanics could take away everything that makes these pitches successful, so you have to look to the other three factors to prepare them physically and protect them from these stresses. It's like making sure you give a guy a helmet if he is going to be banging his head against a wall!
All that said, finding the right mechanics is important for little leaguers and professionals alike - and it's the first step in protecting the elbow in a throwing situation. As we realize that the very issues that increase elbow stress happen to be the same ones that a) increase velocity and b) are often demonstrated by elite pitchers, we appreciate once again just how unnatural an act throwing a baseball really is!
2. Avoiding Acute and Chronic Overuse
One of our high school kids threw 188 pitches in a game last week. I'd like to think that I'm pretty good at what I do, but nothing I can do to keep a kid healthy if his coach asks him to do that time and time again.
Acutely, fatigued pitchers put more stress on their arms. There is less trunk tilt at ball release as the lower body gets more tired. And, the usually elbow drops. "The next thing you know, there's money missing off the dresser, and your daughter's knocked up. I've seen it a hundred times."
Gold star to those of you who caught that movie reference, but kidding aside, just about every case of elbow pain we see who comes through our door has been mismanaged in terms of pitch count - either acutely, chronically, or both. They think they can pitch year-round. They blow money on showcases. They play on three teams team at a time. They throw bullpens with their teams and with their private pitching instructors. The research is out there and the answer is very clear: there is only so much stress an arm - especially a skeletally immature arm - can take.
3. Being Chronically Physically Prepared to Pitch
This is the topic of which I've written the most on this site, and it encompasses everything I've written with respect to strength training for pitchers and targeted flexibility work, not to mention my absolute hatred for distance running for pitchers. Long story short, throwing a baseball is an action that takes its toll on the body; if you aren't functionally fit to pitch, you're just asking for an injury.
4. Being Acutely Physically Prepared to Pitch
This is a very overlooked component of not only staying healthy, but also performing at a high level. I'm amazed at how many young pitchers just "show and go" when it comes to pitching. That is, they get to the field and just go right to throwing. In other words, they throw to warm up.
We teach our athletes, "You warm up to throw; you don't throw to warm up." I've spent the last 57 paragraphs (give or take a few) outlining how incredibly stressful the throwing motion is, yet some kids can't wait to jump right into it before getting their body temperature up, optimizing joint range-of-motion, activating key neuromuscular connections, or doing anything that even vaguely resembles an appropriate "rest to exercise" transition. We encourage athletes to go through 8-10 dynamic flexibility drills followed by some easy sprinting progressions before they ever pick up a ball.
It's not just about what you do before an outing, either. It's also about what you do in the 24 hours after an appearance that determines how you'll bounce back in your subsequent outing. While the schmucks out there are doing "flush runs," the #1 thing I am worried about after a start is regaining lost range of motion. Reinold et al. found that pitchers lost both shoulder internal rotation and elbow extension range-of-motion during a competitive season when an adequate stretching routine was not implemented. It's no surprise, when you consider the overwhelmingly high eccentric stress that's placed on the shoulder external rotators and elbow flexors as they try to decelerate the crazy velocities we see with pitching. As such, following an outing, the first thing we want our guys to do is get back their shoulder and elbow ROM (and get the hips loosened up). There are some athletes who don't need to be stretched into internal rotation, so be careful about using this as a blanket recommendation (more on that in our Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set).
In closing, an important note I should make is that pitchers rarely get hurt because of just one of these factors; it's usually a combination of all of them. So, when evaluating a pitcher's health and performance, be sure to broad perspective.
We've got four down and two to go in this elbow series. Stay tuned for more!
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I turn 29 today. And, while a lot of people look at birthdays as a reason to feel badly about getting old, I like to think of them as a reason to reflect on the cool stuff that's happened in the past year. Or, at the very least, I look at a birthday as good blog content! So, without further ado, here are 29 reasons I'm smiling on my 29th birthday.
1. I'm still not as old as Tony! (okay, that was wrong).
2. Several of our high school athletes have gone off to college and been among the strongest (if not the strongest) in the weight room. The really rewarding aspect of it, though, is that they have an appreciation for the fact that it isn't just about strength; it's about combining that strength with a host of other factors - flexibility, soft tissue quality, etc. - to stay healthy. I just love that they are informed consumers and advocates for themselves.
3. Lincoln-Sudbury Baseball has been #1 in the state, according to the Boston Globe Rankings. We train over 30 players who are currently in the LS program, plus quite a few younger guys and LS alumni.
4. Along those lines, LS junior Carl Anderson was batting .500 with 6HR and 21 RBIs through the first 11 games. He was also 4-0 with a 0.78 ERA and 25K in 18 innings pitched.
5.
Enough said.
6. A reader sent me a great article in response to myIs Pitching Velocity Really that Important?Blog: Change-up has become Great Equalizer. Awesome article!
7. CP athlete and Toronto Blue Jays prospect Tim Collins has 32 strikeouts in 18 innings pitched. Opponents are hitting just .206 against him. He also made a surprise cameo in the office at CP the other day on his only off-day of the month and hung out for the whole afternoon. Tim, one of our college prospects, and I all went over to watch a high school game in which a lot of our guys were playing. It's pretty cool to see pro and college ballplayers coming back to watch high school kids' games when it's usually the other way around! It makes me really proud of the camaraderie we've built among all our clients at Cressey Performance.
8. A buddy of mine is involved with Humblecock clothing (www.humblecock.com), so he sent me some free goodies. I like this stuff! I passed out a few samples to my pro guys and they loved it.
9. Brian St. Pierre, our first employee at Cressey Performance, is unfortunately leaving us at the end of this week as he returns to school to do his master's degree. While we're really bummed to be losing him, I can say that I'm really proud of how tremendous a job he's done for us since early 2008, when we first hired him. He's improved tremendously as a coach and really turned himself into an industry leader (actually just had his first article published at T-Muscle HERE). It's funny how good things happen for great people who work hard. Check him out at BrianStPierreTraining.com.
10. Recently, a local scout informed me that the Massachusetts baseball class of 2011 was ranked as the 5th best in the country. In other words, our juniors here in little ol' Massachusetts are competing with the likes of Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina - where the populations are not only bigger, but they can also play baseball year-round. Whoever said that early sports specialization was necessary to compete with these big dogs doesn't understand development at all. While the Southern boys are having Tommy Johns and labral repairs in the winter, our guys are training their butts off and attacking things with a specific plan.
The results? At Cressey Performance alone, we have eight juniors verbally committed to play for Division 1 baseball programs - including Virginia, Vanderbilt, Boston College, and UCONN. And, there should be at least a half-dozen more on that list by the time everyone signs national letters of intent this fall.
11. Head over to Amazon.com and check out the reviews on Maximum Strength HERE. This sucker is getting more stars than an astronomy textbook!
12. It gets even better than that. In the next few months, I'll release a new product that'll blow the doors off of what I did with Maximum Strength. If you liked Maximum Strength, you'll LOVE this one. Subscribe to my newsletter at the right of this screen to be among the first notified.
13. Awesome!
By the way, when I was watching this video on YouTube, one of the recommended videos was Will Ferrell's 2003 Harvard Commencement speech. It is absolutely hilarious; talk about a way to make a graduation actually interesting!
14. In the past few months, I've gotten invitations to present in both St. Thomas and South Africa. For those of you who prefer visual representations of how sweet this is, please take note (respectively):
We still have to plan our honeymoon soon as well, so it's going to be a very sunny year for a couple of Bostonians!
15. It's getting to be that time of year when pitchers come in and act all surprised that they are hitting homeruns now. It just goes to show you that when you get more athletic, a lot of things fall into place - and not just in terms of pitching! Rotational power is rotational power; the hitting just requires more hand-eye coordination.
16. I've got my own office now! Unfortunately, it's still buried under boxes and clutter from the move, but it is nice to know that I have a little bit more organization coming to my life soon!
17. I am pretty darn proud of the Cressey Performance website. It's a huge improvement from our old one, and I'm psyched to have an online presence that reflects how much hard work we put into making CP a special place to train.
18. CP athlete and San Diego Padres prospect Will Inman has a 3.03 ERA through 38.2 innings pitched in AAA. Opponents are hitting just .221 against him. For those who aren't familiar with the Pacific Coast League, this is the single-hardest league in which one can pitch at any level of professional baseball. There are small ballparks and insane winds that turn pop-ups into 450-foot HRs. Will is doing awesome and we're all really happy for him; it's a lot of hard work rewarded.
19. This one really cracks me up. We uploaded this video of CP athlete Sahil Bloom back in October of 2007, and it's become the second most popular of all-time. The funniest part is all the 13-year-olds arguing in the comments section about how this is "just good for football players" and how they all throw 97mph at age 13.
The funniest part is that Sahil is now pitching consistently over 90mph - and doing so at Stanford. He's 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA through six outings in his freshman year. It's amazing that he's had this success just "training for football!"
20. The past year has brought some collaborative efforts for me that have been absolutely tremendous in not only enhancing my productivity, but also educating me (and my readers/customers). Matt Blake has brought a great new dimension to Cressey Performance with his pitching instruction and video analysis, and to EricCressey.com with his blog contributions. Nate Tiplady has been a huge addition to our programs with the Graston and ART services he provides to our clients. It was also great to collaborate with both Mike Reinold and Bill Hartman on projects for the first time, with Optimal Shoulder Performance and Assess & Correct, respectively.
At the end of the day, you are only as strong as your network, so I'd encourage you all to seek out collaborative efforts with other professionals who complement your skill set as well.
21. Slacker.com. This thing is an awesome source for music; I listen to it all the time when I'm at the computer writing programs.
22. Just got this feedback from a very happy Optimal Shoulder Performance customer:
"Awesome job on the OptimalShoulderPerformance DVDs with Reinold. I just finished watching them this past weekend (I need to get a life) and I found them extremely educational and helpful. I really thought the information you both provided complimented each other well. There were some variations to some movements that I will definitely be implementing into some of my programs."
While the financial side of things with product sales is nice, the thing that I actually enjoy the most is knowing that the information we're putting out is helping people to improve their bodies and stay out of pain. It's even better when I know it is helping a fellow fitness professional or some rehabilitation specialist, as it means that they're taking that knowledge to help more people beyond just themselves. At the end of my career, I really want to be known most for the always putting my athletes first and always doing my best to contribute to the body of knowledge.
23. On Tuesday morning, I had an absolutely terrible training session. I felt weak the entire time, and couldn't even stomach a shake post-training. About an hour later, every joint in my body hurt and I had a raging headache. That night, I was in bed early and was pouring sweat in my sleep.
I almost never get sick. We are taking once every 3-4 years. My attendance is so good at work that my business partner, Pete, has to force me to take days off. Surely, there is something to the idea that regular exercise and proper diet reduces one's likelihood of getting sick - and this is certainly demonstrated in the reduced absenteeism
Wednesday morning, I woke up feeling a ton better. It turned out to be a really productive day. This little experience reminds me that taking care of your body doesn't just prevent you from getting sick; it also helps you to bounce back quickly when the unavoidable illness happens.
24. CP athlete Danny O'Connor looks to run his professional boxing record to 12-0 this weekend at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. A huge CP contingent will be out to support him. Danny works his butt off five days a week at CP in addition to all his boxing training, and deserves all the success that comes to him.
25. Chris Howard is the newest addition to the Cressey Performance staff, and we're excited to have him on board. A former CP intern, Chris went on to massage therapy school and is now a LMT - on top of his CSCS and master's degree in nutrition. Needless to say, we're lucky to have a guy who brings so much versatility to our facility. I especially like Chris right now because he's motivated me to brush up on my anatomy knowledge since he just retook it all in school!
26. Bill Hartman is in town for a seminar at Northeastern this weekend, so it'll be a nice birthday present to catch up with him. He's joining us at CP today for the day. His blog is always full of good stuff, but chatting with him in person is even better!
27. Tony Gentilcore wrote a great two-part series called "It All Starts in the Kitchen." There are some great tips in there for those of you who might struggle on the diet side of things. Check out Part 1 and Part 2.
28. One of our pro baseball guys told me to check out the "Baseball Made Easy" series on YouTube, and it's absolutely hilarious. Check a few of them out:
29. I already knew I had the greatest girl in the world, but when she took me to a Sox game last night for my birthday for the third year in a row, I was reminded once again! Here we were last year - when I had more hair.
