Home Posts tagged "Perform Better" (Page 2)

Three Years of Cressey Performance: The Right Reasons and the Right Way

Though a somewhat "normal" day at the gym, yesterday marked Cressey Performance's three-year anniversary. While my business partner's blog post yesterday did an excellent job of doling out "thank yous" to a lot of the important people who have been so involved in our success - from clients to parents, coaches, interns, and significant others - I wanted to add my own two cents on the matter today.  More than anything, I really wanted to highlight a sentence that illustrates what makes me the most proud about where CP has been, where it is, and where it's going.

We've done this for the right reasons, and we've done it the right way.

newcp21 I read a business development blog post by Chris McCombs the other day where he wrote something that really hit home for me.  When he was talking about how he decides to accept or reject a new project/opportunity, here is one of his guidelines: "Only Take on Projects That Are In Line With My Current Values and Fulfill Me Beyond Just The Money - A project must fulfill me in some way BESIDE just money...too many people spend their life JUST chasing a buck; to me, that's no way to live.  For me, the money must be there, but it should fulfill me personally, be fun, help a lot of people, and build and be in line with my current brand and brand equity." Back in 2007, I had a tough decision to make.  My online consulting business had really taken off, and the Maximum Strength book deal was in the works.  My other products - Magnificent Mobility, The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual, and Building the Efficient Athlete - were selling well and getting great reviews, and I'd just had a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.  This website was growing exponentially in popularity, and I had just wrapped up my first year on the Perform Better tour - so lots of doors were opening for me on the seminar front to present all over the world - and I could have stayed home and just written all day, every day. I was getting really crunched for time, as I was already training clients 8-13 hours per day, seven days per week, as my in-person clientele had rapidly grown. My phone rang off the hook for about three weeks after Lincoln-Sudbury won a baseball state championship after I'd trained several of their guys, and one of my athletes was named state player of the year.  And, after being featured on the front page of the Boston Globe with a nipple so hard I could cut diamonds, I was in demand as a t-shirt model (okay, not really - but it made for an awesome blog post, The School of Hard Nipples).

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I was exhausted and stressed - but absolutely, positively, "living the dream" that I'd always wanted. To make matters a bit more interesting, I had just started dating a great girl (now my fiancee) who I really had a good feeling was "the one" after about three months.  The work days, however, were insanely long and I was worried that I'd screw up a good thing by not spending enough time with her. Every business development coach out there would have seen a "simple" answer to all my problems: stop training people in person.  Just write, consult, make DVDs, and give seminars.  It would have cut my hours by 80% and still allowed me to earn a pretty good living - and enjoy plenty of free time.  There was a huge problem with that, though; as Chris wrote, it wouldn't "fulfill me personally, be fun, help a lot of people, and build and be in line with my current brand and brand equity."  I like doing evaluations, writing programs, coaching, sweating, training with my guys, cranking up the music, helping people get to where they want to be, collaborating with and learning from other professionals, and watching my athletes compete - whether it's at some high school field or at Fenway Park.  Giving that up wasn't an option; I guess I'd have just been a crappy business coaching client, as I would have been stubborn as an ass on giving that up.

stubborn

Fortunately for me, Pete Dupuis, my roommate from my freshman year of college, had just finished his MBA and was in the midst of a job search.  And, during that MBA, he'd started to train with me and packed on a ton of strength and muscle mass - making him realize and truly appreciate the value in what I was doing (especially since he was and is a goalie in a very competitive soccer league).  Pete had also met and become friends with a ton of my clients - and taken a genuine interest in my baseball focus, as a lifelong Red Sox fan.  Almost daily, Pete would encourage me to do my own thing and let him handle all the business stuff for me. Simultaneously, Tony Gentilcore was ready for a change of scenery on the work front.  Having been Tony's roommate and training partner for almost two years at that point, I knew he was a genuinely great guy, that he'd read everything on my bookshelf, and that he could coach his butt off and "walk the walk."  He, too, had met a lot of my clients - so there was continuity from the get-go. So, on July 13, 2007, Cressey Performance was born.  Here is what we started with.

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Boatloads of renovations and equipment additions later, it wound up looking like this.

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Of course, we outgrew and demolished this space after about nine months and moved three miles east to a facility twice the size.  And, we've continued to grow right up to this day; June was our busiest month ever, and July should be busier.  We've got regular weekly clients who come from four states (MA, NH, CT, RI), and in the baseball off-season, I have college and pro guys who come from the likes of OH, AZ, CA, SC, NC, GA, FL, and VA.  And, we had 33 applicants for this summer's internships.

To be very candid, though, I don't consider myself a very good "businessman."  No offense to Pete or Tony, either, but I don't think they even come close to the textbook definition of the word, either.  We just try to be good dudes. "We've done this for the right reasons, and we've done it the right way."

We don't allocate a certain percentage of our monthly revenues to advertising.  In fact, we haven't spent a single penny on advertising - unless you count charitable donations to causes that are of significance to us.

We don't search high and low for new revenue streams to push on our clients.  In fact, if I get one more MonaVie sales pitch, I'm going to suplex whoever delivered it right off our loading dock.  Rather, we bust our butts to set clients up for success in any way possible - and trust that those efforts will lead to referrals and "allegiance" to Cressey Performance.  We ask what they want from us and modify our plans accordingly.  It's what led to us bringing in manual therapy, a pitching cage, and, of course, pitching coach/court jester Matt Blake's timeless antics.

Along those same lines, we don't measure our success based on revenue numbers; we measure it based on client results.  In three years of seeing LOADS of baseball players non-stop, we've only had three arm surgeries: one shoulder and two elbow.  All three were athletes who came to us with existing injuries, and in each case, we kept them afloat as long as we could and trained them through their entire rehabilitation.  I don't want to toot our own horn, but this is a remarkable statistic in a population where over 57% of pitchers suffer some form of shoulder injury during each competitive season - and that doesn't even include  elbows!  And, our statistics don't even count literally dozens of players who have come to us after a doctor has told them they needed surgery, but we've helped them avoid these procedures.  The college scholarships, draft picks, state titles, individual honors, and personal bests in the gym are all fantastic, but I'm most proud of saying that we've dedicated ourselves to keeping athletes healthy so that they can enjoy the sports they love.

The same goes for our non-competitive athlete clients.  The fat loss and strength gains they experience are awesome and quantifiable, but beyond that (and more qualitatively), I love knowing that they're training pain-free and are going to be able to enjoy exercise and reap the benefits of training for a long time.

We don't penny-pinch during our slowest times of the month (late March through mid-May - the high school baseball season).  We see it as an opportunity to do more staff continuing education, renovate the facilities, and get out to watch a lot of baseball and support our athletes.  And, we adjust our hours to open up on Sundays and stay later on weeknights during the baseball season to make it easier for athletes to get in-season training in whenever they can.  If a pitcher wants to come in and get his arm stretched out before or after an outing, he stops by and we do it for him - but don't charge him a penny for it.  It's about setting people up for success.

We don't try to just "factory line" as many clients through our facility as possible with everyone on the same program.  You might walk into CP and see 20 different clients on 20 different programs - because a 16-year old pitcher with crazy congenital laxity is going to have a markedly different set of needs than a 16-year-old linebacker with shoulder mobility so bad that he needs help putting a jacket on.  One program on one dry erase board for hundreds of athletes isn't training; it's babysitting.

Taking this a step further, we don't boot clients out after a certain amount of time.  Clients take as long as needed to complete the day's program. And, when they're done (or before they even begin), loads of our clients spend time hanging out in the office just shooting the breeze and enjoying the environment.  As an example, Toronto Blue Jays Organizational Pitcher of the Year Tim Collins spends a minimum of five hours a day at CP all off-season.

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Tim has sold girl scout cookies for the daughter of one of our clients, and he's been our back-up front desk guy when Pete is out of town.  Yesterday, he was back to visit on his all-star break - and he said hello to every client he saw - and remembered them by name.  If you're a 15-year-old up-and-coming baseball pitcher, how cool is it to get that kind of greeting when you walk into the office?  Well, at CP, kids get that greeting from 10-15 pro guys all the time.  And, if they're lucky, they might even get to throw on a bobsled helmet and join these pro guys in a rave to Miley Cyrus, apparently.

At least once a week, I get an email from an up-and-coming coach asking for advice about starting a facility.  When I get these emails, I now think about how Rachel Cosgrove recently mentioned that more than 80% of fitness coaches leave the industry within the first year. In most cases, this happens because these people never should have entered the fitness industry in the first place - because their intentions (money) were all wrong.  They usually leave under the assumption that they could never make a living training people, but in reality, these folks are going to have a hard time making a living in any occupation that requires genuinely caring about what you do and the people with whom you work, and being willing to hang your hat on the results you produce.

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As such, the first advice, in a general sense, is obvious: do it for the right reasons, and do it the right way.  Sure, making a living is essential, but only open a facility because it would fulfill you "personally, be fun, help a lot of people, and build and be in line" with who you are and what your values are - which together constitute your "brand." Making the move to start up this business was one of the most daunting decisions I have ever had to make, and all the efforts toward actually getting the business started were equally challenging.  However, in the end, it has been more rewarding both personally and professionally than I could have ever possibly imagined.

Thank you very much to all of you - clients/customers, parents, EricCressey.com readers, seminar attendees, and professional colleagues - for all your support over the past three years.  We couldn't have done it without you - and look forward to many more years of doing things for the right reasons and in the right way.

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The Lifting Heavy Stuff Registry

As many of you probably already know, I'll be getting married this October.  And, as part of wedding preparations, my fiancee, Anna, and I (well, mostly her) are pulling together our wedding registry.  In fact, as part of our 4th of July trip, we'll be spending some quality time at Macy's picking out a bunch of random stuff that will likely collect dust in the back of cabinets until the day arrives that we opt to use them at my "I got my AARP card today" celebration banquet.  We're also registered at Crate & Barrel, Chuck 'E Cheese, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond (I'm hoping to get some of the Beyond - as you'll see here). To be very honest, June was a super busy month at Cressey Performance, and July will undoubtedly be our busiest ever.  So, the other night, when Anna started peppering me with questions about what I wanted to add to the registry, I really didn't have the brain power in reserves to make a valid contribution to the discussion.  As such, I'll probably just be getting wooden spoons and this framed, inspirational piece for the entryway to greet all our visitors and make them feel special.

awesome

Noticing my not-so-unintentional apathy, Anna joked that it'd be a piece of cake if there was a way to register at Perform Better (or anywhere else) and just ask for training goodies for the gym - and that's when the wheels started turning.  At the very least, I figured it'd give us some blog content and reader-writer interaction as we head into the weekend. I know I'd get myself some heavier dumbbells - maybe a pair of 110- and 120-pounders - and a Buffalo bar. If you had a "lifting heavy stuff registry," what would you add to it?  Bands and chains?  A sled?  Books/DVDs? A Diamond Dave's Ninja School instructional video?

Tupperware and spice racks?  "No says I!"

Let's hear some suggestions in the comments section below.  And, until next time, have a great holiday weekend and "don't go ninja-ing nobody that don't need ninja-ing!"

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Random Friday Thoughts: Chicago, Cattle, Comcast, and Customer Service

I hope everyone had a good week.  I'm writing this blog in a bit of a hurry, as I need to pack this morning before heading to Cressey Performance and then directly to the airport to fly out to Chicago. 1. Why Chicago?  Well, in case you've been living under a rock and haven't heard, this weekend is the second Perform Better Summit of the year.  I'll be giving two talks on Saturday. If you're up in the air on which one to attend, I'd recommend my second one (lecture, not hands on).  With the room design (no concrete walls), we won't be able to do much true medicine ball training so that the hands-on can parallel my lecture topic.  I'll be talking about shoulder assessment and corrective exercise with a little medicine ball flavor in my hands-on instead. There are a ton of videos in the presentation, though, so you'll be able to get the next best thing.

While I enjoy presenting at seminars, I don't like to travel at all; sitting in airports and on planes is just not my thing.  However, when it's Perform Better, the hassle of traveling just doesn't seem to be present - because I know how awesome the "light at the end of the tunnel" is.   As a presenter, I don't always get to check out as many of the other talks as I'd like because I'm tied up with speaking and answering questions, but I do get to experience a lot of interaction with audience members and other speakers between lectures, at breakfast/lunch/dinner, and on the town.  These, for me, are really as valuable as the presentations themselves.  Audience members ask some excellent questions that can drive blog content, and I've also added some valuable people from around the country to my network this way.  Chatting with presenters is great as well, because they always have some new project or business strategy that they're working on that can get my mind working.  Chicago is also great because I can catch up with my buddy, Josh Bonhotal, who is a strength and conditioning coach for the Chicago Bulls.

chicagobulls

All that said, I have to say that it is kind of nice to see my schedule as empty for the rest of the summer.  With the new house, wedding planning, and our busiest month at Cressey Performance at-hand, it'll be nice to focus my efforts here both personally and professionally.  I try to keep the summers reasonably free so that we can take weekend trips up to Maine to visit my parents a few times a month.  Additionally, with a few of our minor league guys on the cusp of call-ups to the big leagues, I want to make sure that I can hop on a plane at a moment's notice to be there to support them and share in the excitement wherever they wind up making those MLB debuts. Anyway, if you're in attendance in Chicago, please be sure to introduce yourself. 2.Those of you who can't make it would probably like this article as the next best thing: Medicine Ball Madness. 3. Oh, I should say that it looks like my second presentation coincides with the U.S. vs. Ghana World Cup game.  Skip me, if you have to; I'd probably skip me, if I was in your shoes.

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Check out this great article from Ryan Andrews at Precision Nutrition: Cattle Feedlot: Behind the Scenes. 4. Many of you might recall how much I abhor Comcast.  Well, I'm happy to report that we officially kicked them to the curb about two weeks ago by making the switch to Verizon for our internet and cable - and I have to say that it was an awesome decision.  The price, service, speed, and product offering don't just beat Comcast; they beat it like a red-headed rented mule.  If you're thinking about making the switch, I highly recommend it. Incidentally, I had to chuckle when I saw that MSN Money had released its list of the 2010 Customer Service Hall of Shame, and Comcast was in third place.  Meanwhile, Sprint - which I had dropped for my cell phone service after seven years (also to go with Verizon) was listed as #4.  I guess you could say that I was getting rid of the dead wood around here last month! Please enter your email below to sign up for our FREE newsletter.
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Stuff You Should Read: 6/22/10

Some recommended reading for the week: Ultimate Forearm Training for Baseball - Knowing I work with a lot of baseball guys, Jedd Johnson sent me a copy of his new e-book on forearm training the other day.  Just as I've come to expect from the Diesel Crew guys, I picked up some innovative new exercises that we're going to incorporate with our athletes moving forward.  It's definitely worth picking up. Perform Better-Providence Review - This is a lengthy (and a bit all over the place) blog from Charlie Weingroff, but the bulletpointed information for each presentation he attended is excellent. Strength Coaches Doing Heavy Lifting - This is a pretty cool ESPN article outlining how the role of the strength coach in the college setting has evolved, and what it means in some bigger D-1 football programs. Please enter your email below to sign up for our FREE newsletter.
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Random Friday Thoughts: 8/7/09

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."

hamsterguy

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.
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Back from California…

You probably noticed that there wasn't a blog post on Tuesday, and I'm only now getting around to this at 9PM on Wednesday night.  It's because my fiancee and I returned from California early this morning after five days of fun - including the Perform Better Summit in Long Beach, my staff in-service for Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove's staff at their facility in Newhall, and a visit to my buddy Scot Prohaska and his place down in Huntington Beach.  Needless to say, it was a very busy trip - but that's not to say that we didn't have some fun.  Muscle Beach, anyone?

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Don't worry, though; I actually did get a bit of relaxation in.  Just give me a day to get back in the groove, dig myself out of the giant landfill that is my email inbox, and I'll be kicking out new content in no time.

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Random Friday Thoughts: 7/31/09

1. As you read this blog, I'll be taking in (and presenting at) the Perform Better Summit in Long Beach, CA.  You, on the other hand, will be missing out on the fun.  Sorry, dude. Actually, the next best thing for you would be to check out the Perform Better website, as they have their big end-of-summer sale going on right now.  You can get everything from massage tools, to med balls, to kettlebells at big discounts. You can't buy people to throw around as weights, but let's be honest; that's soooo British. 2. Cressey Performance athlete Danny O'Connor will be boxing tonight on ESPN's Friday Night Fights.  Danny is looking to run his professional record to 8-0.  I know I'll be looking all over on Friday night to find a TV to check out our man in action, and I'd encourage you to do the same, too. 3. Congratulations to CP athlete Mitch Perez, who threw a no-hitter in the opening game of the Central Mass Senior Babe Ruth World Series.  Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, another CP athlete, Eric Reale, threw a one-hitter the same day, and Matt McGavick threw a complete game shutout to win the series.  Nice work, fellas!

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4. Those of you who (like me) deal with young athletes on a daily basis have probably come across loads of parents who wonder whether resistance training is bad for kids who are still developing.  Obviously, we know that isn't the case - but relating it to these parents isn't always as easy as you might think.  Fortunately, the NSCA just updated its position statement on Youth Resistance Training.  You can check it out HERE. 5. In case you missed this week's newsletter (and you should be subscribed!), here it is - complete with a look how to avoid shoulder pain during push-ups. Have a great weekend!
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Strength Training Programs: A Quick Fix for Painful Push-ups

Q: I've read a lot from you, Robertson, and Hartman about including push-up variations in strength training programs is really important for shoulder health.  Unfortunately, whenever I do them, I have pain in my bum shoulder.  Any ideas what to do?

A: Well, obviously, there are two things we need to rule out:

1. You may simply have a really irritated shoulder, which (in most cases) means that any sort of approximation or protraction movement could get it angrier, even if it is a closed-chain movement like the push-up that is normally pretty shoulder-friendly.  Likewise, if you have a significant acromioclavicular joint injury, the extension range-of-motion at the bottom of a push-up could exacerbate your symptoms.  So, obviously, the first step is to rule out if something is structurally wrong with your shoulder, and if so, if the push-up even belongs in your strength training program.

2. Your technique might just be atrocious.  If the elbows are flared out, hips are sagging, and/or you're in a forward head posture, simply changing your technique may very well alleviate those symptoms.  In a good push-up, the elbows should be tucked to a 45-degree angle to the body, with the hips, torso, neck, and head in a straight line.  The muscles of the upper back should essentially "pull" you down into the bottom position:

Once you've ruled out those two issues and still have some annoying issues, there is one more thing you can try: simply elevate the feet.  Looking to the research, Lear and Gross found that performing push-ups with the feet elevated significantly increased activation of the serratus anterior (SA).

If we can get more SA recruitment and less pectoralis minor contribution, it keeps us out of a position of scapular anterior tilt, which mechanically decreases the subacromial space through which the rotator cuff tendons pass.  In the picture below, think of the area just below the word "acromion" being smaller, and then picture what would happen to the tendons that pass through that region; they get impinged.  Serratus anterior (along with lower trapezius) can help prevent that.

scapula

That said, I've seen quite a few folks with persistent shoulder pain with bench pressing variations (barbell and DBs) and regular push-ups who were able to do the feet-elevated versions completely pain free in their strength training programs.  Obviously, begin with just body weight and see how it goes, but over time, you can start to add resistance and use the single-leg version.



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MRIs vs. Movement

As many of you know, earlier this week, I spent three days at a huge sports medicine conference organized by Mass General Hospital in conjunction with the Harvard University Medical School.  It was a great event geared toward sports orthopedists, radiologists, physical therapists, and athletic trainers; I was very humbled to have been invited to present alongside some of the brightest minds in the sports medicine world.  The discussions on surgical technique, physical examinations, etiology of injuries, biomechanics, rehabilitation, and return-to-play guidelines were absolutely fantastic.  The stuff that caught my attention the most, though, actually came in the discussion of imaging - MRIs, MRAs, and x-rays - by some of the best radiologists in the world. Several of these brilliant radiologists made specific points of commenting on how not every abnormality you see on diagnostic imaging constitutes a symptom-causing issues.  A perfect example would be a SLAP 1 (superior labrum fraying) in a baseball pitcher, which is completely normal for 79% of major league pitchers.  Just because the labrum is fraying doesn't mean that the pitcher is going to be in pain; it's a passive stabilizer, and the active restraints (rotator cuff, scapular stabilizers) can get stronger to pick up the slack.  Likewise, just because a player is having shoulder pain and he has a SLAP 1 lesion on imaging doesn't mean that the frayed labrum is the cause.  It could be coming from the biceps tendon or rotator cuff, for instance, and the labral issue is just "there." So what does that mean for strength and conditioning professionals?  Well, as I wrote in Inefficiency vs. Pathology, there isn't a whole lot we can do to effect favorable changes in what diagnostic imaging looks like, but we can go out of our way to ensure that clients and athletes move efficiently and have adequate muscular strength, stability, and tissue quality.

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This is actually my exact topic on the Perform Better tour (next stop is Long Beach at the end of July).  If you can't make it to Long Beach, I'd highly encourage you to check out these previous writings of mine: Inefficiency vs. Pathology (noted above) To Squat or Not to Squat An Interview with Dr. Jason Hodges The Proactive Patient
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Friday Night Journals

I usually write my blog posts a few days in advance - and that's the case with today's blog, which I'm actually writing on Friday night, May 29. It's 10:31PM, and I'm not going to lie: I'm absolutely exhausted (and, I guess it technically should be called "tonight's blog," even if it's published four days after I write it). My fiancee had a pre-graduation party of sorts to attend with some classmates, and because I was covering the gym until 5:30PM (and Friday traffic in Boston is a pain in the butt), I wasn't home in time to tag along.  Since I'm pretty beat and I missed out on my chance to have some fun tonight, I decided to make lemonade out of rotten lemons. Sure, I wrote a few programs for athletes and answered a few emails, but the "excitement" for my night was a chance to get better as a coach.  You see, I delved into the folder I keep on my desktop entitled "Overhead Throwing Journal Articles."  Essentially, this folder is full of PDFs of all sorts of studies relating to baseball - from injury prevention, to performance, to characteristics of successful athletes.  Call me a dork, but it's a Friday night, and I'm psyched to be reading this stuff. Why?  Well, I want to be the best in the world at developing baseball talent - for my sake, my family's sake, and most importantly, for the athletes who trust their development to me.  Baseball players account for 74% of the Cressey Performance clientele, and I feel it's my obligation to them to be as on-top of things as is humanly possible. I don't want this to come across as a "hooray for me" post, so I'm trying to choose my words wisely - but I can honestly say that I HATE not knowing something.  It's a hatred that's driven me to read everything I can get my hands on and make the most of the valuable experiences I've been afforded and relationships I've cultivated with bright minds in related fields of study. A few weekends ago, during the Q&A section of the Perform Better Summit in Providence, Al Vermeil - quite possibly the best strength and conditioning coach of all time (has won multiple Super Bowl and NBA Championship rings) - came right out and said (paraphrased, as I recall it), "I'm tired of hearing about people in the fitness industry asking about how to make more money.  The only thing I ever focused on was becoming a better coach.  Get really good at what you do and then you'll make enough money." It really rang true for me, as my mindset all along has always been to just keep getting smarter and smarter: something that's easy for me to work toward, as I genuinely love what I do.  I often get asked how I have accomplished so much by age 28, and the answer is that I really love it, and work has never been about a paycheck.  It's been about gathering, interpreting, utilizing, and disseminating information - to my athletes and reading/viewing audiences. So, I guess you could say that a Friday night with a collection of journal articles isn't such a bad thing.  I'm guessing Al Vermeil had plenty of "Journal Fridays" along the way to all those rings.  When was the last time you set aside a Friday night (or several of them) to get better in your chosen field?
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