This Saturday, Chad Waterbury will deliver his Advanced Training Workshop at Cressey Performance.  And, since I hadn't caught up with him here for quite some time, I thought it'd be a good time to bring him back for an interview. Check it out. -EC

EC: Welcome back to EricCressey.com! It's been a while since we last touched base, so we ought to get up to speed on what you've been doing. To start, what would you say is the biggest change you’ve made compared to when you started training?

CW: The most significant change I’ve made is the way I assess clients. In the early days I would do some basic range of motion tests and ask a client which joints felt stiff or painful. Then I would do a combination of soft tissue work and PNF stretches to correct the issues. It helped clients move better and have less pain for the workout that followed, but those were usually just temporary changes. The next workout the client would often complain of the same problems.

Take the IT band, for example, since it’s usually stiff and painful to the touch on many athletes. I used to have my clients foam roll the IT band before training to release the tension. It hurts like hell to foam roll a super stiff IT band, and it’s easy to associate the pain of foam rolling with a gain in tissue quality. But that’s rarely the solution. In most cases, the IT band would be right back where it started the following day.

So a few years ago I started studying more progressive corrective approaches, namely the Postural Restoration Institute (PRI) and Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS). What I learned from those two approaches is how imperative it is to identify and correct the position of the ribcage and pelvis.

In my early training years I would look for muscles that were tight or painful and find a way to eliminate the tension through stretching or foam rolling. But I learned that instead of figuring out how to release a tight muscle it’s much more valuable to ask yourself: Why is the muscle tight?

When you learn to ask the right questions you put yourself much closer to the solution.

EC: I agree.  Learning and integrating PRI into our system has been a huge game changer, and you'll definitely see aspects of DNS in our training programs, too. Where are you seeing it have the most dramatic impact?

CW: Three areas that often have excessive tension are the psoas, TFL and IT band. Now, you can stretch and foam roll and it might help temporarily. But in many cases the psoas is excessively stiff because the diaphragm and ribcage aren’t sitting properly. For the TFL and IT band, those problems are usually related to a rotated pelvis and poor glute activation. When you correct those issues, and sometimes it only takes five minutes, the excess tension disappears immediately. Now you’re working on the source of the problem.

Or take shoulder pain as another example since that’s one area you specialize in. I think we have learned how crucial proper positioning of the ribcage and diaphragm are for optimal shoulder mechanics.

And the coolest part is that it’s not difficult to learn how to reposition the ribcage or pelvis, once you know what you’re looking for.

EC: I read your blog post where you describe some of the things you learned at the Movement Performance Institute. Care to elaborate on that?

CW: I think it’s the duty of a trainer or therapist to make an effort to learn from others. The key is to seek out experts that have had considerable success in a specific area and do your best to learn from them. That’s what I try to do.

I had heard some terrific things about the research from Chris Powers, Ph.D., at his Movement Performance Institute in west Los Angeles. So I met with him last fall and he let me spend five months under his tutelage where I drastically increased my training IQ, especially when it comes to the biomechanics of running and glute development.

Dr. Powers wears many hats. He’s a professor at the University of Southern California (USC), a physical therapist, and one of the world’s best researchers on knee rehab, especially ACL injuries. He was one of the first researchers to demonstrate that patients who have knee pain probably have weakness in the hips and core.

What’s also great about Dr. Powers is that he has a background in powerlifting. He isn’t a guy who wants you to spend the rest of your training days doing band exercises. His goal is to get you back to lifting hard and heavy. That was one of the things about him that impressed me most, and why I wanted to learn from him.

Now my approach to glute training, and how I implement it to increase performance, is at a much higher level. I learned why many of the glute exercises out there are doing very little to reduce knee pain or increase athleticism. The glute max, in particular, is a tri-planar muscle group so you must train it with that fact in mind.

EC: It sounds like you’ve shifted more toward the physical therapy end of the spectrum, as opposed to traditional performance training?

CW: When it comes to building explosive strength the key is to figure out where an athlete is weak or compensating. Once you correct those issues, explosiveness will increase tremendously. It doesn’t matter if you’re a powerlifting coach, an athletic trainer or a physical therapist, the goal is always the same: find where the athlete is weak and fix it. In other words, if you want to be a guy who builds explosive strength you must be proficient at identifying and correcting the factors that affect it.

I’m learning how important those factors are thanks to my time working with incredible doctors like Chris Powers, Stu McGill and Craig Liebenson. I’ve become passionate about the clinical side of athletic development. That’s why I’m heading to USC in the fall to start their doctor of physical therapy program.

EC: How do you typically assess clients?

CW: Everything starts with the ribcage and pelvis. The reason is because those two areas have such far-reaching effects. The feet are also important to assess. Most people shouldn’t train barefoot because they have excessive pronation that, in turn, can cause knee valgus. And if there’s one thing you need to stay away from, it’s knee valgus. You only need to read the research by Chris Powers, PhD, and Tim Hewett, PhD, for proof.

What I do next depends on the type of client I have. If it’s an athlete, I’ll test the vertical jump, deadlift and 5-10-5, for starters. Those are three key indicators when improvements in explosive strength and agility are the goal.

However, as I said in the beginning, the assessment is the most crucial part of any training program because it will identify where you need to focus your time and energy. My goal is to use the fewest corrective exercises possible. And, sometimes the best corrective is to just use better form while lifting.

EC: Great stuff, Chad. Thanks for the interview!

For those interested in this weekend's workshop, we still have a few spaces open. You can register HERE.

And, if you can't make the workshop, you can still visit Chad's site at www.ChadWaterbury.com.

It's been a while since I posted one of my "Random Thoughts" pieces, so here are seven things that came to mind yesterday.

1. After the initial year or so of “organized” strength training, athletes don’t get hurt because they’re globally weak; they get injured because they’re positionally weak. This dictates the window of adaptation you seek out.

2. The Turkish Get-up is an outstanding exercise for not only challenging athletes, but also re-establishing fundamental movement patterns they may have lost over the years.  However, that doesn’t mean that everyone is prepared for it on day 1.  Obviously, one must have adequate shoulder flexion to hold a kettlebell overhead, but – as the picture below shows – you can’t overlook the importance of having adequate hip mobility and a good hip hinge pattern.

In short, if you can’t hip hinge and have brutally short adductors, you can’t do a Turkish Get-up…or at least not a good looking one.

3. Taking this a step further, if you're familiar with the Postural Restoration Institute school of thought, many individuals will likely have a harder time "getting into" the left hip if they present with this common aberrant posture:

So, if you struggle with the left hand overhead in particular on get-ups, there's a good chance that it's because everything under that arm is slightly out of whack.  For those folks, a left-stance toe touch can be a game changer.

4. Pull a quad (rectus femoris), and you’ll usually bounce back really quickly.  Pull an oblique and it’s much more stubborn. What’s the difference?  The rectus femoris is really all about the sagittal plane, whereas the obliques have a big role in controlling excessive motion in the sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes.  The more complex the job of the muscle, the more significant the injury – and the longer the rehab.  Hamstrings have roles outside the sagittal plane and can be equally stubborn, too.

5. “This athlete is strong enough” is an observation you might make with some male athletes.  The risk of continuing to load up to try to improve maximal strength far outweighs the potential benefits of those strength increases – and there’s likely a bigger window of adaptation elsewhere in their athletic profiles.  Conversely, I can honestly say that I’ve never met a female athlete who was strong enough. It just doesn’t happen.

6. Downright terrible coaches don’t look to the literature at all, or they do so only to cherry-pick study results that support what they’re already doing.  Mediocre coaches look to these resources so that they can have someone else tell them exactly what to do.  The best coaches read diligently and critically, scrutinizing everything they encounter to determine if it is correct and, if so, how it can be incorporated into their existing philosophies. 

Full disclosure: this is actually an excerpt from my e-book, The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual. I reincarnated it after a discussion with one of my interns the other day.

7. Watching the incredible success that the Netherlands has with speed skating makes me wonder how many 100mph arms there might be kicking around in the NBA, NFL, and other professional sports.   Much like we’ve seen with baseball players in the Dominican Republic – where there really aren’t “competing” sports – if you prioritize development one sport across a population, you’re going to find more studs even if that population is smaller.

In the United States, a larger country with more “sports variety,” it makes me wonder if this is actually one more argument against early sports specialization.  Maybe if we were more patient and followed athletes for longer in a general sense, we might discover more freak athletes later in the game?

Former NBA player Tracy McGrady attempting to play baseball is a great example.  He was a very good NBA player, but could he have been a Hall-of-Famer in baseball?  Similarly, does anyone deny that some NFL tight ends could have been NBA power forwards, if they’d directed that focus elsewhere?

Early specialization doesn’t just lead to more injuries and burnout and stunted development; it also potentially redirects good athletes away from sports in which they could be sensational.  Of course, there’s no way to know!

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They say that nothing in the fitness industry is really "new" nowadays.  Rather, new concepts usually originate with things that are already out there simply being "spun" in different ways.  Maybe it's a different cue, or a new way to program an old exercise. Today's post is a great example.

Gray Cook has put out some outstanding stuff with respect to improving the toe touch pattern (and outlining why a toe touch is an essential movement skill in the first place).  And, Ron Hruska of the Postural Restoration Institute (PRI) has brought to light how asymmetry is normal and somewhat predictable (based on our anatomy), but must be managed within acceptable limits.  A central focus of both these approaches is that we have to get closer to neutral before we try to perform, especially if that performance includes strength training that will further solidify neural patterns.

Greg Robins gave a great introduction to some of the PRI postural distortions and corrections in a recent post here at EricCressey.com.  As a Cliff's Notes version, we often get "stuck" in our right hip (adduction/internal rotation) like this:

When you look at these individuals from the front, you'll see an adducted right hip, low right shoulder, and anterior left rib flare:

However, this isn't just a frontal and transverse plane problem; rather, it also generally is accompanied by a sagittal plane concern: poor control of extension, meaning our weight is carried excessive forward via a number of different compensations: excessive plantarflexion (ankle), anterior pelvic tilt (hips), lordosis (lower back), scapular anterior tilt (shoulder blade), humeral extension past neutral (upper arms), or cervical hyperextension (neck/forward head posture).  At the end of the day, virtually all of these folks - regardless of where they get their excessive extension - have a compromised toe touch pattern.  They simply aren't able to posteriorly shift their weight sufficiently to make it happen.  And, given their asymmetries from above, you'll often see a big side-to-side difference in the form of a posterior right rib humb when they demonstrate a toe touch for you.  I have literally hundreds of photos exactly like this on my computer from working with clients, and I can honestly say that I've only seen three that have a posterior left rib hump!  Effectively, they're in left thoracic rotation and right hip adduction.

As you can see, then, many folks may be better off performing their toe touch progressions with a bit of frontal and transverse bias, and that's where I started experimenting with the left-stance toe touch (with toe lift and med ball).  Right handed individuals with the aberrant posture Greg demonstrates above tend to be "slam dunks" for improving a toe touch with this variation; the results are markedly better than if they do the drill with the feet side-by-side.

By learning to "get into" that left hip, we're actually activating the left hip adductors to help pull us back to neutral.  And, when we're in neutral. We can pick up heavy stuff, throw 95mph, and sit in the car for more than 20 minutes without right-sided low back pain. All the villagers rejoice.

This is one exercise demonstration I include in my "Understanding and Managing the Hip Adductors for Health and Performance" presentation in our new resource, Functional Stability Training of the Lower Body.  This collaborative effort with Mike Reinold has been a big hit already, and is on sale at a big introductory discount for this week only.  You can check it out here.

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Thanks to Greg Robins, here are five tips for the week, with a focus on postural awareness.

1. Monitor head positioning during supine bridge and hip thrust variations.

2. Consider this routine to taking your breath before lifts.

Breathing is a big part of postural awareness.  Check out this video for ensuring that you're locking things in correctly before big lifts:

3-5. Avoid parafunctional habits.

The following three points will be based on a common theme: “Parafunctional Habits.”

A parafunctional habit is a habitual movement, or positioning that differs from the most common, or ideal movement and / or positioning of the body. It can also be a habitual positioning or movement of the body that’s continuous exposure (repetitive practice of) leads to certain asymmetries or dysfunctions.

When I think about how to attack posture changes both with my clients and myself, I look for the most efficient ways to change daily habits. In other words, I look at how we can disrupt parafunctional habits.

“Posture is a composite of the positions of the positions of all the joints of the body at any given moment. If a position is habitual, there will be a correlation between alignment and muscle test findings.” – Florence Kendall (Adapted from PRI’s Postural Respiration)

Many of us tend to default to the same habitual movements and positions. Here are three examples, and three quick fixes. Making a point to apply these corrections will have a tremendously positive outcome in helping you "feel and move better.”

3. Don’t stand on the same leg all the time.

For a variety of reasons, many of us will tend to shift onto one leg when standing in place for a period of time. Our body is always looking for the most efficient way to “survive.” Shifting onto one leg is any easy way to gain passive stability, via our positioning.

Many of us will tend to shift onto the right leg. Why? In short, it’s easier for us to pull air into our left side, in light of the normal structural asymmetries you see with human anatomy. Breathing is kind of important. It’s also not fun to rob ourselves of air. Enter the “right stance," an aberrant posture you'll see all too often.

Start paying attention to how you stand at rest. Additionally, look around and notice how others stand at rest. I bet it looks a lot like the picture above. This is something we see on extreme levels in some of our right-handed throwing athletes; they're right handed people, in a unilateral sport, in a right-handed world!

Now, let’s make a change. For now on, use the picture below as a guide for how to stand when you shift onto one leg. Place the right leg in front of the left, and shift your weight into the left hip. If you are doing it correctly, your left hip will sit just below the right. Give it a try!

4. Cross your right leg over the left, and cross your right arm over your left.

In a similar fashion to your default standing position, those who tend to cross their legs will generally go left over right. Why? Same reason: it’s easier to sit into the right hip, and breathe into the left side. Instead, start doing the opposite. From now on cross the right over the left, and feel the left hip dig into your seat.

Do the same with your arms. Instead of crossing left over right, cross right over left. Close down the left side, and open up the right.

5. Change the way you sit while driving.

Driving is a GREAT place to work on positioning. Notice that your default is to slump over to the right side, opening the left leg and possibly resting it against the door. Instead, try this:

As you sit reading this, pretend like you’re in your car. First, even up your thighs and feet. Keep a space about the size of your fist between your two knees. At this point, your knees and feet should be even, or you might find the right slightly behind the left. Move the right foot into a position as if it was working the gas and brake pedal. You should look like this:

Now, pull your left hip back and push your right hip forward. This will leave the left knee behind the right.

You will notice the upper, inner thigh of your left leg “turning on.” Reach for the steering wheel with both hands. Consider this your new driving position. If you tend to drive with one arm, start making it your right arm. Leave the left arm hanging down to the side, causing a slight side bend to the left.

All of these positions will seem uncomfortable at first. That’s okay! Use them as much as possible, but allow yourself to just “chill” sometimes. Making these small changes is a fantastic way to better your posture and change your habits. Working on them will pay off in the long run, and you may even find your nagging aches and pains disappearing.

For more information on these postural approaches, check out www.PosturalRestoration.com.

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Compliments of Cressey Performance coach Greg Robins, here are this week's tips to improve your nutrition and strength and conditioning programs.

1. Improve your anti-extension core stability exercises with these tips:

2. Improve your sitting posture with one easy step.

This past week we were fortunate enough to have Michael Mullin from Orthopedic Associates in Portland, ME give a guest in-service on how he uses concepts from the Postural Restoration Institute in his practice. I picked up a lot of great tips from Mike, but one in particular I found particularly easy to implement. When asked what people can do when sitting (especially at a desk) to improve posture, Mike suggested simply sitting on the edge of their seat, a concept he referred to as "functional sitting." By doing so they are in a more “active” position where the body has to stabilize itself more. I’ve spent the last few days putting it to the test and I think it’s a great piece of advice. Give it a try!

3. Appreciate the importance of breathing (namely exhaling) in “core stability.”

Another interesting point that was hammered home by Mike was that the body can draw stability from three major sources: Muscular, Positional (think joint placement), and Gaseous (breathing). As an example, try this:

Make a fist and tense up your whole arm, that arm is under a lot of muscular tension and is stable.

Now relax and completely slouch over in front of your computer, you body is probably hanging out on bony structures now, and drawing stability primarily from the position in which gravity has put it.

Finally, take a deep breath and hold it. The expansion of your diaphragm and lungs has filled you out and is giving you stability.

We need to draw stability from all three sources appropriately; in fact, all three depend on each other. If we breathe correctly, we will be a in a better position. If we are in a good position, we will use muscles appropriately to create stability.

With that in mind here is a quick way to add some focused breathing into a common stability drill. When doing your dead bugs, practice fully exhaling in the bottom position before returning to the top. As you exhale try to depress the rib cage and lower it towards the hips. This will cause the low back to sit heavy into the ground. We have incorporated this at CP, and it has a made a great difference in showing athletes how exhaling activates the abdominals and causes true “core stability” to be trained.

4. Consider your somatotypes when making fitness-based decisions (Part 1).

A person’s body type (also known as their somatotype) is a general classification of their physical composition, as well as certain physiological characteristics. Taking into account your body type is an easy way to individualize your approach for added success in the gym and the kitchen. If this is a new concept to you, first you need to figure out what body type you are most similar to. Then, consider these general guidelines for training and nutrition to optimize your results. For more information, I encourage you to poke around the Precision Nutrition website. Many of these suggestions come from their certification manual. Their web site, nutrition programs and certification program provide an unparalleled source for nutritional information.

Ectomorphic: You tend to be “skinny” through both your limbs and torso. Your metabolism is fast, and in some cases hyperactive. Your tolerance to carbohydrates is great. You tend to be someone who always wants to gain “size”, especially in the limbs (arms and legs). If this sounds like you, use what works for you to your advantage. Go heavy on the carbohydrates; at least 50 – 60% of your intake can come from them. Furthermore, if you are looking to get bigger, limit extra physical activity and focus your efforts on strength gains, and in time, the addition of higher training volumes.

Stay tuned next week and I’ll hit upon another body type!

5. Read into skinfold measurements a bit deeper.

Calipers are often used to measure a person’s body fat percentage. It is a relatively inexpensive way to get an accurate idea of this number, and track progress. One really interesting topic I read about when prepping for my Precision Nutrition exam was the relationship between skin fold measurements and hormone levels. Basically people with similar hormone profiles also tend to carry body fat in the same place. By considering this information you can take a better approach to eliminating body fat as a whole. For example, if you have a high abdominal skinfold you are likely to have elevated levels of cortisol and stress in general. Therefore a better approach to your body fat reduction should include strategies to reduce stress, improve sleep, increase protein intake, and suppress cortisol.

Here are a few more tips for you to consider in relation to where you store body fat:

High suprailiac: Reduce your carb intake, and/or use nutrient timing strategies.

High subscapular: Improve your insulin sensitivity. Consider adding in fish oil supplementation.

High chest: Boost your testosterone by making sure your calories are high enough and you are receiving enough dietary fat.

High triceps or thigh: Reduce your estrogen levels, exercise more, and eat plenty of green leafy vegetables.

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Compliments of Cressey Performance coach Greg Robins, here are this week's strategies to help improve your nutrition and strength and conditioning programs.

1. Create better tension in the Turkish Get-up.

2. Add fat to your shakes and smoothies for easy calorie addition.

For those of you looking to gain weight, here is an easy way to add more calories into your daily routine. When preparing shakes and smoothies, consider adding sources of healthy fat. Many of these options are easy to include, add a considerable amount of calories, and do so without adding a lot of actual volume.

Some of my favorites additions include: olive oil, coconut, coconut oil/butter, chia seeds, cacao nibs, almonds, walnuts, and nut butters.

3. Watch the kettlebell as reference for swing technique.

It’s great when you have a coach or training partner available to help give you feedback on your exercise form. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. One thing I love about the kettlebell swing is this easy way to gauge whether or not your form is staying on point. Check out this table I made for your convenience.

If the bottom of the kettlebell is above the wrists at lockout, there are two probable causes.  First, one may be excessively extending the spine instead of fully using the hips; the solution to this would be bracing the core at lockout to keep the rib cage down, and think about squeezing the butt cheeks together.  Second, the wrists may be "breaking" - which equates to pulling your knuckles to your nose; the solution to this is to keep the wrists locked in place, but maintain a medium/low intensity grip on the kettlebell.

If the bottom of the kettlebell is in line with the wrists at lockout, you're in a good position!

If the bottom of the kettlebell is below the wrists at lockout, there are two potential causes.  First, you may just be raising the kettlebell with your arms instead of using the hips; the solution is to think "swing out" and think of the arms as just "connectors" between the 'bell and your body.  Second, this faulty position may come from a "death grip" on the kettlebell; you'll want to relax your grip to the same medium/low intensity I discussed earlier.

4. Activate the glutes in all three planes of motion.

Glute activation is obviously an important element in many of our warm-ups, and programming strategies. However, we tend to focus primarily on glute function in the saggittal plane. Bridging variations dominate weight rooms and gyms across the country. It’s important to consider the function of the glutes (max, med / min) in all three planes of movement, and train them accordingly. Make sure you include exercises that attack this muscle group in the frontal and transverse plane, as well as drills to train their function in all three planes at once.

As an example:

Side Lying Clams - Transverse Plane - external/internal rotation.

Side Lying Straight Leg Raise Variations - Frontal Plane - abduction/adduction.

Supine Bridge Variations - Saggittal Plane - flexion/extension.

Bowler Squat - Tri-Planar - flexion/abduction/external rotation.

5. Consider using balloons in breathing intensive drills and exercises.

This past weekend, I was fortunate to attend my first course with the Postural Restoration Institute. While the course was not on respiration, we were introduced to a few basic principles used within their approach to aid in respiratory facilitation.

One training aid I found particularly helpful, easy to implement, and under-utilized was - of all things - a balloon!
Using a balloon gives you feedback as to how fully you are exhaling, something many of us think we do, but tend to never fully complete. Additionally, the balloon acts as a source of resistance to help fire your abdominals. This activation is particularly important in heavily extended populations, such as athletes, and active individuals.

Give it a try by including it in drills such as the dead bug, or supine 90/90 belly breathing.

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Here are a few recommended strength and conditioning reads for the week:

Acts of Commission vs. Omission - I got to discussing the concept of "risk: reward" with a seminar attendee last week, and it reminded me of this blog I wrote back in 2010.  The message is incredibly valuable for novice and experienced strength and conditioning coaches alike.

Assessing Apical Expansion - This is another great video from Bill Hartman, this time on the topic of breathing.  We heavily "scrutinize" breathing in our baseball guys and do several breathing drills on the table as part of their warm-ups.  The more extension your athletes encounter in the sport, the more powerful this stuff becomes.  For more information, be sure to check out the Postural Restoration Institute.

Fitocracy - I've been logging my training sessions on here for the past few weeks and really enjoying it.  If you're looking for a way to quantify your efforts and even add a little competition to your training, this is a great outlet through which to do so.

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

Increasing Dorsiflexion: Cuboid Mobilization - With yesterday's post on ankle mobility, I thought I'd highlight another great "complementary" perspective on the topic from Bill Hartman.

Managing Structural and Functional Asymmetries in Ice Hockey: Part 1 and Part 2 - I've talked a lot about how much becoming familiar with the Postural Restoration Institute philosophy has helped me in the way I manage baseball players.  In these two blog posts, Kevin Neeld talks about how they've helped him with hockey - from assessment to corrective exercise.

The Age of the Pitcher and How We Got Here - This might be the single-best article I've ever read at ESPN.com.  Jayson Stark did an awesome job of reviewing all the factors that may have contributed to why pitchers are thriving and hitters are struggling compared to previous years - and it's a trend that has lasted 12 years.  I'll definitely echo the sentiment about pitchers being better than ever, particularly with respect to the number of power arms coming out of the high school ranks.  Years ago, throwing 92mph out of high school made you an extremely noteworthy prospect; now, it just makes you another guy that *might* get drafted - even as a lefty!

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Pitchers need strength to have mobility.