This week, I've already featured our top articles, product reviews, and videos of 2009. I was also really lucky to have some bright minds as guest contributors this year, and today I'll feature a few of their submissions.
The Rocker Inferior Capsule Stretch - This excellent submission from physical therapist Tim DiFrancesco shows a shoulder mobility exercises we've used with some of our guys with excellent results. It includes some great videos like this:
So What Does a Pitching Coach Do, Anyway? - I love this guest blog from Matt Blake, a great pitching guy with whom I get to work daily. It just goes to show you that there is a lot more to understand than mechanics when it comes to developing elite pitchers.
Real Activation: Modifying a Classic Core Movement - Jim Smith is perhaps best known for being a true innovator when it comes to exercise selection, and this post was an excellent one for that very reason.
This week, we've already covered the most popular articlesand product reviews from EricCressey.com in 2009. Next up are the popular videos.
One of my goals for 2009 with this site was to include a lot more video content - whether it was "built in" to the text, or serving as a stand-alone content source in itself. Here were some of the most popular ones for the year:
Correct Push-up Technique - This one got over 9,000 views in spite of the fact that I never even included it in a blog post (that I can remember). I guess my theory that most people really need to learn how to do good push-ups was right on the money.
My 660 Deadlift - I guess lifting heavy stuff is only about 89% as cool as body weight push-ups.
Tim Collins Can Jump - Great guy, stud athlete, bright future. Gotta' love him.
16x16 Sled Madness - This sled masochism was popular among our staff early in the year. There is more info on it HERE.
Rollouts: Friend or Foe - This video went hand-in-hand with this newsletter.
Anterior Core Progressions - This video was a follow-up to the previous one, and was found in this newsletter.
Measuring Hip Internal Rotation - This video was featured as part of this newsletter.
Lastly, there were a few newsletters that included a ton of video content. Here's my personal favorite, a follow-up from Mike Reinold and my shoulder seminar (available soon on DVD): Recap: Testing, Treating, and Training the Shoulder.
Tomorrow, we'll cover the top guest submissions for the year at EricCressey.com.
In my last post, we covered the most popular articles here at EricCressey.com in 2009. Today, we'll cover my top product reviews of 2009. Several of these were interviews with authors that came in light of their launch of new products. In addition to discussion of the products, most of these have a ton of good information you won't want to miss.
Warpspeed Fat Loss Results Part 1 and Part 2 - Technically, this was the end of 2008, but had we done a November-to-November year, it would have blown the rest of these product reviews out of the water. The reason? Results! Check out the before and after pictures of one CP client who kicked some serious butt with this program. For a lot of you who are looking to get on track with your fat loss efforts in the new year, this would be a good product to check out.
Strength and Conditioning Webinars - I think this product might be the most useful one of the year for fitness professionals, as Anthony Renna has made sure that there is awesome content coming out month after month. It's cheaper than traveling to seminars, and you can get educated on YOUR schedule. I highly recommend checking it out.
Off-Ice Performance Training for Hockey (with Kevin Neeld) - This is an interview with Kevin that covers hockey training tips for both coaches and players.
Tomorrow, we'll cover the most popular EricCressey.com exclusive videos on the year.
In place of "Stuff You Should Read" this week, I thought it might be cool to direct you to our most popular pages and videos for 2009, according to our website statistics. Presumably, these are the ones that people forwarded to friends the most, and/or the ones that caught the most people's eyes. This excludes pages like the homepage, baseball content, products, etc. Here we go:
Medicine Ball Madness - This piece outlined some of the medicine ball work I do with both my baseball guys and the rest of our clients. It was so popular that it actually led to me deciding to cover this topic at my Perform Better talks for 2010.
Hip Internal Rotation Deficit: Causes and Fixes - This Q&A on what the lying knee-to-knee stretch does actually led to a discussion of the who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Front vs. Back Squats - This is a different kind of discussion on a debate that's been going on for years.
Crossfit for Baseball - Controversial? Yup. I got a little hate mail for this one, but on the whole, I think I was pretty fair with how I approached it.
"Quad Pulls" and Sprinting Warm-ups - This article discusses how the term "quad pull" might not be the most accurate one out there - and, more importantly, how to avoid them.
A Common Cause of Hip Pain in Athletes - This piece discusses femoral anterior glide syndrome, a term coined by Shirley Sahrmann.
Next, we'll feature the most popular product reviews of 2009.
Happy New Year, everyone!
I thought I'd use this first post of 2010 as a way of looking forward to what's on tap at EricCressey.com for the year. In true "Random Thoughts" fashion, here we go:
1. Nate Green just interviewed me for what I think will be a great feature at T-Muscle in the next week or two. It will be similar in structure to this piece Nate did with Dave Tate, which definitely turned out to be an entertaining read. Keep an eye out for it!
2. Speaking of interviews, I'll be doing one with Brian Grasso for the IYCA on Tuesday. Brian's a very forward-thinking guy and I'm excited to catch up with him.
3. Speaking of T-Muscle, I'm finishing up my "What I Learned in 2009" article this weekend. It follows the articles I wrote for 2006, 2007, and 2008.
4. Also coming up in the next month or so will be the release of the DVDs of Mike Reinold and my seminar from November: Testing, Treating, and Training the Shoulder: From Rehabilitation to High Performance. It's being edited as I type this.
5. This January 24, Cressey Performance will be hosting Neil Rampe of the Arizona Diamondbacks for his seminar, . You can register HERE, or for more information on Neil's background, click HERE. If you'd like to see a seminar agenda, please just email me at ec@ericcressey.com.
6. I'll be presenting in Tampa, FL (Jan); Winchester, MA (Jan); Las Vegas, NV (March); and Vancouver, BC (March); and Boston, MA (May) in this first part of 2010. Check out my schedule page for more information on these events.
7. I'm very anxious to hear more of the feedback on Assess and Correct, which has already sold in more than two dozen countries. This is a product I truly believe will help a lot of people, and the short-term feedback we've received since its release in October has been tremendous.
8. At Cressey Performance, our staff has started up what (for lack of a more masculine term) we're calling the Staff Book Club. Each staff member will present on what he learns in a different book each week. I think it'll be a great way to cover more material and keep us all accountable to each other on getting our continuing education done.
9.I'm pumped for more content from Matt Blake in 2010. He's been a fantastic resource for all our athletes and I'm excited to share with you all how Matt and I collaborate to make our pitchers better. I think it'll make for some great content.
10. I'd really like to continue to grow both the newsletter and blog. You can sign up for notifications on both fronts to the right of the screen, if you haven't already.
11. I'm really pumped for all our guys who have found great college choices; it's an exciting time for both the 2010 and 2011 guys. Most recently, CP athlete Adam Ravenelle committed to Vanderbilt on a baseball scholarship. Adam's been with us since before his freshman year, and we're all really proud of him. He actually joins another CP pitcher, Tyler Beede, who committed to Vanderbilt just a few weeks ago. Both guys are in the class of 2011, and join Barrett O'Neill (University of Virginia) and Joe Napolitano (Boston College) as our early committees from that class.
There should be plenty more guys with exciting news along these lines in the months to come as well.
12. I'm really excited to watch Cressey Performance grow in the months ahead. While I was certainly thrilled at the growth we saw (15%) in 2009 and I hope it continues, I am most thrilled at how many clients we've seen change their bodies and their lives since they started up, and how many friendships we've seen cultivated inside CP. If you'd have told me a few years ago that we'd have over 25 people in on Thanksgiving morning, for instance, I would have told you that you were crazy!
In addition to our clients' accomplishments, I'm so proud of our staff. I could never do what I do without such great guys working alongside me, and the best part is that they are insatiable in their desire to get better. We're constantly getting better and it makes every new day fun. The best part is that I feel like it's something that's carried over to our interns, too; there are some really talented people with bright futures coming through here.
13. I'm very excited for the new CP website, which should be done in a matter of a few days. Along those same lines, there is a pretty sweet training and testimonial montage being pulled together about our Elite Baseball Development program. I was actually getting pretty fired up just watching some of the footage that had been gathered thus far.
14. I can't wait to attack all the books and journal articles that are in my stack of "Things to Read" right now. There's too much material to cover, but never enough time!
15. Last, but certainly not least, it'll also be a very busy (but exciting) year for me personally in 2010, as my fiancee Anna and I will be getting married this October. And, even before we get to that, we're planning to buy our first home in the next 4-6 months. Obviously, we're already doing a lot of planning!
Needless to say, I'm looking forward to all of this - and probably a few surprises along the way. Best wishes for 2010, and stay tuned!
Neil Rampe is a good friend of mine who works for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and just so happens to be one of the smartest (and most humble and approachable) dudes I know. I spent three days with him out in Arizona in November, and he opened my eyes to so much great stuff that I couldn't wait to bring him out to Boston for a seminar at Cressey Performance. He's got a crazy busy schedule, so we just now firmed up a date that he could do such an event here in Massachusetts: Sunday, January 24.
To that end, before we make it official, I want to quickly gauge who would be interested. The price would be $149 for a full day's seminar (food and handouts included), and we'd keep the headcount down to ensure that all the hands-on stuff includes plenty of direct interaction with Neil. The overall theme of the event would be Movement Integration and how there are different schools of thought (Mezieres, Myers, Janda, and Hruska, to name a few) and modalities that can be applied along with some solid fundamental critical thinking skills to address the specific needs of athletes and clients.
Before we make this official and make more details known, I want to know that we have a good enough headcount to pursue this. So, I thought I'd throw it out there to you. If you are interested, please email me at ec@ericcressey.com right away to express your interest.
Below, you'll see Neil's bio; it should give you a quick glimpse into just how great a perspective he's got:
Neil Rampe is currently in his third year as the Manual Therapist for Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks. Neil's education includes an Associates degree in Personal Training as well as Bachelors degrees in Athletic Training and Physical Education with an emphasis in Strength & Conditioining from the University of Findlay in 2000. He went on to receive his M.Ed. in Applied Kinesiology with a Sport and Exercise Science emphasis in 2002 from the University of Minnesota, where he served as a strength & conditioning coach in the golden gopher athletic department before moving on to serve as a certified athletic trainer at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine in Boulder, CO. Neil then spent five years at The University of Arizona, where he served as the Associate Dierctor, Performance Enhancement.
Neil is a Certified Athletic Trainer through the NATABOC, a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA, a Licensed Massage Therapist through the AMTA and NCBTMB upon graduating from the Providence Institute of Massage Therapy and has received his Performance Enhancement Specialist and Corrective Exercise Specialist advanced specializations through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Over the past nine years, Neil has had the opportunity to work with a number of elite athletes at the high school collegiate, Olympic and professional ranks in the areas of rehabilitation, therapy and performance enhancement.
The year 2009 was a tremendous one for this website, and I owe all of you readers a huge thanks for your contribution.
Right now, this site is ranked in the top 135,000 on the web, according to Alexa.com, one measure of a website's popularity. Each month, unique visitors (~25,000/month right now) and total hits (~100,000/month right now) exceed the previous month.
The one product I released this year - Assess and Correct - has already sold in dozens of countries since October. Meanwhile, some older products are still very popular. Maximum Strength, for instance, has a 5-star rating at Amazon.com and is holding steady just outside the top 5,000 books on the site.
This site has become a channel through which Cressey Performance has grown as well. Not a week passes that a new client doesn't come through our doors thanks to something they've read from me on the internet.
I say this not to blow sunshine up my own rear end, but rather to frame my sincere thank you to all of you for your continued support in making EricCressey.com the success it is today. Writing has never been (and hopefully never will be) a "job" for me because I genuinely enjoy getting to look at things in detail, interact with some bright, enthusiastic readers, and (hopefully) add to the body of knowledge in the process. So, thanks for making my "job" (if you can call it that) fun.
That said, since you, the readers, are the ones that are ultimately responsible for making this site bigger and better, I want to put the ball in your court today. What do YOU want to read in 2010?
Would you like to see me address certain issues? Would you rather have more guest interviews (like this)? Product reviews (like this)? Debunking of fitness myths (like this)? Geeky science stuff (like this)?
How about content formatting? Do you like the video (like this) or written features - or a combination of the two?
I respect and value your opinions and suggestions, so feel free to voice them in the comments section below. Again, thanks for a great 2009!
I thought I'd use a quick blog post here to tell you about three of my holiday gifts this year that might interest a lot of you. With it being a few days after Christmas, a lot of stores are running big sales, and you could probably pick these up at big discounts.
Dragon Naturally Speaking Software - This is a speech recognition software that works with your computer to directly translate what you say into a microphone into a word processing document or email. My hope is that it'll make it easy for me to dictate blogs and emails while in the car on my 40-minute commute to and from Cressey Performance each day.
Admittedly, I am still feeling this one out, as it takes some "calibrating" to learn how to interpret your voice correctly (I read John F. Kennedy's inaugural address into it the other night). However, I'm really psyched about how this could improve my efficiency in 2010; check it out for yourself.
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures - Tony Gentilcore (and others) turned me on to Malcolm Gladwell's writing in 2009, and I absolutely loved it (including The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers). This is his newest work, and it is actually a collection of his short pieces that were featured in The New Yorker, where Gladwell is a staff writer.
Tony got me the audio CDs for this, and I listened to it on my hours and hours of driving to and from Maine for the holiday. It's excellent: very entertaining, educational, and thought provoking. Something pretty cool: you can buy all four of these books from Gladwell on Amazon for under $40 right now (including free shipping). That's a tremendous value.
Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow - This book by Chip Conley was actually a gift to me from Alwyn Cosgrove about a month ago, and I'm about halfway through it. As I've read, it's made me realize several reasons that we've been successful in our business model at Cressey Performance (including 15% growth this year in spite of the "recession"). Regardless of the industry in which you work, if you manage employees, I'd highly recommend it.
I'm working my way back into the swing of things after the holiday and will have some new content to you later on today, but in the interim, I thought some of you might like to check out this feature on Cressey Performance athlete Tyler Beede, who just committed to Vanderbilt on a baseball scholarship. Tyler has put in a ton of hard work over the past 14 months at CP, and in the process, has increased his strength and throwing velocity substantially on top of packing 30 pounds on his frame.
Beede Makes Early Decision: Vandy
I hope everyone had a great holiday. I am out of town visiting family, but in my absence, I thought you might be interested in checking out this article about Tim Collins and his training at Cressey Performance. Tim was recently named Toronto Blue Jays organizational Pitcher of the Year on MLB.com.
Tiny Tim No More
