Here are a few good reads from the archives for you for today:
Things I Learned from Smart People: Installment 1 - This features some stuff Bill Hartman taught me about the diagnosis of disc herniations.
Shoulder Range-of-Motion Norms - What's normal - if there is such a thing?
Avoiding the Workout Routine Overhaul - This piece talks about the problem with people that jump completely from one workout routine to another at the drop of the hat - and outlines a better strategy.
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Today, we move forward with more strategies for correcting bad posture. In case you missed it, be sure to check out Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture: Part 1. We pick up with tip #5...
5. Don't overlook a lack of glenohumeral (shoulder) joint internal rotation. When it comes to bad posture, everyone thinks that the glenohumeral joint is only a "player" when it's stuck in internal rotation; that is, the ball - or humeral head - is rotated too far forward on the socket - or glenoid fossa - meaning that the individual just doesn't have adequate external rotation. And, this is often true - especially in non-athletic populations.
However, you'll also very commonly see poor posture folks who present with big glenohumeral internal rotation deficits (GIRD), particularly on the right side (for very legitimate reasons that go well beyond the scope of this article). This is much more common in athletes, particularly overhead throwers (read more: Static Posture Assessment Mistakes). When the posterior rotator cuff is stiff/short and there is an internal rotation deficit, we have to substitute excessive scapular protraction (winging) or thoracic flexion/rotation each time we reach for something.
So, for many folks, posterior shoulder mobility and soft tissue work is an important inclusion in cleaning things up in terms of appearance, function, and shoulder health. If - and only if - you've been assessed and it's been determined that you have an internal rotation deficit that compromises your total motion at the glenohumeral joint, you can integrate some gentle sleeper stretches (scapula stabilized!) to get a bit more ROM in the posterior cuff.
6. Don't overlook a lack of glenohumeral (shoulder) joint flexion. The shoulder is a tremendously mobile joint, so we need to appreciate what goes on outside the transverse plane as well. In particular, I see shoulder flexion limitations as a big problem. These limitations may come from the lat, teres major, long head of the triceps, or inferior capsule. Another overlooked cause can be posterior cuff restrictions; it's not uncommon to see both GIRD and major shoulder flexion limitations on the same side. As the picture below shows, the infraspinatus and teres minor run almost vertically when the arm is abducted a mere 90 degrees - which means that they're struggling to lengthen fully to allow full shoulder flexion (and abduction, for that matter).
These restrictions that can contribute to both faulty compensation patterns in certain positions, as well as overall bad posture chronically. Let's have a look at what these issues look like in the real world. First, in someone with a shoulder flexion limitation, you'd first want to check them in the supine position, with the knees flexed and back flat (to avoid substituting lumbar extension for shoulder flexion). Ideally, the arms should rest flat on the table - so this would be a "not-so-hot" result (especially since the arms "fall" to the sides a bit instead of staying in "attempted flexion"):
Next, let's take this same shoulder flexion limitation, and look at what would happen actively. In the first three reps of the video below, take note of the position of our subject's head at the start and finish of each rep; you'll see that as he "runs out" of shoulder flexion, he substitutes forward head posture. On the next three reps, after I cue him to keep his cervical spine in a more neutral posture, he has to arch his back excessively (lumbar hyperextension) to complete the movement.
Now, imagine taking this walking disaster (only kidding; I had Dave fake it for the video, as he's actually a finely tuned trained killing machine who can't be stopped by conventional weapons - and he's single, ladies) taking up overhead pressing, Olympic lifting, or just reaching for a glass on the top shelf. Then, imagine him doing those tasks over and over again. Obviously, the posture will get worse as he reinforces these compensation schemes - but something is going to surely break down along the way; it's just a question of whether it's his low back, shoulder, or neck!
Correcting these issues is easier said than done; as I noted, there are several structures that could be the limiting factor. However, for those looking for a relatively universal stretch they can use to get a bit of everything, I like the wall lat stretch with stabilization, one piece of a comprehensive (but not excessive and boring) static stretching program included in Show and Go.
7. Don't ignore the thoracic spine. The previous two examples focused exclusively on the glenohumeral joint, but the truth is that it is tremendously dependent on thoracic spine positioning. Ask any physical therapist, and they'll tell you that if they can get the thoracic spine moving, they can instantly improve glenohumeral joint range-of-motion without even touching the shoulder (this is incredibly valuable with folks who may have stiff glenohumeral joints that can't be mobilized aggressively following shoulder surgery; they need ROM in any way possible). And, truthfully, you can substitute a lack of thoracic spine extension for the shoulder flexion problems and compensation schemes above, and a lack of thoracic spine rotation can work in much the same way as a GIRD (substitute excessive scapular protraction with reaching tasks).
If you ever want to quickly check to see what limiting thoracic extension does to someone's upper body posture, just put them in supine position and push the sternum/rib cage down - which will bring the thoracic spine into flexion. Watch what happens to the position of his chin, and the size of the "gap" between his neck and the table:
Now, just consider what kind of "yank" this puts on the sternocleidomastoid chronically...
...and you'll understand why a lack of thoracic spine mobility can give people enough neck pain and tension headaches to make Lindsay Lohan's hangovers look like a walk in the park. And this doesn't even consider what's going on with scalenes, suboccipitals, levator scapulae, subclavius, and a host of other muscles that are royally pissed off! Also, think about all those folks in your gym doing hours and hours of crunches (especially while tugging on the neck). Ouch.
For that reason, we need to get our thoracic spine moving - and more specifically, we need to get it moving in both extension and rotation. I've mentioned in the past that the side-lying extension-rotation is one of my favorites (assuming no symptoms); remember that the overwhelming majority of the range-of-motion is coming from the upper back, not just the shoulder:
Here's another we're using quite a bit nowadays in our folks who have good internal rotation (which we want to keep!):
8. Watch your daily habits and get up more frequently. I'm at 1,140 words for this post right now - plus several pictures and videos. In other words, some of you might have been hunched over your computer screens trying to figure out what I'm saying for over 20 minutes now - and that's when "creep" starts to set in an postural changes become more and more harmful (both aesthetically and functionally).
With that in mind, make a point of getting up more frequently throughout the day if you have to be sitting a ton. Likewise, "shuffle" or "fidget" in your chair; as Dr. Stuart McGill once said, "The best posture is the one that is constantly changing." Now, shouldn't you get up and walk around for a few minutes?
This week, I'll feature several strategies for correcting bad posture; you should be able to insert these into your weight training programs quickly and easily for immediate results. Here we go...
1. Train more frequently.
Obviously, in many cases, those with bad posture often simply don't exercise enough, so any motion is good motion. However, this also applies to regular exercisers who hit the gym 3-4 times per week as well. Why?
Well, I do a lot of my "corrective" work in my warm-up programming - and the more often you train, the more often you'll have to do your foam rolling and mobility warm-ups. So, breaking your training program up into smaller components on more frequent days might be the best way to force yourself to do the things that you need the most to correct bad posture.
2. Use daily mobility circuits.
Along the same lines as the "increase training frequency" recommendation, it'll never hurt to repeat your mobility warm-ups during your daily life.If you are someone who is really in need of drastic changes, do your warm-ups twice a day, seven days a week (on top of any static stretching you do).
3. Strengthen the deep neck flexors.
When you get stuck in a forward head posture, the deep neck flexors (muscles on the anterior portion of your neck) really shut down as the sternocleidomastoid, suboccipitals, levator scapulae, scalenes, and upper traps get dense, fibrotic, and nasty.
You can start off by simply doing chin tucks against the wall (put the back of your head up against a wall, then make a double chin without the back of your head losing contact with the wall). Then, you can progress to quadruped chin tucks, a drill I learned from Dr. William Brady. In this drill, you'll work against gravity as you pull your head into a more neutral cervical spine posture. Most people will butcher this on their first try by going into hyperextension as they get to the "top" of the movement.
When you get the technique down, you'll actually notice some crazy soreness along the anterior aspect of your neck in the days that following. We usually go with sets of 5-6 reps and a 2-3 second hold at the top of each rep.
4. Go with a 2:1 pulling-to-pushing ratio.
This is a recommendation you see quite a bit, but nobody really talks about how to "smoothly" apply it to a weight training program. Here are a few approaches I've used in the past:
a. Simply add an extra pulling exercise on the end of a day's session.
b. Pair a bilateral pulling exercise with a unilateral pressing exercise - and do "halves" on each pressing set. In other words, if I was doing 6x6 chest-supported rows (CSR) with 3x6/side 1-arm incline DB presses (IDP), here's how I'd set it up: CSR, IDP-right, CSR, IDP-left, CSR, IDP-right, CSR, IDP-left, CSR, IDP-right, CSR, IDP-left.
c. Make the pulling exercises in your program the A1, B1, and C1 options, with the pressing as the A2, B2, C2. And, simply have an extra set of each of the pulling exercises - meaning you just don't return to the pressing exercise for a last set. This might work out as more of a 3:2 pulling-to-pushing ratio, but you can always tack an extra set or two on at the end to make it work.
I'll be back soon with more strategies for correcting bad posture, but in the meantime, I'd encourage you to check out Optimal Shoulder Performance at www.ShoulderPerformance.com, as this resource features loads of postural correction strategies to complement the ones featured in this series.
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As a lot of you probably know, I'm pretty much known as a "baseball training guy" - and rightfully so, as about 80-85% of our athletes at Cressey Performance are baseball players.
Most people are surprised to find that I really never played baseball at a high level. While I was super active in it growing up (my mother jokes that I actually taught myself to read with baseball cards), I actually had to give baseball up at the end of eighth grade so that I could focus on tennis, my "stronger" spring sport. And, to take it a step further, when high school ended, I went off to college in 1999 fully expecting to become an accountant. Seriously.
Around that same time, though, I had some health problems - and my shoulder was already a wreck from tennis. Those factors "beckoned" me to a healthy lifestyle - and that's when I made the decision to transfer to an exercise science program and focus on my new passion as a career. I did a double major in exercise science and sports/fitness management, and took part in internships in everything from personal training to cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation.
When I headed off to graduate school in 2003, I anticipated going in to the research world. About a month after I arrived on campus at UCONN, though, I caught the strength and conditioning bug and was hooked - for life. Interestingly, though, in those first few years, I really didn't work with baseball much at all.
It wasn't until I got out in to the "real world" that I just happened to start working with a few high school baseball players when I first moved to Boston. They were great kids, and I had a lot of fun training them - and they got great results that drew a lot of attention to the work I did with them. I was already a big baseball fan, and given my history of shoulder problems, I really enjoyed learning everything I possibly could about arm care - so it was a great fit.
The rest, as they say, is history. We now have 44 professional baseball players from all over the country here to train with us at Cressey Performance because they believe our expertise, environment, systems, and passion give them the best opportunity on the planet to be successful in their baseball careers. I have guys who swear by my resistance training, medicine ball, mobility, soft tissue, movement training, and throwing programs even though I never even played a single game of high school - let alone collegiate or professional - baseball. I've found my niche - but as you can tell, I never forced it.
What do you think I would have said if you had asked me in 1999 what my ten-year plan was? I would have told you that I'd be filing tax returns in early April, not following all our athletes on opening day around the country.
And, if you had asked me in 2004 what my five-year plan was, I'd have told you that it was to become a great muscle physiology research. I probably would have commented on how cool it was that the Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years - but wouldn't have had the foresight to note that I'd someday go on to train two guys from that roster who have 2004 world championship rings.
My point is that you can't force a fitness niche; you have to discover and then develop it. A lot of stars had to line up the right way for me to get to where I am with working with a baseball population, but as Thomas Jefferson once said, "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
Getting sick forced me to learn how to better take care of my body - and that led me to the fitness industry and strength and conditioning.
Having shoulder pain motivated me to learn more about shoulder health.
Being a "non-baseball guy" growing up forced me to do a lot more listening than talking with our athletes early-on, as I had to learn their culture. It also put me in a position to never accept stupid training principles (like distance running for pitchers) simply because they were "tradition" - because crappy training was never a "tradition" that I'd learned.
If I'd purposely gotten sick, whacked myself in the shoulder with a sledgehammer, and then read every book on baseball tradition that I could, do you think I'd be where I am today? If you answered "yes," put down the glue you're sniffing and start reading this again from the top.
Every business consultant in the fitness industry raves about how important it is nowadays to get a niche. Train middle-aged female fat loss clients only. Or, maybe it's 9-12 year-old kids. My buddy Eric Chessen even works exclusively with fitness for kids in the autism spectrum. I agree completely with these consultants' advice - but your appropriate niche won't magically appear unless you experience a lot of different settings and find the right fit for you, then follow up on it by educating yourself as much as possible by reading/watching everything you can, expanding your network of colleagues, and finding solutions to problems others haven't been able to solve.
If you are going to do something exclusively, you better be:
a) passionate about it
b) good at it
c) sure that it alone can financially support you
d) excited about the possibility of becoming an expert and contributing to the existing body of knowledge in that realm
e) willing to potentially pass up on opportunities in other realms
To be very candid, I just don't think that having specific 5- and 10-year plans is necessarily a good idea. Sure, it's okay if we are talking about financial planning, marriage, etc. - but when it comes to professional goals, there are just too many factors that can change things on a dime and turn you in a new direction. I love what I do now, but couldn't tell you for the life of me where I'll be in 5-10 years - and I happen to think that I have a pretty good grasp on where I'm going, as compared to the rest of the fitness industry. If I was just leaving college today, I'd definitely be taking it one day at a time!
How about you? What's your niche - and how did you discover and develop it?
Related PostsWant to be a Personal Trainer or Strength Coach? Start Here.7 Steps for Attacking Continuing Education in the Fitness IndustryHow Do You Find Time for Everything?
1. In today's big news, I simply want to tell you to be on the lookout for a HUGE week here at EricCressey.com.
First, we're going to be having some awesome content in conjunction with the launch of my new product, Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better.
Expect some awesome video content and more details about the product over the next week - but if you want to see it, you need to make sure that you are signed up for my newsletter. If you haven't already done so, you can subscribe using the following opt-in form (which will also get you access to a sweet deadlifting tutorial):
Along these same lines, the new and improved EricCressey.com will be debuting alongside the launch of Show and Go on the 20th. It will blow our current set-up out of the water.
2. I'm going to be relatively brief today, as I'm headed down to Reebok's corporate headquarters in Canton, MA this morning to film some videos on the needs and benefits of strength and conditioning. I've been down there a few times with some of our pro guys who have endorsement deals when they've shopped in the athlete/employee store, and the entire "campus" is pretty darn impressive:
3. The good folks at Men's Health tracked me down for an on-the-fly video tutorial in the lobby at Perform Better in Providence back in June, and the video is now available online. It goes through a few example of thoracic and glenohumeral joint mobility drills we use with our athletes. A special thanks goes out to CP intern Dave Rak for his help in demonstrating this while I was coaching it.
You can find more drills like these (and the rationale for them) on our Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set.
4. While this article isn't as shocking to those of us in the fitness industry who are appalled at the ridiculously low standards our industry has set for allowing someone to become a personal trainer, I'm sure it was to the general public who read it. And, it's very well written. Check it out: For a Price, Area Firm Certifies the Novice as a Fitness Expert. Sad, but true.
5. My fiancee and I have a minor league pitcher staying with us for a week while he's in town to get evaluated and do some training on a post-rehab stint. He'll head back to his hometown through the end of the year, and then come back to train with us for the nine weeks leading up to spring training.
On Thursday night, we were watching the NFL season opening in my living room - and I was writing programs on my laptop. He commented something along the lines of "Damn, you really do work all day, don't you?" As I thought about it, I guess I really do. I'm usually up at 6AM to make breakfast and see my fiancee before she heads off to work, and then I go right to writing/consulting work up through about 10:15AM, when I head over to the facility, get in my lift, and then coach from 12PM to 6PM or so. Then, it's back home - often to do more programming, answer emails, and - right now - finish up this new project.
He asked me what my ultimate career goal was, and I told him that it essentially amounted to doing my writing in the morning, and then coaching my pro/college guys during the day, and then 1-2 hours of high school guys right after school. He looks at me and goes, "That's still a nine-hour day, man!"
As you can probably tell, I'm not particularly good about shutting things down. The reason is really simple: I love what I do. I still need to get better at turning it off more often, though!
6. On a related note, our pro baseball off-season is in full swing now. I did one evaluation on Wednesday and three on Thursday - on top of the guys who have already started up (or are working off some of our programs elsewhere in the country before they come up). It should be a great crew of guys getting after it, and we're all really excited about what the next six months has in store for us. Thus far, the most entertaining moment has been Royals' prospect Tim Collins' triumphant return to Cressey Performance - where he walked around the gym and high-fived all 20 or so clients (even the ones he didn't know) who were in the facility at the time.
7. Our boy is back - and the offer to train for free at CP still stands for him!
In response to a recent blog, one reader posted a question about how I "structure" my approach to continuing education. As I thought about it, it's actually a more organized "ritual" than I had previously thought. Here are the key components:
1. I always have two books going at a time. One involves training/nutrition/manual therapy/rehabilitation. The other involves business/personal development. Noticeably absent from this list is fiction; I really don't have any interest in it, and couldn't tell you the first thing about Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. I'll usually have a book on CD in the car as well, but nowadays, my commute is non-existent (since we moved closer to the facility), so I have been doing more reading and less listening than previously.
2.Our staff in-service is every Wednesday at 10:30AM. This has turned into a great continuing education opportunity for all of us. While one person is "responsible" for presenting the topic each week, it always inevitably becomes a "think tank" among our staff and interns about how something applies to specific clients, unique issues, functional anatomy, or our programming or business model.
For instance, last week, I talked about how to assess shoulder external rotation and address any identified deficits on this front. We got to talking about which clients were using the appropriate mobilizations, how to perform them, and what would happen if they are performed incorrectly. Likewise, we talked about how certain people need to be careful about mobilizing their shoulders into external rotation because of extreme congenital laxity and/or extreme humeral retroversion.
Beyond just the benefits of helping our staff grow as a whole, for me, it has several distinct benefits. First, when I come back from a weekend seminar where I've learned something good, it's a great opportunity to "reteach" and apply it immediately. I'm a firm believer that the best way to master something is to have to teach it to someone else. Second, having pretty frequent "mini-presentations" keeps my presenting skills fresh for seminars when I may have 4-6 weeks between speaking engagements.
3. I get to at least 4-5 weekend seminars per year. I'm lucky in that two of these are generally Perform Better Three-Day Summits where I get to see a wide variety of presentations - with all my travel expenses paid because I present myself.
I think that every fitness professional needs to get to at least two such events per year. The good news is that with webinars and DVD sets, you can save a ton on travel expenses and watch these on your own schedule. A lot of people, for instance, have said that they learned more from our two-day Building the Efficient Athlete Seminar DVD Set than they did in years of college - with no tuition payment required, either!
That said, a ton of the education at such events comes from interacting with other fitness professionals, so you do miss out on the accidental "social" education.
4. I have one day a week where all I read are journal articles. Sometimes it is entertaining, and sometimes it's like reading stereo instructions. It depends on journal - and regular ol' luck with respect to what's going on in the research world. I'll keep it pretty random and just type in a search term like "sports medicine" or "strength training." We also have The Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies delivered to the office so that our staff can look that over.
5. I read a few blogs/newsletters each day in both training/nutrition/manual therapy/rehabilitation and business/personal development. I've listed several on my recommended resources page. There are loads more out there; these are just the tip of the iceberg and the ones that I tend to read more frequently.
6. I'll usually have a DVD set or webinar going as often as possible. We've got a great library in the office at Cressey Sports Performance, and I'm fortunate to have a lot of stuff sent to me for free to review here on the blog. I tend to prefer DVDs more than webinars, as I can watch them in fast-forward and make people talk faster to save time!
7. I talk to and email with a handful of other coaches about programming and business ideas and new things we're doing. I wouldn't call it a mastermind group, or anything even close to one in terms of organization, but it is good to know that whenever I want to bounce an idea off someone, I have several people I can contact. On the training side of things, a few guys that come to mind are Mike Robertson, Neil Rampe, Mike Reinold, Bill Hartman, and Tony Gentilcore. On the business side of things, I'm lucky to have Alwyn Cosgrove and Pat Rigsby as good dudes who are only an email or phone call away. I think that the take-home message is that if you surround yourself with the right people, answers that would normally elude you are really right at hand.
This post wound up running a lot longer than I'd anticipated, but hopefully you all benefited from it nonetheless. Have any continuing education strategies of your own that I have overlooked? If so, please post them in the comments section below.
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I had a one-time consultation client at Cressey Performance yesterday, and when I noticed that he had some interesting stuff going on, it made me realize that I need to do more "case studies" here in the blog.
This guy had a history of on-and-off right-sided lower back and left shoulder pain. Basically, it would act up every once in a while, then calm down when he cut out exercising. Then, he'd return to training for a bit - only to have another set-back. It has been one step forward, and one step back for years.
Now, if you'd seen this guy move, you'd realize that the lower back and shoulder stuff were clearly closely related. If you're at all familiar with the Postural Restoration Institute, he was a classic Left AIC pattern: adducted/internally rotated right hip and abducted/externally rotated left hip - and the compensations working their way up to lead to a low right shoulder and prominent left rib flair. Everything was definitely related.
Not surprisingly, he'd been told he had scoliosis previously - but the "interesting" thing about it is that this was an acquired posture. He hadn't had these when he was a kid; he developed them when he was a rower who was always on the right side of the boat. If you can acquire them, you can "unacquire" them - but it takes time.
We're getting him started on some drills to iron out his hip imbalances, but for the sake of this blog, I wanted to highlight what we saw with his shoulder, as I think it includes some great take-home messages on how to manage shoulder function - both in the presence and absence of pain.
If you look at the research, if you look at shoulder total motion (internal rotation + external rotation with the scapula stabilized at 90 degrees of abduction), you should see symmetry between right and left in a healthy shoulder. The internal and external components may be different between sides (e.g., more external rotation and less internal rotation in a throwing shoulder), but the total motion should be the same. When it's not, "normalizing" total motion should be a primary goal, whether you're trying to address or prevent shoulder issues.
In our case study's situation, here is what we measured with the goniometer:
Left: 39° (IR) + 98° (ER) = 137° (TM)
Right: 58° (IR) + 109° (ER) = 167° (TM)
In other words, it was a 30° total motion deficit, with most of that deficit coming from internal rotation.
The logical next step would be to manually stretch the shoulder girdle, right? Well, certainly, it may be justified. However, before I go having an athlete crank on a somewhat "delicate" joint, I like to see what we can do to get that area to relax without even touching it.
The first thing we did was simply close down that left rib cage flair a bit while flexing his left hip and flexing his left arm overhead. And, we just left him there to breath for 30 seconds or so. Then, we remeasured:
Left: 44° (IR) + 104° (ER) = 148° (TM)
In other words, we got 11° of total motion without ever touching his shoulder. His body did that work just by getting air in with a new posture (no left rib flair).
Next, I simply had him get on all fours and go through a pretty low-key thoracic spine mobilization with his arm gently positioned behind his back so that it was on absolutely no stretch. He did eight reps on each side, using cervical motion to drive a bit of thoracic extension and rotation and scapular movement. Then, we remeasured:
Left: 46° (IR) + 107° (ER) = 153° (TM)
There's another 5° of total motion, and it got us a lot closer to where he needs to be - without ever touching his shoulder. And, the coolest part was that when he stood up, the low right shoulder was markedly less prominent - and it was a positioning that "stuck around" for the rest of his session.
Sure, manual stretching of the shoulder is probably warranted for him to get those last 14 degrees, and I don't expect him to maintain all this range indefinitely after this session. He'll need to be consistent with the movements to regain range bit-by-bit and use his strength training to ingrain it in his movement patterns, but the point is that the less aggressive, seemingly indirect, and self-applied interventions are often the best way to get lasting results. And, when they work, it makes you realize just how "synced up" our entire body is from head-to-toe.
For more information on the best assessments and corrective exercises for the shoulder, check out our Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD Set.
1. I haven't done a "Random Friday Thoughts" blog in a while, so in the spirit of randomness, I thought I'd throw you a curveball and kick off the week with some Tuesday random thoughts.
2. Last week, I booked two plane tickets to Halifax, Nova Scotia for my fiancee and I. She's a bridesmaid in a wedding up there in a few weeks, so I'll be making the trip as well. As part of being what amounts to a "third wheel" for the weekend (the only people I know other than Anna in the entire wedding are the bride and groom), I'll have quite a bit of downtime while in the area. Any readers out there have any suggestions for what to do in Halifax? It's not hockey season, and I don't drink Molson, so I'm at a bit of a loss...
Also, just out of curiosity, when did one have to sell off all his/her internal organs in order to afford a flight to Halifax? Roundtrip airfare was over $1,500, and Air Canada followed up with an email that said, "We also mandate that you name your first child after us."
3. I wrote a guest blog for Men's Health last week; check it out: A Quick Fix for Stiff Shoulders.
4. Also on the writing note, I've written a few guest chapters lately. The first was a strength and conditioning chapter for an upcoming pitching book for young baseball players and their parents. The second (which is still a work in progress) is a chapter for a new IYCA project. So far, it's coming along really well - and I'm really honored to be on-board for this with a group of really talented guys who are trying to do something very special.
5. Tonight (Tuesday), Boston Red Sox Head Athletic Trainer (and Optimal Shoulder Performance co-creator) Mike Reinold is hosting a free webinar: "What's New for 2010." Click here for more information.
6. Speaking of Mike, he had a great post last week about Epicondylitis and Cervical Radiculopathy. It's a great adjunct to my "Understanding Elbow Pain" series from back in May. If you missed it, here's a link to the sixth (final) installment (and you can link back to the previous five).
7. I realized the other day that there is one big thing I've always considered in our training programs for pitchers, but failed to mention on this blog: they need both open- and closed-chain hip mobility, as the right and left hips must rotate independently of one another during the stride to the plate. Here's a good example:
You can see that Beckett is just short of stride foot contact here - which means that he's at just about maximal hip external rotation on the lead leg...in open chain motion. The femur is rotating on the acetabulum.
Meanwhile, he's riding out his trailing leg...in closed chain motion. The acetabulum is rotating on the femur.
As such, adequate mobility training for pitchers should include a combination of both open- and closed-chain drills, although I'd say that the majority should be closed-chain.
8. Today's Mike Robertson's birthday; head over to RobertsonTrainingSystems.com and show him a little love.
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I don't know if there is something in the water that the reporters around the country (and particularly the Massachusetts sports scene) have been drinking, but Cressey Performance's Elite Baseball Development Program has gotten a lot of love in the news this weekend.
Last week, CP athlete Tim Collins was part of a blockbuster trade, as he went from the Toronto Blue Jays to the Atlanta Braves. Tim didn't disappoint in his debut, striking out five batters in two innings pitched without allowing a walk, hit, or run. In a recent posting about Collins in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, beat writer David O'Brien wrote the following:
"I asked [Braves Manager] Bobby Cox if he knew anything about him, and Cox started talking about seeing video of him. Said he's extremely athletic, a muscular little guy who's real aggressive. Apparently the video showed him pitching and also working out, because he made quite an impression on Cox and others with the workout portion."
Apparently, Bobby Cox is quite a fan of the EricCressey.com and Cressey Performance YouTube pages. Hello, Bobby!
Saturday night, CP athlete Kevin Youkilis had the game-tying and game winning RBIs for the Red Sox in a come-from-behind win at home against the Rangers.
These features were followed shortly by another one - this time on a talented pitching prospect from Worcester, MA, Louisville pitcher Keith Landers. The Worcester Telegram just did this feature on Keith and the training he started up about eight weeks ago at Cressey Performance as he works his way back from a shoulder surgery.
Finally, here's a blog post from ESPN.com's Brendan Hall that features a boatload of CP studs who have had great summer showings: Tyler Beede, Adam Ravenelle, Carl Anderson, Barrett O'Neill, John Gorman, Jordan Cote, Ben Smith, Matt Luppi, AJ Zarozny, and David St. Lawrence.
I've seen a few acromioclavicular (AC) joint impingement cases at our facility in the last couple of weeks and thought it'd be good to do a quick blog to talk about how different they are from "regular" (external) shoulder impingement cases. And, it is a very important differentiation to make.
I've already written at length about AC joint issues in Getting Geeky with AC Joint Injuries: Part 1 and Part 2. And, I kicked out a two-part series called The Truth About Shoulder Impingement; here are Part 1 and Part 2.
While I talk a lot about the symptoms for both, several provocative tests for these issues, and training modifications to avoid exacerbating pain under these conditions, there was one important "differential assessment that I missed." Mike Reinold actually taught me it as we were planning the Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set.
Just paying close attention to (and asking about) where folks have their pain during overhead motion can tell you quite a bit. In an external impingement - where we're talking about the rotator cuff tendons and bursa rubbing up against the undersurface of the acromion - you'll usually get pain as folks approach 90 degrees of abduction (arm directly out to the side). That pain will persist as they go further overhead, and in my experience, start to die off as they get to the top.
Conversely, for those with AC joint impingement - what is essentially bone rubbing up against bone - you see a "painful arc" only at the last portion of abduction:
You can usually confirm your suspicions on this front with direct palpation of the AC joint and checking to see if folks have pain when reaching across the chest.
Much of the training modifications will be the same for these two conditions, but there are also going to be several key things that should be managed completely differently. For instance, front squatting someone with an AC joint issue would not be a good idea due to the direct pressure of the bar on the AC joint; it would, however, be just fine for most cases of external shoulder impingement. In another example, some serious AC joint issues are exacerbated even by just doing the end-range of a rowing motion (to much shoulder extension/horizontal abduction) - whereas even folks with full-blown rotator cuff tears can generally do rows pain-free.
