When it comes to intermediate to advanced lifters and their weight training programs, they don't just want to get strong; they want to get strongfast.
With that in mind, I'm devoting today's post to some of my favorite strategies to increase strength quickly. I talk a lot about longer-term strength and conditioning strategies, but figured it'd be a good idea to highlight some "quick fixes" today.
1. Warm-up - This seems like a no-brainer, but you'd be amazed at how many people jump right into their weight training program of the day without even getting their body temperature up. It's well documented that performance improves as core body temperature rises. However, as this study demonstrated, even a lowered skin temperature can decrease force output - independent of core body temperature. So, it may be advantageous to start your day's strength training program in long sleeves and remove layers as you go. I prefer to see folks sweating by the time the warm-up ends; set aside at least ten minutes for it so that you can get some foam rolling and mobility drills in.
This is why every training session in Show and Go begins with foam rolling and a dynamic warm-up.
2. Hydrate - You'd be amazed at how many people - both athletes and non-athletes - are chronically dehydrated. Research at my alma mater, The University of Connecticut, demonstrated that dehydration negatively impacted performance - especially on subsequent sets. In other words, dehydrated lifters don't bounce back as quickly between sets. As an interesting aside, everyone on this study was either a classmate or professor of mine; cool (no pun intended) stuff!
Regardless, drink as much as you think you need to drink - and then drink some more.
3. Have Some Caffeine - I don't love the idea of guys crushing energy drinks like the world is about to end and they don't need their adrenal glands anymore, but a little boost here and there can do the trick for a lot of lifters. On the whole, research supports the idea that caffeine improves performance in most scenarios with minimal risk, provided the dose isn't excessive and the individual isn't prone to certain issues (migraines being the one that comes to mind the quickest).
Think of it as a "here and there" boost, but don't assume that you need to crush it to be successful. Many people get enough of it in from drinking coffee in the morning that they're desensitized, anyway. I'd prefer folks drink coffee, anyway, as it's loaded with antioxidants and actually confers more health benefits than folks realize.
4. Firm up your Grip - It drives me bonkers when I see a lifter get all fired up to take a big lift, and then grab the bar with a limp hand. There are times to be gentle - handling puppies, performing surgery, and knitting scarves, for instance - but lifting heavy stuff is not one of those times. A firm grip do so much more than connect you to the bar; it turns on more proximal muscles and gets the nervous system going, as we have loads of mechanoceptors in our hands (disproportionately more than other areas on the body). As an example, physical therapist Gray Cook often cites a phenomenon called "irradiation," where the brain signals the rotator cuff to fire as protection to the shoulder when it's faced with a significant load in the hand, as with a deadlift. Just grabbing onto something get more muscles involved in the process.
5. Tinker with Technique - It goes without saying that just a few subtle strength exercise technique adjustments can make a big difference quickly. Using the deadlift as an example, the few I know that can make a dramatic difference quickly are:
a) bringing the hands in closer (shortens the distance the bar must travel)
b) taking off the shoes, or getting into a pair of minimalist training shoes (also shortens the distance the bar must travel, and puts the weight on the heels, where you want it)
c) spending less time in the bottom position before one pulls (notice in the video below that I get my thoughts together, then dip, grip, and rip; it allows me to get a bit more out of the stretch-shortening cycle at the bottom):
These are just a few coaching cues for a single strength exercise, but there are countless more unique to each individual to help people increase strength quickly.
6. Change the Music - I don't need to cite a study to prove to you that lifting with good music will help your cause, but I will anyway: Music (or the expectation of music) makes cyclist work harder. Cycling isn't lifting heavy stuff, but it goes without saying that my experience has been that folks get strong faster when they've got music playing and lots of energy in the gym.
7. Utilize Post-Activation Potentiation - This is a fancy way of saying that if you lift (or even just hold) a heavier weight, when you subsequently (shortly thereafter) perform a comparable exercise with a lighter weight, it will feel easier. In the research, it works in some scenarios, but not in others (seems to be more effective in the lower body than the upper body). Chad Waterbury covered this concept in some detail HERE, if you're interested in reading more.
These are just seven strategies you can employ in your weight training programs to increase strength transiently, and there are surely many more. By all means, share your top short-term "get strong fast" strategies in the comments section.
Looking for a weight training program where you can best put these strategies in action? Check out The High Performance Handbook.
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I hope you enjoyed the free videos I introduced last week. I got a ton of great feedback from them and I truly appreciate everyone who emailed in and commented on the videos. If you missed them, you can still grab them HERE.
That said, I'm psyched to announce today that until midnight on Friday, October 28, you can get my best-selling product, Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better at HALF OFF the normal price.
I'm holding this special sale for two reasons. First, it's my way of saying THANK YOU to all the people who took the time to watch my videos and offer their feedback. I know we all have busy schedules with lots of competing demands for our attention, and I appreciate that you take the time to check out my information.
Second, it's World Series time. As you probably know, I am not only a huge baseball fan, but also train over 70 professional baseball players. I like to celebrate the World Series because I love watching it, but also because I know any free time I have now is about to run out, with more and more of our pro guys returning with each passing day. From here on out, it's going to be non-stop training getting these guys ready for the upcoming season.
So, I want you to enjoy what's left of my "down-time" now and save 50% off of a product that truly allows you to step inside the world of Cressey Performance.
As another way of saying thank you, I want to up the ante a little more. Because I know how valuable it is to have your questions answered when you don't understand something or want to make sure you are using a program correctly to get the most out of it, I am going to throw in a free LIVE Question and Answer session for anyone who buys my Show and Go program in the next 24 hours. If you grab a copy before Tuesday at midnight, you (and everyone that does the same) will have access to me, and I'll answer your questions. Off-season training is in full-swing, so I don't have much time and I don't offer this anywhere else, but I always like to reward the people who take action.
If you grab a copy today, you won't just get a huge 50% off discount (my lowest discount ever); you'll also get a Live Q&A session with me. All this is on top of our 60-day money back guarantee, if you aren't satisfied with the purchase (trust me; based on the feedback we've received on this program from people all over the world, you won't be disappointed). Sounds fair, right?
Go right here and claim your copy now: Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better.
This special 50% off sale on Show and Go ends Friday, October 28 at midnight, but if you want the Live Question and Answer bonus session, you'll need to claim your copy by the end of the day on Tuesday, October 25.
In my years as a coach and a lifter, I've made plenty of mistakes and learned a lot of lessons as a result. Hopefully, this look at my past shortcomings will help you avoid those same mistakes in your training journey. Click here to access the webinar 100% free of charge!
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As I sat down to write this blog, I recalled a quote I heard some time ago, but only with a quick Google search did I discover that it came from Pete Seeger:
"Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't."
Seeger might be in his 90s and done singing, this quote definitely still resounds - and will continue to do so - in the field of strength and conditioning, even if that wasn't his intention.
I think one of the reasons it gets us thinking so much is that there really isn't a lot of fine print to read; the strength and conditioning field is still in its infancy, especially since there was very little research in this area before the 1980s. And, just when we think we learn something and publish it in the textbook, we discover that it's completely false (the lactic acid debacle was a great example). Moreover, we're dealing with constantly changing demographics; as examples, obesity is rising dramatically, and early youth sports specialization is destroying kids' bodies and fundamentally changing the way that they develop (examples here and here).
So, it's hard to learn how to do things the right way (or at least head in that direction) when the information wasn't available - and the population to which it applies is constantly changing. It's like trying to change the tire on a moving car - and doing so without having instructions on how to use the jack in the first place.
Moreover, even when the information is out there, we appreciate that no two people respond to the same stimulus in the same way - and my experiences with baseball players with elbow pain serves as a great example. I've seen dozens of post Tommy John surgery athletes in my career. Some start throwing before the three-month mark, and others aren't throwing until six months post-op. Everyone heals differently - and even once they get back to throwing, every guy is unique. Some have more shoulder stiffness than elbow stiffness after the long layoff, where it might be vice versa for other guys. Additionally, many post ulnar nerve transposition pitchers have a lot of elbow stiffness when they return to throwing at 6-12 weeks post-op, while others have absolutely zero complications with their return-to-throwing progression.
If the game is changing, and we never really knew what the game was in the first place - and each person is unique, what do we do?
The only thing we can do is draw on personal experience and the lessons that it's provided to us.
To that end, if you're an up-and-comer in the field, you have to look at continuing education as a multi-pronged approach. You've got to read the textbooks and stay on top of the most up-to-date research, but you also have to be "in the trenches" to test-drive concepts and see how they work.
If you're not in the industry - but want to make sure that you're getting the best possible strength and conditioning programs - you need to seek out expert advice from someone who has "been there, done that." Honestly would you want to be on the table for a surgeon's first surgery? I know I wouldn't.
A final option, at the very least, is to educate yourself fully on how to write your own workout routines. That's one reason why I created two free webinars for you: The #1 Reason You Are Not Making Progress and How to Create a Real Strength and Conditioning Program.
You can check them both out HERE at absolutely no charge. I'd just ask that you help spread the word with a Facebook "like" or comment or "Tweet" if you enjoyed what you saw.
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Change is all around us, and if we're not recognizing that and changing with it, we'll be in a bad position in no time.
It's imminent in the business world, where previous giants Borders and Blockbuster (and a host of other companies) have declared bankruptcy because they couldn't adapt to a changing marketplace.
As the son of a teacher (and now principal), I've watched how my mother has changed education with the introduction of the International Baccalaureate program at my old high school. This program engages students and makes them more aware of the world around them, as opposed to just having them stare at chalkboards and textbooks all the time.
The internet has changed the way shoppers shop, teachers teach, campaigners campaign, and ninjas "ninjer."
Joking aside, change is something that applies to strength training programs as well. In addition to fluctuating training stress and rotating strength exercises, you have to be able to modify a program based on how you feel from day-to-day. When I was younger, I would just barrel through many training sessions even if I didn't feel good - and I'm convinced that this stubbornness not only limited my progress a bit, but also led to some injuries along the way.
Nowadays, I'm older and wiser (and balder), and I listen to my body a lot more. Plus, I'm a much better coach than I was back then, so I know how to make substitutions in strength and conditioning programs to maintain a training effect. Pulled rectus femoris? Go to step-ups because they don't extend the hip and flex the knee simultaneously (as you'd get with a lunge). Shoulder hurts? Try a feet-elevated push-up instead of a bench press, as elevating the feet increases serratus anterior activity and you can draw stability from the floor.
More generally, though, I'm honest with myself about where my life is right now. I'm 31 years old - which is definitely not 21 - and not competing in powerlifting anymore (although that doesn't mean that I'm not still training hard on a daily basis). I have a wife, a dog, a house, a travel schedule, and a ton of stuff going on professionally with training athletes, writing, consulting, and lecturing. In short, there are a lot of competing demands.
What does this mean in the context of my strength training programs? Well, to be straight, the "highs" aren't quite as high, and the lows are actually "lower." Let me explain.
Take this training session, when I warmed up on trap bar deadlifts and felt pretty good, so made the decision to push the envelope a bit. I wound up pulling 700lbs.
As you can see, it came up surprisingly quickly. In years past, I probably would have jumped to 720 for another attempt, or drop back down to 630-650 for some additional singles at a weight over 90% of that day's best lift. I might have even done some backoff sets of 3-4 reps at 600. Instead, I just called it there and moved on to my assistance work, as I was feeling a little banged up and wanted to make sure I still got plenty of quality work in over the course of the rest of my strength training session. That's not to say either of these follow-up approaches would have been the wrong choice; they just weren't the right choice for me on that day. The "high" wasn't so high.
Likewise, when it comes to deloading, I wind up cutting back on things a bit more than I did in the past. In my e-book, The Art of the Deload, I outline ten different methods for deloading in strength and conditioning programs, and nowadays, I tend to go with the most conservative of the bunch.
Some might look at this piece as me telling people how to be soft and do less in their strength training programs. The way I see it, I'm just encouraging folks to train hard, but intelligently, listening to their bodies along the way. Along those same lines, what modifications have you made to your strength training programs as life has gotten busier and you've gotten older? Please post your comments below!
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Today marks Part 2 of this mini-series covering just how much you can learn from looking at an elbow before writing up a strength and conditioning program. In Part 1, we talked about what can be learned from our first potential scenario, elbow hyperextension. Today, we'll focus on the lessons to be learned from three more scenarios.
Full Elbow Extension, Muscular End-Feel - This simply means that you have all your extension and no "empty" end feel; it eases to muscular stretch (of the elbow flexors).
This is probably the most common presentation pattern in the general population, and you can generally expect these folks to respond to need equal amounts of mobility and stability training. More thorough assessments will give you more information on where to focus your efforts.
Incomplete Elbow Extension, Bony End-Feel - These are, in many cases, guys who did not get full elbow extension back following a surgical procedure. Or, it may just be someone with bone spurs on the underside of the joint that interferes with elbow extension.
It's a bold assumption to make, but these individuals are almost always (in my experience) athletes who have profound limitations in other regions, as poor glenohumeral mobility, rotator cuff function, scapular stabilization, thoracic spine mobility, and terrible tissue quality can all contribute to these kind of issues presenting at the elbow. So, when I see and feel an elbow this "gross," I usually know that I have my work cut out for me. Generally, these guys wind up needing a hearty dose of mobility training, soft tissue work, breathing drills, and longer duration static stretching.
That said, with respect to the elbow itself, these guys need to be cognizant of maintaining every little bit they have. If you've got a 10° elbow extension deficit because of bony changes, you can probably get by. However, if you allow that 10° to become 30° because you pile soft tissue shortness/stiffness on top of it, you could be waiting for some serious problems to come around. To that end, I always encourage these guys to get routine soft tissue work and plenty of static stretching in to maintain whatever elbow extension they still have.
Incomplete Elbow Extension, Muscular End-Feel - These guys look very much like our previous category, but the end-feel has much more "give" to it; it's not a "concrete-on-concrete" end-feel. This is a very good thing, as you know you can work to get it back. This athlete, for instance, got 15° of elbow extension back in a matter of a few minutes following a Graston treatment with our manual therapist and some follow-up stretching.
I wouldn't expect him to maintain 100% of those improvements from treatment to treatment, but over the course of 3-4 bouts, he should get to where he needs to be.
Expect to see some of the same things with the rest of the body, as elbow extension deficits rarely occur in isolation. In throwers, they're usually accompanied by poor glenohumeral internal rotation on the throwing side, poor hip internal rotation on the front leg, and a host of other stiffness/shortness issues. In the general population, you see them in people who are locked up all over - especially in people who sit at computers all day long.
That wraps up our look at four elbow presentation patterns and what they may mean for your strength and conditioning programs and corrective exercise approaches. For more information, check out the Everything Elbow In-Service, an affordably priced 32-minute in-service where half of all proceeds go to charity.
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On Tuesday, we had our first ever "Night with the Pros" at Cressey Performance. At the event, 15 of the professional baseball players who train at Cressey Performance in the off-season sat in on a roundtable, answering questions about their careers, long-term developmental approach, college recruiting processes, weekly routines during the season, and a host of other topics. Marlins closer Steve Cishek discussed how he dealt with pressure as a rookie; Indians pitcher Corey Kluber explained why he wound up selecting a smaller D1 program over the baseball "powerhouses;" Royals reliever Tim Collins threw a live bullpen for the crowd and talked about his rise to the big leagues against all odds, and New Balance Baseball was there to provide some sweet prizes and showcase some of their great products.
Even with 15 players on the panel, no two stories were alike; everyone has had a different path to success. Accordingly, when it came time to do my live demonstration, I wanted to emphasize the unique nature of every arm - and how a quick elbow assessment can provide quite a bit of information about what you need to do for a whole-body strength and conditioning program. More than anything, for a bit of "shock value," I used the elbow of one of our pro guys who came to use following a Tommy John surgery where he didn't get all his extension back during his rehabilitation. In speaking with a few of the young attendees the following day, seeing a 25-degree elbow flexion contracture with a "zipper" scar along the medial side was a big eye opener that they needed to be serious about arm care.
We can use the Beighton scale to assess for both generalized congenital laxity and specific laxity at a joint. The screen consists of five tests, four of which are unilateral:
1. Elbow hyperextension > 10° (left and right sides)
2. Knee hyperextension > 10° (left and right sides)
3. Flex the thumb to contact with the forearm (left and right sides)
4. Extend the pinky to >90° angle with the rest of the hand (left and right sides)
5. Place both palms flat on the floor without flexing the knees
So, at the end of the day, you can score up to nine points on the screen if you are ultra-lax. This would be something you'd certainly find more often in women than in men, and the incidence of laxity is going to be higher in sports like swimming, baseball, gymnastics, and tennis (that can benefit from increased range of motion) than it is in football, hockey, etc; it's just natural selection at work, to some degree.
That said, I mentioned earlier that the elbow assessment alone - which, in my eyes, is the quickest and easiest of the bunch - can tell you a ton about what your priorities are going to be when writing a strength and conditioning program. There are really four scenarios that I come across on a weekly basis. For the record, describing joint end-feel in the rehabilitation community is much more elaborate (and specific to each joint) than I make it out in these examples; I just want them to be user-friendly for the lay population. I'll describe the first scenario, Elbow Hyperextension, in today's piece, and come back tomorrow to cover the rest.
Usually, elbow hyperextension has a very soft or "empty" end-feel - as if the forearm could just pop off if it was pulled into further hyperextension. When I see this, I know that there is a very good chance that this individual will have a high Beighton score and I won't have to do much (if any) stretching for him whatsoever - especially in the upper body (you can expect to see upwards ot 200° of total motion at the shoulders, too). Of course, I'll follow up with additional specific and general screens to determine whether this hypermobility characterizes the elbow, upper extremity, or entire body.
Generally, these individuals need more stabilization exercises - so a hearty dose of strength training is in order. Unfortunately, many people like to stick to what they are good at doing, so it's not uncommon at all to see folks with raging congenital laxity going to yoga class after yoga class, wondering why their backs still hurt. It's simply because they're taking an unstable body into end-ranges of motion over and over again. I think specific yoga exercises have outstanding benefits for specific people, but those with congenital laxity need to approach them with caution. And, certainly, trying to turn young gymnasts into human pretzels probably isn't a great idea for long-term health; for every Olympian, there are 10,000 kids with stress fractures in their spines.
That said, if you have someone who presents with a high Beighton score, but still doesn't move well, there are four likely scenarios, in my opinion.
First, and most obviously, there can be an injury that doesn't become symptomatic until they weight bear. Refer out if that is the case.
Second, they can be "grossly" unstable and simply need familiarization and strengthening in the movements you're teaching them. Just because someone is lax enough to be put in the bottom position of a lunge doesn't mean that they'll have adequate joint stabilization to hold that position. As I've written previously, you need adequate stiffness at adjacent joints to allow each joint to move optimally.
Third, they can have breathing issues (those who live in anterior pelvic tilt and rib flair are examples) or soft tissue restrictions (not as likely, but it does happen). These issues might not present with a Beighton score alone, because people can "fake" joint ROM in a passive sense when they are relaxed enough. As an example, I've seen folks with outstanding abduction range-of-motion who are fibrotic soft tissue messes where the adductors insert on the pubis. I'll always go to breathing and soft tissue work well before I go to stretching with these folks.
Fourth, I've seen quite a few folks with hypermobility everywhere except their ankles. It could be because we have absolutely destroyed feet and ankles over the years with high-top sneakers, high-heel shoes, and ankle taping. It could also be protective spasming from a previous ankle sprain that wasn't rehabilitated properly. Or, it could be that folks have shifted their center of gravity so far forward (due to the aforementioned postural distortions) that they simply can't shut off their plantarflexors. So, it's up to you to determine if things are short (measure passive dorsiflexion or do a wall ankle mobility test) or stiff (provide a counterbalance - such as a goblet squat - to see if dorsiflexion increases).
As I mentioned earlier, this is just one of four scenarios that I commonly see when I first look at an elbow. Be sure to check out Part 2, where I introduce the other three and outline the implications of your findings on strength and conditioning program design.
In the meantime, for more information on assessing and managing the elbow, I'd encourage you to check out the Everything Elbow In-Service. In this 32-minute in-service, I cover everything from functional anatomy, to injuries, to injury mechanisms, to strength training program modifications. There are valuable lessons for both those in the baseball world as well as those who don’t have any interest in baseball. It's affordably priced at just $12.99 - and half of all proceeds go to charity.
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This marks the third and final installment of my review of Muscle Imbalances Revealed - Upper Body. In case you missed the first two parts, be sure to check out Part 1 (Dean Somerset) and Part 2 (Jeff Cubos). In this third installment, I'll cover the contributions from Tony Gentilcore and Rick Kaselj. For the record, me combining these two into one installment in no way reflects how I felt about their presentations; I am just getting ready to leave for my anniversary this weekend, and need to cover them both quickly before I head out!
Tony, as many of you know, is a long-time friend of mine and works with me at Cressey Performance - and I've been harassing him for years now to put out a product. He's a great coach whose ideas and skills deserve to be showcased to a larger audience, and I'm glad that he finally got around to putting his name on something!
That said, it was a little tougher to evaluate Tony because we literally spend so much time together that our brains are very "synced up" - meaning that it'd tough for him to throw something new at me that we haven't already integrated at CP. That said, some highlights of Tony's presentation:
1. I think he did a good job of distinguishing between how we program both reactively and proactively for upper extremity issues at Cressey Performance. How one trains someone with symptoms is, in many cases, remarkably different from that same individual would be trained in the absence of those symptoms - even if the same movement impairments are present. This is a crucial area of understanding for trainers who may want to get more involved on the corrective exercise side of things.
2. Tony outlines some of our horizontal pulling and scapular stabilization progressions. I think the biggest take home is understanding that different people need different progressions. Some folks with completely imbalanced programs can thrive simply from going to loads more horizontal pulling. Others may be doing plenty of horizontal pulling, but doing it incorrectly because they lack the appropriate recruitment patterns. These folks need very targeted scapular stabilization drills to get the ideal "big bang" effect of rowing variations. The low-level activation drills become the warm-ups to groove the movement patterns, and the horizontal (and vertical) pulling helps to make those patterns part of the bigger picture.
3. Above all else, I feel that the strongest value of Tony's presentation is in the cues. If you're an up-and-coming coach and need to learn some excellent cues to get your clients/athletes to not just pick up movements, but pick them up optimally, then this is a great purchase for you.
4. Last, but certainly not least, Tony provides some sample programming templates to demonstrate how everything fits together in a comprehensive strength training program. It's one thing to hear about principles and theories, but another thing altogether to appreciate how they all fit together in a comprehensive strength and conditioning program. He provides several examples in this regard that'll help you get comfortable with piecing everything together.
Next up was Rick Kaselj, the man responsible for bringing all these minds together.
Here were some of my favorite points from Rick's presentations:
1. People seem to think of clavicle as motionless. In reality, from 0-90° abduction, you only need 5-10° of clavicular upward rotation. From 90-180° of abduction, you need 20-25° of clavicular upward rotation. This clavicular movement can be affected by the muscles that attach directly to it (pectoralis major) or by those that indirectly impact it (muscles attaching to the scapula and/or humerus).
Now, think about where most people with acromioclavicular joint pain wind up with symptoms during abduction: the final 30° - which is known as the painful arc. Any surprise that the symptoms occur at the point where the most amount of clavicular upward rotation is needed? Nope.
Keep in mind that poor clavicular positioning can also impact sternoclavicular joint function, too. Double whammy, if you're "stuck."
2. Rick did a good job of showing the checks and balances that occur within the rotator cuff musculature. Shirley Sahrmann has pointed it out in her work, but I think it gets overlooked.
The supraspinatus creates a compression force into glenoid fossa. The subscapularis, teres minor, and infraspinatus produce an inferior directed translation force on the humeral head. The infraspinatus and teres minor also externally rotate the humeral head in frontal plane so that the greater tubercle doesn’t clog up the subacromial space.
In other words, you get a pull in, down, and into the “right kind of rotation (external rotation increases the subacromial space, whereas internal rotation closes it down).
One point I’d add to strengthen Rick’s case even further is that the subscapularis also has a posterior pull on the humeral head. Without adequate subscapularis function during internal rotation, the pectoralis major can take over and draw the humeral head forward, causing anterior joint capsule irritation.
3. Rick's last presentation focused on the neck, a complex area to understand for most fitness professionals. He started off by emphasizing to get neck issues checked out, as they can be very serious. His presentation then emphasized training strategies to prevent neck pain and work around it if it's present. Accurately, Rick noted that some of the big players on this front were:
a) breathing - diaphragmatic or overuse of accessory respiratory muscles?
b) posture - forward head posture or neutral spine?
c) tissue quality
d) range of motion (particularly the thoracic spine)
e) strength (particularly the deep neck flexors)
f) scapular stability
g) rotator cuff function
Sometimes, the easiest way to address an issue (or prevent it) is to look at what happens a joint below (or above). Of course, when you're dealing with neck issues, always refer out to a qualified professional first.
This wraps up my three-part review of Muscle Imbalances Revealed - Upper Body. As I'm sure you can tell by now, I'm a big fan of this resource and highly suggest you add it to your library. It's on sale at a great price, so don't delay in picking up a copy if this is up your alley. With the money-back guarantee Rick's made available, you can't go wrong.
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In Part 1 of this off-season baseball strength and conditioning series, I outlined the first five of my top 10 priorities when dealing with baseball players at the start of their off-season. Today, I round out the top 10 “general” things always seem to be addressing with players coming in after a season.
1. Regaining lost mobility - This is an incredibly loaded topic that goes far beyond the scope of any blog or article, as it's an entire two-day seminar or book! You see, losses in mobility - the ability to reach a desired position or posture - can be caused by a number of issues - and usually a combination of several of them. Tissues can actually lose sarcomeres and become short after immobilization or significant eccentric stress (as with the deceleration component of throwing). They can become stiff because of inadequate stability at adjacent joints (learn more HERE), protective tension (e.g., "tight" hamstrings in someone with crazy anterior pelvic tilt), or neural tension from an injury (e.g., disc herniation causing "tight" hamstrings).
The "Short vs. Stiff" issue is why you need to have a variety of tools in your "mobility toolbox." You need focal modalities like Active Release, Graston, and ASTYM techniques to assist with dealing with short tissues, whereas you need more diffuse modalities like traditional massage and foam rolling for dealing with stiffness (although both modalities can certainly help in the other regards, this is how I prefer to use them).
You need to understand retraining breathing appropriately and how posture affects respiratory function. If you live in extension, you'll have a poor zone of apposition in which the diaphragm can function. The average human takes over 20,000 breaths per day. If you don't use your diaphragm properly, more of the stress is placed on the supplemental respiratory muscles: sternocleidomastoid, scalenes, pec major and minor, upper trapezius, and latissimus dorsi (to only name a few). What are some insanely common sites of trigger points in just about everyone - especially thrower? Sternocleidomastoid, scalenes, pec major and minor, upper trapezius, and latissimus dorsi. Improving respiratory function can be a complete game changer when it comes to enhancing mobility. If you see a baseball player with a low right shoulder, prominent anterior left ribs, adducted right hip, huge anterior pelvic tilt, and limited right shoulder internal rotation, it's almost always a slam dunk.
You may need low-load, long-duration static stretches to improve length in tissues that have lost sarcomeres. This research has been around in the post-surgery community for decades (1984 research example here), but it's actually not used all that much in strength and conditioning programs - presumably because of time constraints or the fact that most coaches simply don't know how well it can work in the right people.
Finally, as we noted in our Assess and Correct DVD set, you also need dynamic flexibility drills in your warm-ups to reduce tissue and joint stiffness, and subsequent strength exercises in your strength and conditioning program to create adequate stability at adjacent joints to "hold" that new range of motion in place.
Many physical therapist employ heat early in a session to decrease stiffness prior to strengthening exercises, too. The point is that there may be many different ways to skin a cat - but there are also a lot different types and sizes of cat. And, for the record, I don't condone skinning cats; it's just a really gruesome analogy that has somehow "stuck" in our normally very politically correct society. Weird...but let's move on.
2.Improving dynamic stabilization of the scapula - I say "dynamic stabilization" because you don't just want scapular stability; you want a scapula with appropriate tissue length, stiffness, and density to allow for the desired movement. A scapula that doesn't move might be "stable," but that's not actually a good thing!
Truth be told, the scapular stabilizers generally fatigue before the rotator cuff does. And, when the scapula isn't positioned appropriately, the rotator cuff is at a mechanical disadvantage, anyway. Additionally, poor scapular control can present as an internal rotation deficit at the shoulder, as you'll just protract the shoulder excessively in place of internally rotating. In other words, you can do all the rotator cuff exercises you want, but you don't increase strength of the periscapular muscles, you'll be spinning your wheels. There are loads of drills that we use, but forearm wall slide variations are among our favorites:
3. Enhancing global strength while minimizing reactive training - As I've already noted in this series, we're certainly spending a lot of time addressing specific areas of weakness like the rotator cuff, scapular stabilizers, and anterior core. However, I should be very clear that we're still using "money" strength exercises like variations of the deadlift, single-leg exercises, squatting (in some of our guys), pull-ups, rows, push-ups, and dumbbell bench presses to get strong. That said, the volume and intensity come down a ton on the reactive training side of things. We'll give our guys a few weeks off altogether from sprinting, as they've usually done a lot of that all season. Plus, nixing all the sprinting and jumping for a few weeks ensures that they won't tweak anything, given the soreness they'll be working with from the strength training program - and it allows us to increase strength faster.
4. Putting guys in the right footwear - One thing that many folks don't appreciate about playing baseball every day from February to October is the sheer amount of time one spends standing around in cleats, which will never be as comfortable as sneakers or going barefoot. As such, one of the first things we do with most of our guys is get them into a good pair of minimalist shoes for training, as it gets them away from the rigidity, separation from the ground, and ankle mobility deficits that come with wearing cleats. As I wrote previously, I'm a big fan of the New Balance Minimus.
Keep in mind that we ease guys into these minimalist shoe options, rather than throwing them in the footwear 24/7 right away. They'll start out just wearing them during training, and increase from there, assuming all goes well.
5. Normalizing sleep schedules - Professional baseball players (and really all professional athletes) have terrible sleep schedules. Because most games are night games, they generally go to bed around 1-2AM and wake up anywhere from 7AM to 11AM. The early risers I know will usually take a nap before going to the park, whereas the guys who sleep in roll out of bed and go straight to the park. Additionally, much of this sleeping comes on planes and buses, which aren't exactly comfortable places to get quality sleep. I'm a firm believer that one hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours after midnight - but this simply isn't an option for professional baseball players.
That said, we try to normalize things as much as possible in the off-season. All our athletes are encouraged to try to go to bed and wake up at the same time - and to hit the hay before 11pm every night. Any naps they can get during the day are a bonus, too!
Wrap-up
While I've outlined ten things we address in the early off-season, these are really just the tip of the iceberg, as every player is unique and needs an individual approach. That said, the one general theme that applies to all of them is that we're shifting paradigms - meaning that some things about our philosophy may differ from what they've experienced. Some guys may be accustomed to just "football workouts." Others may have been coddled with foo-foo training programs where they didn't work hard. Some guys ran distances. Some guys crushed the rotator cuffs every day while ignoring the rest of the body.
The point is that it's not just our job to find what we feel is the best fit for these athletes, but also to educate them on why the unique program we've designed for them is a better approach than they can get anywhere else.
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We've got over 100 professional baseball players scheduled to be at Cressey Performance for their off-season training, so it goes without saying that I've been doing a lot of evaluations over the past two weeks - and writing the individualized strength and conditioning programs in accordance with those assessment results. To that end, I thought I'd use a two-part series to highlight the top 10 "general" things I find myself addressing with guys coming in after the long season.
1. Planning the off-season schedule - Each player is 100% unique in this regard. As examples, a guy who threw 50 innings would be able to start a throwing program sooner this off-season than a guy who racked up 150 innings. Some guys goes to instructional league in Florida or Arizona, and others play winter ball. Guys headed to minor league spring training report later than those headed to big league spring training. In short, everyone has different timetables with which to work, so it's important to get an appreciation for it well in advance for the sake of long-term planning.
2.Discussing role/status within the organization - This priority aligns with #1. You manage a first-round draft pick who may be a guaranteed big leaguer if he stays healthy somewhat differently than you'd manage someone who was drafted in the 48th round and paid a $1,000 signing bonus. The former has the world on a silver platter for him, whereas the latter really needs to improve with dramatic improvements in order to stick around in pro ball. In this situation, you have to be willing to get a bit more aggressive with the programming of the "underdog." I wrote about this two years ago in a feature on CP athlete and Oakland A's prospect Shawn Haviland.
3. Mastering the sagittal plane - When the season ends, it seems like a lot of strength and conditioning coaches are super anxious to start up loads of aggressive medicine ball drills and change of direction work. I'm a firm believer that guys need to master the sagittal plane before they head out and spend a lot of time in the frontal plane - especially when it comes after a long season of aggressive rotational activity. In some guys, we omit medicine ball work altogether for the first month of the off-season while we work to enhance anti-rotation and anti-extension core stability. You'd be amazed at how many athletes can't do a decent prone bridge, rollout, or reverse crunch on their first day back because their anterior pelvic tilt is so excessive that their anterior core strength is virtually absent.
Other athletes need to spend a lot of time simply working on single-leg exercises. While these exercises are performed in the sagittal plane, the athletes are still stabilizing in the frontal and transverse planes. The "sexy" work in these planes comes in subsequent months.
Of course, some athletes do a great job of taking care of themselves during the season and come back with complete control in the sagittal plane. As long as they aren't too banged up, we'll certainly get them right back in to medicine ball exercises.
4. Regaining rotator cuff strength - It's a huge struggle to improve cuff strength when an athlete is constantly throwing - especially when we're talking about a pitcher who is racking up 100+ pitches - and the eccentric stress that accompanies them - every fifth day. Since most professional pitchers get about 10-16 weeks off from throwing each fall, those 2-4 months become absolutely crucial for regaining cuff strength at an optimal rate. It's one reason why it drives me absolutely bonkers when a guy takes a full month off after the season ends.
I discussed our general approach to improving rotator cuff function in Clearing Up the Rotator Cuff Controversy. Of course, all this work is accompanied by loads of work on thoracic mobility, scapular stabilization, breathing exercises, and soft tissue work.
5. Normalizing diet and, in turn, vitamin/mineral status - There are a ton of guys who want to stick with healthy food options during the season. Unfortunately, that can be very challenging on a minor league salary, less-than-stellar clubhouse food, and extensive travel. All our professional players complete three-day diet records at the start of the off-season, and when reviewing those, we tinker with food selection, meal frequency, and supplementation.
If a guy is overweight, we don't try to take 30 pounds off him in two weeks; rather, we focus on improving food quality and allow the increased training volume to take care of the rest. Most guys will undergo a pretty dramatic body composition shift in the first 6-8 weeks of the off-season, anyway, so there is no need to get "aggressive" with caloric reductions at this point when they should be all about regeneration and feeling good.
Of course, if they're skinny, we'll get them crushing more food right away!
These are just the first of many key areas of focus for early in the off-season. Check back soon for Part 2!
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