This past weekend, my wife and I headed down to Pennsylvania for some friends’ wedding. On Saturday morning, I awoke at 7AM to her standing next to my bed absolutely covered in sweat and wearing her workout clothes. As it turns out, knowing that the weekend would be full of not-so-healthy food and limited opportunities to exercise, Anna had taken the bull by the horns and hit up the hotel gym at 6AM to kick her day off right. It's no surprise, as she spends quite a bit of time at Cressey Performance.
That, in itself, isn’t a particularly riveting story to kick off today’s blog – until I discovered that the only thing this hotel gym had was an elliptical, recumbent bike, and treadmill. And, to take it a step further, Anna discovered that there was no power for any of them, meaning that they were essentially just places to rest her water bottle. What to do?
She could have said screw it and gone back to bed.
She could have woken me up and asked me to write her a body weight program.
She could have tried to run on the side of a busy road, or find a place to sprint in a town that wasn’t familiar to her.
Instead, though, she used the knowledge and experience she had to construct her own body weight training program. Anna’s an optometrist, not a trainer – but her skill set from asking questions, being in the right environment, and performing dozens of programs put her in a position to handle the curveballs life threw at her.
Coincidentally, a strength coach from the Cape Cod Summer League came up to observe at CP last week, and we got to talking about how you never quite have the continuity you want with training athletes because they go in-season for a big chunk of the year, and because you’re always working around competition and travel schedules. To that end, he asked me what the single biggest thing is that we focus on when we may only have someone for a short period of time. My answer?
“It’s the same thing we focus on when we have someone for a longer period of time: education. It’s our job to make athletes informed consumers who know how to listen to their body, adapt to their surroundings, eat the right foods, get the right amount of sleep, and do the correct programs regardless of what’s going on around them.”
You might think that your #1 job as a trainer is to strip 15 pounds of body fat off someone in two months. Or, maybe it’s to put four inches on a guy’s vertical jump prior to a scouting combine.
In reality, though, your #1 priority is to educate them so that they’re prepared for the days that they’re on their own.
Education needs to be different for everyone, though. A true beginner needs to be educated on everything from what to eat during/post-training to how to perform the actual exercises. If you teach a female client to have a protein and carb shake around a session in a weight training program, then chances are that she would eventually know to grab some Greek yogurt and a piece of fruit if a shake isn’t handy when she’s on the road. Or, if you teach a young baseball player how to do a dumbbell reverse lunge and a front squat, then he’ll be able to perform a barbell reverse lunge with a front squat grip someday when he needs a good single-leg exercise, but only has barbells at the exclusion of dumbbells.
A more advanced individual might want to know more about his/her unique muscle imbalances and what corrective mobility and stability drills to stay on top of to prevent problems from arising. Or, these folks might just want to make use of your network to find great gyms and manual therapists in other parts of the country so that they can stay on top of their workout routines while on the road.
Results are fantastic and obviously an absolutely essential part of a successful strength and conditioning program. However, if you aren’t educating folks along the way, then you’re not cultivating the long-term fitness success they really need, even if they don’t think to consider anything beyond short-term results.
What do you think are the most important things we absolutely have to teach our clients and athletes to ensure long-term success? And, what are the most overlooked things they need to learn to be successful over the long haul? Post your comments below!
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I get asked all the time what sneaker I recommend for strength and conditioning. While no shoe is perfect for everyone and all tasks, I’ve certainly grown to love the more “minimalist” options on the market today that simulate barefoot training. In addition to strengthening the smaller muscles of the feet, barefoot training “accidentally” improves ankle mobility in athletes who have been stuck in restrictive shoes their entire lives.
That said, not all minimalist footwear options are created equal – and I can speak from experience, as I have tried out just about every version on the market today.
My use of old-school Converse All-Stars (“Chuck Taylors") could probably be considered my original “foray”into minimalist footwear, as I gravitated toward them because they were flat-soled and allowed me to better drive through my heels while squatting and deadlifting in powerlifting. Unfortunately, they weren’t very comfortable, weren’t particularly aesthetically appealing, and I couldn’t really do much single-leg work or sprinting in them the way that I wanted to because they just felt restricting at the ankles (admittedly, I had the high-top version). Plus, I always felt like people automatically lived in my parents' basement and played Dungeons and Dragons because I wore them.
From there, I went to the Nike Free back in 2006 – and was pretty impressed. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm tailed off quickly, as I beat these sneakers into the ground almost overnight. The panels on the bottoms would fall off all the time when we pushed the sled (we find 3-4 new “pieces” of Free on the floor at CP every day).
And, the sneaker design actually seemed to “de-evolve,” as the upper and sides seemed to get stiffer while the heel lift increased (pictured below is the 7.0, and while the lower digit versions are a bit less stiff, there still seemed to be a general shift toward "normalcy" in terms of heel lift).
Looking for an alternative, I tried on a Reebok Travel Trainer (yes, only one) on in a store – and quickly returned it to the box before lacing up the other sneaker. It felt so low in the back that I literally thought I’d come out of the shoe altogether if I tried to run – and this was a sentiment echoed by my wife, who owns a pair and has worn them a whopping one time for a training session…a mistake she’ll never make again, as they are buried in some closet with her 13,000 other pairs of shoes. Using an excavating helmet and my Dora the Explorer flashlight, I managed to find them:
Then, earlier this year, an employee of Vibram Five Fingers kindly gave me a pair of their shoes to try out. I really liked it for walking around the facility and training my bilateral lower-body lifts, but was not a fan of it for single-leg training, as it beat up my big toe on the trailing leg in lunges. I'm also a heavy supinator, so it wasn't a good fit for me with sprinting.
However, I do love the material on the bottom, as it is one solid piece that couldn’t fall apart like the Frees do. I also liked the pliability of the upper section; it had just the right amount of give. That said, like most folks I’ve met who wear the Vibram Five Fingers, I could have done without the “Five Fingers” part, from an aesthetic standpoint. It's the absolute closest you can get to true barefoot training.
Luckily for me, though, the clouds opened up and I finally found a pair of minimalist sneakers that I love "all-around" when I got hooked up with a pair of the New Balance Minimus. The new "training" shoe, which is pictured below, actually debuted in July of 2011, with more colors and styles added to the product line in the months that followed. These bad boys are the real deal: durable bottoms, the same upper “feel” of the Five Fingers (they actually collaborated with Vibram on the trail version, which feels similar to the Five Fingers, minus the toes), and just enough protecting at the big toe to keep me from getting banged up on lunges. There is also sufficient padding in the back to ensure that you don't slip out like one does with the Travel Trainer. Tony and I each have a pair, as does the First Lady of Cressey Performance (for the record, Tony's are the pink ones):
I’ve used it for everything from sprinting, to jumping, to lifting and felt great. I feel like an absolute rock star because I don’t have to change footwear halfway through a session in my strength and conditioning program, and while that may be a sad commentary on my life, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a damn good training show that I’ll be rocking for the foreseeable future. It's also quickly become the single most popular training shoe on the floor at Cressey Performance on a given day, as many of the athletes have followed our lead and been thrilled with their purchases.
You can check out the different styles of Minimus at NewBalance.com. I also liked this great interview on the research and development that went into creating the Minimus; it’s worth a read if you’re a geek like me.
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A few months ago, I decided that 2011 was going to be the year for me to learn to play golf. Considering that my grandmother actually beat me on nine holes last year, and that I have a world record in the deadlift, yet didn't really use my hips when I golfed, I had a big window of adaptation ahead of me.
To that end, I've been taking golf lessons with a great pro around here every Wednesday morning for the past six weeks. I'm a very type A personality and ultra-competitive, so you can bet that I've been practicing a ton and thinking about it a lot.
This past weekend, I had my re-match with Gram in our first golf outing of the year. While I narrowly edged her this time around, I shot a 59 over 9 holes - including a 10 on the 4th and a 12 on the 8th - so I didn't exactly end up with bragging rights. In fact, if a trophy had been awarded, I would have still received this one:
The funny thing is that my swing is dramatically improved and I can easily identify what I've done incorrectly when it doesn't come off the club the way that it should. About 80% of the time, I'm putting them straight-ahead. The only problem with that 80% statistic is that it's based on nice, flat, turf tees at driving ranges, and not what really happens in golf when you're on the side of a hill with leaves, divots, and a tree directly between you and the hole.
In other words, all my golf practice thus far has been closed loop, while the nature of golf is much more open loop in nature. What do I mean with these terms? Rather than reinvent the wheel, he's an excerpt from my e-book, The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual, that describes open and closed-loop drills:
The overwhelming majority of agility drills fall into the category of closed-loop drills; very simply, they’re predictable tasks. Closed-loop drills are extremely valuable for teaching proper technique in sprinting, changes of direction, and other sport mechanics, and should therefore comprise the overwhelming majority of the drills utilized in the general off-season period.These “conscious” efforts in the general off-season give rise to integration of appropriate mechanics subconsciously in the late off-season and in-season phases. By these phases, the athlete has become conditioned to act efficiently without thinking about how to react to a given stimulus. Ideally, this occurs completely prior to the integration of open-loop drills that challenge the athlete’s ability to accommodate unpredictable external stimuli.
Eventually, both open- and closed-loop drills can be integrated into metabolic conditioning schemes to enhance sport-specific conditioning. We encounter both planned and unplanned movement challenges in athletics, so it is logical to prepare for both. Examples of open-loop movement training are mirror drills, 5-10-5 drills where the athlete moves in the direction that the coach points, and tennis ball drills (where the athlete races to retrieve a tennis ball a coach has thrown in an unannounced direction).Resistance training has traditionally been comprised of closed-loop challenges; this underscores the need for significant variety in exercise selection when programming for athletes. For this reason – especially in the general off-season – coaches should use different bars, dumbbells, kettlebells, cables, medicine balls, body weight exercises, grip widths, ranges of motion, points of stability (e.g., lunges vs. squats), and other varying stimuli to expand athletes’ overall motor pools through rich sensory environments.
Such variety is especially important when it comes to dealing with young athletes. The richer their proprioceptive environments, the better their overall development, and the easier they’ll pick up complex challenges down the road.Coaches should allow for enough repetition and frequency of a given drill to allow for adaptation, but at the same time look to insert variety to programming as often as possible. Beyond simply improving overall afferent (sensory) function, variety in exercise selection will also markedly reduce the risk of injury due to pattern overload, muscular imbalance, and movement dysfunction.
What’s the take-home message from this length quote? Never expect true carryover from your strength and conditioning programs to the “randomness” of your daily life unless you implement more unpredictable challenges in those strength and conditioning programs. Conservatively, that might mean doing more strongman style training and utilizing more asymmetrical loading.
More assertively, it might mean getting out to play in a soccer, softball, or ultimate frisbee game to make sure you aren’t getting stagnant because of the predictability of your “workout routine.”
In other words, I'll be getting out to simply golf more, as it'll teach me how to swing under predictable conditions and make good decisions in those scenarios. Likewise, in my practice sessions, I'll be getting off the mats a bit more to golf on less-than-optimal terrain.
Maybe it'll get me to a 58 next time.
To learn more about how open- and closed-loop drills are integrated in a comprehensive program, check out The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual.
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This past weekend was really special for me, as I got to watch about two dozen Cressey Performance athletes go out and win the Massachusetts Division 1 State Championship for Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School.
While we work with kids from dozens of high schools in the area, L-S baseball was the first program that “took a chance” on me when I was the new guy in town, and from that initial group of guys grew the Cressey Performance “baseball empire” that now includes loads of professional and college players. I’ve become great friends with the entire coaching staff, and the players’ families have really adopted my wife and me as part of the L-S baseball community.
This year’s senior class included kids who actually started training with us in eighth grade, and therefore marked the first class of guys who spent their entire high school careers with us at Cressey Performance. In thinking back on the progress one athlete, Adam Ravenelle, made over those four years, I felt compelled to write this blog.
On Adam’s first day at CP, he looked pretty intimidated – just like any 14-year-old would when stepping into a weight room for the first time. However, when I went to do his shoulder assessment, I quickly realized that he’d fit in just fine. When I found that he had almost 140 degrees of external rotation in his throwing shoulder, I turned to my business partner and commented that he had “a big league shoulder” and that if he was willing to put in the work, he’d be a pretty good pitcher (even though he was a shortstop/third basemen at the time).
Four years later, with a fastball in the low 90s, Adam is a 44th round draft pick of the Yankees and a State Champion with a baseball scholarship to Vanderbilt. He’s pitched at Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, and at all the major competitions – Area Codes, East Coast Pro, USA Baseball Tournament of Stars – that an accomplished player could attend.
You know what, though? These accomplishments didn't magically happen; rather, there were thousands of small, but extremely significant moments along the way that took Adam from a "kid with a good shoulder" to the athlete he is today. There were all the days when he came in to get his arm stretched out the day after a start, and all the times that he came in to lift on a Sunday afternoon in-season when he could just have skipped lifting during the season, like many players ignorantly do. There were all the meals he ate along the way to gaining over 50 pounds – even though he wasn’t hungry, most of the time. In fact, sometimes we even made him attack loaves of bread in the office before he was allowed to leave.
Adam was really a microcosm of the entire state championship Lincoln-Sudbury team. LS has now won 11 straight league titles and three of the last seven state championships, yet their head coach, Kirk Fredericks, called this “the best practice team” he’s ever had. In other words, they did the little things well day-to-day in order to succeed. They never skipped steps.
They also didn’t have a single player miss a game due to injury over the course of the entire season. Their consistency not only afforded them the best possible outcome, but kept them healthy in the process.
It was a remarkably fresh breath of air for me. I’ve seen a change in young athletes over the past few years where they all want something badly – whether it’s a state championship, college scholarship, or a trip to the big leagues – but very few kids really seem willing to put in the work to get it. The fitness world isn’t much different; many folks want the fastest way to drop 30 pounds before a wedding or trip to the beach, but all the while ignore the valuable lessons to be learned and habits to be acquired along the way. They want the destination, but don't care for the process.
Tim Collins didn’t go to the big leagues because he was more gifted than anyone else. He went to the big leagues because he was the first guy back to train at the end of every minor league season, and he lived at the gym and did absolutely everything each of his coaches told him to do.
Tyler Beede wasn’t born a first round draft pick. He earned it by learning to command his fastball and develop his change-up when all the other kids thought it would be fun to screw around with curveballs when they were 11. He made himself into a first round pick, in part, by driving 40 minutes to CP, training, and driving 40 minutes home 3-4 days per week for the past three years - also gaining almost 50 pounds in the process.
Jordan Cote didn’t just get called in the 3rd round by the Yankees or win the New Hampshire Gatorade Player of the Year award this year because he was 6-6 and “projectable.” He worked to get it by driving two hours every Saturday morning for the past two years to throw and train at CP at 9AM when everyone else his age was sleeping in. And that’s why he went from 185 pounds to 218 pounds over the course of 18 months – almost half of which was during the in-season period. He also drove a long way to play for the New England Ruffnecks program, which is 2.5 hours away in Massachusetts - but consistently produces some of the best talent in New England.
In no way am I saying that Cressey Performance alone was responsible for these guys’ success, nor are these the only guys who did what it took to succeed in recent months. Rather, I’m showing you that in two aspects of their preparation – training and nutrition – they did the little things that it took to excel. They certainly did the same with on-field practice, school work, and community service to get to where they are. There were obviously end goals in mind, but they never interfered with accomplishing day-to-day, hour-to-hour, and moment-to-moment objectives.
To that end, the next time you find yourself fantasizing about your athletic dreams or fitness goals, take a step back and consider whether you’re doing what you need to do in the present to get to where you need to be.
Are you waking up ten minutes early so that you can have a good breakfast before you go to school, or are you the guy that simply complains that you “don’t have time” for a good breakfast?
Are you blocking off an hour in your day to go to the gym, or are you going to allow it to fill up with other obligations that can’t possibly be more important than your health?
Are you dropping hundreds of dollars on showcases when you should be spending time developing your abilities by taking ground balls and batting practice, long tossing, strength training, and working on your mobility?
There is no single way to get to where you want to be. Likewise, there is no magic pill. It takes time, consistency, attention to detail, and an appreciation of what must get done in the short term in order to attain long-term success.
Now, shouldn’t you be doing something right now to get closer to your long-term goals?
Congratulations, Lincoln-Sudbury baseball, and thank you – both for the lessons you’ve taught us and for having us along for the ride!
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Q: I know that you work a ton with baseball players and that medicine ball workouts are an integral part of their training at Cressey Sports Performance. However, I'm not a baseball player - or a competitive athlete in any discipline, for that matter - and I'm wondering if I should still consider adding medicine ball workouts to my strength and conditioning program. Are there benefits that I can't get from a traditional strength training program with comprehensive mobility drills?
A: This is a great question - and I'll start off by saying that we actually have quite a few athletes at Cressey Sports Performance who aren't baseball players. Plus, we firmly believe that everyone has an athlete in them, so our training mandates a functional carryover to the real world for everyone. Integrating some medicine ball workouts - even if the volume and frequency aren't as high as in our rotational sport athletes - can definitely add some benefits to a strength and conditioning program. Here are seven of those benefits:
1. Real World Transfer - Regardless of how effectively a strength and conditioning program is designed, it'll usually be very sagittal plane dominant. Integrating some rotational medicine ball training immediately increases the number of movements from which you can choose in the transverse and frontal planes.
2. Low-Impact Fat Loss Medleys - Look at all of the fat loss programs out there, and the overwhelming majority of them require a lot of impact - whether it's from sprinting/jogging, jumping rope, or taking step aerobics. Performing medleys of various medicine ball throws not only allows you to increase volume in a program while minimizing stress on the lower extremity, but also affords some much appreciated variety in a program that might otherwise be dominated by a lot of boring cardio equipment.
3. Better Integration of the Core -With a correctly executed rotational med ball throw, the power should come predominantly from the lower half - which means that it should be transmitted through a stable core so that the energy will be appropriately utilized with thoracic rotation to get to the arms and, in turn, the ball. This sequencing is no different than lifting a bag of groceries, swinging a golf club, or going up on one's tip-toes to grab something on the top shelf. If you move in the wrong areas (lumbar spine), you'll eventually wind up with back pain - but if you've handled the rotational challenges of medicine ball workouts with perfect technique, you'll be protected in the real world.
4. Improved Ankle, Hip, and Thoracic Spine Mobility - When performed correctly, medicine ball exercises serve as an outstanding way to "ingrain" the mobility you've established with a dynamic warm-up prior to training. Additionally, we utilize mobility and activation "fillers" between sets of medicine ball drills to not only slow people down between sets, but also address issues they have that might warrant extra attention.
5. A Way to Train Power Outside of the Sagittal Plane - Research has demonstrated that the biggest problems with folks as they grow older are not just the loss of strength, muscle mass, and bone density, but the loss of power - or how quickly they can apply force. It's this reduction in power that makes elderly individuals more susceptible to falls. We can't always train power "optimally" in some older adults because of ground reaction forces being too stressful, but most can learn to apply a significant amount of force to a medicine ball - whether it's rotationally or with an overhead stomp/throw variation. Everyone should obviously build a solid foundation of strength and mobility before undertaking these options, but when the time is right, they are great additions. On a related note, here's a video I filmed a while back that shows how medicine ball workouts fit into our overall approach to developing power in athletes.
6. Reduction of Asymmetry - Most of us are very one-side dominant, and while I have no aspirations of ever expecting folks to be completely symmetrical, I think that training with rotational medicine ball drills can go a long way in ironing out prominent hip and thoracic spine asymmetries. This has been one reason why they comprise such an integral part of our off-season baseball training programs; these players spend their entire lives in an asymmetrical sport.
7. A Way to Blow off Some Steam - Lifting weights is great for letting out some aggression after a bad day, but throwing a medicine ball is on a whole different level. In most cases, I encourage folks to try to break the medicine balls on every single throw. As you can see, we've broken quite a few...
When we integrate medicine ball workouts with our adult fitness clients, it's usually a matter of three sets two times per week between the mobility warm-ups and strength exercises. If it's used for fat loss, though, we'll include medleys at the end of the strength training programs.
As for a specific brand of medicine balls that we use, we've now made the switch to the Perform Better Extreme Soft Toss Medicine Balls. I've found that the rebound is optimal on these, and they still provide great durability (which has been an issue with not only other "padded" options, but also other rubber models that are using more filler materials). This is what our preferred option looks like:
With all that in mind, how many you break will be heavily dependent on how much you incorporate medicine ball workouts and how powerful your clients are. The medicine ball lifespan will be a lot longer in a facility catering to middle-aged women than it will be at Cressey Performance, where 85% of clients are baseball players executing 240-360 medicine ball throws per week during certain portions of the year.
If you're looking for a lot more detail on the specific medicine ball exercises and workouts we do with our clients, be sure to check out my Medicine Ball Master Class.
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The Major League Baseball Draft starts tonight and concludes on Wednesday. We'll have a very busy three days, as there are a lot of Cressey Performance athletes who will be drafted. To that end, I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off - so that means today is a day where I refer you to some reading in other places. Keep an eye on the blog this week to hear about which of our guys were selected, and who took them.
Putting Manual Therapy into Perspective - I absolutely loved this post by Charlie Weingroff. If you're a rehabilitation specialist doing manual therapy, you definitely ought to read it.
MLB Draft has No Guarantees - This is a great piece on ESPN Boston about a Cressey Performance athlete, Tyler Beede, who has a lot to look forward to this week.
Proper Rowing Performance - This video blog from Mike Robertson covers a very important set of technique cues that it's important for all coaches and lifters to learn. Rowing strength exercises are an integral part of a successful strength and conditioning program, but only if you perform them correctly.
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Back in November of 2010, a good buddy of mine who is a very accomplished college strength coach came up to Boston for a seminar we were hosting at Cressey Sports Performance. The seminar was on a Sunday, but he actually flew up Friday night so that he could observe on Saturday while we trained our clients – which was a nice blend of high school, college, and professional athletes, plus our adult clientele. All told, at the time, I’d say that high school athletes were 70% of our clientele.
That Tuesday morning, I woke up to this email from him:
“I just wanted to say thanks for everything. I had a great time. Your staff was outstanding and I really enjoyed watching you guys work on Saturday. I realize you are managers, but certainly technicians as well. Perfect form, I told Tony I saw two bad reps all weekend and someone was on the athlete before he had a chance to do another rep!!! Thanks so much and come visit anytime, we would love to have you.”
This isn’t an email to toot our own horn; it’s to make a very valuable point. If this coach had walked into every single private training facility and high school weight room in the country, in what percentage of cases do you think he would have come out with a favorable impression of the technique he witnessed in these strength and conditioning programs? If I had to venture an extremely conservative guess, I’d say less than 10%.
Simply stated, both in the public and private sectors, some coaches are letting kids get away with murder with respect to technique, not warming up, poor load selection in weight training programs, and a host of other factors.
What happens, then, when the s**t hits the fan and a kid gets hurt? I’ll tell you: certain exercises get “condemned” and strength and conditioning programs become more and more foo-foo; external loading is eliminated and kids wind up doing agility ladders and “speed training” for 60-90 minutes at a time in what can only be described as glorified babysitting. Or, worse yet, weight rooms get closed altogether. The door of opportunity gets slammed in the faces of a lot of kids who desperately need to get strong to stay healthy, improve performance, and build confidence.
That’s the reactive model, but what about a proactive model to prevent these issues in the first place? Again, I’ll tell you: assess kids up-front. Find out what is in their health history and evaluate how well they move. Actually learn their names and backgrounds. Then, program individually for them. Coach intensely in their initial sessions and get things right from the start. And, if an exercise doesn’t work for them, give them an alternative.
As an example, take the squat. Some kids may not have sufficient ankle or hip mobility to squat deep in an Olympic style squat, so they’ll benefit more (and stay healthier) with box squat variations or single-leg exercises while you improve their mobility. Others may even be too immobile (or possess structural issues like femoroacetabular impingement) to even box squat safely, so you give them more single-leg work and deadlift variations. Regardless, you “coach ‘em up” well from the get-go – and they learn along the way.
In other words, the exercises aren’t the problem because exercises can be quickly and easily changed on the fly to match the athlete's level of abilities. It’s the system in which they are placed that can be the stubborn, tough-to-change problem.
If you're struggling to get results with your youth strength and conditioning programs - or your business itself is struggling - be sure to look at your business model and overall systems before you start tinkering with the individual exercises. Chances are that you need to rededicate yourself to relationship building and individualization more than you need to worry about sets and reps.
If you're looking to learn more about training young athletes, I'd encourage you to check out Mike Boyle's resource, Complete Youth Training. In it, he touches on everything from the problems with early specialization to age-specific training stages. It's a good investment for parents and coaches alike. From now through Sunday at midnight, you can get $50 off on the resource. No coupon code is needed; just head HERE.
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Last summer, a college pitcher came up to Cressey Performance from the South to train for a month before his summer league got underway. He was seven months post-op on a shoulder surgery (Type 2 SLAP) and had been working his way back. Unfortunately, his arm was still bothering him a bit when he got up to see us.
After the first few days at CP, though, he told me that his arm felt as good as it’s felt in as long as he could remember. He’d been doing a comprehensive strength and conditioning program, but the “impact” stuff for him had been soft tissue work, some Postural Restoration Institute drills, an emphasis on thoracic mobility, and manual stretching into internal rotation, horizontal adduction, and shoulder flexion. From all the rehab, his cuff was strong and scapular stabilizers were functioning reasonably well – which led me to believe that his issues were largely due to tissue shortness and/or stiffness.
This realization made me immediately wonder what he’d been doing in the previous months for mobility work for his arm – so I asked. He then demonstrated the manual stretching series that every pitcher on his team went through every day on the table with their athletic trainer. Each stretch was done for 2x20s – and two of those stretches took him into extreme external rotation and horizontal abduction. I was pretty shocked.
Me: “You’re probably not the only guy on your team rehabbing right now, huh?”
Him: “No; there are actually too many to count.”
Me: “Elbows, too, I’m sure.”
Him: “Yep.”
Want to irritate a labrum, biceps tendon, or the undersurface of the rotator cuff? Stretch a thrower into extreme external rotation and simulate the peel-back mechanism. This also increases anterior capsular laxity and likely exacerbates the internal impingement mechanism over the long-term. To reiterate, this is a bad stretch!
Want to make an acromioclavicular joint unhappy? Stretch a thrower into horizontal abduction like this (again, this is a BAD stretch that is pictured):
Want to irritate an ulnar nerve or contribute to the rupture of an ulnar collateral ligament? Make sure to apply direct pressure to the forearm during these dangerous stretches to create some valgus stress. This is a sure-fire way to make a bad stretch even worse:
These stretches are very rarely indicated in a healthy population – especially pitchers who already have a tendency toward increased external rotation. The shoulder is a delicate joint that can’t just be manhandled – and when you’re dealing with shoulders that are usually also pretty loose (both from congenital and acquired factors), you’re waiting for a problem when you include such stretches. In fact, I devoted an entire article to this: The Right Way to Stretch the Pecs.
Everyone thinks that shoulder external rotation and horizontal abduction alone account for the lay-back in the extreme cocking position.
In reality, though, this position is derived from a bunch of factors:
1. Shoulder External Rotation Range-of-Motion – and this is the kind of freaky external rotation you’ll commonly see thanks to retroversion and anterior laxity:
2. Scapular Retraction/Posterior Tilt
3. Thoracic Spine Extension/Rotation
4. Valgus Carrying Angle
So, how do you improve lay-back without risking damage to the shoulder and elbow?
1. Soft tissue work on Pec minor/major and subscapularis – Ideally, this would be performed by a qualified manual therapist – especially since you’re not going to be able to get to subscapularis yourself. However, you can use this technique to attack the pecs:
2. Exercises to improve scapular retraction/depression/posterior tilt – This could include any of a number of horizontal pulling exercises or specific lower trap/serratus anterior exercises like the forearm wall slide with band.
3. Incorporate specific thoracic spine mobility drills – In most pitchers, you want to be careful about including thoracic spine mobility drills that also encourage a lot of glenohumeral external rotation. However, when we assess a pitcher and find that he’s really lacking in this regard, there are two drills that we use with them. The first is the side-lying extension-rotation, which is a good entry level progression because the floor actually limits external rotation range-of-motion, and it’s easy to coach. I tell athletes that they should think of thoracic spine extension/rotation driving scapular retraction/depression, which in turn drives humeral external rotation (and flexion/horizontal abduction). Usually, simply putting your hands on the shoulder girdle and guiding them through the motion is the best teaching tool.
A progression on the side-lying extension-rotation is the side-lying windmill, which requires a bit more attention to detail to ensure that the range-of-motion comes from the right place. The goal is to think of moving exclusively from the thoracic spine with an appropriate scapular retraction/posterior tilt. In other words, the arm just comes along for the ride. The eyes (and head) should follow the hand wherever it goes.
Again, these are only exercises we use with certain players who we’ve deemed deficient in external rotation. If you’re a thrower, don’t simply add these to your routine without a valid assessment from someone who is qualified to make that estimation. You could actually make the argument that this would apply to some folks in the general population who have congenital laxity as well (especially females).
4. Throw!!!!! – Pitchers gain a considerable amount of glenohumeral external rotation over the course of a competitive season simply from throwing. Sometimes, the best solution is to simply be patient. I really like long toss above all else for these folks.
In closing, there are three important things I should note:
1. You don’t want to do anything to increase valgus laxity.
2. You’re much more likely to get hurt from being “too loose” than you are from being “too tight.” When it comes to stretching the throwing shoulder, “gentle” is the name of the game – and all mobility programs should be as individualized as possible.
3. Maintaining internal rotation is a lot more important than whatever is going on with external rotation. In fact, this piece could have just as easily been named "The Two Stretches Pitchers Shouldn't Do, Plus a Few That Only Some of Them Need."
When we first got him, my wife and I didn't allow him to come upstairs, as we wanted him to gradually adjust to the downstairs of our house and slowly introduce him to more space. Accordingly, to him, upstairs became the "great beyond," a place where unicorns played and milkbones rained down from the heavens. He would try like crazy to get up there when we took our eyes off him.
Then, one weekend in January of 2011, my wife and I were out of town to visit friends in Florida, so one of my minor leaguers and his wife watched Tank and the house. With us gone, he barked and cried at night - so they let him come upstairs to sleep with them in their bed. When we returned home, there was no turning back; he now sleeps in our bed - a change that he's made very clear is for good.
What's more interesting, though, is the fact that he's still infatuated with the upstairs portion of the house. He'll go up and take naps on the bed when my wife and I are downstairs, and if either of us goes upstairs to grab something, he'll race up after us to ensure that he doesn't miss a unicorn sighting or the opportunity to score a treat. Meanwhile, all the cool stuff - food, treats, his toys, cool scents of other people, stuff to chew, things to pee on, space to run around (including the door to the back yard) - are all still downstairs. If I was a dog, upstairs would be pretty boring - and the downstairs would be "where it's at." Puzzling, huh?
In case you couldn't tell from the title of this piece, there is a strength and conditioning parallel to this story. A lot of lifters start with the basics (the downstairs) and make great progress - only to abandon the "staple" strength exercises in favor of something new, unproven, and gimmicky (the upstairs). Then, even when they realize that the flavor-of-the-week stuff isn't all that it's cracked up to be, they don't go back to what worked in the first place. Why? They've convinced themselves that novelty is more important than efficacy, and that it's easier to do the fun new stuff than it is to get good with the basics. It's the kind of logic that makes me wonder if a lot of people eat paint chips.
The question, of course, becomes "How can we 'sell' the basics to a beginner who appreciates variety and novelty?" My response would simply be that variety and novelty can be synonymous with progression. I'll give you an example.
On the first day at Cressey Sports Performance, just about every new client learns the trap bar deadlift (assuming no injury that would contraindicate the exercise). As I outlined previously, it's an entry-level teaching progression that best allows lifters to grasp the concepts of hip hinging, vertical shin, neutral spine, and optimal hip extension patterning in spite of their mobility restrictions. It's the basic arithmetic before we get to calculus.
Once they've sufficiently learned the lift and progressed in the weight they've lifted, we can transition them to other deadlift variations, including sumo deadlifts, rack pulls, and trap bar with chains. Then, eventually, they may graduate to conventional and snatch grip deadlift technique. This set of progressions and regressions are combined with other strength training program variables - sets and reps, training frequency, exercise pairings, and the like - to give them the novelty they need - but without compromising the training effect.
I've seen football strength coaches who use the squat, bench press, and clean as their primary lifts for years on end. Do kids get stronger? Absolutely. Do they get bored as hell and absolutely disinterested in their less-than-optimal training programs? Absolutely. And, do they miss out on the rich proprioceptive environment that all young athletes should have? Absolutely.
So, there is a balance that must be discovered. On one hand, you need to stick to the basics so as to not compromise the training effect. On the other hand, you need to implement variety so as to not bore folks to death. The solution is to use variations of the basics.
To that end, at CSP, we change the strength training program every four weeks to modify exercise selection, regardless of a trainee's age and experience level. In our eyes, it provides the best balance of the basics and the novelty to keep folks motivated and progressing in their strength and conditioning programs.
Friday is the 9th anniversary of my 21st birthday my 30th birthday.
Normally, I'd write a long post for the occasion, but truthfully, now that I'm getting old and decrepit, I figured I'd better conserve my waning energy and get right to the point.
Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better will be on sale for $77 from now through Sunday, May 22th, at midnight.
That's $50 off the normal price - and this is a price that was previously only been available during the initial launch of the e-book. And, it won't be around again for a long time, because 31st birthdays just aren't at all memorable.
Plus, it stands to reason that I'll probably spend the entire next decade driving a minivan, changing diapers, wondering where my hair went, and playing awful defense in an old man basketball league while wearing Croakies and high tube socks. Come to think of it, this might be my last blog post ever. I guess you'd better purchase a copy of Show and Go as soon as possible to preserve my legacy before I slip into internet obscurity.
