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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Here's this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:
40 Years of Insight:Part 1andPart 2 - This two-part series from Dan John was fantastic and should be recommended reading for not only those in the strength and conditioning field, but also those who lift weights for health, performance, and recreation.
Contemporary Cardio - This piece by Charlie Weingroff was an excellent look at how his thoughts on cardio have evolved. It is a bit "sciency," but very informative. I can tell you from our experience over the past 18 months with PRI that the comments on "breathing diaphragmatically" are spot-on with everything from improved work capacity to reduced tone in undesirable places.
Real Deal Baseball Training - Just a friendly reminder that the introductory sale on this product ends tonight at midnight. The feedback I've received via email from those who have purchased on my recommendation the other day has been quite positive.
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With our professional baseball off-season training crew at Cressey Performance starting to pick up steam, I'm taking today off for a last chance to enjoy summer. I'm taking my grandmother and great aunt to Fenway Park this afternoon. Let's just say that the love of baseball is in my gene pool - so it should be a fun game!
Speaking of off-season training, I wanted to quickly give you a heads-up that Dan Huff and Joe Meglio just released Real Deal Baseball Training, an off-season strength and conditioning program specifically for baseball players, and it's on sale for a very affordable $17.95 through this Friday night.
I'll be honest: I get emails literally every day from people asking me to create a baseball product. While I intend to do so, I want it to be perfect - so I'm constantly tinkering with how I plan to approach it as we make subtle modifications to how we train baseball players of a wide variety of ages and ability levels. Unfortunately, while I've been contemplating things, a lot of baseball players and coaches out there have been using horrendous strength and conditioning programs and techniques. These approaches aren't making them durable and high-performing; rather, they're breaking them down and killing off the athleticism they need.
Dan and Joe can really help in this regard. While this program is considerably different than our approaches at Cressey Performance, that's one reason why I liked it. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and I, for example, actually picked up some new movement training drills that I'll implement with our guys.
The product is completely online, so you can access it immediately. It gives you four months of comprehensive strength and conditioning programs - and includes a handy video database that shows you technique for all the drills in the program. The program also includes a 30-day money back guarantee, in case it's not a good fit for you.
For more information, check out the Real Deal Baseball Training page, where Dan Huff has a video describing it in more detail for you.
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I received this email from an online consulting client of mine. I wanted to share it with you because a) I loved Jeremy's persistence in finding the right fix for him and b) a lot of folks don't know about my online consulting services:
"I am a little late on this, but things have been a bit nutty in my life recently. However I just want to take a moment to thank you for all of the help. When I started working with you, just about every exercise hurt. Now I am 100% pain free for all exercises. No doubt it is due to your programming."I saw three orthos, and they all recommended surgery. I spoke with two PT's, and their advice, 'strengthen your rotator cuff and perform no pressing movements.' I hardly consider either piece of advice ground breaking. You were the only person I communicated with that believed my shoulder was fixable. Everyone else thought I was crazy. Hire someone to teach you to work out, to fix an issue that was caused by working out??? That's not possible the haters said. In fact I had an ortho laugh at me when I told him that it was fixable without surgery."I am not going to go into an entire diatribe on how way too many Americans take the easy way out and have unnecessary surgery, or take some ridiculous pill they see an ad for on TV, or how trigger happy surgeons are to cut someone open. But I will say this, I took great pleasure proving the doubters in my life wrong. Tell me something is not possible, and I will go out of my way to accomplish it."You answered all of my questions (there were a lot), and your strength and conditioning programs were always on time for me to start the next month. At first your programming was a bit challenging because you just don't hand the answer key over, you make the person think about it. In the end, it was very helpful, because you actually taught me HOW to work out. It makes doing your own programming 100x easier when you are done and headed out 'on your own.'"Jeremy Miller Cincinnati, OH
For more information on my online consulting services, click here.
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September 6 might seem like just another Tuesday to most folks. Many people probably despise it because the day after Labor Day serves as an unofficial end to summer. Kids go back to school, teachers go back to work, and many seasonal businesses lose customers and employees as the season winds down.
Not me, though. Today, the madness begins for me – and I love it.
You see, today is the start of the professional baseball off-season, as some minor leaguers played their last games yesterday. Between now and the start of spring training in February/March, Cressey Performance will likely see over 50 guys either in the big leagues or trying to make the big leagues.
We get a special type of ballplayer, too. Trekking to Hudson, MA in the winter isn’t for everyone – and certainly not for guys who want to be coddled. Our guys love to work smart and hard – and that makes my job incredibly fun.
People are often surprised to learn that I never even played baseball in high school. Being an “outsider” to the game would seemingly make it harder to enter the world of baseball strength and conditioning, but I actually used it to my advantage. To put it bluntly, I had no preconceived notions of what people think works, so it made it easy for me to “buck” stupid baseball traditions and focus on what I know works. In short, as some of the world’s smartest marketing advisors have recommended, I did the opposite of what others do, and the Cressey Performance Elite Baseball Development Program thrived.
Given that baseball players are among the most often-injured athletes in sports, many “experts” in the industry baby them with “do no harm, but do no good” strength training programs. We show guys that it’s possible to get strong in an intelligent way while decreasing the risk of injury – both acutely and chronically.
Conversely, many strength and conditioning coaches alienate players by looking, acting, and programming like football coaches. We don’t Olympic lift, back squat, or bench press with our baseball players – and we’ve gone to great lengths to bring in equipment that enables us to modify traditional strength exercises and make them safer for a baseball population.
Many coaches who have played the game before rely exclusively on their experiences playing the game to dictate how players prepare nowadays. What they fail to appreciate is that the modern game is far different: more off-field distractions (e.g., heavier media attention, social networking), heavier travel schedules (more teams = more travel), more competing demands (e.g., strength and conditioning), and more pressure to succeed (larger organizations = more levels of minor leaguers pushing to take your job). As a result, I do a lot more listening to my athletes than I do talking - and much less assuming than other coaches do.
Loads of coaches run their pitchers into the ground, thereby ruining guys’ mobility, sapping their power, and abusing their endocrine systems in an ignorant attempt to improve recovery. Our guys never run more than 60 yards – and they get healthier and more athletic in the process.
Many organizations hand out the same strength and conditioning programs to all their players – regardless age, training experience, dominant hand, and position on the field. A lot of facilities are no better; one training program on the dry erase board dictates what everyone in the gym does on a given day. In a sport where each body (and injury) is unique – and asymmetry is overwhelmingly problematic – we give our guys a competitive advantage with a strength and conditioning program that is individualized to each player.
While some facilities were aligning themselves with companies who were trying to be “everything to everybody” by catering to loads of different sports, we allied with New Balance, a Boston-based and not only has a heavy baseball focus (225+ MLB players under contract), but a strong commitment to various charitable causes, American workers, and the education of up-and-coming players.
Walk into any professional baseball clubhouse, and you’ll see a lot of different “cliques.” Guys of a wide-variety of ages come from different states and countries, speak different languages or have different accents, and play different positions. On a 25-30 man roster, a player might only hang out with 2-3 teammates off the field at most during the season. We’ve made camaraderie an insanely important piece of the CP professional baseball approach, introducing guys to each other, setting up out-of-the-gym events for our guys, and creating a culture where everyone roots for everyone else. I’ve had guys at my house for Thanksgiving and at my wedding – and guys have held back on referring other players because they didn’t feel that their work ethics or attitudes would be a good fit for CP. In short, we’ve created a family and an experience – and given our athletes an ownership stake in it – while others just “worked guys out.”
Although it is a point Pat Rigsby, Mike Robertson, and I heavily emphasize in our Fitness Business Blueprint product, the concept of “doing the opposite” to succeed isn’t just applicable to business.
Go to any gym, and look at how many people are on the treadmills year-after-year, none of them getting any leaner. Get some of them to head across the gym to a weight room and they’ll transform their bodies in a matter of a few months. Switch someone from a high-carb, low-protein, low-fat diet to a high-protein, high-fat, low-carb diet, and they’ll often drop a lot of fat in a short amount of time.
With all that said, the answers for me will never be the right answers for you. Look at what you’re doing – whether it’s in training, business, or life – and think about how doing the exact opposite may, in fact, be the best way to improve your outcomes.
For those of you interested in taking a peek inside what goes on with the Cressey Performance Elite Baseball Development Program on a daily basis – from training videos to footage of guys goofing off in the office – I’d encourage you to follow @CresseyPerf on Twitter.
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As most of you are probably aware, Hurricane Irene worked its way up the East coast of the U.S. this past weekend and really threw people for a loop with flooding, power outages, fallen trees, and all sorts of damages. My wife and I got off pretty easily; we just had to go eight hours on Sunday without power - a far cry from what a lot of other folks encountered. And, our dog, Tank, was entertained all day as he played weatherdog and stared the window to watch the rain.
Oddly enough, those eight hours proved to be wildly productive for me. Thanks to a fully charged laptop battery, I was able to write a half dozen programs for clients, a blog, and the introduction of a new article for T-Nation. I read over 100 pages in a book, took a nap, and even went over to Cressey Performance to get a day ahead on my strength training program...in the dark and without music (for the record, this is one more reason free weights are better than machines: no electricity needed).
In short, it was an extremely productive day for me in comparison to typical Sundays in spite of the fact that the weather outside was miserable and it would have been very easy to get antsy from "cabin fever." What made this day so much more productive than many others for me?
There were zero distractions.
No Facebook and no twitter. No emails or text messages. No television or phone calls. No absurdly painful "I feel like I'm shopping at Old Navy" techno playing on Tony's iPod. It was absolute bliss.
Now, don't get me wrong; human interaction is a huge part of my daily life as a coach, writer, consultant, and barrel-chested freedom fighter. I don't just sit inside and think of ways to avoid human interaction so that I can be more productive. However, some peace and quiet sure is nice - and that's why, in fact, that this blog is being written at 6:40AM. It's an empty house with complete silence. In a few minutes, I'll head over to the facility - an empty facility with complete silence. A good hour or so in there before anyone else arrives gives me the leg-up on the day that I need to be productive.
It's taken me 360 words to get to my point, but the take home message is very simple:
If you want to be successful in your
strength and conditioning programs,
get rid of the distractions around you.
I talk to athletes about how everything they do takes them one step closer to their goals - or one step further away. Each decision they make should be a calculated choice that weighs pros and cons in the context of their goal.
For instance, a training partner can be a great addition to a strength and conditioning program - but it can be an unbelievable failure if that individual is always late for training, gets too chatty between sets, or is an inattentive spotter. That's a distraction that you have complete control over keeping or removing from your life. A bad one can destroy you - but a great one can be a huge advantage.
However, most distractions aren't so easy to eliminate. Family life, work, injuries, car troubles, inclement weather, busy gyms, and a host of other factors can all create stressful distractions that interfere with progress. The most successful clients I've encountered are the ones who understand how to balance all these competing demands and keep distraction out of the task at hand - whether it's lifting or working on a big project.
Here are my top five suggestions on how to get rid of or manage some of the most common distractions and inconveniences that can sabotage your strength training program.
1. Leave your cell phone in the car - I can say without wavering that this is the single-biggest distraction I see nowadays, as mine rings off the hook on most days. However, back in March, I went nine days without mine while I was in Costa Rica and the world didn't end. I'm happy to report that shutting yours off for 90 minutes won't lead to any catastrophes - and you'll get strong in the process. This sign over the gym entrance at CP says it all.
2. Always have a plan B - If you train in a busy commercial gym at peak hours, you know it can be pretty tough to get access to the exact equipment you need. Rather than stand around and wait 15-20 minutes for it, your best bet is to go into the session knowing what would be a suitable replacement for each strength exercise. The chest-supported row is taken? No worries; here's a blog with a few good substitutes: No Chest-Supported Row? No Problem.
Here are a few other posts along these lines that might interest you:
The point is that no matter how busy your gym gets, there is always a plan B. In fact, post a comment with the most common "shortcoming" you have in terms of equipment access, and I'll devote a future blog to the topic, outlining several potential substitutes for you. I like a good challenge.
3. When injured, there is always something you can do to get better - To be blunt, there is nothing that bothers me more in this world than people who constantly piss and moan about their circumstances. I've read that Walt Disney was once so broke that he ate dog food. Years back, Donald Trump went billions of dollars into combined business and personal debt - and he's certainly turned out okay. Thomas Edison was yanked out of school at a young age because his teachers thought he was stupid - and he went on to teenage years in the workforce that consisted of being fired multiple times. Tiger Woods missed a big chunk of time - and an absurd amount of money - when he had his ACL reconstruction.
You, on the other hand, are going to turn into Johnny Raincloud because you have tennis elbow and can't do your curls for a week? Cry me a river...somewhere else, please.
Put on a happy face and magical things happen. Figure out what you can do - and then do it.
Quit your complaining; whining is just your way of distracting yourself.
4. Have home training options - There are going to be times when life simply gets in the way of what you had planned. Maybe it's a sick kid at home or inclement weather that prevents you from getting to the gym. At these times, it's incredibly advantageous to have some equipment (or body weight training templates in mind) that you can use to ensure that your strength and conditioning program doesn't miss a beat. Some kettlebells can be great, and I'm a big fan of the TRX. In fact, I liked it so much that I brought mine to Costa Rica, and when combined with sprinting on the beach, we had great training sessions all week.
5. Communicate with those around you - I think that one of the reason that some folks have issues with distractions with respect to exercise is that they don't clearly relate to those around them that it's important to them. Most people find time for training instead of making time for it. If it's important to you, block it off in your schedule and let those around you know that this is the case; they'll be more respectful of your "important time" and let you do your thing unless an emergency comes up.
These five tips are, of course, just a few of the many ways that you can eliminate distractions from your strength and conditioning programs. What strategies have you found to be useful when it comes to keeping your focus?
Here's a week of this week's recommended strength and conditioning reads:
The Keys to Success for Females in the Fitness Industry - This is a free webinar Rachel Cosgrove is putting on tomorrow (Tuesday) night. Rachel's one of the most in-demand trainers, speakers, consultants, and writers in the world of female strength and conditioning, and she's sure to provide some excellent information that can help any of the up-and-coming female fitness professionals reading this blog.
Groin Pain: Referrals and Soft Tissue Therapy - Patrick Ward continues to kick out impressive content - and this post is no exception. If you deal with athletes with hip pain, this is a must-read.
Getting Into Your Toes - Charlie Weingroff makes some excellent points about toe positioning in our strength and conditioning programs. A subtle modification could have some really positive effects on our strength training programs and stretching protocols.
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Imagine two lifters standing near one another – each with a barbell loaded to 405 pounds on the floor in front of them.
Assume these two are identical in every way – except for one key fact. Lifter A was a high-jumper, but Lifter B got his physique from more traditional bodybuilding methods.
Neither of these guys has ever deadlifted 405 previously.
Which of the two do you put your money on to hit the PR if you don't know anything else about them?
Ten times out of ten, I take the high jumper – and I'd guarantee you that most folks in the human performance industry would do the same. Why?
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