I had the unbelievable good fortune of learning to Olympic lift under the guidance of a former Olympian and a couple of national team coaches. Unfortunately, many athletes learn how to do the Olympic lifts from a coach who hasn’t had that type of training.
As a result, the power clean may be the single worst looking lift in most weight rooms. Seriously, I know you can picture it.
Walking into many high school weight rooms, and you’ll invariably see some kid who has WAAAY too much weight on the bar getting ready to show off what he thinks is pristine power clean technique. He’ll roll it around for a minute on the floor, then muscle it up and catch it in a position that makes you wonder how he has so much flexibility in his adductors (history in gymnastics?).
I am by no means the most explosive athlete; in fact, I definitely wasn’t at one point, but I learned from the best. And, just as importantly, I learned to not make some of the mistakes that plague athletes trying to do the power clean. Let’s look at some of the most common ones.
Power Clean Technique Mistake #1: Missing too many lifts
I actually had a coach recently tell me about his plan for having athletes max out. It went like this.
“Well we put about 15-20 lbs more on the bar than the athlete can do and then have him try it. He usually misses it, then we do that same thing again. Once they miss it a second time, we drop about 5-10 lbs and try it a 3rd time. Sometimes they get it.”
Wait, what?
Exactly.
The sad part is that I think this is the mode that a lot of athletes get into when training. They think that just a basic overload in the lift is a good thing.
In truth, the power clean is a really complex pattern and overload isn’t always rewarded; technique is rewarded. If you train knowing you are going to miss lifts, you are…drumroll here…going to miss lifts.
Something I learned – and something I instill with my athletes – is that missed lifts are a part of training, but they are not a consistent part of training. You’ll learn far more by completing lifts than by missing lifts.
Power Clean Technique Mistake #2: Starting from the floor when you can’t make it there in good position.
Is a power clean a power clean if you don’t start from the floor?
This is a mistake that I see all too often and with serious consequences. Athletes are told and made to start from the floor with the power clean when in truth they have no ability to get down to the start position and maintain any semblance of structural integrity.
The true start position for the clean is uncomfortable, to say the least. It requires hip mobility, ankle mobility, thoracic spine mobility, and tremendous trunk stability. Most athletes are lacking in at least one of these areas.
Lacking the mobility and stability to actually achieve these positions means that an athlete will default to easier patterns to get to a bar resting on the ground. Typically, this will mean that they will achieve the movement from lumbar flexion, and then the cycle of back injuries occur.
As you can see in the photos below, this isn’t a position that you often see in the local high school weight room. (Photo Credit: http://nielpatel.blogspot.com)
Fortunately – especially in young athletes – working to improve mobility in each of these areas can help tremendously in getting lifters in the right position.
In the meantime, just beginning the lifts from a slightly elevated (but static) position (A low block or another bumper plate) can help athletes get into a start position that does not include lumbar flexion.
Power Clean Technique Mistake #3: No consistency in the start position
In any movement – from a golf swing to a bench press – we preach consistency. The pattern that we create time and again is the one to which we will default when the going gets tough.
The power clean is no different, but if I walk into most weight rooms and training facilities, I see something entirely different.
Roll the bar around for a minute, hop up and down, roll the bar around some more and LIFT!!!
“But wait, I do three rolls every time, so my pattern is the same.”
The approach to the power clean should be the same every time you approach the bar. Early on in training, I sought to eliminate inconsistency by crouching by the bar before beginning the lift. Still, I found difficulty achieving a consistent position in my lift off from the floor.
My training really took off when I took a three-step process to get the bar in my hands.
1, Cover my laces with the bar, brace the core and lock in the lats.
2. RDL to my knees.
3. Squat to the bar.
The first step is really about verifying that I have the proper relation to the bar and that my body is prepared to maintain a stable position throughout the lift. Keeping the bar close to the body on the initial lift-off will allow for the most efficient bar path while maintaining the right position.
Making an RDL movement to the knees allows my hips to be behind the bar. Getting the hips away from the bar will allow the hips to remain loaded throughout the lift.
Squatting to the bar maintains a consistent torso angle down to the start position, meaning that on lift-off the shoulders will remain forward of the bar.
With this three-part pattern, I am able to guarantee that I, or any athletes I coach, make it to the start position consistently.
Power Clean Technique Mistake #4: Pulling the bar too fast off the ground.
Lots of weight on the bar? Only one way to pull it: HARD. Right?
Not really. The first pull off the ground is all about maintaining consistent position and gaining momentum into the second (more aggressive pull).
As a beginning lifter, I don’t think that there is any mistake more common than pulling too fast off the ground. Speed is king in the Olympic lifts and coaches preach it from day one.
There is only one issue. A bar that is moving too fast will inhibit an athlete’s ability to make an aggressive second pull.
Think of it this way: If a car were driving past you at 90 miles per hour and you were asked to push on the bumper to make it go faster, you would have very little time to improve upon the speed of the car and therefore have no effect on its acceleration.
Imagine the same car moving past you at 5 miles per hour. If you were to push on the bumper of this car, you could greatly improve its acceleration and velocity.
The same is true with the Olympic lifts. Pulling too fast before reaching the mid-thigh will make your second pull much less effective.
Power Clean Technique Mistake #5: Pulling around the knees
This is another really common problem among novice lifters.
The bar trajectory off the floor should be back. Struggling with this is pretty easy to do because the overall “feel” of the power clean is straight up.
The bar must always start in front of the center of gravity (on the floor away from the hips), and the first pull should be used to align the bar with the center of gravity. Aligning the bar even more to the front of the center of gravity is a common problem that leads to a lot of missed lifts and poor catch positions.
If the knees do not go back on the first pull, the athlete will be misaligned forward of the toes in the above the knee position and not be able to put the full power of hip extension into the lift.
Power Clean Technique Mistake #6: Not finishing the Second Pull
Pretty early on, some athlete that you train will realize that the lower they can go to catch the bar, the greater likelihood they will have in being successful in catching the lift.
Not finishing the second pull (the fast pull) from the mid-thigh upwards means that the athlete did not reach full hip extension and did not close the gap between their body and the bar.
Not reaching full extension with the hips is a big no-no because it is the primary reason that athletes do Olympic lifts in the first place. Explosively pulling on the bar to hip extension in the point right?
The Olympic lift happens fast, and as coaches we can miss things like this. Assuming you don’t have Superman vision, the easiest way to spot this problem is watch for an athlete jumping forward in the catch. A complete hip extension will result in the athlete catching the bar in the same position on the platform or slightly behind the starting position. Jumping forward is the red flag for an incomplete pull.
Power Clean Technique Mistake #7: Catching the bar like a starfish
The starfish is a magnificent creature, but it likes to spread its appendages all over the place, and that has no place in the power clean. And, we all know that we have seen a starfish in the weight room before.
We talk and talk about the force production that is such a valuable part of Olympic lifts, but equally valuable is the force absorption that must occur at the moment of the catch.
When an athlete catches like a starfish they are putting themselves in a position that will lead to injury. If this pattern is the reaction to absorbing a stress on the body, then I really fear the moment when they come down from a maximal effort jump in competition.
So, do yourself a favor and don’t allow any starfish appearances in the weight room.
Conclusion
Try as we might, some of these things will always occur when you have people doing power cleans. Eliminate the majority of the problems and you will have people safely pulling a lot of weight, fast.
About the Author
Wil Fleming, CSCS, is a member of the International Youth Conditioning Association Board of Experts, and co-owner of Force Fitness and Performance in Bloomington, IN. To learn more about Wil's teaching system for the Olympic lifts, be sure to check out the IYCA Olympic Lift Instructor Course. To follow him on Twitter, click here.
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A while back, I published an article, Are Pull-ups THAT Essential?, that was the single most popular in the history of EricCressey.com. One particularly important point I made was that chronically driving the scapulae into depression with overuse of the lats could lead to various injuries in lifters and athletes.
In the comments section after the article, one reader had a great question along these lines: Isn't benching with a big arch and cueing "down and back" with the shoulder blades during a bench press the exact same thing? Shouldn't the feet be up on the bench to get people out of extension?
I think it is a similar thing, but not the exactsame thing. And, I am not a fan of bench pressing with the feet up on the bench.
Before I get into the details of why, though, we should make an important differentiation between "gym" bench press technique and the bench press technique used by competitive powerlifters in competition.
In competition powerlifting bench press technique, the goal is to shorten the range of motion of the bar while maximizing leg drive. Putting yourself in a big lower back arch and tucking the feet up under you more is the way to do this. Additionally, equipped powerlifters wear bench press shirts that pull the shoulder blades forward, and the humerus into extension past the body. Accordingly, the lifter has to consciously pull the shoulder blades down and back to counteract this tension and not jack up the anterior aspect of the shoulder. After about 20 minutes of searching my laptop, I found this old video of me from 2005 when I was a legit 165-pounder (you can tell by the ostrich legs). Notice the big arch and how much upper back involvement I needed to "fight" the shirt (and, for the record, I was never good at using the shirt...hated those things):
The Average Joe doesn't need to worry about these factors when he's lifting in the gym; he just needs to figure out what gives him the optimal set-up to stay healthy and still benefit from the exercise. Still, I think we can learn a few things from the powerlifting approach.
First, I’m not convinced that such substantial loads for the upper body alone are a good thing. There are smaller joint structures and more mobility than stability than we see in the lower body, which can handle far greater loads. Sharing the load with the lower body tends to better distribute overall training stress. Bringing the feet up on the bench takes this away.
Second, folks are more likely to go into excessive humeral extension (elbows pass the body) in the bottom position with a “sunken” chest. So, they either jack up the anterior aspect of the shoulder there – or the elbows flare out and we deal with a host of other stability issues.
Third, in standing, we actually have a "normal" lordotic curve. I think it's optimal to maintain this lordotic curve on the bench rather than take it away completely. Core stability isn't about cranking someone into excessive extension or flexion; it's about learning how to maintain neutral. A "middle of the road" approach like the one in the videos below is fine for most lifters (you'll notice a slight arch is even more important on the close grip bench press, as there is a greater tendency for humeral extension past neutral when the hands are closer together):
Fourth, there is something to be said about learning from very strong people and their experiences. We learned about how bracing was far superior to hollowing in terms of core stability by simply looking at world class squatters and what they did under insane loads. Along these same lines, you simply don't see world class bench pressers with the feet up and shoulder blades winging out. The flat back posture shifts guys into an abducted scapulae position from the get-go – and it becomes excessive at the top of the press. Internal rotation with protraction closes down the subacromial space and can cause increased rotator cuff impingement as well. A similar thing actually happens when guys have to lift off the racks to themselves to start the lift, and it's one reason why I always recommend getting a bench press handoff.
Fifth, you have to appreciate that the amount of time spent in scapular depression and lumbar extension (if you are even past the point of "neutral") is relatively trivial. If this position provides some extra stability, and doesn't take place for long enough to yield chronic adaptations, I'm all for it.
Hopefully, this brief overview explains why I don't like to have the feet up with bench press technique. If you're looking to learn more, I'd encourage you to check out The Specialization Success Guide, a resource I co-authored with Greg Robins. It features some thorough bench press technique advice, as well as proven bench press specialization strength training programs.
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The pull-up is among the most sacred strength exercises in the history of weight training programs, ranking up there with squats, deadlifts, and bench and overhead presses. This is one reason why I expect there to be burning Eric Cressey effigies in various strength and conditioning circles after they read the following sentence:
Some people would be wise to leave out pull-ups - at least temporarily.
Before you rip me a new one, please give me a few minutes to explain.
First off, I get it: pull-ups train the lats, and the lats are huge players in athletic function and the quest to get strong and gain muscle. They're the biggest player in force transfer between the lower and upper body, and play key roles in core stability and breathing. Specific to my baseball work, lat recruitment is higher during acceleration in professional pitchers than amateurs, showing that reliance on this big muscle helps generate increase pitching velocity, too. I actually wrote an entire article back in 2006 about just how extensive the lat's role is, if you'd like to read more: Lats: Not Just for Pulldowns.
However, the "expansive" presence of the lats - running from the thoracolumbar fascia all the way up to the humerus - can make them a problem as much as they are a solution. To that end, here are four reasons you may want take a break from pull-ups/chin-ups/pulldowns in your strength training program:
1. Heavy pull-ups can make the elbows very cranky - This is really the shortest and least complex of my arguments, so I'll get it out of the way early. My personal best three-rep max chin-up is 321 pounds, at a body weight of about 188 pounds (so, the external load was 133 pounds). My best raw three-rep max bench press is about 330 pounds, but what you might find surprising is that going heavy on the bench press is dramatically easier on my joints (particularly my elbows) than pull-ups/chin-ups are. What gives?
First, when you bench press, you're doing a full-body movement. There is leg drive and loads of core stability involved on top of the upper extremity activity that's taking place - so the stress is more easily distributed. When you do a pull-up, your upper extremity is relatively isolated, so the stress is more concentrated.
Second, a pull-up is a traction exercise; it pulls the humeral head out of the socket, and essentially pulls the lower and upper arm apart at the top. When you lose bony congruence - one of the most important, yet overlooked components of joint stability - you have to pick up the slack with the active restraints (muscles/tendons) acting at the joint. Low-level traction can be tremendously helpful in situations like external impingement at the shoulder, or intervertebral disc issues. However, under extreme load, it can be pretty darn stressful to the soft tissue structures around the joint. Conversely, a bench press is an approximation exercise, so you can actually draw some stability from the joint alignment itself to take some of the stress off the soft tissue structures.
I remember Jason Ferruggia writing recently about how heavy chin-ups/pull-ups can really beat up on older lifters - and it's safe to say that the reason isn't so much tissue degeneration, but simply that it took time for them to build appreciable enough strength to get to the point where the overall stress was too much.
2. The lats overpower the lower traps - The overwhelming majority of the baseball athletes I see (and most extension/rotation sport athletes, in general) live in lordotic postures. The lat is a strong extensor of the spine - but it also attaches to the rib cage and scapula on the way to the upper extremity. The end result is that many lordotic athletes wind up with a very "gross" extension pattern.
The rib cage flairs up, and the lower traps do little to pull the shoulder blades back and down on the rib cage - because the lats have already gotten an athlete to the position he/she wants to be in via lumbar extension. You can see from the picture below that the line of pull of the two muscles is actually very comparable - but given cross sectional area and length, the lat will always have the upper hand, especially if it's constantly being prioritized in a strength training program due to exercise selection and faulty lifting technique.
Effectively, we need to learn to move our scapulae on our rib cage, as opposed to just moving our entire spine into extension. Interestingly, you'll find a lot of flexion-bias in the Postural Restoration Institute (PRI) and Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS) schools of thought because they clearly appreciate that getting folks out of "gross extension" is a way to get/keep people healthy. Having ultra short/stiff lats can cause issues ranging from extension-based back pain (e.g., spondylolysis) to shoulder pain (e.g., external or internal impingement). As I've written previously, too, this global dysfunction may also be the reason we're seeing more femoroacetabular impingement in athletes.
As another interesting aside, I see a lot of throwers with low right shoulders and incredibly short/stiff lats on that side.
This is secondary to faulty rib positioning and the scapular anterior tilt that ensues (as per the PRI school of thought), but one additional thing we've found (thanks to great feedback from physical therapist Eric Schoenberg) is that overhead shrugging variations on the low shoulder have helped these throwers to not only feel better, but minimize these asymmetries. Effectively, creating a bit more stiffness in the upper trapezius helps it to counterbalance the aggressive downward pull of the lat on the scapula.
These folks sit in scapular depression, and for that reason, we'll often leave out any exercises (e.g., deadlifts, dumbbell lunges) that involve holding heavy weights in the hand until scapular positioning is better controlled.
3. The humeral attachment portion of the lat is part of a significant zone of convergence at the posterior shoulder - The back of your shoulder is another one of those claustrophobic areas in your body. You've got tendons for the lat, teres major, teres minor, infraspinatus, long head of the triceps, and posterior deltoid all coming together in a very small area, creating friction over each other as their individual forces come together (regions like this are called "Zones of Convergence" by myofascial researcher Luigi Stecco.
The latissimus dorsi is, without a doubt, the largest and strongest of all the involved structures. It also has the longest tendon, which makes it the biggest candidate for nasty tissue quality in the region. The problem is that muscles/tendons don't deform evenly; rather, they move a lot where the tissue quality is good, and very little where it is dense. So, when you're super dense in the posterior shoulder and try to go do pull-ups, as I noted earlier, the entire shoulder girdle wants to move (humeral extension and internal rotation, and scapular depression) together, as opposed to a nice synergy of the humerus with the scapula on the rib cage. When some is stiff in the posterior shoulder and wants to use the lat for everything, a seated cable row looks like this. Notice how the elbow winds up behind the body, and the scapula anterior tilts - and also how old the video is; I look like I am 12 years old and weigh 120 lbs.
Rowing like this over time will eventually irritate the anterior shoulder. However, watch this standing one-arm cable row where the humeral head (ball) maintains a good alignment with the glenoid fossa (socket) as the shoulder blade moves on the rib cage. The humerus doesn't extend unless the scapula moves with it.
4. Overactive lats can decrease the subacromial space - The lat extends, adducts, and internally rotates the humerus. In order to get overhead the right way, we need flexion, abduction, and external rotation of the humerus. So, you can see that it's a direct antagonist to healthy, overhead movement. If you think about your biggest players for pain-free overhead movement, two of them have to be the posterior rotator cuff and lower trapezius. The lat overpowers both of them in a "gross" extension pattern.
Here's a test: position yourself supine, bend the knees, flatten the lower back, and then let your arms hang freely overhead. Then, have someone take a picture looking down at the top of your head. A "pass" would be full shoulder flexion with no arching of the back, and no shoulder pain along the way. A fail would be pain, or something that looks like this:
If your photo looks like this, you better hope that you have outstanding posterior rotator cuff and lower trapezius function (adequate stiffness) to overpower some very short lats if you intend to train overhead pain-free (especially with overhead pressing). Otherwise, your shoulder flexion will really just be lumbar extension and forward head posture substitutions (this one has a nice left rib flair, too).
In other words, you need adequate anterior core stability and good recruitment of the deep neck flexors, too, but those are blogs for another day.
Closing Thoughts
This post has gone on far too long, and to be honest, I've probably just used the last 1300+ words to piss a lot of you off. You'll be happy to know, however, that we still use a ton of pull-ups/chin-ups in our strength training programs at Cressey Performance. In fact, they're a mainstay. Here are some modifying factors, however:
1. The risk:reward ratio gets a little out of whack once you get very strong with pull-ups. You'd be better off adding sets and reps, as opposed to adding load - and you may want to push the heavy stuff less frequently than you would with compound exercises.
2. Get regular manual therapy at the posterior shoulder and entire elbow to stay on top of tissue quality. At the very least, make sure you're foam rolling a ton and using The Stick:
3. Strengthen the anterior core and deep neck flexors so that you don't substitute lumbar hyperextension and forward head posture, respectively, for shoulder flexion.
4. Strengthen the lower traps so that the lats can't overpower them. I like wall slides at 135 degrees abduction, as it allows one to work in the direct line of pull of the lower traps. Make sure to cue "glutes tight, core braced" so that folks can't substitute lumbar extension ("gross extension") for movement of the scapulae on the rib cage. Make sure there is no forward head posture, too.
Prone 1-arm trap raises off the table are also a popular one. Just make sure you continue to cue "glutes tight, core braced, and no forward head posture."
4. Maintain adequate length in the lats. In warm-ups, I like the bench t-spine mobilizations and side-lying internal external rotation as a means of getting some shoulder flexion.
In terms of static stretching, a lat stretch in the power rack is great.
If this gives you an impingement feeling, regress it a bit, stabilize the scapulae with the opposite hand, and gently dip into a wall lat stretch with stabilization.
Many folks will also benefit from this classic overhead stretch in order to reduce stiffness in the long head of the triceps, a synergist to the lats in humeral extension.
5. Make sure you're including plenty of horizontal pulling (rowing) strength exercises as well - and executing them with the correct form. This means moving humerus and scapula together on rib cage, not just yanking the humerus into extension on a fixed scapula.
6. If you have terrible shoulder flexion and can't get overhead without substituting forward head posture and lumbar hyperextension, spend some time addressing the underlying issues before you start cranking on pull-ups. We actually don't do any pull-ups/chin-ups with some of our professional baseball players for 4-8 weeks following the season, as we need to spend time building rotator cuff, lower trap, and anterior core strength. I like to use the back-to-wall shoulder flexion exercise as a "pass/fail test." If you can get the thumbs to the wall without losing the flat-back posture on the wall or bending your elbows, then you can probably start going to pull-ups.
7. Above all else, listen to your body, and hold back if pull-ups/chin-ups hurt.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this post and your experiences with heavy and/or high-volume pull-ups/chin-ups in the comments section below.
For more information on the role of the lats in upper extremity health and function, I'd encourage you to check out our Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD Set.
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We've been utilizing the half-kneeling 1-arm landline press more and more with clients at Cressey Performance over the past few months, as it is a strength exercise that affords a number of full-body benefits.
First, with the trailing leg positioned appropriately, it's a static hip flexor stretch that is even more effective because the athlete is cued to activate the same-side glutes and brace the core, so you're effectively increasing stiffness at an adjacent joint to help "solidify" the newly acquired range of motion into hip extension. As I've written previously, increasing stiffness can be a good thing.
Second, the core stability benefits occur in a number of contexts. Because the load forces the athlete to resist extension, it serves as a great anterior core stability exercise. And, because it's loaded asymmetrically, it serves as a great lateral and rotary core stability exercise.
Third, I like all asymmetrical-loaded upper-body strength exercises because they train thoracic mobility and dynamic stability of the scapula, which you simply don't get on the same level with push-up variations and bilateral upper body exercises (although those categories do provide unique benefits in their own right).
Fourth, because of the thicker handle at the end of the barbell, you're getting a different grip and forearm stimulus.
Key Coaching Cues:
1. Set up so that there is a subtle (but not aggressive) stretch on the trailing leg hip flexors. Activate the glutes on that side as well.
2. Brace the core tightly to resist extension and rotation.
3. Press straight out, not across your body.
4. Don't allow the elbow to "migrate" past the body too much. Instead, pre-tension the scapular stabilizers to make sure that the shoulder is not anteriorly tilted as the humerus (upper arm) extends back to neutral on the eccentric.
5. Keep the chin tucked so that the cervical spine is in neutral.
6. Load with weights smaller than 25, as the 45-pound plates tend to get in the way.
This is a great exercise for loading the upper body without really beating up on the joints. I particularly like it with some of my throwers who have gotten stronger in the upper body, as it's a good alternative to having baseball guys throwing really heavy dumbbells around, particularly as they are getting more aggressive with their throwing programs.
Give it a shot and let me know what you think!
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Today, I'll wrap up my "Best of 2011" series by highlighting the pieces that I enjoyed creating. Check them out:
1.11 Years, 11 Lessons, 100 Pounds - This T-Nation article recapped my long journey in the strength and conditioning world to get to where I am. It was definitely one of my most popular articles of all time at T-Nation.
2. The Fitness Business Blueprint - This product was a blast to create because I think it filled a gaping hole in the market. Until we launched it, nobody had created a fitness business product that didn't just discuss how to grow a business, but also how to improve as a trainer/coach. I had a blast collaborating with Pat Rigsby and Mike Robertson on it.
3.What I Learned in 2010 - I enjoy writing these articles every year, because they serve as a great opportunity to revisit some of the most valuable lessons from the previous year. And, as the saying goes, the best way to master something is to teach it to others.
4. Strength and Conditioning Program Success: The Little Things Matter - This was a fun blog to write, as I did so right around the time when several of our athletes were recognized for some awesome achievements. It gave me a chance to reflect on why they were successful - and why many other folks aren't. There will be some valuable takeaways for you, regardless of your athletic or fitness goals.5. Oblique Strains in Baseball: 2011 Update - I'd written about oblique strains in the past, but they continue to be the big fat white elephant in the corner that is being ignored in the context of baseball development. Hopefully this article got some people to start paying attention to the fact that it's just the fallout of a lot of things that are wrong with the current approaches being employed with respect to baseball strength and conditioning.
6. The IYCA High School Strength and Conditioning Coach Certification - I was fortunate to be a contributor on this awesome resource that will hopefully change the tide of how high school athletes are trained. Based on the feedback we've received thus far, it's already helped tremendously in this regard.
7. Strength Training Program Success: How Dr. P did at 47 What He Couldn't Do at 20 or 30 - This blog (and accompanying video) were awesome because our entire gym got involved on this goal - and were there to see our good friend accomplish it.
8. The Everything Elbow In-Service - This was an in-service I filmed for our staff this summer to prepare them for all the elbow issues that may come through our doors. It lasted 32 minutes, and sold far better than I would have imagined - and led to a lot of requests for us to continue filming staff in-services and making them available for sale.
9. Strength and Conditioning Programs: Think the Opposite - This has a few tips about a counterintuitive way to achieve success in training and in business.
10. Hip Pain in Athletes: The Origin of Femoroacetabular Impingement - FAI is becoming more and more common (especially in young athletes), and in this blog, I talk about some of the reasons why.
That wraps up our "Best of 2011" series. Thank you very much for your support of EricCressey.com in 2011; I'm looking forward to making 2012 even more memorable!
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In continuing with our "Best of 2011" theme to wrap up the year, today, I've got the top EricCressey.com videos of the year.
The Cressey Performance Elite Baseball Development Video - This was something that we needed to do simply to outline how we approach off-season development for our baseball clients, but it ended up being a lot of fun to be a part of, as a lot of the staff and athletes took a genuine interest in how it'd turn out. A special thanks goes out to Matt and Jamie at Lasting Memories Videotaping for making it happen.
Tyler Beede Draft Reaction - This was a fun night not just because of the obvious excitement of having 120 people at your house (yes, this is my living room), but because it was awesome just to appreciate just how far Tyler had coming as a person and an athlete since he started training with us back in 2008.
How to Create a Real Strength and Conditioning Program - This is one of the webinars I created around the re-launch of Show and Go back in October.
How to Create an Imbalanced Strength and Conditioning Program that Works - I released this webinar just a few weeks after the first one, as I was feeling the "webinar mojo" and this had been a topic I'd want to cover for quite some time.
Those were my top five videos of the year, but there were definitely plenty more you may have missed. Luckily, you can check them out on my YouTube Channel.
I'll be back tomorrow with one last "Best of 2011" feature.
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With 2011 winding down, I'll be dedicating this week to the best content of the year, based on traffic volume at EricCressey.com. I'll kick it off today with my most popular articles from the past year.
1. My New Favorite Training Shoe - This post received more than 3,000 views more than #2. Apparently, footwear is a topic about which folks were anxious to read, and I gave a detailed review of all the minimalist footwear options I've tried - and folks shared it a ton. Additionally, based on feedback on my Twitter account, a lot of people purchased the New Balance Minimus based on my recommendation and have absolutely loved it.
2. Your Arm Hurts? Thank Your Little League, Fall Ball, and AAU Coaches. - This post received well over 1,000 Facebook "shares" and loads of Tweets, and I'm hopeful that this is indicative of parents, coaches, and players learning about how to approach arm care and throwing programs intelligently. I think it was also popular because it was a good blend of scientific evidence and simple, everyday logic.
3.Tim Collins: Why Everyone Should Be a Kansas City Royals Fan (at least for a day) - This was my favorite post of the year, as it was a chance to celebrate a good friend and long-time Cressey Performance athlete who is everything that is right about Major League Baseball. As a cool little aside, traffic to this article played a large part in having "Tim Collins" trending on Twitter during his MLB debut on Opening Day in March.
4. Weight Training Programs: You Can't Just Keep Adding - It sounds like many of my readers were glad to hear that I was doing some writing on managing training stress. There is a lot of common sense in this one, but sometimes, that's what people need!
5. Strength Training Programs and Squat Technique: To Arch or Not to Arch? - Here's a very misunderstood topic in the area of strength and conditioning technique. You'll be happy to know that I'll be addressing it in great detail in the new Functional Stability Training resource that Mike Reinold and I are releasing soon.
6. Shoulder Hurts? Start Here. - In this piece, I outlined three sure-fire strategies that just about everyone can employ regardless of their shoulder issues.
7. Healthy Food Options: Why You Should Never Take Nutrition Advice from Your Government - One of the biggest surprises for me in 2011 was that my readers absolutely ate up (no pun intended) nutrition content, and summer Cressey Performance intern Tyler Simmons' guest blog perfect example. He shared some great (and controversial) thoughts in this guest blog.
8. Correcting Bad Posture: Are Deadlifts Enough? - People want results, and they want them fast. This post touched on whether or not the deadlift could be an optimal "shortcut" for getting to where you want to be.
9. Why the Gym's Out-of-Business and the Porn Store's Thriving - This was proof that I can write about just about anything. Don't ever expect to see a content drought here at EricCressey.com. The timing for this was really good, as I got the idea to write it right around the time that we released The Fitness Business Blueprint.
10. Lifting Heavy Weights vs. Corrective Exercise: Finding a Balance - I can definitely see how folks found this topic so interesting, as it's a very challenging balance to strike. In fact, it was even a very challenging piece around which to wrap my brain!
This wraps up our top 10 posts of 2011, but I'll be back soon with more "Best of" highlights from 2011. Next up, I'll list my top product reviews of the year.
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A few weeks ago, when we handed a relatively new athlete his second strength and conditioning program from Cressey Performance, he asked:
What different things are we working on this month, compared to the last month?
I was candid with him and emphasized that we'd be working on some of the exact same stuff - but progressing on what we did in Month 1 with new strength exercises and subtle shifts in what was prioritized in light of where he'd improved the most. In short, the answer was to trust in the program, and allow time for adaptation to occur.
"Assuming" adaptation is one of the biggest mistakes I see coaches and athletes make in strength training programs, as the truth is that everyone responds to a given stimulus differently.
For instance, I've had professional baseball players come back from long seasons with horrendous rotator cuff strength that takes a good 10-12 weeks to get back to baseline. On the other hand, I've had guys come back from the same long season with outstanding cuff strength. It'd be a disservice to these two types of athletes to hand them the same arm care programs, at the same time, with the same progressions. Unfortunately, it's something that happens all the time in a wide variety of strength and conditioning programs simply because folks may be married to a long-term periodization approach, when more of a short-term "wait and see" methodology may, in fact, be far more effective.
In a linear periodization model (which research has proven inferior to an undulating approach in terms of strength and muscular endurance), one might approach the baseball off-season with the following progression: muscular endurance training (sets of 12-15) in September, hypertrophy training (sets of 6-12) in October-November, strength training (sets of 1-6) in December-January, and then power training (lower-load sets of 1-8) in February-March.
The problem with this model of athletic development, of course, is that you get very proficient in one quality at a time while detraining the others. And, each athlete may not need a specific phase of this scheme.
For instance, a baseball player who is an insanely reactive athlete might not need any true power training; he could get that from his sport exclusively - and would therefore be better off emphasizing maximal strength.
Conversely, an athlete who is insanely strong, but slow, would need more power training and less work on maximal strength.
Finally, baseball players don't really need much, if any, muscular endurance training. They build that in a more specific approach later on with the volume and intensity progressions in their throwing and hitting programs.
These are just a few of the many reasons we use a concurrent periodization model for all the strength training programs we write at Cressey Performance. This broad approach affords us the flexibility we need to make specific changes for each athlete based on the adaptations we observe, not something we assume has taken place.
It's perfectly fine to implement variety to keep training fun, expose an athlete to a rich proprioceptive environment, and ensure that overuse injuries don't occur, but never lose sight of the goals of any good strength and conditioning program: addressing an athlete's most glaring weaknesses.
If an athlete is painfully weak, don't stop all strength work 6-8 weeks out of the season because you're supposed to be working on power and conditioning at that time period. Just tinker with things; don't overhaul.
If an athlete is strong as a bull, but always deconditioned, you may need to cut back on the maximal strength work and prioritize metabolic conditioning more.
The body will always have a limited recovery capacity, so when it comes to writing strength and conditioning programs, one must always prioritize the most pressing needs, not simply adhere blindly to a long-term plan that doesn't take into account these opportunities for adaptation.
Today's guest blog on Metabolic Resistance Training comes from Joe Dowdell, co-creator of the Peak Diet and Training Summit DVD set.Metabolic Resistance Training has received a lot of attention over the last few years, especially for fat loss. However, the reality is that many strength coaches have been using this technique with their clients and athletes for a very long time.
Before we go any further, and so we are all on the same page, my view or definition of metabolic resistance training is any strength training session that employs a series of 4-8 exercises (which are predominantly multi-joint in nature), while utilizing little (i.e., under 30 seconds) to no rest between sets. In other words, these metabolic resistance training sessions incorporate things like the Olympic lifts, squats, chin-ups, push-ups, kettlebell Swings, medicine ball throws, etc. in order to call upon as many muscle groups as possible in a single training session. In addition to the shorter rest periods, one may see “timed sets” as another variable, where the client performs as many reps as possible in a given time frame.
The overall training effect of metabolic resistance training is a greater metabolic disturbance in the body’s physiology, which in turn can elevate your caloric expenditure for a greater period of time following your workout. Compared to a traditional strength training session, this style of training can be very effective for body composition changes as well as an increase in one’s work capacity.
All of this sounds pretty great, especially if a client’s goal is fat loss, right? Well, yes and no. You see, the problem is that some people just aren’t ready for metabolic resistance training, especially when they first come to see you (or at least not to this degree). Many people, especially sedentary individuals, have underlying muscle imbalances that can lead to faulty movement patterns.
And, I’ve also found that some people are too weak to even get a proper metabolic training effect. So, in both of these cases, wouldn’t these people be better served by doing some structural balance work and maybe just some overall strength training? And, if we wanted to get some conditioning in with client, perhaps it might be better to use a Airdyne, VersaClimber, or Prowler after the strength training program wraps up for the day. This way, we can still get them a bit of a sweat, but the learning curve is pretty low. Just a thought.
So, you may be asking yourself, what should you do instead? Well, you can actually still set up a strength and conditioning program that will improve someone’s body composition without using metabolic resistance training. In fact, I often use more of a German Body Comp style of training for client’s in the early stages of training, especially for beginners or sedentary individuals. In other words, I may pair up a lower body exercise (like a split squat) with an upper body exercise (like a flat, neutral grip DB bench press) and allow the client 60 seconds of rest between each set of the two exercises. Or, I may use agonist-antagonist sequence, like a TRX high row followed by a push-up while employing the same protocol for the rest period. This type of training program will allow me to get quite a bit of work done while also giving me the flexibility to target a client’s weaknesses, develop better overall strength and stability while also giving me the opportunity to teach them how to move more effectively.
On the other hand, if I just fast tracked them into a more metabolic style of training like I see many trainers doing with their clients, I’m not allowing that client the opportunity to develop the kind of solid fundamental movement patterns that I want them to have. And, I may be just building strength on top of a dysfunctional foundation, which could lead to a setback further down the road. So, next time, you sit down to design a new client’s fat loss program, ask yourself the following question:
Is this client ready for Metabolic Resistance Training or do I need to first progress them to that point?
Joe covers more on this, as well as proper periodization models, energy systems training, how to structure and sequence a training session, and a lot more in our new Peak Diet & Training Design Home Study Course. Grab a copy before Friday at midnight and you'll save $100, get a handful of other goodies and bonuses, and earn 2.0 NSCA CEU credits.
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That said, if you were on the fence, check out this feedback I received from the father of a college pitcher who took a shot on Show and Go this past summer:
"Eric,
"Just wanted to shoot you a breakdown on how my college son took to your Show and Go program with some modifications for baseball specificity. He followed your strength and conditioning program to the “T” and this is where he is after the first seven weeks:
May 16 – Start
Bodyweight: 163lbs
Body fat: 10.0%
Lean mass: 146.68 lbs
July 7 (52 days later)
Bodyweight: 169lbs
Body fat: 9.25%
Lean mass: 153.3 lbs
-Front squat for reps went from 155 lbs to 235 lbs for reps
-Deadlift went from about 205 for reps to 335 for a single
-Dumbbell bench presses for reps went from 55lb dumbbells to 80lb dumbbells
"To me, an untrained eye, it looks like this is great progress and he measurably benefited from it! He looks pretty damn good, too.
"He is about to return for his senior year as a starting left-handed pitcher and plans to continue this workout routine for the entirety of the 16 weeks. We used the Alan Jaeger long toss throwing program and mechanical training from Paul Reddick and Brent Strom and his velocity improved from 78mph to 84-85mph and his breaking stuff are now plus pitches. In my opinion, none of this would have happened your strength training program and mobility drills that allowed him to physically carry his momentum down the bump longer. All-in-all, it was a very productive summer; thanks!"
-Darrell Drake
Don't miss out on this chance to take your game to the next level. Click here to pick up a copy of Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better!
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