Call it a law of weightlifting: no matter how careful you are, at some point you're gonna get hurt. Now you probably won't decapitate yourself with a barbell or tear a pec or even rupture your spleen—the weightlifter's injuries are rarely that cool or sudden.
Nope, you'll probably just end up with a bum shoulder, a pinched elbow, a bad back, or creaky knees, all the result of years of faulty movement patterns, poor training habits, or just general wear and tear. And while these injuries are always frustrating, they're often manageable.
Because it's hard to build a good-looking body when you're hurt, I talked with Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson about how these body parts probably got jacked up in the first place, and asked them for simple strategies to get you healthy.
Continued Reading...
1. It's been a while since I published a Random Friday Thoughts blog, but in reality, it's by design. You see, if I just publish every Friday, it isn't very "random," is it?
2. Pretty cool stuff: Cressey Performance and Lawrence Academy athlete Tyler Beede was featured on the cover of ESPN Rise magazine this month. Tyler's headed to Vanderbilt on a baseball scholarship.
3. After seven years, I'm switching from Sprint to Verizon for my cell phone. I feel liberated...like an old man busting a move. That's a random - but awesome - way to kickstart your weekend!
4. At the other end of the spectrum, you have THIS GUY, who was awarded (in a court of law) the title of "Worst Tennis Professional on the Planet." I wonder if he gets a trophy for his mantle for that one....
5. Here's a book recommendation for you that's somewhat related to fitness: The 7 Rules of Achievement. It's written by Tom Terwilliger, a former Mr. America. I met Tom at a seminar back in January, and his enthusiasm is absolutely contagious. He's got a pretty cool story himself, but the real gold in this book is how he breaks things down step-by-step in helping people get to where they want to be in their professional and personal lives. It's self-help stuff, but more entertaining and less preachy than anything else I've read in this regard.
6. In addition to my own article at T-Muscle last week (Favorite Supersets), I also contributed on a compilation by Nate Green, Your Training Split Sucks. Check 'em out, if you haven't already.
8. In the past two weeks, I've had four people email me asking about a mentorship at Cressey Performance. If we were to do a 3-4 day mentorship consisting of lectures, hands-on teaching, and observing athletes in action, would you be interested? If so, shoot us an email at cresseyperformance@gmail.com. It would occur sometime between October and March. Nothing firm, but I thought I'd throw it out there to gauge interest.
9. I'm looking for some good recommendations for books on CD. I just finished up my last one, and always like to have a good one in my car for whenever I'm driving. The last three good ones have been What the Dog Saw, Switch, and Born to Run. I prefer non-fiction. Thanks in advance to anyone who has some suggestions to make in the comments section!
10. Finally, a big happy birthday goes out to CP pitching expert Matt Blake, who - as you can tell from the following video - turns 11 today.
I've come to realize that over the past ten years, I've gotten a little spoiled. Of course, there are a variety of reasons: TMUSCLE readers are some of the more educated weight-training consumers on the 'Net; I've been around Division 1 athletes who have four years of strength and conditioning continuity in their lives; I've lifted alongside world-class powerlifters; I have a host of athletes who are completely "indoctrinated" with my training philosophies, as it's the only thing they've ever known.
Yeah, I guess you could say that I've become a bit of a lifting snob; I'm always surrounded by people who know how to interpret my programs, leaving me to just program, coach technique, help select weights, and turn up the volume on the stereo.
Continue Reading...
When we were seven, my friends and I loved to eat spinach. Not because we liked the taste. God no. Raw spinach tasted like, well, leaves, and the goop we'd spoon out of the can was vile, smelly stuff. No, we ate spinach because Popeye ate spinach.
It made him instantly muscular and powerful-a can of spinach and he could punch through brick walls. We could only imagine how it would transform our pre-pubescent bodies into superhero physiques. We shoveled it down our throats, testing our gag reflexes, and satisfying our mothers.
Continue Reading...
Four years ago, I wrote What I Learned in 2006, my first year-in-review series that continues to this day. Since then, this website has gone from T-Mag to TMUSCLE. I've opened my own facility, got engaged, and thanks to a little bit of both, lost a bunch of my hair.
Interestingly, people seem to be writing "What I Learned in 2009" series all over the Internet. I've seen the phrase flown on banners behind airplanes, "tweeted" by NBA superstars at halftime, and printed across the back of girls' short-shorts.
But let's get something straight, folks: you're reading the original right here. Got it? Good. Now let's move on.
Continue Reading...
"... Tao is often referred to as 'the nameless', because neither it nor its principles can ever be adequately expressed in words."
Aw, what the hell, we'll give it a shot.
No questions, no time limit, and no stone unturned. Training? Nutrition? A little piss and vinegar? It's all here.
The following is what happens when you get on the phone with a top-level strength and conditioning coach and hit "record."
Read more...Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive a Copy of the Exact Stretches
used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!
Here are a few good reads from a variety of disciplines:
Organic vs. Kind of Organic vs. Wait, I'm Confused - This was a great blog post by Tony Gentilcore that tells you everything you ought to know (but might not want to know) about organic food.
Clean Eating Gone Wrong - Another great post, this one from Dr. John Berardi. It just goes to show you that being on the money with your nutrition can quickly and easily hit the fan.
Blood and Chalk: Jim Wendler Talks Big Weights - Jim is a great dude and one of the most amusing guys you'll encounter in this industry; he's always got something funny, but incredibly valuable to say. Check out this interview with him at T-Muscle.
Pop quiz, hotshot. You need to add some plates to the bar and pack some meat on your bones. You've got precious few weeks to accomplish both, but only have four days per week to train. What do you do? What do you do?
I've asked this question to myself countless times and only recently have I come up with what I believe is the most effective method. Forget total-body training. Forget upper and lower splits. The trick is to, well...I'll get to that in a minute.
Continue Reading...
Feel like swallowing some bitter truth today?
Okay Spunky, first strip down to your Power Rangers shorts. Now grab a compact from your girlfriend's purse and sashay over to the full-length mirror on the back of her bedroom door.
Face away from the full-length mirror and use the smaller mirror on her compact to eyeball your backside — your entire backside from the top of your shoulders to several clicks south of Glutesville.
Personally, I'd also use one of those cardboard boxes with a couple of pinholes in it, the kind that kids use during solar eclipses to keep from going blind, because what you see might scar you emotionally and physically.
Continue Reading...
- Eric Cressey
It's been a while since my last dose of Friday Randomness, but when you're got so much intern hazing going on, it's hard to even imagine topping that kind of content!
1. I recently contributed to another T-Muscle feature; check out Advice You Don't Want to Hear: Volume 2 for a little dose of tough love. I'm the last one down.
2. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself. My fiancee's been out of town since Monday morning, and while the fridge is just about empty and I'm down to one pair of clean underwear, the place didn't burn down, and I didn't put an eye out.
3. Here's a quick takeaway from a great Elbow Biomechanics talk by Mike Reinold earlier this week...
Obviously, in dealing with loads of baseball guys, I see a lot of elbow issues come through my door. The overwhelming majority of those folks are medial elbow pain, but we also see a fair amount of lateral elbow pain - even though we program for these individuals very similarly, as their inefficiencies are pretty much identical. I've seen it in practice, but never actually gotten the numbers on the forces involved.
The same medial tensile force that can wreak havoc with an ulnar collateral ligament or ulnar nerve also applies approximately 500N on the radioulnar joint during the late cocking (maximum external rotation) phase of throwing; that's about one-third of the total stress on the elbow. This lateral area also takes on about 800N of force at the moment arm deceleration begins (elbow extended out in front). As always, a picture is worth a thousand words:
I always knew it was going on, and always worked to prevent problems in the area, but suffice it to say that it was nice to get some numbers on this. If you see these issues, you've obviously got to look at mechanics, but more importantly, tissue quality, all the common flexibility deficits we see in pitchers, and overall strength of the rotator cuff, scapular stabilizers, core, lower body, and muscles acting at the elbow to provide valgus stability. For more information, I highly recommend you check out the 2008 Ultimate Pitching Coaches Boot Camp DVD set.
4. Bill, Mike, and I film our new DVD next weekend out in Indianapolis, so I'm going to end this one here and get to work on finishing up the script. Stay tuned on this front; we are excited about how thorough this is.
Have a great weekend!
Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive a Copy of the Exact Stretches
used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!
