Today marks the end of one of the funnest "eras" of my life.
Back on September 9, we officially kicked off the pro baseball off-season with Tim Collins' arrival at Cressey Performance for his first training session of the off-season. Coming off a great season that included a promotion to Double-A at age 20 and a Blue Jays organizational pitcher of the year award, Tim was ready to get after it - and that's exactly what he did. From that day in September through February 6 (when he was called to Florida for mini-camp), Tim added 21 pounds to his frame while getting leaner - and increased his vertical jump by four inches (to 37.9 inches).
Tim was one of over 30 pro guys we had this winter. Results were typical.
Chad Rodgers (Atlanta Braves organization) went from 206 to 233 while adding just under three inches to his vertical jump. And he dominated "No Shave November."
Jeremiah Bayer (Red Sox organization) packed on muscle mass faster than just about any athlete I've ever seen - to the tune of 13 pounds in only two months - while adding an inch to his vertical. That's a 5.6% improvement in predicted peak power in a short amount of time - and one that is carrying over to the mound already.
Heck, Pat Bresnehan packed on 14 pounds and jumped 37.5 inches (a 6.3 inch) improvement - and got himself signed by the Mariners - after coming to us in the latter phases of his rehab period!
Craig Albernaz (Rays organization) increased his vertical jump by over five inches while adding seven pounds before heading to big league camp - and this is a guy who has always struggled to put on any weight, let alone good weight!
Cory Riordan (Rockies) and Steve Cishek (Marlins) win the awards for the longest commutes to train. Cory drove two hours to CP, and two hours home to Connecticut to get in his work with us - and he's got a new body and a lot more athleticism to show for it. Cishek wasn't far behind with his 1 hour, 45 minute commute from Cape Cod four times a week all the way up through January. I can say without wavering that both of them would tell you that the ride was 100% worth it.
Two other Braves guys - Derick Himpsl and Matt Kramer - also put in some great work that is already carrying over to the field.
Zach Piccola's headed to White Sox camp with a great few months of training under his belt alongside free agent Nick Asselin. Jim Fuller (Mets) committed himself to train like he never had before, and looks fantastic now. Another Mets guy, Tim Stronach, has busted his hump to get better alongside his rehabilitation from shoulder surgery.
Steffan Wilson leaned out and dramatically changed the way he looks and moves - and it helped get him a much-deserved call-up to big-league camp last week.
Kevin Youkilis had a great off-season as well - due in part to his love of pushing the sled. So far this spring, Youk's looked good (much better than his strength coach, as is shown below), and we're excited about the Red Sox season ahead.
Will Inman (Padres), Phil Negus (White Sox), and Kevin Nolan (Blue Jays) put in a great few months in the fall, and Steve Hammond (Giants), Kevin Pucetas (Giants), Nick McBride (Rangers), Benji Johnson (Braves), Matt Morizio (Royals), Justin Edwards (Cardinals), and Howie Clark (Blue Jays) made the most of all their visits to Boston this winter.
And, some "distance-based" guys of mine - Chad Jenkins (Blue Jays) and Anthony "A-Tan" Seraterelli (Royals) - made some excellent progress by following everything to a "T." A-Tan, Howie, and Morizio even made a hilarious video about their experiences (a joke, FYI):
One athlete, though, stepped it up big time on Thursday to set himself apart from all the rest. Tim Kiely (Angels) added 11 pounds and seven inches to his vertical jump, but his biggest claim to fame is that he took home the Gold in the first ever Cressey Performance Elite Baseball Olympics on the last day. Granted, the "Olympics" were limited to five participants who collectively agreed to not tell the most athletic guys of the bunch about the event ahead of time - but that doesn't mean that the boys didn't bring their A games! The Silver (5-lb) went to CP pitching coach Matt Blake, and the Bronze (2.5-lb) went to free agent Alex Szymanski. Shawn Haviland (A's) finished fourth, but he has a Harvard degree, and probably would have won if Sabermetrics trivia and word searches had been part of the contest. Here's the much-anticipated medal ceremony:
I am not sure where the championship belt fit in, but the entire day didn't make much sense, so it seemed right. Congratulations, Tim.
From these videos, a lot of people might think that we're all about goofing around - but that couldn't be further from the truth. Our guys have a good time, for sure, but it always comes after they've busted their butts in the gym. And, frankly, if we didn't have such great camaraderie and the guys weren't such good friends, the motivation to train would never approach the level it has. A good culture and outstanding results absolutely, positively go hand-in-hand.
Most of my writing on this blog is obviously geared toward educating folks on the training, research, nutrition, and other geeky science stuff. However, I should make it absolutely clear that all the knowledge in the world in these regards won't matter if you don't have a good culture established for your athletes and clients. They need to enjoy training and look forward to each and every session because they enjoy the process as much as the destination.
They need to be willing to come to you to critique the best man's toast they've written (happened this winter). They need to feel comfortable staying at your place if they're in town for a few days (happened multiple times this winter). They need to feel welcome spending Thanksgiving with your family (two of my athletes came home with me this past November). And, they need to respect you enough as a person to value your opinion as a professional. As the saying goes, they don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
That's why most of our pro guys train six days a week from September/October all the way up until now, whereas many other places pro guys frequent consist of 3x/week "workouts" for the 4-6 weeks before spring training starts. And, I feel like it is one of many things that differentiates us from our competition (whatever that may be). We are about making athletes better, not just "working them out."
I'm proud of all our guys not only for their hard work this off-season, but for taking an ownership stake in Cressey Performance to make it something special now and in the future.
Thanks for an awesome 5+ months, guys. We can't wait to do it again.
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1. I started this week off with a bang with a few good (and goofy) YouTube clips in my newsletter, so there's no reason to shy away from a continuation of the awesomeness in this blog.
2. Tony Gentilcore got the day off from work today. He claimed it was to go see the filming of the next Functional Strength Coach seminar, but we all know it was just a front for his regular ol' "weird ninja dude in the woods" routine. Glad you enjoyed your alone time, big guy.
2. Congratulations to CP athlete and New York Mets minor leaguer Tim Stronach (St. Lucie Mets: High A), who just missed both a perfect game and no-hitter on Wednesday. "Stro" took a perfect game into the 8th inning, and then lost the no-no with one out in the 9th. The wildest part is that Tim didn't even know until the day before that he'd be making the start.
Stronach packed 21 pounds on his 6-5 frame this off-season with loads of hard work at Cressey Performance, and deserves all the success that comes his way. Great job, Tim!
3. I received an email with the following question yesterday: "I play basketball. I watch how guys lose lots of weight and bodyfat preparing for the combine. How do they do that?"
Answer: The overwhelming majority of college basketball players I've encountered live on sugary sports drinks, chicken wings, pizza, and booze. Simply cleaning up their diets for a month or two will work wonders even if training is held constant. Did you expect something more revolutionary?
4. Here's another study showing that swinging a heavy bat prior to regular hitting is an inferior warm-up protocol as compared to swinging the normal bat or an underweighted bat. Researchers "suggested that when preparing to hit, 5 warm-up swings with either a light or normal bat will allow a player to achieve the greatest velocity of their normal bat." This is in complete contrast to the use of weighted baseballs to increase throwing velocity; I love 'em when used with the right population.
5. Huh? What? Come again?
6. I went back through Jim Smith's Accelerated Muscular Development today to check up on how he approaches formatting for e-books (as we prepare some for the upcoming project's release). While I was looking it over, I got to thinking about how it never ceases to amaze me how thorough Smitty is with his products; he just seems to cover everything. I've said it before: this is a great resource; I'd highly recommend you check it out.
I turn 28 today, so in hopes of distracting myself from the painful realization that I'm starting to go bald, I thought I'd focus on the positives of my existence in contexts that would appeal to you. Below, you'll find 28 of my favorite things - most of which are at least loosely related to fitness, nutrition, strength and conditioning, and sports.
1. Favorite Nickname: Power Alleys. This seemed like a good starting point, as power alleys are bald spots. Credit for this one goes to Mets pitching prospect Tim Stronach.
2. Favorite Thing About Cressey Performance: The camaraderie among the athletes/clients. I think the hard thing to appreciate about our facility without experiencing it first-hand and being there on a regular basis is that it's as much about the environment and attitude as it is about the expertise and programming. I'm psyched that we've not only created an environment where clients can improve physically, but one in which they can thrive socially, too.
3. Favorite Book I've Read Related to Fitness:Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes, by Shirley Sahrmann. This book got me thinking more about dysfunction and less about pathology. Quality of movement is often far more important than anything a MRI or x-ray can ever tell you.
4. Favorite Book I've Read Unrelated to Fitness: This is a top-up between The Tipping Point and A Prayer for Owen Meany. They might be taken over, however, by one of the gifts I just got for my birthday from CP Client Steph Holland-Brodney.
5. Favorite DVD I've Watched:The Indianapolis Performance Enhancement Seminar DVD Set. Bill Hartman's presentation on "Stiff vs. Short" alone makes this a fantastic resource, and the rest is just gravy. I reviewed it HERE.
6. Favorite DVD I've Co-Created: The Building the Efficient Athlete DVD set. I think I'm most proud of this resource because it's something that provided something I so desperately wanted - but couldn't get - during my college education. Effectively, it's a resource that blends book memorization with real-world practice with a focus on functional anatomy, assessments, and troubleshooting common exercises.
7. Favorite Seminar I've Attended:The Perform Better 3-Day Functional Training Summit. Each year, they get better and better. Check out Chicago or Long Beach this year if you missed Providence.
8. Favorite Athlete of All Time: Barry Sanders. I can't imagine an guy with better kinesthetic awareness, body control, or ability to turn a complete disaster of a play into a 90-yard touchdown run - while carrying two defensive linemen on his back.
9. Favorite Athlete of All-Time that you've probably never heard of: Jerry Sichting. He played for the Celtics from 1985 to 1988, and I'll always remember the night Sichting - at a heigh of 6-1 - got in a fight with 7-4 Ralph Sampson during the 1986 NBA Finals. At the time, I was a five-year old shadow boxing in my living room yelling at the top of my lungs.
10. Favorite Place to Visit: Fenway Park
11. Second Favorite Place to Visit: Gampel Pavilion at the University of Connecticut. It's an incredible environment in which to watch college basketball, and it's also where I spent just about all my time from 2003 to 2005.
12. Favorite Exercise: was this ever in question?
13. Favorite Sites I Visit Just About Every Day: T-Nation.com, MinorLeagueBaseball.com, ESPN.com, Sports.Yahoo.com, WilliamInman.com, 38Pitches.com, ShawnHaviland.Blogspot.com, MetrowestDailyNews.com, StrengthCoach.com, MikeReinold.com, RobertsonTrainingSystems.com, BillHartman.net, AlwynCosgrove.Blogspot.com, DieselCrew.com, PrecisionNutrition.com, BrianStPierreTraining.com, Tony Gentilcore's Blog, Boston.com, BarstoolSports.com, Facebook.com, EricCressey.com.
14. Favorite Kind of Injury to See (weird category, I know): Labral Tears (SLAP lesions), or really any kind of shoulder or elbow pain in pitchers. You've got so many potential causes that it's kind of fun (for me, not the athlete) to go through a process of elimination to see what combination of factors caused it. There are all the classic flexibility deficits in pitchers, plus scapular instability, poor thoracic spine mobility, plus faulty mechanics, plus inappropriate training volumes, plus weak lower bodies. It's kind of like peeling back the layers on an onion to see what shakes free. It's also a great scenario to illustrate what I talked about with respect to diagnostic imaging in #3 from above. All of these guys will have labral fraying and rotator cuff partial thickness tears at the very least; it's our job to fix them up and make them work efficiently in spite of these structural deficits in situations where surgery isn't warranted.
15. Favorite Class I Took in School: Gross Anatomy. Yes, I cherished the semester I spent with a bunch of cadavers.
16. Favorite Healthy Food: Apple-Cinnamon Protein Bars from John Berardi's Gourmet Nutrition Cookbook. Admittedly, I often just eat the batter before it ever gets cooked. Not good, I know.
17. Favorite Piece of Equipment We Have at CP: Giant Cambered Bar. Along with the safety squat bar and front squat set-up, this bad boy has allowed me to keep squatting even though my right shoulder decided a long time ago that traditional back squats weren't a good idea. It's also a great asset for working with overhead throwing athletes who should avoid the externally rotated, abducted position under load.
18. Favorite Thing About Having a Blog: I can write a lot more casually than in my newsletter, which tends to be more geeky. And, I can post videos of this kid rocking out:
19. Favorite Mobility Drill: Walking Spiderman w/Overhead Reach. I love this drill because you're covering so many things at once. You'll get thoracic spine extension and rotation from the reach, and hip flexor and adductor length in the lower body from the lunge angle. Keep an eye out for more new movements along these lines in the months to come as we film the sequel to the Magnificent Mobility DVD.
20. Favorite Pastime I Had to Give Up: Fantasy Baseball/Basketball. During my sophomore year of undergrad, I finished fourth in the world in NBA.com's Virtual GM contest. Long story short, if you want to be really good at fantasy sports with that kind of set-up, you've got to put a lot of time into it - and realize that it won't make girls like you. You'll also find yourself watching games in which you'd otherwise have absolutely no interest. I couldn't do it half-ass (aside from the CP Fantasy Football League), so I gave it up.
21. Favorite Inedible Toy: Rubber Steak.
Suffice it to say that Fire & Ice wouldn't allow us to eat a birthday cake inside their restaurant on Saturday night in celebration of my awesomeness. So, in celebration of their suckiness, none of us (16 in all) will ever eat again - and I was reduced to gnawing on dog toys.
22. Favorite Birthday Excitement: Apparently, it's going to be taking my car in to get work done, buying a new laptop, and then coaching 'em upat CP. There will also be a dominant upper body lift at CP that will undoubtedly feature Kevin Larrabee missing 300...again...and again).
24. Favorite Strength and Conditioning Coach Who is Having Surgery on my Birthday: Josh Bonhotal, Chicago Bulls. I talked with Josh yesterday and he informed me that he was finally having his ACL fixed today in celebration of my birthday. Nothing says "Happy Birthday, Buddy" like taking a chunk out of your patellar tendon and turning it into an anterior cruciate ligament. It's kind of like planting a tree on Earth Day. What a nice gesture.
25. Favorite Article Series I've Written:A New Model for Training Between Starts (Part 1and Part 2). These articles were actually picked up by Collegiate Baseball Magazine as front-page features, and I received a lot of great feedback about them. If there is one thing I do before I retire, it's convincing the world of the evils of distance running for pitchers. I'd put the Shoulder Savers series in a close second
26. Favorite Supplement: Fish Oil. It's followed closely by Vitamin D. You need both - and probably a lot more than you think. I'm a simple guy when it comes to this stuff.
27. Favorite Random Website a Buddy Texted to Me Last Week: www.EasyCurves.com. This thing is hilarious. A special thanks goes out to Jesse Burdick for making me just a little bit dumber with that.
28. Favorite Sign of Athlete Dedication for the Month: We have two college pitchers up here fromPennsylvania for the month to work on getting bigger, stronger, faster, and more flexible in hopes of a nice velocity jump on the mound, and the obvious injury prevention benefits of such training. That's all well and good - until you hear that they got an unfurnished apartment in Hudson, MA. These guys are sleeping on mattresses on the floor, and all they brought were a few lamps, a TV, some books, and a whole lot of enthusiasm and motivation. That's committment to training - and just the kind of guys we like to have around Cressey Performance.
What kind of sacrifices are you making to get better and move closer to your goals? I'm not sure that sleeping on a mattress on the floor is necessary, but it says a lot.
With that in mind, I'm not taking today off. There is work to be done and I love to do it, birthday or not.
1. There were no Random Friday Thoughts last week, as my girlfriend and I were in Fort Lauderdale for a quick 3-day "the guys are off to spring training, so Eric is going to regain his sanity" vacation. As you read this, I'll have just returned to Boston (Sunday night), refreshed and ready to go for the last three weeks before the high school baseball season starts.
2. With almost all the guys done for the off-season, I figured that this was as good a time as any to send out some spring training well wishes to all the Cressey Performance pro baseball guys:
Chad Rodgers (Braves)
Will Inman (Padres)
Tim Collins (Blue Jays)
Tim Stronach (Mets)
Shawn Haviland (A's)
Nate Nelson (Blue Jays)
Steffan Wilson (Brewers)
Steve Hammond (Giants)
CJ Retherford (White Sox)
PJ Zocchi (Indians)
Matt Morizio (Royals)
Ryan Reid (Rays)
Matt Kramer (Braves)
Dave Wasylak (Nationals)
Jason Lavorgna (free agent)
Matt Cooney (free agent)
Chris Gusha (free agent)
Good luck this season, fellas. Thanks for all your hard work.
3. I often get asked what we do with folks who can't go right to foam rolling with the Foam Roller Plus (a more diesel version that is just foam on top of PVC).
In these folks, we usually start them with a foam-only roller - and ideally one that has been "broken in."
Another option that Cressey Performance has pioneered is suited up in catcher's gear before rolling. Safety first, folks.
4. Just wanted to give you a quick heads-up on an upcoming seminar (4/17-4/19) in Central Virginia with an outstanding line-up of speakers. I'm bummed that I can't make it, but you should definitely check this out if you're in the area:
Central Virginia Performance Seminar
They have limited the event to 75 attendees, so be sure to register sooner than later.
5. My girlfriend had the Oscars on last weekend, and I couldn't help but wonder who the heck this guy is and what he did to Ferris Bueller!
