Today, Greg Robins is back with five tips for your nutrition and strength and conditioning programs.
1. Regress TRX fallouts.
At CP, we often use TRX fallouts in our programming. They are a phenomenal choice for training the anterior core in an “anti-extension” fashion. That being said, they can also be quite difficult for many people. The good news is that these bad boys are easily regressed by moving to your knees, rather than the feet. In order to do these seamlessly make sure to adjust the straps so the handles hang to just below your waist, or slightly further for those with longer arms.
2. Do paused deadlifts.
Paused deadlifts are an awesome way to work on proper technique. I’ll be honest with you, though, the first time I saw them my initial reaction was “that can’t be safe!” In fact, I chalked it up as one of those powerlifting staples that would definitely make you brutally strong, but only at a very high risk of injury. In reality, any exercise has a high risk if done incorrectly, and this variation is not something I would advocate just anyone try, or prescribe to their clients/athletes.
That being said, I don’t think it’s inherently dangerous. In fact, I don’t think it’s dangerous at all when executed well. In an effort to correct my own bad habit of coming forward in the deadlift, I decided to give them a shot. I was frustrated because my deadlift had seemingly regressed, and weights that generally felt fast were becoming a grind.
My very first rep sent me way forward and I bailed out and dropped the bar. I was only using about 45% of my 1RM. Reality check; my initial pull from the ground was awful. Through training this variation I was able to re-learn where my weight needed to be upon breaking the bar from the ground, and in about three weeks of using this lift after my regular work sets I was right back to pulling the weight I had before my technique relapsed.
If you have issues staying back in the deadlift, hit a sticking point around mid shin, or just want to do “authenticity” check to your deadlift, I highly recommend these. Here is a video of a set of three from a recent training session.
3. Use a bar pad when incline pressing.
Putting a bar pad on to squat is foolish. If there is a good reason you can’t have steel pressing into your back, then choose a better way to load the exercise. There is, however, a good use for this cylindrical piece of foamy goodness. One would be to pad the hips during barbell supine bridges; that’s old news. Another is to cut out a little range of motion on the bench press, specifically an incline barbell bench press.
Before you call me as soft as the foam pad of which I speak, hear me out. Incline pressing is a great pressing exercise, but there’s one thing I don’t like about it: it tears apart the front of my shoulders. Because the inclined torso position increases range of motion, you won’t find to many people barrel chested enough to pull the lift off, chest to bar, without getting a considerable amount of humeral anterior glide in the shoulder joint. See the picture below:
One way to avoid this is by creating an arch in the back to meet the bar before this becomes a player, in a similar fashion to the flat bench press:
My problem with this is that: 1) the more you arch on an incline press, the less it becomes an “incline press,” and 2) the incline press can be strategically used to supplement the bench press because it removes some of the added help from leg drive and hard arching.
Instead, adding the bar bad to the middle of the bar will effectively cut a good 1.5 inches off the range of motion. This way, we can press a little more safely. It’s nice to not have to think about cutting it short, and focus on pressing the weight, knowing that when the pad touches the chest we have hit an appropriate distance. If you have a “fat” bar this would also be a nice choice to use when you incline press.
4. Remember that mayonnaise can actually be a solid condiment.
Mayo gets a bad rep. Somehow, it has become synonymous with being fat. That might be because, well, it is fat! That’s also why I like it as a condiment. Most condiments are packed with sugar, and if you’re looking to keep the sugar to a minimum, you might be running out of ways to sauce up your grub.
Unfortunately, store bought mayo is generally full of crap. Additionally it’s usually made with less than ideal ingredients. However, with a little searching you can find some brands that keep the ingredients very basic (egg yolks, oil, lemon, vinegar). Alternatively, you can easily find a solid recipe online with a quick search for “real mayonnaise recipe.” I suggest you find one that uses olive oil.
5. Make sure you have the right bench height for hip thrusts.
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The summer baseball travel season is almost in full swing, and that means more and more of our athletes will start 1-2 week trips to play all over the country. This is a really important experience for the majority of players, as it's when they get in front of the most college coaches for the sake of recruiting, and they often head south to face more talented opponents. There are more college camps taking place, as well as tryouts for the East Coast Pro and Area Code teams. In short, summer ball is important, and you don't want to screw up in how you approach it, as doing so can mean that you'll miss out on both skill development and opportunities to get "seen" by a coach who'll have you playing at the next level.
Unfortunately, though, this is also a time of year when a lot of things change for young baseball players. Instead of five minute drive to school for practice and games, they're hopping on 15-hour bus rides to get to a weekend tournament. Instead sleeping in their own beds and eating Mom's home cooking, they're staying in hotels and stopping for fast food. Instead of having a predictable weekly schedule of MoWeFr games, they might play five in three days. Instead of enjoying moderate Northeast spring weather of 50 degrees in the morning and evening and 75 degrees in the afternoon, they get East Cobb in July, when it's 95 degree weather with 95% humidity. In short, they get a taste of what minor league baseball will be like if they make it that far in their careers!
The end result, unfortunately, is that many players wind up coasting into July and August on fumes because they've lost weight, strength, throwing velocity, bat speed, ninja skills, and overall manliness. They expected their biggest challenge to be "simply" pitching against a 5-tool hitter or hitting a 95mph fastball, but instead, they get absolutely dominated by the lifestyle off the field.
Guys who don't handle the summer season well are the ones who stumble back in to Cressey Performance at the end of August, making their first appearance since February. And, in spite of the great off-season of training they put in before the high school season began, they usually look like they've never trained before, and they're often asking me to help them bounce back from some injury. Sound familiar? If so, read on.
Below, I've listed seven tips for avoiding this common summer baseball deterioriation. You'll notice that many of them are completely to do with maintaining body weight; as I've written before, weight loss is a big reason why performance drops in baseball players both acutely (dehydration) and chronically (loss of muscle mass). Also worthy of note is the fact that the majority of these tips could also apply to professional baseball. Anyway, let's get to it.
1. Make breakfast big.
When traveling, breakfast is the only meal over which you have complete control. You can wake up earlier to make sure that you have a big and complete one, or you can sleep in and grab a stale bagel on the way out the door. When I travel to give seminars, I intentionally pick hotels that have all-you-can-eat breakfast buffets and I absolutely crush them. Basically, I'll eat omelets (with veggies), scrambled eggs, and fresh fruit until I'm so full that I contemplate renting a fork lift to get me back to my room.
This is because things always get hectic at mid-day. Seminar attendees want to ask questions, get assessed, or just "pick my brain" during the lunch hour. So, if I get something, it's usually quick and not really that big. Does this sound similar to how you eat prior to games? You don't want to eat too much, but know you've got to have something or else you'll be dragging by the 7th inning.
If I've packed away a big breakfast, I can power through the day pretty well regardless of what lunch looks like. Traveling baseball players with day games can do the exact same thing.
As an interesting aside to this, I'm always amazed at how many young baseball players talk about how nobody outworks them, and how they're always in "beast mode." Yet, across the board, very few players will be "beastly" enough to wake up a few minutes earlier to eat a quality breakfast, always complaining that they don't like to get up early, or that they aren't hungry at that time of day. Well, just because your stomach doesn't like food at that time of day doesn't mean that it won't benefit from having it. You think your shoulder and elbow like throwing a baseball? Nope...but they do it.
[bctt tweet="Working hard isn't just about the hitting cage or weight room; it's also about the kitchen."]
I'll get off my soap box now.
2. Appreciate convenient calories.
Remember that in the quest to keep your weight up, your body doesn't really care if you're sitting down for an "official" meal. Rather, you might be better off grazing all day. Mixed nuts, shakes, bars, and fruit will be your best friends when it comes to convenience foods out on the field - or on a long bus ride when you have no idea when you'll be stopping for food.
3. Make the most of hotel gyms.
Let's face it: most hotel gyms are woefully under-equipped. You've usually got dumbbells up to 40 pounds and a treadmill, if you're lucky. That should be plenty, though, as you're not trying to make a ton of progress in these training sessions; you're just trying to create a training stimulus to maintain what you already have. Here's an easy example of a hotel gym workout you can use in a pinch:
A1) DB Bulgarian Split Squat from Deficit: 3x8/side
A2) Prone 1-arm Trap Raise: 3x8/side (can do this bent-over if no table is available, or do it off the edge of your hotel room bed)
B1) 1-leg DB RDL: 3x8/side
B2) 1-arm KB (or DB) Turkish Get-up: 3x3/side
C1) Yoga Push-up: 3x10
C1) 1-arm DB Row: 3x10/side
D1) Prone Bridge Arm March: 3x8/side
D2) Standing External Rotation to Wall: 3x5 (five second hold on each rep)
Another option, obviously, is to try to find a gym near your hotel while you're on the road. That can obviously be tough if you don't have a car handy, though, so it's always good to have these "back-up" minimalist equipment options at your fingertips. And, of course, you can always rock body weight only exercises.
4. Have portable training equipment.
You aren't allowed to complain about the lack of equipment in the typical hotel gym if you haven't put any thought into what training implements you can bring on the road with you. Things like bands, a foam roller, a TRX, and a number of other implements can make your life easier. I've brought my TRX on numerous vacations with me and it always proves useful. The scenery usually isn't bad, either.
5. Pack quality training into short bursts.
If you know you're going to be on the road for week-long trips here and there throughout the summer, it's important to get your quality training in when you're at home in your "consistent" environment. Think of it as managing a bank account. You make deposits when you're at home with good equipment and quality nutrition, and you're taking withdrawals when you're on the road and the circumstances are less than stellar.
6. Bring noise-canceling headphones.
There's nothing better than when you're dreading a long flight or bus/train ride, and then you fall asleep the second the trip begins, and you wake up to find out that you're at your destination. That's awesome.
What's not awesome is that every single team in the history of baseball has at least one schmuck who likes to blare music, yell, and dance around at 6AM when everyone else is trying to sleep. Dropping him off and leaving him for dead in the middle of nowhere isn't an option, so you're better off rocking some noise-canceling headphones.
7. Bring a neck pillow.
Falling asleep on a plane or bus and then waking up with a stiff neck is no fun. Doing so and then having to go out and throw 90 pitches the next day will be absolutely miserable. And, this cool article about research at Vanderbilt University on the negative effects of fatigue on strike zone management over the course of a baseball season should get hitters' attention, too! A neck pillow will cost you less than $20. It's an absolute no brainer. Besides, you probably spent double that amount on the 15 silly Power Balance bracelets you own.*
8. Hydrate!
You know the old saying about how if you sense thirst, you're already dehydrated? It's especially true when you're out on the field at 1PM in the middle of July in Florida. So, drink plenty of fluids throughout the day. We know that dehydration reduces strength and power - so you can bet that fastball velocity and bat speed will dip - but did you know that it also negatively affects cognitive performance? In a 2012 review in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Adan wrote,
[bctt tweet="Even 2% dehydration impairs performance in tasks requiring attention, psychomotor and memory skills."]
So, if you're a guy who is always missing signs, ignoring your cutoff man, or forgetting how many outs there are, it might be wise to evaluate your hydration status.
Wrap-up
These are just eight tips to guide you as you approach this important summer season, and there are surely many more strategies athletes have employed to make it as productive a time of year as it should be. That said, I'd encourage you to monitor your body weight on a regular basis to make sure that it's not dropping. If it is, it's time to get in more calories, hydrate better, and hit the gym. Good luck!
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Here's this week's list of tips to get your nutrition and strength and conditioning programs on track. Greg Robins took a break this week, so I'm stepping up my game and covering this installment.
1. If you always squat, try a month without squatting.
There's an old saying in the strength and conditioning field that "the best program is the one you're not on." In other words, everything works, but nothing works forever. Squats have come under a fair amount of scrutiny over the past few years as diagnoses of femoracetabular impingement have gone sky-high and we've encountered more and more people in the general population who simply don't move well enough to squat in good form. So, it makes sense to not shove a round peg in a square hole; at the very least, try to remove them from your strength training programs for a month here and there.
In these instances, I like to start the training session with an axially-loaded single leg exercise for 3-6 reps/side. If you're not good in single-leg stance, start on the higher side with a lighter weight. If you're a long-time single-leg believer, though, you can really load these up:
After that, you can move on to deadlifts, barbell supine bridges/hip thrusts, or any of a number of other exercises. The point to take away from this is that eliminated loaded squatting variations for a month here and there won't set you back.
2. Work on the squat pattern, not just the squat.
A lot of folks struggle to squat deep because they lack the ability to posteriorly shift their center of mass sufficiently. This is particularly common in athletes with big anterior pelvic tilts and an exaggerated lordotic curve.
If you give these athletes a counterbalance out in front of their body, though, their squat patterns "clean up" very quickly. As such, in combination with other mobility/stability drills, I like to include drills to work on the actual squat technique both during their warm-ups and as one of the last exercises in a day's strength training program. Goblet squats and TRX overhead squats are two of my favorites:
3. Make muffins healthier.
My favorite meal is breakfast, and I know I'm not alone on this! Unfortunately, once you get outside some of the traditional eggs and fruit choices, things can get unhealthy very quickly. That's one reason why I'm a fan of Dave Ruel's recipe for the much healthier high protein banana and peanut butter muffins from Anabolic Cooking. Dave has kindly agreed to let me share the recipe with you here:
Ingredients (for three muffins)
• ¾ cup oatmeal
• ¼ cup oat bran
• 1 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 6 egg whites
• ½ scoop vanilla protein powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp stevia
• 1 tbsp natural peanut butter
• 1 big banana
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp banana extract
Directions
1. In a blender, mix all the ingredients (except for the banana). Blend until the mix gets thick.
2. Cut the banana in thin slices or cubes. Add the banana to the mix and stir (with a spoon or a spatula)
3. Pour the mix in a muffin cooking pan, and cook at 350°F. Until cooked (about 30 minutes).
Quick tip: you can cook a big batch and freeze the muffins, then just microwave them when needed down the road.
Anabolic Cooking is on sale for $40 off until tonight (Friday) at midnight, so I'd encourage you to check it out and enjoy the other 200+ healthy recipes Dave includes. My wife and I cook from this e-book all the time.
4. Dominate the back-to-wall shoulder flexion drill before you overhead press.
Whether your shoulders are perfectly structurally sound or not, overhead pressing can be a stressful activity for the shoulder girdle. To that end, you want to make sure that you're moving well before you move overhead under load. I like to use the back-to-wall shoulder flexion "test" as a means of determining whether someone is ready to overhead press or snatch (vertical pulling is a bit different). Set up with your back against the wall, and your heels four inches away from the wall. Make sure your lower back is flat against the wall, and make a double chin while keeping the back of your head against the wall. Then, go through shoulder flexion.
If you can't get your hands to touch the wall overhead without bending the elbows, going into forward head posture, arching the back, or moving the feet away from the wall, you fail. Also, pain during the test is a "fail," too. Folks will fail for all different reasons - but a big chunk of the population does fail. Fortunately, a bit of cueing and some corrective drills - and just practicing the test - will go a long way in improving this movement quality. Hold off on the snatches and military presses in the meantime, though.
5. Drink with a straw to get better about water intake.
I always give my wife, Anna, a hard time about how little water she drinks. She'll get busy at work and will simply forget to have a sip of water for 5-6 hours. Other times, though, she just doesn't want to drink cold water - because it's winter in New England and she is always trying to get warm! One quick and easy solution to the later problem is to simply drink with a straw, as water won't contact your teeth, which are obviously very cold-sensitive. My mother gave Anna a water bottle with a straw for Christmas, and she's been much better about water consumption ever since. Try it for yourself.
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The TRX Y is a fantastic exercise for correcting bad posture and strengthening the muscles surrounding the shoulder girdle. Unfortunately, it's easy to fall into bad traps with technique on this exercise. In today's post, I discuss some of the more common problems we see with the TRX Y - as well as the coaching cues we use to correct them.
The TRX Y is a tremendous addition to your corrective exercise and strength training programs, so be sure to put these coaching cues into action to reap all the benefits of performing this movement.
My "random thoughts" pieces are some of my favorite writings that I've ever published, and today seemed like a good day to throw out some quick and easy ideas on how you can feel better, move better, lose fat, gain muscle, get strong, and - if you're super-motivated - take over the world. Here goes...
1. Get a good training partner.
There are random dudes you meet at the gym who provide a mediocre lift-off on the bench press here and there, and then there are dedicated training partners. There is a big difference. A good training partner will tell you to get your act together and train hard when you're slacking off, or even hold you back when your body is banged up, but you're stupidly trying to push through it. It's guaranteed accountability, motivation, expertise, safety, competition, and all-around awesomeness. To be honest, I often wonder if most people get the best results working with a trainer/strength coach for these factors more than the actual expertise the fitness professional provides!
2. Make your bedroom a cave.
One of the best investments my wife and I made when we bought our new house were reinforced window shades for our bedroom so that very little light could get through when they were down. They make a dramatic difference in terms of how dark you can make your room at night (especially if you have street lights near your residence) and were 100% worth the extra cost, as compared to regular shades.
Even if you don't want to spend the extra few bucks on souped-up shades, though, you can still get some of the benefits of "cave sleeping" by blocking out light from cell phones, alarm clocks, and - if you're a frat boy - bright green neon signs of your favorite beer in your dorm room. Also, do your best to shut the TV and computer off at least thirty minutes before you hit the sack as well, as it'll give your brain time to wind down and transition to some deep, restful sleep.
3. Take Athletic Greens.
I've always been a non-responder to supplements. As an example, I never gained an ounce when I started taking creatine in 2001, and never noticed a huge difference in sleep quality when I started taking ZMA. Still, I pretty much trust in research and go with these supplements, plus mainstays like fish oil and Vitamin D and assume that they're doing their job. It's interesting how some of the most essential supplements we take are the ones where we might notice the most subtle difference, isn't it?
Anyway, in 2011, I added Athletic Greens to this mix. I look at it as whole food based "nutritional insurance" use it in place of my multivitamin. I think it's solid not only as a greens supplement (which, incidentally, doesn't taste like dog crap), but also because it directly improves gut health to improve absorption of micronutrients. With loads of superfoods, herbal extracts, trace elements, antioxidants, and pre- and probiotics, I could tell that it would be something that would decrease inflammation and improve immunity (something I've viewed as increasingly important with each passing year as life has gotten more stressful with the growth of Cressey Performance).
Interestingly, one of our long-time athletes who is now playing baseball at a highly ranked D1 university, started taking Athletic Greens after we chatted about it this summer, and he sent me this note:
Hey Eric, thanks for the recommendation on Athletic Greens. I love the product! I have not gotten sick once since I started taking it 4 months ago, and my body feels better than ever. This is the first semester I haven't gotten sick. Hope all is well!
I guess I'm not the only one who likes it! Check it out for yourself here.
As an aside, they do a pretty cool combination where you can get greens, fish oil, and vitamin D all at once at a great price, and the fish oil is excellent quality. We have several athletes who get everything in this one place for convenience.
4. Go split-stance.
Last week, in my popular post, Are Pull-ups THAT Essential?, I included the following video of forearm wall slides at 135 degrees, a great drill we like to use to train upward rotation, as the arms are directly in the line of pull in the lower traps. With this exercise, we always cue folks "glutes tight, core braced" so that they don't just substitute lumbar extension in place of the scapulae moving into retraction/depression on the rib cage.
Unfortunately, these cues don't work for everyone - particularly those who are super lordotic (huge arch in their lower back). A great "substitute cue" for these folks is to simply go into a split stance, putting one foot out in front of the other (even if it's just slightly). As you have probably observed in performing single-leg exercises like lunges and split-squats, it is much harder to substitute lumbar extension for hip extension than it is with bilateral exercises like squats and deadlifts. Fortunately, the same is true of substituting lumbar extension for scapular movement on the rib cage. So, if you're struggling with the exercise above, simply move one foot out in front of the other and you should be golden.
5. Get some assessments done.
Imagine you were about to embark on a cross country trip with a great vacation in mind in, say, San Diego. However, I didn't tell you where you were starting the journey. While you might get to where you want to be (or at least close to it), it'd make the trip a lot more difficult. You'd probably blow a bunch of money on gas, sleep in some nasty motels in the middle of nowhere, pick up an awkward hitchhiked who smells like cabbage, and maybe even spend a night in a Tijuana jail along the way. Not exactly optimal planning.
A strength and conditioning program isn't much different than this cross-country trip. If you don't know how your body works - both internally and externally - you need to learn before you subject it to serious stress. Get some bloodwork done to see if you have any deficiencies (e.g., Vitamin D, iron, essential fatty acids) that could interfere with your energy levels, ability to recover, or endocrine response to exercise. Likewise, consult someone who understands movement to determine whether you have faulty movement patterns that could predispose you to injury. I think this is one reason why Assess and Correct has been our most popular product ever; it gives folks some guidance on where to start and where to go. Otherwise, the strength and conditioning program in front of you is really just a roadmap, and you don't know where the starting point is.
These are just a few quick thoughts that came to mind today, but I'll surely have many more in the follow-ups to this first installment. Feel free to post some of your own ideas in the comments section below, too!
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With the holidays upon us, I have received quite a few emails from folks inquiring about whether I have any recommendations for fitness goodies that might make good holiday presents, so I thought I'd throw one of them out there for today's post. Below, I'll feature the TRX Rip Trainer.
On the advice of Boston Red Sox head athletic trainer (and Optimal Shoulder Performance co-creator) Mike Reinold, I checked out the Rip Trainer earlier this fall and started to incorporate it more and more into our strength and conditioning programs.
The Rip Trainer is a fantastic option for making chop and lift variations for rotary stability more convenient - especially if you're on the road and don't have access to a cable column. To increase difficulty, you simply walk further away from the attachment point.
Along those same lines, it actually affords incremental benefit over the traditional cable column, as it provides a greater excursion distance so that you can extend the range of motion, where appropriate. An example would be the overhead lift, as demonstrated by Kansas City Royals pitcher Tim Collins.
You'll notice that the asymmetrical load provides a rotary/lateral core challenge as Tim works to resist rotation and lateral flexion, but what's tougher for the casual observer to appreciate is that Tim is also working his anterior core as he resists extension at his lumbar spine from the pull of the cord. This wouldn't be possible with many functional trainers because the cable simply isn't long enough.
The folks at TRX put together the following highlight video that goes into more detail. For more information, check out the TRX Rip Trainer product page.
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In yesterday's post, I outlined the importance of including pushup variations in your strength training program and introduced five ways to progress this basic exercise. Today, I've got six more pushup variations for you.
Pushup Variation #6: Yoga Pushups
I like Yoga pushups not because they are a subtle increase in difficulty over a regular pushup, but because they afford some extra mobility benefits at the ankles, hips, and thoracic spine. They're a great addition to a dynamic warm-up.
Pushup Variation #7: Spiderman Pushups
While it increases the difficulty a bit more than a yoga pushup, the spiderman pushup still affords some great hip mobility benefits.
One word of caution, though; it's my experience that folks tend to "slip" into a forward head posture more often with the spiderman pushup than any other pushup variation, so make sure that you don't let the head poke forward as the elevated leg's hip goes into flexion and abduction.
Pushup Variation #8: Slideboard Pushup Variations
We utilize the slideboard a ton at Cressey Performance - and pushups are no exception. Two of our favorites are slideboard pushups with band and slideboard bodysaw pushups.
In the case of the former, we take a 1/2" band and wrap it around the wrists. This band wants to pull you into internal rotation and horizontal adduction at the shoulder, so you have to activate the posterior rotator cuff and scapular retractors to hold the ideal pushup position.
The bodysaw pushups really take things up a notch on the difficulty scale, as they not only make the hand positioning dynamic, but also increase the anti-extension core challenge.
Pushup Variation #9: Pushup Iso Hold w/Perturbations
In our DVD set, Optimal Shoulder Performance, Mike Reinold and I spend quite a bit of time talking about the value of rhythmic stabilization drills to train the true function of the rotator cuff. I'm also a big fan of pushup isometric holds to teach proper scapular positioning and educate athletes on ideal posture. In the 1-leg pushup iso hold with perturbations, we get all those benefits - plus some added instability training because there are only three points of contact with the ground.
Pushup Variation #10: TRX Pushups
The TRX is probably the most versatile piece of equipment out there other than the barbell and the functional trainer - and one of its most basic uses is pushup variations.
As I alluded to in my e-book, The Truth About Unstable Surface Training, the instability created by the TRX likely allows you to maintain muscle activation in the upper extremity even though less loading is needed. This means that when performed correctly, TRX pushups may have a place in a return-to-function protocol after rehab, or even simply as a deloading strategy in a strength and conditioning program.
Pushup Variation #11: T-Pushups
Last, but certainly not least, we have the T-Pushup. This pushup variation is great because it not only involves constant changing of the points of stability, but also because it requires thoracic spine rotation. To increase the challenge, you can hold dumbbells in your hands.
I've listed 11 variations in the past two posts, but I know that a lot of you out there have some innovative pushup variations to suggest as well. Let's hear 'em in the comment section!
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...turn to Coach Dos! What do I mean? Read on.
The last week was the final week of my fiancee's residency (ended yesterday), and needless to say, she was REALLY ready for it to be over. The days were getting longer for her, and it was sapping her energy before she came in to exercise at night after the workday. Even with all of Cressey Performance's specialty training implements - slideboards, medicine balls, sleds, turf for sprinting/movement, farmer's walks, TRX, kettlebells, cows for tipping, an Airdyne bike, speed chains, and tires/sledgehammers - and her choice of music on the stereo, she still was looking for some variety for her interval training session that night.
So, I delved into the trusty Cressey Performance office library, and pulled out a copy of Robert dos Remedios' book, Cardio Strength Training.
I was honored to have contributed a bit to this book, and it came out really well. Sure enough, it got the job done for us last week, as we used a few new exercises to shake things up using a kettlebell and TRX. It's a really solid book at a great price; I'd highly recommend you check it out.
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Here's a quick continuation of last week's newsletter, which featured some introductory anterior core training exercises and the rationale for them. You'll need a TRX set-up to do these; it's an awesome investment, if you haven't picked one up already. They make it very easy to take your training anywhere you go.
For more information on my overall approach to core training and where these exercises fit in, I encourage you to check out Part 3 of my Lower Back Savers series.
1. You may recall that last Friday, I mentioned that my staff and I had Chris Frankel from TRX come in to do a mini-seminar at Cressey Performance. This week, I'm just here to tell you that it was fantastic! We picked up some excellent new exercises and techniques that'll definitely help out our athletes. If you haven't picked up a TRX already, I'd highly recommend you check them out: TRX Suspension Training.
2. As a follow-up to my interview with Alwyn Cosgrove on the business of personal training earlier this week, you absolutely HAVE to check out this blog post from Thomas Plummer, widely regarded as the authority on the business of fitness. It's not only spot-on, but also absolutely hilarious:
The Medical Community Doesn't Get What We Do
(if you haven't read any of Thomas Plummer's stuff, I highly recommendThe Business of Fitness)
3. I never realized that left-handed pants were such a life-changer.
4. The other day, I promised A's pitching prospect Shawn Haviland that I could get him above the 60 hits per day mark with a single link to his blog. So, check him out; there is actually some excellent stuff in there if you're a baseball fan: Ivy League to MLB.
5. Enjoy the weekend; this kid's got a feeling it's going to be a good one.
