You probably noticed that the newsletter is a day late this week. I have been absolutely swamped with the goings-on at Cressey Performance on top of heading to a big baseball seminar in Houston this weekend (fly out Thursday night). Fortunately, though, this full schedule provided me with the idea for this newsletter.
With the chaos of the past week, I didn't have time to do my normal cooking and food prep for the week on Sunday night. So, Tuesday morning (had already had a normal breakfast), with about twenty minutes left before I needed to head out to work, I looked in the fridge in hopes of pulling together a few meals from a stir fry or casserole. Nothing was there.
As a result, I just wound up grabbing a half-empty tub of cottage cheese and added a tablespoon of psyllium husk powder for fiber. Later in the day, I'd add some Superfood and a scoop of low-carb Metabolic Drive, and had that concoction with a handful of almonds from the stash in the top drawer of the desk in my office. Another meal was a Metabolic Drive bar, and a third was simply a shake with Superfood and some Flameout (fish oil) and almonds. Obviously, it wasn't an ideal daytime meal plan - and it certainly wasn't an aesthetically-pleasing culinary masterpiece like you'd see in John Berardi's Gourmet Nutrition Cookbook, but it got me through the 8-10 hours.
I had a shake with my evening training session, and then came home to cook up a legitimate, whole food meal.
This certainly wasn't optimal, but it was a nutritional "out" for me: it got calories in, kept my energy levels up, and did so without blowing my diet with unhealthy convenience foods. Having good food easily accessible to me is huge when things get busy; I'll roll with mixed nuts, protein powders, protein bars (homemade and Biotest ones), Superfood, and beef jerky. We're also lucky to have a cafeteria in our building, and a good take-out place with awesome salads just about three miles down the road. So, in my eyes, there is never a reason for me to eat garbage - even if I haven't had time to cook up good stuff for myself.
Obviously, this can be applied to diet, but it also has applications in other facets of your healthy lifestyle.
From a training logistics standpoint, what happens if you walk in to your gym to squat, and find that the only squat rack is occupied and there is a long line waiting to use it. Do you stand in line, or do you go to trap bar deadlifts (option A) or walking dumbbell lunges (option B)?
Also along the training lines, but with more of injury perspective, what do you do if your shoulder starts acting up when you go to barbell bench press? Do you try to push through it, skip it altogether, or move to neutral grip dumbbell bench presses (option A) or a push-up variation (option B)? (As an aside, I just wrote an article covering these situations; check it out HERE)
How about professionally? If you're a trainer or a strength coach, if something stumped you, who do you contact? Have you built a good network of health care professionals with both general expertise and specializations? Case in point, one of my current clients started up with me in December of 2006, and he came to me with a C5-C6 disc hernation that had left him with numbness in the tip of his middle finger for the previous ten years - and none of the neurologists and physical therapists he'd seen could do anything about it. I introduced him to John Pallof, PT, COMT, and John had complete feeling back in his finger within two sessions from a combination of manual therapy and neural flossing.
Nowadays, John sees every neck issue that comes to Cressey Performance. Likewise, Dr. Bill Morgan sees all our significant wrist and elbow issues - and the list goes on and on. So, it's not just about having a network; it's about having a network of great people, some of whom specialize in certain areas. I had dinner with Dave Tate a while back, and I recall him saying that he was less concerned with knowing everything and more concerned with knowing who to call to find out everything. Dave was right on the money.
What about easily accessible resources? What books, DVDs, journals, and newsletters do you consult on a regular basis to stay on top of things and research new issues that cross your path? Improving your own abilities is just as important as expanding your network. If you haven't seen it already, a while back, I compiled a Recommended Resources page outlining my recommendations for both free websites and products you can use to stay ahead of the game.
At risk of sounding overconfident, I think that the Building the Efficient Athlete DVD set is something that every trainer and strength coach should watch, as it covers everything from functional anatomy, to static and dynamic assessments, to troubleshooting common resistance training technique mistakes.
Food for thought - and hopefully a little something for everyone.
The Proof is in the Pictures
I consider myself really lucky to have several clients who are, well, over-the-top adherent. These guys would eat dirt and do two hours straight of sled pushes if I told them that it'd make them leaner, stronger, and faster.
Now, a lot of these guys are up-and-coming baseball studs who dream of making it to the big leagues. Occasionally, though, we get a guy who is just nuts for the sake of being diesel - even if it won't benefit him financially or make him any more famous.
About six weeks ago, I used my weekly newsletter to highlight Warpspeed Fat Loss, a program from Mike Roussell and Alwyn Cosgrove that has yielded some excellent results since its introduction. I immediately received an email from one of the Cressey Performance masochists who couldn't wait to get a piece of the action.
An ex-Marine, Danny (age 35) now works in the financial investments realm at an internationally renowned firm. As I'm sure you can imagine, work has been pretty turbulent and hectic over the past two months for him in light of the troubles on Wall Street. However, to take things a few step further, he's married with a two-year old daughter, and his wife is expecting another child. So, we're not exactly talking about ideal conditions from a time management standpoint for approaching an extreme fat loss phase.
However, we're not exactly talking about a normal guy. Danny feeds his rotweiler grass-fed beef and fish oil. And, while we haven't confirmed it, the entire CP staff is pretty much convinced that he eats nails and craps lightning.
So, electric farts and all, Danny undertook the Warpspeed Fat Loss program, lifting TuThSa with us and doing intervals MoWeFr at 5:30AM on his own. I wrote the training, and he followed the diet to a "T" - thanks to his wife, who did all the cooking (jealous, fellas?). In 28 days, he went from 217.8 pounds to 205.6 pounds - but the pictures tell the entire story. The "befores" are on the left and the "afters" are on the right.
Now, my picture editing abilities leave a lot to be desired, but you get the point. Still, a lot of you are probably wondering what I'm getting at with this. Yes, Danny's diesel. Sure, Warpspeed Fat Loss is an awesome program - but I already told you about that a few weeks back. And, it can't be about me blowing sunshine up my own butt, as I just wrote the program and turned up the volume on the music; Danny did all the hard work. And, frankly, I don't really need to try to impress you guys, as you're already subscribed to my newsletter; chances are that you might be under the impression already that know what I'm doing!
In reality, the main points I'm going to make will come in a second newsletter later this week - so stay tuned...
For more information on the Warpspeed Fat Loss, CLICK HERE. I can't say enough great things about it.
Suffice it to say that my JV team showed up to play on Sunday, and my remarkable run (yes, 8-5 can still be remarkable; you wouldn't have believed the comraderie in my fantasy football locker room) has come to an end. I'll be pulling for Brian St. Pierre from here on out so that we can keep the CP Fantasy Football Trophy in the family.
As for my performance, let's just say that those of you who told me to play Joseph Addai over LenDale White were all miserably incorrect - and it was the difference between winning and losing (well, that along with benching Matt Schaub, Steve Breaston, Dominic Rhodes, and the Bears defense). All that said, this just about sums up my thoughts:
And, for those of you who aren't interested in football, here is a photo of a dude getting attacked by a deer. It is sure to brighten anyone's day - unless, of course, you're the dude being violated by the buck.
On a semi-related note...
Q: What's the difference between beer nuts and deer nuts?
A: Beer nuts are a buck-fifty. Deer nuts are under a buck. Zing!
Last week, an online consulting client of my mentioned that he was getting some shoulder pain when doing scapular push-ups, so I asked him for a video in order to troubleshoot. Basically, I wanted to know if it was his form or a fundamental structural issue that was the problem. Here was the video he sent me:
After seeing this video, it was pretty clear why he was getting shoulder discomfort - especially as the set goes on. If you watch the video again, you'll notice that the hips/lower back sag a bit toward the floor, thus exaggerating the natural thoracic (upper back) curve. This forces the scapulae (shoulder blades) to "ride" up as a compensation for a less flexed humerus. This riding up corresponds to scapular anterior tilt, which increases impingement on the rotator cuff and long head of the biceps.
With scapular anterior tilt, we're really using pec minor and not serratus anterior. And, serratus anterior is really our target here, as this muscle really shuts down almost anytime that shoulder pain is present. Serratus anterior works with lower and upper trapezius to upwardly rotate the scapula, a movement pattern that must be done correctly to ensure safe overhead activity.
Obviously, fixing technique is the first option with this problem - but you can also get immediate symptomatic relief with this by elevating the feet on a box. So, either get the feet up a bit, or just focus really hard on getting the hips up and bracing the abs hard.
Imagine, for a second, that I was to tell you that there's a muscle that:
a) has serious growth potential
b) can dramatically increase your squat and deadlift poundages
c) can drive your bench press through the roof
d) can keep your shoulders, upper back, lower back, and hips healthy
e) can help you run faster
f) affects the way you breath
You'd probably think I was nuts. Surely the strength training community would've caught on by now, right? Well, I wouldn't say that they haven't caught on; I'd just say that they haven't learned how to utilize this muscle — and it does exist — in the right ways. Perhaps the worst part is that this muscle has a big cross sectional area already, so it's staring people right in the face.
I'm talking about the latissimus dorsi, lats for short. Let's get to it...
Continue Reading...
Like everyone else, I've had my role models and mentors who've looked out for me. My mother has taught high school English for over 20 years, so I owe a lot of my writing success to her. My father taught me to tie a tie and to remember to check the oil in my car. My brother, the accountant, is always a phone call away if I need financial advice.
Guys like Alwyn Cosgrove, John Berardi, Dave Tate, and Jason Ferruggia have all been extremely gracious in giving me advice as an up-and-comer in this business. In short, I'm just the sum of many constituent parts: individuals to whom I owe a debt I'll never be able to repay.
Continue Reading...
"I wish I could have my first year of training back."
How many times have you heard an experienced trainee say that? Likewise, how many times has a newbie come up to you and asked you to help him get started in the iron game? It happens to me on a daily basis.
Continue Reading...
1. I have seen a lot of guys who have hamstrings pulls in their health histories, but I don't recall ever coming across any studies that show that shooting yourself in the leg expedites recovery time.
The sad truth is that you'll probably have dozens of kids around the country with hamstrings strains shoot themselves in the leg in hopes of returning to play sooner because "Burress does it." I'll stick with soft tissue work, glute activation, and sprint mechanics training...
2. I got a question the other day about how we approach rest periods for our medicine ball work, and while it could be somewhat of a long, detailed response, I can probably respond even better with a simple, "We are always trying to slow guys down because they rush through them." Usually, our rest intervals are in the ballpark of one minute between sets. So, here's a little sample of what one of our professional pitchers did yesterday:
A) Side High Box Step-ups w/Leg Kick: 2x4/side
B1) Overhead Med Ball Stomp to Floor: 4x8 (5kg)
B2) Side-Lying Extension-Rotation: 3x8/side
C1) Recoiled Shotput: 3x3/side (4kg)
C2) Wall Hip Flexor Mobilizations: 2x8/side
D1) Recoiled Shotput: 3x3/side (2kg)
D2) Lying Knee-to-Knee Stretch: 2x30s
E1) Crow Hop to Overhead Med Ball Throw: 5x2 (2kg)
E2) Multiplanar Hamstrings Mobilizations: 2x5/5/5/side
So, as you can see, we use mobility work between sets to slow the guys down and address range-of-motion deficits they might have at the same time. A lot of these drills can be found on Magnificent Mobility (lower body) and Inside-Out (upper body).
4. For some good reading - particularly with respect to nutrition - check out Brian St. Pierre's blog.
5. I'm going with Joseph Addai over LenDale White this weekend. Thanks to everyone for the feedback from Tuesday. Fingers crossed...
6. Happy Birthday to Cassandra Forsythe-Pribanic! Cass and I go way back, and she's been a great friend and resource for me all along the way. If you're looking for top-notch female-specific nutrition and fitness resources, you definitely ought to check out The New Rules of Lifting for Women and the Women's Health Perfect Body Diet, both of which Cass or co-authored.
That'll do it for this week. I've got some sweet content in line for next week, so stay tuned. Have a great weekend!
I received this email earlier this week:
Eric,
I am a longtime follower of T-Nation and picked up your book, Maximum Strength, this past summer. I just finished with Moving Day and want to thank you for my great results in 16 weeks.
I am 6'3", 180 lbs and my weight stayed the same the whole time because I have low body fat to begin.
My Results:
Broad Jump: 91" to 122"
Squat: 225 to 295
Bench: 215 to 235
Deadlift: 365 to 455
Chinup 3RM: 45 to 60
This book worked great when I had a goal to strive for.
Thanks again, Eric.
Q: I'm a personal trainer who just started training a couple of baseball catchers. I understand that your facility specializes in training baseball players. I just want to know if you guys have any tips, or recommend any resources to find out common structural issues that occur with this position. Perhaps what you guys have found through training catchers? What lifts they should avoid, more specifically?I have begun doing a ton of research and just wanted some ideas from you guys to help me out. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
A: Well, first, there are certain things that none of my baseball guys do:
-Overhead lifting (excluding pull-up/chin-up variations)
-Straight-bar benching
-Upright rows
-Front/Side Raises
-Olympic Lifts (aside from the occasional high pull)
-Back Squats (we use safety squat and giant cambered bars instead, plus front squats)
I could go on and on with respect to the reasons for these exclusions, but for the sake of this blog, suffice it to say that it's for shoulder and elbow protection reasons. Fortunately, I wrote about my rationale in an old newsletter.
Catchers are obviously different than pitchers and position players in that they spend a lot of time squatting, so we have particular concerns at the knees and hips.
Whether or not I squat my catchers is dependent on age, training experience, time of year, and - most importantly - injury history. If a guy is older and more banged up, we aren't going to be squatting much, if at all. However, if we're talking about a younger athlete who has a lot more to gain from squatting (particularly if he isn't specialized in baseball yet), I definitely think there is a role for it.
That said, regardless of age and injury history, I don't squat my catchers deep in-season. We'll do some hip-dominant squatting (paused or light tap and go) to a box set at right about parallel, but for the most part, it's deadlift variations. We get our range-of-motion in the lower body with these guys with single-leg work.
As for structural issues, always check everything at the hip and ankle, as you should with any baseball player; it isn't just about shoulders and elbows (although you will want to screen those, too, obviously). Believe it or not, a lot of the pitching flexibility deficits about which I've written also hold true in catchers.
Additionally, I've found that a lot of catchers tend to lean to one side (adduct one femur), and over time, it can lead to some noteworthy imbalances in hip rotation range-of-motion. You'll also see a lot of catchers who lack thoracic spine range-of-motion because they spend so much time slumped over (not necessarily ideal catching posture, but it does happen when you're stuck down there for nine innings).
Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive a Copy of the Exact Stretches
used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!
