It's become a bit of a tradition for Cressey Performance interns to not only pick up on training knowledge while they're at CP, but also get more diesel in the process by following the program in my book, Maximum Strength. This fall's intern, Chris Howard, just had his Moving Day today.
Here are his results:
Body weight: 159 to 174.5
Vertical Jump: 27.1" to 28.0"
Peak Power: 5,397 W to 5,855 W (8.5% increase)
Broad Jump: 91" to 103"
Box Squat: 235 to 265
Bench Press: 205 to 230
Deadlift: 215 to 335
3-rep max chin-up: 224 (BW+65) to 244.5 (BW+70)
Not too shabby for just under four months of training. Congratulations, Chris, and thanks for all your contributions to Cressey Performance!
Click here to pick up your copy of Maximum Strength!
Q: Hey Eric, let me start off by saying what a great job you've done with Maximum Strength. It is a wonderful book that I've enjoyed reading and am looking forward to starting in a few weeks. I have a question regarding the book, though. For certain exercises, like the DB Bulgarian Split Squat, DB Lunge, and DB Step-up, can I use a barbell across my back instead of dumbbells, as I find that variations harder and more challenging on my core and balance?
A: These drills feel harder on your "core and balance" because you've moved your center of mass further up and away from the base of support. It's one way to make an exercise harder.
I'd prefer, though, that when starting the program, you simply load the dumbbell version more in the "lower center of mass" position. The barbell stuff would come later on. There are several key benefits to holding dumbbells early on in a training program, including strengthening of important postural muscles as well as those involved in gripping.
We actually got a snow day up here, so I'm using it to catch up on all sorts of stuff - from holiday shopping, to wrapping presents, to writing articles and programs. Admittedly, I did sleep until 9AM this morning, and that's pretty late for me.
1. It occurred to me that thanks to the miracle known as YouTube, I can embed a music video in my first random post each week, and you'll have musical entertainment in the background (if you want) as you read my stuff. And, since it's the season of miracles, I'll do just that. For the record, the experience will be all the more enjoyable if you hold your mouse in your right hand and raise a lighter in the air with the left arm. Of course, it won't really work out that well if you try to play the other videos below at the same time, but my intentions were good...
Here's Coming Undone by Korn, a classic song around Cressey Performance. It gets me all fired up to blog like a rock star.
2. While snow is a royal pain in the butt up here in New England, it does have one upside: accident-prone reporters who think they need to be outside to accurately relate just how much it is snowing.
Occasionally, you'll even get an in-studio goofball:
3. The only thing better than weathermen making tools of themselves? You guessed it: clumsy women stomping grapes with their feet on camera.
4. Apparently, we've got some pro pitchers - one in VA, and the other in NH - drawing inspiration from this blog as they prepare to get up here in early January to prepare for spring training. How you like these apples, fellas? Up five reps from the Thanksgiving day lift - simply because that's how we roll.
Come get some, fellas!
A huge thanks goes out to Jeremy Heffer and the University of Georgia Strength and Conditioning staff for the "Power G" beanie that made this all possible.
5. I've talked previously about the long-term detrimental effects of taping ankles, and I recently got a good inquiry about whether I thought this same issue would be present in MMA fighters who tape their wrists. My response was that it probably wasn't an issue as much at the wrist predominately because the wrist isn't a weight-bearing joint. By loading the ankle while it's taped, we solidify neural patterns a lot more quickly. Additionally, nobody tapes their wrists for the same duration and frequency as those athletes (basketball players, for instance) who tape their ankles daily for several hours - and combine those restrictions with wearing high-top sneakers. I remember seeing an interview with Bill Walton back in the mid-1980s when he joked about how the ankle taping got tighter and tighter as the season went on - probably because the guys got more and more unstable at their ankles!
That's all she wrote for today. Have a great weekend, everyone!
Q: After an injury and rehabilitation of a low back overuse/deadlifting injury, I’m finally able to deadlift and squat again. Only problem is that I am having a lot of trouble performing the deadlift correctly.
The problem is during my heavy sets, my lumbar spine starts to round early on in the pull. I’m not sure why this happening, but I’m almost positive it’s NOT due to a lack of mobility anywhere. I’m wondering if it may be an issue of having TOO much lumbar spine mobility and/or not enough core stability.
Or, maybe it’s an issue of my hamstrings being too weak and my lower back wanting to take over the pull too much. What do you think?
A: First off, I don’t think it’s as simple as “Muscle A is weak and Muscle B is tight, etc.”It has a lot more to do with you not having all the “ducks in a row” with respect to this particular movement pattern.There are a lot of people who have great stability and mobility who look awkward attempting a movement for the first time simply because it’s unfamiliar to them.
Just having good stability and mobility (which are context-specific, anyway) doesn’t imply that you can just immediately master a movement.Otherwise, we’d all be superior athletes from strength training and flexibility work without every having to practice the sports in which we want to excel!
More than anything, I suspect that your struggles are a matter of you trying to groove technique with weights that are too heavy (as noted by your “heavy sets” comment).Would you try to teach an elbows-tucked bench press technique with 275 if you knew a guy could bench press 300 with his elbows flared?No!He'd go right back to his "natural" movement pattern (the path of least resistance).
Technique work needs to be performed with submaximal weights, with the progression being:
1. multiple sets with few reps, controlled speed, light/moderate weights
2. multiple sets with few reps, FAST concentric, light/moderate weights
then...
3a. fewer sets with more reps, light/moderate weights
or
3b. few or multiple sets with few reps and heavier weights
I'm guessing that you're just going right to 3b – and that’s where the problems set in. Your body basically goes into panic mode. As an example, I'll throw myself under the bus. Here is a video of my best competition deadlift: 650 pounds at a body weight of 174.
Now, I know it might come as a surprise to some of you, but I don't lift 650 pounds all the time. In fact, I'd say that I deadlift over 600 approximately 5-6 times per year between training and competitions. This is why competition lifts are never really good measures of excellent technique; they are all essentially panic-mode (others have called it chaos training). You can bet that I'd never let an athlete of mine attempt any weight where his form came close to this; the risk:reward ratio is completely out of whack.
Also, as a tag-along to this, some people need to have a Step 0 where they actually do a different movement in order to progress to a main movement. In the context of the deadlift discussion, this might mean doing pull-throughs, trap bar deadlifts, or rack pulls to get the hang of the proper hip sequencing before moving down to the floor to pull with a conventional stance. Others might be better off leaving out deadlifts for the long haul, if a previous injury is significant enough to warrant it.
New Blog ContentRandom Friday ThoughtsTroubleshooting the Scapular Push-upTraining Four Days in a RowA Good Blog Worth Reading
All the Best,
EC
At the seminar in Houston last weekend, both Brent Strom and Ron Wolforth had high praises for the book Talent is Overrated. These guys know their stuff, so I just ordered four copies (three books as gifts for players/coaches, and one unabridged audio for me to check out in the car). Sounds like it is worth a read; I'll give it a review down the road.
As a guy who trains a ton of baseball players - and is a competitive powerlifter (and weight-training author), I get a ton of questions from both baseball coaches/players and folks looking to get stronger (and healthier, for that matter). And, to take it a step further, since the release of Maximum Strength, I've gotten a lot of questions about whether or not Maximum Strength is appropriate for baseball players.
My response is "yes" - but only with some important modifications:
1. Substitution of dumbbell bench pressing in place of barbell bench pressing (rep count will have to come up a bit higher, as you aren't going to be doing heavy dumbbell bench pressing singles)
2. Substitution of clap push-ups in place of speed benching
3. Substitution of front squats in place of back squats
4. Substitution of alternating low incline dumbbell press in place of 1-arm dumbbell push press
5. Really emphasize the sleeper stretch, wall triceps stretch, and elbow flexors stretches - particularly after you throw.
I always love it when folks come back from doctors with the "don't squat" recommendation. My immediate response is, "So you aren't allowed to go to the bathroom?"
Obviously, I'm saying this pretty tongue-in-cheek, as I know they're referring to squatting under significant loads. However, I wish we'd get more doctors who would appreciate that certain things (e.g., squatting) are important parts of our daily lives, and that those with knee pain need to learn how to squat correctly, not avoid it altogether.
Learning to sit back and hinge at the hip can give a majority of knee pain sufferers relief from symptoms when they do have to do a squatting motion during their daily lives. Effectively, when one squats this way, it reduces shear stress at the knee and places the load more on the hip extensors: glutes, hamstrings, and adductor magnus. These muscles have big cross-sectional areas and can easily handle the burden of squatting.
I hate to play devil's advocate, but it's a perfect example of a scenario where a doctor only sees pathology and not movements. It never ceases to amaze me how simply alternating movement patterns can markedly reduce how symptomatic a pathology is - and this is where good physical therapists and trainers/coaches come in. A lot of doctors are extremely well-schooled in diagnostics, but have little background in terms of mechanisms of injury (particularly for chronic injuries), optimal rehabilitation , and the hugely important role soft tissue restrictions play in the development of pain. Often, these issues are left unaddressed and an individual still gets healthy simply because the doctor has contraindicated so many exercise modalities that a patient gets better only through resting the irritated tissues.
With respect to the knee, Mike Robertson has put forth some great material on this front in his Bulletproof Knees manual.
As I mentioned last week, this past weekend was Ron Wolforth's Ultimate Pitching Coaches Bootcamp just outside of Houston, TX. To say that it was an awesome experience would be an understatement. I considered myself really lucky to be presenting alongside the likes of Brent Strom (St. Louis Cardinals), Phil Donley (Philadelphia Phillies consultant who has rehabbed loads of million-dollar arms), Perry Husband (Downright Filthy Pitching), and Ron himself. These guys are not only getting important information out there for coaches, but also getting their hands dirty in the trenches to take athletes and coaches to the next level with new information.
Just as great as the presenters were the 100+ attendees. In addition to many enthusiastic high school and private sector coaches and a few physical therapists, you had pitching coaches and/or baseball strength coaches from big-time colleges like Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Auburn, Kennesaw St., Savannah College of Art and Design, Michigan, Virginia Tech, Columbia, and Trinity. These guys immediately earned a ton of respect in my book for thinking outside the box, and it makes me want to encourage a lot of my stud athletes their way post-high school because I know that they're going to get coaches who are always looking for ways to help them succeed.
The title of my presentation was "Building the Complete and Superior Pitching Athlete." In my introduction to the coaches, I tried to make it very clear that my goal wasn't to try to teach them everything there was to know about S&C for baseball players, but rather to give them the knowledge (and resources, in the form of my handouts) to become informed consumers in dealing with the folks who carry out their players' programs. I wanted them to know that you CAN give a pitcher a tremendous training effect without injuries to the throwing arm or interfering with velocity by losing pitching-specific mobility.
I think that the secret to appreciating what it takes is understanding that baseball strength and conditioning is not just about lifting and running. Sure, these are components of the overall process, but if you only address these two components, you DO run the risk of impairing a pitcher's development. Sure, you've got to pay attention to these issues, but you also have to strategically address flexibility and mobility (yes, they are different), optimize soft tissue quality, and appreciate that you can use medicine ball work to maintain pitching-specific mobility during down-periods from throwing without all the stresses that come with throwing itself.
I also tried to get folks to think about what they already are doing with respect to distance running, "core" training, upper and lower body lifting, assessments, warm-ups (check out the Monster Mobility Pack for ideas), and post-throwing flexibility work. I discussed the difference between inefficiency and pathology and how your can have a terrible-looking MRI and/or x-ray and still be pain free.
You can still get all the information from the event by purchasing the DVDs of the entire weekend. I'd highly recommend them, as they include some great pitching analysis and recommendations from Brent Strom, awesome information on glenohumeral internal rotation deficit (GIRD) by Phil Donley, intriguing thoughts on "effective velocity" from Perry Husband, and excellent ideas on "blending" by Ron Wolforth. Just head over to Pitching Central's UPCBC page and pick up a copy now.
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used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!
By popular demand, some of the clients at CP who appreciate my cynical side requested that I pull together a list of things that annoy me. I turned to our intern, Chris, and asked him to pick a number between 1 and 20, and he chose 13. So, in lieu of Random Friday Thoughts, here are 13 things that drive me nuts...
1. It recently occurred to me that my Random Friday Thoughts are no longer very random - and not just because I do them every Friday. Truth be told, I am the Random Pioneer, and countless individuals have attempted to randomly follow in my random footsteps with their own random attempts at random brilliance in random blogs. I have a random message for these random copycats: you might as well give it up, as my randomness cannot be matched, so you might as well throw in your towel (and no, Steph, we aren't getting towels for you at CP).
I believe this cat reflects my random sentiments quite nicely:
2. I can't believe Joe Dirt didn't win an Oscar.
3. It's a written rule at CP that when you have one week remaining on your current program, it's your responsibility to notify a CP staff member that you'll need a new program printed out and ready to go within a week. It's an unwritten rule (as one 17-year-old athlete found out this week) that those who forget to tell us that they need a new program - and then show up to lift on the day the new program would have started - are rewarded with the following program for the day:
A1) Barbell Bulgarian Split Squats: 8x8/side
A2) Neutral Grip Pull-ups: 8x6
I don't think we'll be having this problem much more...
4. I always love it when a fitness professional sets up a new program or opens his/her own facility and writes his own press release. It usually comes out something like:
"World-Renowned Fitness Expert Announces Plans to Revolutionize the Fitness Industry
"In a move that has been called revolutionary, forward-thinking, bold, and daring, Ben Dover, CPT, QRS, ASAP, AEIOU is now personal training adults ages 18-65 in his mother's basement to help them loose [note from EC: this is intentionally spelled wrong, because people always spell lose incorrectly] weight. Dover graduated with honors from Moldy Gordita Community College in Burnt Scrotum, New Mexico.
"Says Dover, 'My Moldy Gordita and Burnt Scrotum experiences have made my outlook on fitness very unique.* Unlike other personal trainers, I encourage clients to eat right and exercise.'
*Note from EC: yes, I know you can't be very one-of-a-kind, but Ben doesn't.
"Dover has limited availability, but is now accepting new clients for 22 available hour-long time slots between the hours of 1AM and 11PM."
I see this at least once a week - seriously. As I think about it more, though, it's pretty amusing.
5. I need to see another story on TV about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie like I need to gouge out my eyes with a hot poker.
6. Sometimes, a video says it all.
(for the record, it isn't Tony that drives me nuts; it's the universal acceptance of the stability ball as training implement for everybody)
7. If you Google "medial deltoid," you get 7,710 results. You know what? There is no such thing as a medial deltoid! It's the middle deltoid - and yes, it is a pretty big difference anatomically (the medial deltoid would technically be the anterior deltoid, if you really think about it). You don't get Google search results for rhombazoids or upper trapezoids - and medial deltoid isn't much better.
8. In my article series on running programs for pitchers, I alluded to how I dislike it when pitchers run to get fit. Rather, I feel that they need to get fit to run. Truth be told, this doesn't just apply to pitchers; it applies to everyone, endurance athletes included. Taking up running to lose weight is a recipe for disaster for a lot of people. These people may include: dentists, professional wrestlers, eskimos, Starbucks employees, politicians, elves, laywers, and even superheroes. Yes, the only thing worse for Superman than kryptonite is distance-running-induced plantar fasciitis.
If you're a marathoner or triathlete, have at it - but be sure you're prepared to start it in the first place.
9. Can somebody tell me why we're just arresting this guy now? He should have been incarcerated for that hairstyle the seconds the 1980s were over!
10. The only thing worse than a close-talker is a close-coacher. This may include standing on top of an athlete, or shouting as many cues as possible during a set. Step off, dude.
11. Inside-Out doesn't get much love, but it is the single-best upper extremity injury prevention product out there. If you have shoulder or elbow issues, you should have bought this over a year ago!
Give Bill and Mike (and your rotator cuffs) some love.
12. I really could use about 28 hours in the day. I'd even settle for 27 - but 24 just doesn't seem to be cutting it.
13. It drives me nuts that I really couldn't come up with #13, but then I realized that I could just go back to my mainstay. Good Lord, this is atrocious. I don't even know where to begin...
Shawn Haviland is a Cressey Performance athlete who started up a blog a month or two back. The Oakland A's drafted Shawn out of Harvard in the 33rd round in 2008. He actually wrote up a piece about training at CP:
5 Things I have Learned (So Far) from the Guys at Cressey Performance
Shawn started out as a janitor at M.I.T. before he solved a complex math problem left on a chalkboard - and that led to instant baseball success. Or maybe that was Good Will Hunting...
Here are his results:
Body weight: 159 to 174.5
Vertical Jump: 27.1" to 28.0"
Peak Power: 5,397 W to 5,855 W (8.5% increase)
Broad Jump: 91" to 103"
Box Squat: 235 to 265
Bench Press: 205 to 230
Deadlift: 215 to 335
3-rep max chin-up: 224 (BW+65) to 244.5 (BW+70)
Not too shabby for just under four months of training. Congratulations, Chris, and thanks for all your contributions to Cressey Performance!
