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.
Sign-up Today for our FREE Newsletter and receive a four-part video series on how to deadlift!
I absolutely love including push-up variations in strength training programs, but only if they're done with correct technique. Check out today's video to make sure that you're getting the right scapular movement on your push-up variations:
Addendum: several folks have asked for a video of what a good push-up looks like, so here you go! Take note of how the shoulder blades protract - but still remain "snug" to the rib cage - at the top of each rep.
Sign-up Today for our FREE Newsletter and receive a four-part video series on how to deadlift!
Here's this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:
A Day at Cressey Performance - My old friend Mike Irr visited Cressey Performance a few weeks ago, and wrote up his experience after the trip. Mike has an outstanding perspective, having been a strength and conditioning coach for two separate NBA teams before heading back to school to get his doctorate of physical therapy.
Stretching Doesn't Work - While I think the title is very misleading on how Dean Somerset actually thinks (he's too bright a guy to be this black and white on something), this is a great write-up on improving mobility via non-traditional means.
Anabolic Cooking - This is one of my all-time favorite resources, as my wife and I cook from recipes in this e-book all the time. The author, Dave Ruel, has put it on sale at $40 off this week, so it warranted a mention in this week's post.
Sign-up Today for our FREE Newsletter and receive a four-part video series on how to deadlift!
Today's guest blog comes to us from Jeff Albert, one of the bright minds in the world of hitting instruction. I've enjoyed Jeff's stuff for years, and I think you'll like it, too.
Hip extension is a getting a lot of attention in the fitness world these days. Eric Cressey was asking us to get our butts in gear back in ’04, ESPN recently made a Call of Booty, and we now have our very own glute guy, Bret Contreras. Kettlebell swings, hip thrusts, deadlifts, and squats are staples of exercise programs for athletes for good reason: they make the posterior chain stronger and more explosive. This, in turn, makes it easier for athletes to do things athletes are supposed to do - like run faster and jump higher.
But how is this going to help with your actual skills? What is the role of hip extension in the baseball swing?
EMG studies in both baseball (Shaffer et al 1993) and golf (Belcher et al 1995) report highest muscle activity of the primary movers of the posterior chain – the hamstrings, glutes and low back – happens during the beginning of the forward swing. The exercises listed above are often programmed because they target the same muscles. Very conveniently, those muscles are also responsible for creating rotation in the swing.
Here’s the key point: good hip rotation has an element of hip extension!
This is what it looks like from the front and side in the swing:
Check out the belt line as the hitter transitions from landing with his stride foot to making contact. This is the actual unloading of the hips during the forward swing. You should be able to see how the hips (belt line) lower into flexion (load) and then actually come up a bit as the hips extend (unload).
Unfortunately, the baseball EMG study only measured muscle activity on the back leg. The golf EMG study, however, measured both legs. An interesting point from this golf study is that in the initial forward swing (from the loaded position to horizontal lag position), activity in the quads (vastus lateralis was measured) of the lead leg was higher than the posterior side (glutes, biceps femoris, semimembranosus). This makes sense because the front side is accepting some shifting weight during this time. But, when the club is being moved from the horizontal lag position to contact, the hip extenders again become more active. Baseball instruction commonly refers to having a “firm front side”, but we haven’t talked much about how that happens. This golf EMG suggests that extension at the hip, rather than knee, is more responsible for creating this effect.
Keep this in mind if and when you are working on the lower half in your swing. Very often players can show a nice, powerful hip rotation and extension pattern in the gym (throwing medicine balls, for example), but look much different when they pick up a bat in the cage. Differences in terminology that you’ll find between the gym and the batting cage can often be a cause of this, and sometimes players just don’t make the connection between their physical conditioning and their actual swing.
If you do struggle with rotation of your lower half, give some thought to the hip extension and rotational work that you do in the weight room and pay attention to the patterns that you’re developing there. First of all, make sure your hip extension and rotation are good in the first place, and then see if you can repeat the movement pattern when swinging the bat. The whole point in creating strong, explosive hip rotation in the weight room is so you can actually use it to create more power when you finally have the bat in your hands.
Happy Hacking!
About the Author
Jeff Albert is a CSCS with a MS in Exercise Science from Louisiana Tech University. Jeff is entering his 6th season as a coach in professional baseball, now serving as a hitting instructor in the Houston Astros organization. He works with players of all ages during the off-season in Palm Beach, Florida and can be contacted through his website, SwingTraining.net, or follow him on twitter (@swingtraining).
References
1. Bechler JR, Jobe FW, Pink M, Perry J, Ruwe PA. Electromyographic analysis of the hip and knee during the golf swing. Clin J Sport Med. 1995 Jul;5(3):162-6.
2. Shaffer B, Jobe FW, Pink M, Perry J. Baseball Batting: An Electromyographic study. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1993 Jul;(292):285-93.
Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive Instant Access to a 47-minute Presentation from Eric Cressey on Individualizing the Management of Overhead Athletes!
To wrap up my "Best of 2012" series, I'll highlight the top product reviews I did at this site in the last year.
1. Deadlift Dynamite - This product was a great fit for me to review not only because I'm particularly fond of picking heavy s**t up off the floor, but because Andy Bolton and Pavel Tsatsouline packed so much practical, yet forward-thinking information into it that it was hard to not rave about it! Check out my entire review: What a 1,000-Pound Deadlift Can Teach You.
There were certainly some other great products I encountered this year, but these three reviews proved to be the most popular with my readers, based on hosting statistics.
2. High Frequency Training - I'd actually say that this was my "funnest" read among the product reviews featured here, as I've always enjoyed Chad Waterbury's writing and perspective. It'll really make you rethink your perspective on volume management in training programs - and if you're looking for a program to kick your butt, look no further.
3. Elite Training Mentorship - It probably sounds incredibly self-serving to review my own product, but Elite Training Mentorship is a resource of which I'm tremendously proud because it isn't just mine. Rather, it's updated monthly with contributions from great coaches like Mike Robertson, Dave Schmitz, Tyler English, Vaughn Bethell, Steve Long, and Jared Woolever. With monthly updates - in-services, exercise demonstrations, webinars, articles, sample programs - from each of us, this is a fantastic continuing education resource that is both affordable and convenient. This isn't so much a product review, but I think you'll appreciate how this article demonstrates just how valuable a site like this is: 5 Reasons to Be Excited About the Future of the Fitness Industry.
There were certainly some other great products I encountered this year, but these three proved to be the most popular with my readers, based on hosting statistics. Hopefully, there will be plenty more to come in 2013!
Sign-up Today for our FREE Newsletter and receive a four-part video series on how to deadlift!
I love writing features with multiple installments because it really allows me to dig deep into a topic of interest. It's like writing a short book, with each blog being a different chapter. That said, here were a few of my favorite features from 2012 at EricCressey.com:
1. Quick and Easy Ways to Feel and Move Better - This weekly series was largely put forth by Cressey Performance coach Greg Robins, and it includes five tips for taking your nutrition and strength and conditioning programs to the next level. I contribute here and there, but the majority of the praise goes fully to Greg. Here are the five most popular posts from this series in 2012:
Here's a little sample of the kind of content Greg kicks out each week:
2. Coaching Cues to Make Your Strength and Conditioning Programs More Effective - I started this (ongoing) feature in early 2012, and it was a huge hit. Apparently, people love the idea of having some cues they can use in place of having a qualified coach right there with them. Here were the ones we ran this year:
3. Increasing Pitching Velocity: What Stride Length Means and How to Improve It - This three-part series was very popular with my baseball audience, as preparing the body for an appropriate stride is key to pitching success.
