Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 9/16/11

Written on September 16, 2011 at 7:38 am, by Eric Cressey

Here’s this week’s list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:

40 Years of Insight: Part 1 and Part 2 – This two-part series from Dan John was fantastic and should be recommended reading for not only those in the strength and conditioning field, but also those who lift weights for health, performance, and recreation.

Contemporary Cardio – This piece by Charlie Weingroff was an excellent look at how his thoughts on cardio have evolved.  It is a bit “sciency,” but very informative.  I can tell you from our experience over the past 18 months with PRI that the comments on “breathing diaphragmatically” are spot-on with everything from improved work capacity to reduced tone in undesirable places.

Real Deal Baseball Training – Just a friendly reminder that the introductory sale on this product ends tonight at midnight.  The feedback I’ve received via email from those who have purchased on my recommendation the other day has been quite positive.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 8/29/11

Written on August 29, 2011 at 6:11 am, by Eric Cressey

Here’s a week of this week’s recommended strength and conditioning reads:

The Keys to Success for Females in the Fitness Industry – This is a free webinar Rachel Cosgrove is putting on tomorrow (Tuesday) night.  Rachel’s one of the most in-demand trainers, speakers, consultants, and writers in the world of female strength and conditioning, and she’s sure to provide some excellent information that can help any of the up-and-coming female fitness professionals reading this blog.

Groin Pain: Referrals and Soft Tissue Therapy – Patrick Ward continues to kick out impressive content – and this post is no exception.  If you deal with athletes with hip pain, this is a must-read.

Getting Into Your Toes – Charlie Weingroff makes some excellent points about toe positioning in our strength and conditioning programs.  A subtle modification could have some really positive effects on our strength training programs and stretching protocols.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 7/25/11

Written on July 25, 2011 at 6:57 am, by Eric Cressey

Here are some recommended reads from the strength and conditioning world to kick off your week:

Supine Sagittal Stability and the T-L Junction – This is an outstanding blog post from Charlie Weingroff on the important role that the thoracolumbar junction plays not only in early childhood development, but also the acquisition of pathology later on in life.

The New Rules of Strength Training – I got a kick out of this article from Bret Contreras.  There’s quite a bit of humor,  but with a bunch of valuable lessons at the end of the piece.

Is Saturated Fat Really the Dietary Boogeyman? – Brian St. Pierre presents a great case for why saturated fat isn’t as evil as it’s always been made out to be.

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Bracing in a Strength Training Program: When to Turn Up the Volume

Written on July 8, 2011 at 9:32 am, by Eric Cressey

Today, we’ve got a guest blog from Jim “Smitty” Smith.

I was speaking with Mike Robertson the other day about life and we started talking about our next career moves.  He was contemplating a run with Chippendales after his idol, Jeff Timmons of 98 Degrees, made a comeback. And I was telling him about my idea to get on the Deadliest Catch show and live my dream of being a fisherman.  Both ideas were great and we are continuing to take steps forward to achieve our dreams — a little bit every day.

After that 3 hour discussion, we started talking about bracing.

Just Like the Volume Dial

I was telling Mike how I was going through Charlie Weingroff’s Training=Rehab | Rehab=Training and I had some questions about how he defines or explains bracing.  I, of course, understand bracing as a whole and teach it for our max efforts and loaded means, but Charlie introduced me to the idea of the importance of the “inner core”.  That is what I wanted to discuss with Mike.  Charlie stated that the inner core must fire first, neurologically, to setup up the foundation for the more intense loading or more sophisticated movements — this is when the “outer core” should kick in.

Mike told me to imagine the volume dial on your stereo. He asked me on the volume scale, where would planks come in?  I stated “1″, and smiled like I just stole something.  He then asked, “Where would the dial be for max efforts squats?”  I was catching on and said “10″!  Duh WINNING!

But Charlie and Mike threw up a caution flag.

If we brace at “10″ all the time (force and brace our abdomen outward, anterior and laterally to create tension or irradiation to buttress shear and stabilize the torso) , it could “shut down” the inner core and leave us susceptible to injury.  This is especially true if the establishment of bracing is not preceded by diaphragmatic breathing.  The long term inhibition of diaphragmatic breathing can affect a whole host of things like pelvic alignment => which can inhibit and shorten certain muscles groups (lower cross and upper cross syndromes) => create kyphosis and lordosis and much more.  The ramifications will be seen up and down the kinetic chain.

Turning Up the Intensity

There is a time for “breathing over the brace” at the lower intensities and there is a time for serious tension — take max effort strength exercises.  If you look in most commercial gyms today, you might think talking on the cell phone or getting a drink at the water fountain is a max effort lift, especially with all of the cinched up velcro belts popping off.  In reality, we’re talking about heavy compound movements performed with loads upwards of 80% + 1RM.  These components of your strength training program require serious intramuscular and intermuscular coordination and full body engagement to remain injury free, stable and strong throughout the full execution of the lift.  Also many times you’ll see novice, and sometimes experienced, lifters start the movement with a good brace, but lose it during the decent or accent.  It is definitely a skill to keep “the brace” the whole time you are under load.  Verbal and physical cues can be used to drill this technique.  Training with an injury or other compensations will also directly impact your ability to keep the brace throughout.

Bracing for Max Attempts

If you talk to any elite powerlifter, bracing for max efforts involves not only keeping the tension (sequenced isometric contractions on the primary / synergistic / antagonistic muscle groups) but also holding your air.  The air is taken (breathing through the belly) and held, and the abdominals are pressed outward forcibly.  If you are pressing out against a stationary object (i.e. the belt) it will further secure the brace and improve torso rigidity.  This is volume level “10″.  As you can see this is much different than the bracing required for a plank.  Also remember, heavy bracing is not limited to just max effort attempts.  Any high intensity movements could require sequenced bracing, if only for an instant.

The Ah-Ha Stuff

During simple, basic movements we should drill and become proficient at simply creating tension (bracing level “1″) across the entire kinetic chain and “breathing over the brace” (Weingroff) through active diaphragmatic breathing.  This will help to engage intra-abdominal pressure and lay the foundation for all of our movements.  And as we progress, more intense bracing can allow for heavier loads and more powerful movements to be introduced safely.

It was very enlightening for me to understand how breathing incorrectly could have just as much of an impact on posture, strength and performance as injuries, immobility, instability, high volume | short ROM movements or even too much load with poorly performed exercises.

All this talk of volume has got me reaching for my glow sticks.  Off to battle with Tony Gentilcore!

Jim Smith “Smitty” is the head strength and conditioning coach at Diesel Strength and Conditioning in Elmira, NY.  Smitty has been called “one of the most innovative coaches in the industry” and has written for most major national fitness publications. He is also a featured writer for LIVESTRONG.com and on the EliteFTS Q/A staff.  Check out some killer FREE gifts and his site at dieselsc.com.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 7/5/11

Written on July 5, 2011 at 5:57 am, by Eric Cressey

I hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend.  I’m a bit behind on things in light of the holiday festivities, so we’re going to kick this week off with a list of recommended strength and conditioning reading for the week:

Preventing Lower Back Pain: Assuming is Okay – This post of mine discusses why what you see on a spine MRI doesn’t always depict exactly what’s going on.

When the Hips and Core Call BS on the Foot – I enjoyed this post from Charlie Weingroff, who continues to kick out quality information on a regular basis.

Pick Your Deadlifting Poison – This is a good blog from Mike Robertson on picking your assistance exercises based on where you miss your deadlifts.

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Stuff You Should Read: 6/22/11

Written on June 22, 2011 at 8:09 am, by Eric Cressey

Here’s some recommended reading for the week:

BSPMG Review – Charlie Weingroff was one of the presenters at the Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group’s annual event, and in this great review, he summarizes many of the key takeaways from the weekend.

Want to Get Strong?  Quit Switching Strength Training Programs Every Week. – This is a little blast from the past here at EricCressey.com.  Even if you understand the key message without reading it, you should at least give it a look just to watch some funny YouTube clips.

Shapeshifter – Adam Steer and Ryan Murdock introduced this product yesterday.  It’s a good fit for those of you who need body weight training workouts exclusively because you don’t have access to any equipment.  Training without external load will never be optimal, but these guys do a good job of pulling together some innovative exercises in an organized format to provide a training effect for those who don’t have all the amenities a gym offers.

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MLB Draft Day Stuff You Should Read

Written on June 6, 2011 at 5:19 am, by Eric Cressey

The Major League Baseball Draft starts tonight and concludes on Wednesday.  We’ll have a very busy three days, as there are a lot of Cressey Performance athletes who will be drafted.  To that end, I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off – so that means today is a day where I refer you to some reading in other places.  Keep an eye on the blog this week to hear about which of our guys were selected, and who took them.

Putting Manual Therapy into Perspective – I absolutely loved this post by Charlie Weingroff.  If you’re a rehabilitation specialist doing manual therapy, you definitely ought to read it.

MLB Draft has No Guarantees – This is a great piece on ESPN Boston about a Cressey Performance athlete, Tyler Beede, who has a lot to look forward to this week.

Proper Rowing Performance – This video blog from Mike Robertson covers a very important set of technique cues that it’s important for all coaches and lifters to learn.  Rowing strength exercises are an integral part of a successful strength and conditioning program, but only if you perform them correctly.

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Why Nobody Except Your Mom Reads Your Fitness Blog

Written on April 20, 2011 at 2:32 pm, by Eric Cressey

I got an email from Dean Somerset last weekend if I’d be willing to write up a post for his blog about how I built up a popular fitness blog myself.  I thought it over, and while I like Dean and enjoy reading his blog, I really didn’t think I was the right person to write such a piece.  There are folks who are much smarter when it comes to behind-the-scenes stuff that goes in to running a blog – from WordPress updates, to HTML formatting, to SEO optimization.   And, there are certainly folks out there who have monetized their blog far better than I ever will.

That said, I do feel that there was one incredibly valuable point I should make to the aspiring fitness bloggers out there:

If you don’t have good content, your blog won’t get consistent traffic.  It’s really that simple.

I started this blog in early 2006 with really no idea what I was doing on the technology side of things.  I loved my job and was passionate about teaching – and writing gave me an avenue through which to do it.  Sometimes, I wrote about what I knew well, and sometimes, I wrote about topics where I wanted to improve – and researching them and teaching them to others was the best way to get better in these areas.  Before I ever hired someone to make my site look pretty, I’d built up a solid following of people who knew me purely for my content, enthusiasm, and accessibility to readers.

A trend I see with “rookie” fitness bloggers nowadays is to design a spectacular site from the get-go and devote all their resources to SEO optimization, pop-up ads, Google Adwords, and the like.  Unfortunately, these efforts are sabotaged by these bloggers’ poor grammar/spelling and, more significantly, a complete lack of valuable information to offer to readers.

In any industry, you look for commonalities among those who succeed at what we do.  For ease of calculating “success,” let’s just use Alexa ranking.   You can learn more about it (and download a free toolbar) at www.Alexa.com, but for the sake of brevity, just understand that it is a measure of the popularity of a website.  Get more hits, receive more inbound links from popular sites, and have people spending more time on your site, and your Alexa rank will go down (a lower number is better).  Google is #1, Facebook is #2, Yahoo is #3, and so on.  It’s not a perfect measure by any means, but when you are dealing in the top one million sites or so, it’s generally accepted to be pretty good. I’m lucky to be at around 101,000 right now, and have been as high as 89,000 in the past.

If you’re in the top one million or so, you’re likely doing some very good traffic – and certainly enough to monetize your blog.  My buddy Tim Ferriss’ blog, for instance, currently has an Alexa ranking of 3,644, and he’s an absolute ninja on the entrepreneurial side of things, with two New York Times bestsellers and ownership stakes in the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, and several other companies.  He’s a success, in part, because every single one of his posts (and books) provides outstanding content that readers not only enjoy – but pass along to their friends.

Translating this message to the fitness industry, look at a guy like Charlie Weingroff.  He might be one of the few guys out there who understands technology less than I do, and there is absolutely nothing flashy about his site.  To be candid, it’s pretty basic.  You know what, though?  Charlie is an extremely bright (and strong) dude with a ton to teach, a passion for teaching it, and a knack for relating complex information in a user-friendly manner.  I don’t think his blog has even been out for a year, yet he’s ranked around 639,000.  And, he’s used his blog to make his expertise known, build a loyal following, and launch a successful product (which is outstanding, by the way).

There are several other fitness bloggers who’ve become “top one million” success stories purely with content.  John Berardi dominates with Precision Nutrition (64,000), which has been built with science, integrity, and an ultra-personal touch to great content all along.  My business partner, Tony Gentilcore (706,000) kicks out great content and entertains people like crazy.  My good friend Mike Robertson (103,000) is an awesome teacher and genuinely great guy.  Nick Tumminello (537,000) innovates like crazy to build a following, and Chad Waterbury (475,000) only recently created his own web presence and has used content to quickly ascend the ranks.  Nate Green (202,000) is an excellent writer who has carved out a great niche for himself and built a great following at a young age because of his unique content.  Mike Reinold (400,000) has built a great following in a smaller internet segment (physical therapists) with consistent content featuring up-to-date research, attention to many different clinical perspectives, and a specific focus on upper extremity dysfunction.  These guys all offer something others don’t.

You know who hasn’t built a big following?

• The random fitness dudes who send Facebook friend requests to my wife because they have mutual friends – and these guys want to build their lists.  I’ve yet to meet a single one who is in the top 2 million.

• The “fitness business guru” who emailed me four times, called my office twice, and snail-mailed me once (each of which was ignored) to try to get me to promote his product, which he guaranteed would make personal trainers “rich.”  His website ranked at higher than 6.6 million – which essentially means that he has zero traffic other than himself (and he’s probably just checking in to see if he’s gotten his first hit yet).  Instead of focusing on content (and moving out of his parents’ basement), he’s putting the cart in front of the horse and trying to sell a product on a topic (success) that he doesn’t even understand.

• The random dude who wants to exchange links with me or be added to my blogroll so that he can improve his rankings without doing a thing, much less providing some value to me (or society in general).

The only thing that’s worse than sucking at what you do is sucking at what you do and spending time and money to draw attention to it.

I started out thinking that this would be a short, to-the-point, blog, but as I now realize, that one little point was actually a very big one.  Pretty websites and behind-the-scenes tinkering are undoubtedly important components of taking an online presence to the next level, but the truth is that they don’t matter a bit unless the content that accompanies them is useful and entertaining.

If it’s not, then you’ll have a hard time even getting Mom’s attention.

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Stuff You Should Read: 3/28/11

Written on March 28, 2011 at 5:45 am, by Eric Cressey

I am getting back late tonight from my trip, so here’s a list of recommended reading to hold you over in my absence.

The #1 Cause of Inconsistent Pitching Velocity – With the high school baseball season about to get underway, this seemed like a good time to “re-up” this article.

Movement System Impairment Syndromes of the Extremities, Cervical and Thoracic Spines, by Shirley Sahrmann – This is what I’ve been reading on the beach the past week.  Lengthy title, but super high quality book, if you’re a geek like me.

Packing in the Neck – This is an old one, but a good one from Charlie Weingroff.  Charlie talks about proper neck positioning while lifting – a topic that I think gets really overlooked in discussions of appropriate lifting technique.  In case you can’t tell from this deadlift technique, I’m in full agreement with Charlie.

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Weight Training Programs: Product Reviews

Written on December 28, 2010 at 3:38 am, by Eric Cressey

As you probably know, when I come across high-quality products that I really enjoy that I think will be a good fit for my audience, I am thrilled to be able to write up thorough reviews for you.  This way, it not only gives some love to these products’ deserving creators (and learn myself!), but also gives you more background to make sure that it’s a good fit for you if you opt to purchase it.

To that end, I wanted to use today’s post to highlight the top seven products I reviewed in 2010.  Considering that I receive literally dozens of products in the mail each year to review (I still have a stack left to cover), these represent not just the cream of the crop, but the ones where I actually had the time and inclination to write something up.  Check them out by category:

For the Fitness Professionals:

Muscle Imbalances Revealed – This set of six webinars can be viewed conveniently from the comforts of your own home.  No travel or shipping charges to ruin your day!  Check out my review Product Review: Muscle Imbalances Revealed.

The Single-Leg Solution – Mike Robertson is a great friend of mine – but that’s not the only reason I liked this product.  It was very thorough, well-researched and written, and offered some excellent coaching cues that any fitness professional would be wise to study up on.  My review is The Single-leg Solution: Detailed Product Review.

Rehab=Training, Training=Rehab – This long-awaited debut product from Charlie Weingroff was just released in the last few weeks, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.  Even if you don’t pick up a copy, you’ll learn quite a bit from my two-part review: Rehab=Training, Training=Rehab: Top 10 Takeaways – Part 1 and Rehab=Training, Training=Rehab, Top 10 Takeaways – Part 2.

Movement – I just realized that I never got around to writing up a review of this great book from Gray Cook, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t an excellent read.  I HIGHLY recommend it.

For the Fat Loss Enthusiasts (then again, can you really be enthusiastic about having to lose fat?):

Body of Fire – This fat loss resource from Chad Waterbury was great for the masses – especially if you only have minimal equipment at your fingertips.  I loved the focus on movement rather than just crazy high volume training.  Check out my interview with him: Waterbury on Why Most Fat Loss Plans Fail Miserably – and a Better Approach.

Final Phase Fat Loss – John Romaniello’s first product is a great fit for those trying to lose those stubborn last few pounds of body fat, especially if they are masochists who enjoy a very challenging program!  For more information, check out Final Phase Fat Loss: An Interview with John Romaniello.

For the Athletes:

The Truth About Quickness – I’m a big fan of Kelly Baggett, and he collaborated with Alex Maroko to create an excellent resource for up-and-coming athletes.  I gave Kelly the spotlight with three pieces: How to Get Quick…Quickly: An Interview with Kelly Baggett, and The 5 Most Common Speed, Quickness, and Explosiveness Problems in Athletes Part 1 and Part 2.

That wraps it up for the best of 2010 product reviews; hopefully you can reward yourself with some late holiday shopping by picking up one or more of these items; you won’t regret it.  I’ll be back tomorrow with the best videos of 2010.

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