Q&A: Can You Overtrain on Core Stability Exercises?

Written on April 21, 2012 at 8:31 am, by Eric Cressey

Q: What are your thoughts on the right amount of volume, intensity and frequency on core exercises ranging from bridging variations to ab wheel rollouts from the feet for the intermediate to advanced lifter looking to decrease back pain and get out of anterior pelvic tilt? Is it possible to make progress for a while, but overdue it on volume, intensity or frequency and actually have your core get weaker or stop progressing/responding, and start to experience back pain and anterior pelvic tilt again?

A: This is an outstanding question, and I can really go in a number of different directions with it.

First, let me say that the single best way to get out of excessive anterior tilt is training oneself to not live in anterior tilt!  No amount of exercise will undo the damage you can do with your daily posture.  That’s the easy part of this response, though.

Next, I’ll say that I absolutely believe that we can overdo it with “core-specific” exercises.

As a parallel, just consider the shoulder.  The glenohumeral (ball and socket) joint is heavily reliant on both active (muscles/tendons) and passive (capsule/ligaments and labrum) restraints for stability. If you overdo it with rotator cuff exercises and train the cuff to excessive fatigue, individuals lose dynamic stability and can’t maintain the position of the humeral head in the glenoid fossa. Overuse conditions and injuries can occur.  I wrote about this in an old series, How Much Rotator Cuff Work is Too Much? – Part 1 and Part 2.

Similarly, the lumbar spine relies heavily on both active and passive restraints.  People can overcome lumbar ligament and disc injuries to live pain-free if they maintain adequate soft tissue control.  Likewise, many sedentary folks can live pain-free in spite of poor soft tissue function simply because the challenges of their daily activities don’t exceed the tolerance of the passive restraints (these are the folks who often blow out their backs trying move couches).

That said, we have to be careful about overreacting to this realization.  Just as the trend of doing thousands of sit-ups in the past few decades created a ton of back pain, you see a lot of completely deconditioned individuals who are hurting, too.  There has to be a middle ground between the two.  So, you could say:

Optimizing core function is really a delicate balance of exercise selection, volume, frequency, and intensity.

Unfortunately, I don’t know that we have a perfect (or even close to perfect) answer with respect to all of these factors, as everyone is different.  Consider the following:

1. Flexion-intolerant backs must be treated differently than extension-intolerant backs.

2. Trained athletes probably need a lower frequency because of their sport participation and neural efficiency, but can handle a greater intensity and more complex exercises – and need to prepare the core for fatigue over an extended period (e.g., soccer game, tennis match, 100-pitch outing).

3. A sedentary individual probably needs a greater frequency of low-intensity exercises.

4. In-season athletes must be careful not to do too much work and pre-fatigue the core before competition.

5. Those with congenital laxity (loose joints) likely need a greater frequency of core work for “neuromuscular reminding.”

6. The general exercises we can do in a weight room or rehab setting must be complemented by sport-specific activities in the appropriate volume.  When general volume goes down, specific can go up – and vice versa.

7. Athletes with a previous history of injury – or known diagnostic imaging red flags – may need to do more just to maintain.

8. Everyone’s definitions of “core” is different.  I view the core as pretty much everything between the knees and the shoulders – but the truth is that poor core control can also lead to elbow and foot/ankle issues; should we include those joints as part of the equation?

9. Everyone’s definition of and “core stability exercises” is also different.  Rollouts – an anterior core stability exercise – were mentioned in the question above, but I’ve never had more soreness in my anterior core than after doing heavy push presses.  Simply holding a weight overhead forces our anterior core to work to prevent lumbar hyperextension (the photo below shows what happens when the anterior core isn’t properly engaged).

As you can see, the “how much is too much” question is a big, fat, hairy one.  Ask 100 fitness professionals and rehabilitation specialists, and they’ll all have different answers – and even then, it will still be dependent on the athlete/client/patient.  We can’t even effectively define “core,” let alone “core stability exercises” to answer today’s question.

Taking it a step further, only 15% of low back pain has a definitive diagnosis.  One could make the argument, therefore, that only 15% of core function can be adequately assessed/interpreted.  We’d like to think that we know exactly what is going on with a spine, but it’s just not reflected in the research.

The good news, though, is that while most people encounter low back pain at some point in their lives, the overwhelming majority of them do get better with rehabilitation.  We just don’t know what’s optimal – and I’m not sure we ever will, but we are getting a lot better, thanks to the availability of both research and anecdotal experience of rehabilitation specialists, fitness professionals, and folks who have stayed healthy.

This is one reason why I’m excited about Functional Stability Training of the Core, the new resource from Mike Reinold and me. The two of us have collaborated in the past on Optimal Shoulder Performance to bridge the gap between rehabilitation and performance training, and we have done it again with respect to core function with this new project.

This resource is on sale at an introductory price of just $77 through this Sunday at midnight, and I’d strongly encourage you to check it out.  Whether you’re a fitness or rehabilitation professional, or exercise enthusiast or athlete looking to learn more about how to effectively prepare the core, train around various lumbo-pelvic injuries/conditions, or learn about developing power in the frontal and transverse planes with medicine ball drills, there is much to be gained from watching Functional Stability Training.

Click here to purchase, or here for more information.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 4/19/12

Written on April 19, 2012 at 5:13 pm, by Eric Cressey

Here’s a list of strength and conditioning stuff you should read/watch for the week.  The theme of this week will be Functional Stability Training, our new resource.

Integrating Medicine Balls in a Strength and Conditioning Program – This is the introduction to my medicine ball presentation from the event, and it also highlights a few of our overhead medicine ball stomp variations.  FST also includes a bunch of rotational medicine ball exercise progressions we utilize, as well as mobility/activation drills we utilize as fillers between sets.

To Arch or Not to Arch? – This old blog post talks about arching when one squats.  It might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Glute Bridge Exercise Progressions for Rotary Stability – This post from Mike Reinold shows how to progress what can quickly become a boring exercise, even though it’s super valuable.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 4/11/12

Written on April 11, 2012 at 9:55 pm, by Eric Cressey

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

Get Stronger by Doing Less – This was a guest blog I wrote over at MensHealth.com on the topic of managing training stress.

Foot Positions in the Squat – Here’s an excellent post from Charlie Weingroff.  Actually, I’d call it epic; he clearly put appreciable time and thought into it.

Why President Obama Throws Like a Girl – I usually bring this one back to the forefront every opening day, but completely forgot to do so this year.  Since there is a chance that he won’t be president next opening day, I figure I might as well milk this content for all it’s worth now. I didn’t hear about him throwing out a first pitch anywhere, so I wonder if this old post made him insecure.  I hope not, as we’re losing too many good baseball players to basketball nowadays, anyway!

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 4/6/12

Written on April 6, 2012 at 7:01 am, by Eric Cressey

Here’s a list of recommended strength and conditioning resources for the week:

Elite Training Mentorship – This continuing education resource we introduced last month has started off with a bang, as we’ve gotten a lot of great feedback.  It’ll update twice per month, and the first happened yesterday.  Content came from Dave Schmitz (two in-services and two exercise demonstrations) and me (two in-services and two exercise demonstrations).  My in-services this month were “Understanding and Managing Congenital Laxity” and “Understanding the Hip Adductors.”  Updates from Mike Robertson and BJ Gaddour will come later this month.  Click here for more information.

9 Strategies to Train Around Lower Body Pain – Speaking of Mike Robertson, this is a great article he had published at T-Nation this week.

Pressing Considerations for the Older Lifter – This was a super-detailed post from Jim “Smitty” Smith on what the seasoned veteran of strength training programs needs to keep in mind when doing a lot of pressing.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 3/21/12

Written on March 21, 2012 at 4:00 am, by Eric Cressey

Here’s a list of recommended reading for the week:

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Half-Kneeling Band Overhead Shrug – Here, Tony Gentilcore highlights an exercise we use quite a bit at Cressey Performance with some of our athletes who are stuck in scapular downward rotation.  It’s a big hit with those guys with low shoulders (especially right-handed pitchers).  As an aside, I actually prefer the tall kneeling version over the half-kneeling variation, but that’s minutia.

An Interview with Dr. Stuart McGill: Part 1 and Part 2 – This two-part interview by Chad Waterbury with Dr. McGill was fantastic.  All of McGill’s work is must-read material if you’re in the fields of health and human performance.

The Red Meat Scare: What Do We Make of It? – Jonny Bowden does a great job of discussing the flaws in the way some folks have interpreted some recent research on red meat consumption and its relationship to mortality.

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Strength Exercise of the Week: 1-arm Dumbbell Floor Press

Written on March 12, 2012 at 2:53 am, by Eric Cressey

I’m out of town for a few days, but fortunately, Ben Bruno was kind enough to write up this guest blog.  I enjoy Ben’s writing – particularly his ability to constantly innovate – and I’m sure you will, too.

Common sense tells us that the one arm dumbbell bench press is an upper body exercise (duh!), but if you’ve ever done them with considerable loads, then you know that the legs aren’t just passive players in the mix. They don’t just help to provide a little bit of leg drive; more importantly, they help to create a stable base so you don’t tip clear off the bench.

Don’t believe me? Try doing a set with your feet in the air and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Just make sure to put padding on the floor around you first.

To mimic this effect in a safer fashion, try one arm dumbbell floor presses with your legs straight.

You’ll find there’s a tendency for your torso to want to rotate towards the arm pressing the weight and for the contralateral leg to want to shoot up off the floor as the weight gets heavier or you get further into a set.  As such, you have to be cognizant of that and squeeze your glutes and brace your core to prevent that from happening since you can’t rely on your feet to provide the base of support.

It’s a great exercise because it’s self-limiting and reflexively teaches you how to create total body tension—no cueing needed.

It’s also a nice shoulder-friendly alternative for people who might experience pain with full range of motion dumbbell pressing, or for people with lower-body injuries that won’t allow them to push through their feet.

Start with your legs wider and move them closer together as you feel more comfortable. Similarly, you can start with the non-working arm resting at the floor at first to give some additional stability, but work towards placing your hand over your abdomen as you improve.

You’ll need to start with a substantially lighter weight than you’d use for regular dumbbell presses (I’d say 60% would be a good starting point), but your numbers will climb back up quickly as you get the hang of it.

Give it a try!

Ben Bruno publishes a free daily blog at www.BenBruno.com.

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5 Reasons to Be Excited About the Future of the Fitness Industry

Written on March 8, 2012 at 5:18 pm, by Eric Cressey

Growing up, my mother always told me that I had a remarkable ability to spot the good (and bad) in people; I generally could get pretty quick reads on what kind of folks I was encountering, and then choose my friends/colleague accordingly.  As a result, as I think back on it, this is probably why I never had “bad” friends: people who got into trouble or rolled with the wrong crowd.

More recently, my wife has commented on how I always seem to find the good in people. I shrug off not-so-positive nuances in their behaviors and can become friends with just about anyone.  I think this has helped me a lot as a coach, employer, and presenter.

So, I guess you could say that I’m an optimist.  In my eyes, this glass is half full.

This applies to not only my interaction with other people, but also to the way that I view the fitness industry in which I make my living.

Every day, I hear people pissing and moaning about how many things are wrong with the fitness industry:

1. The barrier to entry is too low and most personal trainers suck.

2. Heart disease is still on the rise.

3. People use too many machines and not enough free weights.

4. The functional training revolution has turned many personal training sessions into a circus act.

5. Crossfit butchers exercise technique and ignores periodization.

Cry me a river.  If you’re so down on our industry, do something to change it – or just pick a new one.  I’ve met thousands of trainers over the years, and there is no bigger turn-off to me than when someone goes on and on about how terrible the industry is and how awful the trainers they’re around are.  I’ve also heard people bring it up in internship and job interviews, and it’s a huge turnoff that puts them in the “rejected” pile instantly.

As I’ve said in the past, “small hinges swing big doors,” so if you’re frustrated with where the industry is headed, start with yourself and what you can change to make things better.  For me, that starts with optimism.  I look at the quotes above and think:

1. That low barrier to entry has also opened doors to some ridiculously outstanding personal trainers who are changing lives every single day.  And, having more terrible personal trainers has afforded more opportunities for others to show just how good they are, comparatively speaking.

2. That means more cardiac rehabilitation jobs are opening up.  Plus, all the research on cardiovascular disease has taught us a ton on how to modify training, nutrition, and supplementation approaches for our otherwise healthy clients.  There’s no way that we know as much about low carb diets nowadays if cardiovascular disease and diabetes research hadn’t received so much attention and funding over the past 20 years.

3. If other facilities are relying heavily on machines, but I’m not, it’s an opportunity for me to show one more stark contrast that makes Cressey Performance training a better fit.  It’s one more way for me to educate someone and win them over.

Additionally, the heavy reliance on expensive machines in the 1980s and 1990s likely gave rise to an entire industry of portable training devices like the TRX in the 21st century (remember the old business advice: if you want to be successful, do the opposite of what everyone else is doing).  Were it not for the TRX and other devices that provide similar portability and versatility, we might not be able to pull off semi-private training and bootcamp set-ups on the level that they take place in the fitness industry today.

4. The functional training revolution has also produced some outstanding coaches who effectively bridge the gap between corrective exercise and high performance training.  It’s brought about more collaboration among fitness professionals and rehabilitation specialists.  And, on an industry-wide level, it’s helped us to inform clients that exercise should enhance quality of life and improve the way you move, not just make you stronger, more muscular, and less fat while you suffer through pain.

5. Crossfit has also created a tremendous camaraderie among thousands of athletes, and motivated loads of people to exercise when they might have otherwise become sedentary.  They’ve created a competitive outlet for a lot of former high school, college, and professional athletes.  And, there are some Crossfit franchisees who actually do an outstanding job with coaching technique and catering programming to each individual’s needs.  You can’t just judge them all based on the garbage you see on Youtube.

I could go on and on all day, but the truth is, the folks doing the criticizing often ought to take a look in the mirror, as they’re usually in need of a lot of improvements in their own right.  I’m not perfect, and neither is anybody else – and that’s a great thing, as we can always find ways to get better.  To that end, in the spirit of optimism, here are five current fitness industry trends that bode well for those of us looking forward to where the next few decades will take us.

1. New fitness research every single day - For the longest time, all researchers seemed to care about was aerobic exercise, but then, in the 1990s, there was a big boom of resistance training research that continues to this day.

It’s exciting to be in such a dynamic field, as it keeps you on your toes and guarantees that you’ll be constantly improve if you simply attempt to stay up-to-date with new research.

2. Increased communication across disciplines – There are more opportunities than ever for professionals in the health and human performance fields to network and learn from each other, and collaborate on treatments/training for patients/clients/athletes.  Look at professional sports teams; they’ve gone from just having an athletic trainer in the old days, to now also having strength and conditioning coaches, physical therapists, massage therapists, nutritionists, chiropractors, sports psychologists, acupuncturists, you name it.  This same “team-oriented” approach has extended to the private sector, whether it’s under one roof or simply in collaborative efforts in similar geographic areas.

3. Improved business resources - In years past, personal trainers were supposed to work long “floor hours” at big box gyms in the hopes that they could bully gym goers into personal training with them.  It pissed most people off, made the trainer look like a super sketchy used car salesman, and didn’t exactly give this fitness professional an opportunity to demonstrate his expertise.  Plus, in the past, people would open gyms simply because they liked to exercise and thought it’d be cool – and most of those operations went belly up pretty quickly.  Nowadays, there are much more solid resources available to fitness professionals if they’re looking to do a better job of not only building a business, but managing it.  So, without having the actual numbers in front of me, the success rates are probably higher – especially if you have #4…

4. Sustainability within a niche – As you probably know, I train a ton of baseball players; it’s about 85% of our clientele at Cressey Performance.  I’m not sure that this would have been possible ten years ago.  While early youth sports specialization has been a terrible idea in the context of injuries, it has given rise to increased specialization in training to prevent injuries, and management of the injuries that are already in place.  The end result is that it is more feasible for a fitness professional to make a career out of his/her true passion.  In my case, it’s been baseball.

5. Accessibility to training information – Let’s face it: you probably would have not have heard of Eric Cressey (much less EricCressey.com) if it wasn’t for the internet.  I’d likely still be training loads of baseball players in Hudson, MA – but I don’t know that I would have as many guys coming from across the country to train with me if it wasn’t for the internet.  It’s made our expertise easier to perceive, and working with those players has made me a better coach faster.

That same ease of information gathering is available in a wide variety of formats.  In the old days, you had to hit up a library, buy a book out of a catalog, or visit a coach locally to observe.  Nowadays, you can order books, DVDs, webinars, podcasts, and video presentations completely online.  You can easily apply for an internship across the country, email a coach or facility you’d like to visit to observe, or pick out a seminar of interest – and then instantly book a flight, rental car, and hotel to make it happen.  You can hop on pubmed.com and search thousands of journals for specific information you want.  You can read free blogs, newsletters, and articles in areas of interest to you.  In short, you can get better faster than ever before.  This morning, I jokingly tweeted “Using the phrase ‘I’m bored’ is synonymous with saying ‘I’m too lazy to read to educate myself in my free time.’”  The truth is that I wasn’t joking, though; you can always be doing something to improve yourself professionally if you’re willing to put the time and effort in.

This is one reason why I’m so excited for Elite Training Mentorship, the online resource we introduced earlier this week.

You get frequent updates from four contributors – Mike Robertson, BJ Gaddour, Dave Schmitz, and me – and the information covers several facets of the industry.  You get everything from videoed staff in-services, to webinars, to sample programs, to coaching demonstrations, to articles, to Q&A with the contributors.  And, you get it conveniently, as you can access it from any computer, iPad, or phone.  There’s no need to book a plane ticket, hotel, or rental car like you would with a regular seminar.

To sweeten the deal and let you ensure that it’s a good fit for you, you can get the first month as a trial for $1 through this Friday (3/9) at midnight, and if you decide to continue with it, you’ll also lock in the monthly $37 rate thereafter (normally $47). To learn more, check out Elite Training Mentorship.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 3/7/12

Written on March 7, 2012 at 12:10 am, by Eric Cressey

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

Breathing and Soft Tissue Tension – If you’re a geek like me, you’ll appreciate this overview on the role of respiratory function when it comes to soft tissue restrictions.

Core Stability from the Inside Out - This was a great guest post from Hans Lindgren (for Mike Reinold’s site) on the role of the diaphragm in core stabilization.

Dissecting Muscle Function: Force Production – If you thought the first recommendation from above was geeky, this one is on a whole new level.  It’s great information from Kevin Neeld with some practical applications mixed in.

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5 Quick and Easy Ways to Feel and Move Better: Installment 1

Written on March 1, 2012 at 7:28 pm, by Eric Cressey

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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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 2/27/12

Written on February 27, 2012 at 1:27 am, by Eric Cressey

Here’s a list of recommended strength and conditioning reading to kick off you week.

The Prevalence of Radiographic Hip Abnormalities in Elite Soccer Players – This recently published study in the AJSM shows us just how common hip issues are in soccer players – even if they’re asymptomatic.  You can apply this to hockey players as well – and possibly on an even more pronounced level.  This goes hand-in-hand with some of my writings in the past about knees, shoulders, and lower backs.  Just because someone is asymptomatic does not mean that they are “healthy” – and this is why assessment and an understanding of population-specific norms are so important!

Band-Assisted 1-arm Push-ups: A Better Alternative – My buddy Shon Grosse outlines a good progression for those looking to build up to a one-arm push-up.

The College Student’s Guide to Grocery Shopping: Healthy Eating Made Easy – Former CP intern Jordan Syatt wrote up an outstanding free e-book aimed at college students trying to eat clean on a limited budget, but the truth is that there are some good lessons for those who do actually have the budget to spend a bit more, too.  One of my first articles ever published was Budgeting for Bodybuilders: Part 1 (age 20) and Part 2 (age 23), and Jordan outdid me; perhaps it’s a sign of great things to come for him in the years ahead?

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