17 Reasons I’m Excited for 2011

Written on January 2, 2011 at 2:41 pm, by Eric Cressey

With the new year upon us, I got to thinking about how excited I am for all that 2011 has in store for me – and thought that it’d make for a good post to kick off the year.  Here’s why I’m excited:

1. Being Married – My wife, Anna, and I got married on October 3, and it was just the tip of the iceberg in a whirlwind year (new job for her, wedding planning, new house, new puppy).  Both of us are pretty excited for a low-key 2011 where we can just hang out and enjoy one another’s company!  And, we left our honeymoon for this year (I couldn’t escape for that long during the baseball off-season), so we’re excited about that.

2. The Continued Growth of EricCressey.com – I really enjoy writing, and each year, this website grows – which means I get to share my passion and interact with some very cool people.  Here were 2011’s year-end statistics for EricCressey.com:

450,791 unique visitors
1,106,748 visits
2,901,970 pages
2,730,922 hits

Thanks to everyone who visited the site this year!

3. The book I’m reading now: The 4-Hour Body. Tim Ferriss has become a good friend, and I was fortunate enough to be one of those who received an advanced copy of The 4-Hour Body prior to publication.  With the crazy goings-on at CP as well as the holidays, I’m just now getting a chance to read through it and give it the time it deserves – and I must say that it’s fantastic.  Tim does an awesome job of providing “info-tainment;” his entertaining writing style will keep you reading, and the background research he put in to this book will guarantee that you walk away with some ideas that will immediately benefit you.

4. The book I’m reading next: The New Rules of Lifting for Abs. As with Tim’s book, I got a copy of The New Rules of Lifting for Abs in advance, but haven’t even had a chance to open it up.  As with any Cosgrove/Schuler collaboration, though, I’m sure it’ll be high quality and a huge hit.  I’m looking forward to checking it out.

5. Cutting Back on Travel – 2010 was a crazy busy year for me personally – from buying a house, to moving, to planning a wedding, to getting married, to getting a puppy.  These “firsts” wouldn’t have been tough to pull off normally, but it seemed like every time my wife and I encountered one of them, I was getting ready to hop on a plane to go do a seminar somewhere.  As such, I’ve started turning down a lot more seminar opportunities not because I don’t enjoy doing them, but simply because the travel wore me out in 2010.  I will, however, still be traveling some – but this year, it’ll be with my wife…and we’ll be traveling for fun!

6. Another Year on the Perform Better Tour – While I may be cutting back on seminar travel, I wouldn’t miss the Perform Better Summits for the world.  I’m still waiting on final confirmation of which cities I’ll get in 2011, but I can say definitively that these are some of the best continuing education opportunities in the fitness business and that I thoroughly enjoy all of them – from the information to the great people I always wind up meeting.  Hopefully, I’ll get to meet some of you in person thanks to Perform Better this year.

7. Continuing on my Postural Restoration Institute Journey – I’ve spoken a bit in the past about the Postural Restoration Institute and how it dramatically impacted the way we evaluate and program for many of our athletes and clients.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it has been some of the best continuing education money I’ve ever spent.  I’ve only gone through two of their seven courses, though, and am excited to learn more.  I’ve covered Myokinematic Restoration and Postural Respiration, and already on the agenda for 2011 is Impingement and Instability. If you’re a physical therapist, athletic trainer, or fitness professional and haven’t seen any of their stuff already, I’d highly encourage you to check it out.

8. The New Cressey Performance – I’ll have pictures of the newly-renovated Cressey Performance soon, but suffice it to say that adding 1,000 square-feet can go a very long way.  I’ve finally got my own office at the facility, which I know will make things a lot easier moving forward, but even beyond that, just getting a bit more space can really change the “flow” of the facility to make it more coaching friendly.  We see all sorts of articles and presentations on how to coach, but nobody ever considers how the set-up of your facility can make your coaching duties remarkably easier or more difficult.

On top of that, Cressey Performance is busier than ever, with double digit percentage growth again in 2010.  Thanks to everyone for your continued support!

9. Relishing my Fantasy Football Championship – In the most impressive managerial run in Cressey Performance Fantasy Football history, I crushed the competition this year.  This trophy will reside on my desk for the entire year.  Those of you who visit CP can have your picture taken with it, if you’d like.

10. Doing more charity work – I’ve helped out here and there with various charities since I moved to Boston in 2006, but in 2011, I’m excited to do much more – and I’m in a position to do more now, too.  Nowadays, I can use my exposure and expertise a lot more to help – and thanks to my work with Kevin Youkilis, I can work directly with his great charity, Youk’s Hits for Kids.

Along those lines, those of you in New England might be interested to check out his February 3 event at the State Room in Boston.  The CP staff will be there along with a bunch of pro athletes, Tony Gentilcore, actors, Tony Gentilcore, musicians, Tony Gentilcore, comedians, and Tony Gentilcore.  For more information, check out YouksKids.org.

11. The New Sports Rehab to Sports Performance Teleseminar – Joe Heiler has done a great job the past few years in bringing in great minds to contribute to his Sports Rehab to Sports Performance teleseminar series – and this year is no exception.  I’m really excited about this line-up:

1.  Sue Falsone – PT, Athletes’ Performance
2.  Ron Hruska – PT, Postural Restoration Institute
3.  Dr. Mike Leahy – Sports Chiropractor and inventor of ART
4.  Thomas Myers – Anatomy Trains author
5.  Brian Grasso – IYCA Founder
6.  Greg Roskopf – Muscle Activation Technique
7.  Brian Mulligan – PT, Mulligan Technique/Joint Mobilizations with Movement
8.  Dr. Warren Hammer – Chiropractor, Graston Technique Instructor, Fascial Manipulation
9.  Dan John – Strength Coach, author, Never Let Go
10.  Gray Cook – PT, FMS

Click here for more information.

12. New Projects – In 2010, I introduced two products: Optimal Shoulder Performance and Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better. For me, a product every six months is a pretty good “pace,” as I don’t want to become one of those guys who puts out mediocre stuff every single week.  As of right now, the only confirmed project for 2011 is a collaborative one with Mike Reinold and Mike Robertson.  I am thinking, however, that this is the year that I finally create a baseball-specific product in light of the fact that it’s 80-85% of our clientele and what I do all-day, every day!  Only time will tell!

13. Continued Show & Go Feedback – Speaking of Show and Go, it was released in late September, and since it’s a four-month strength and conditioning program, we’re coming up on the point in time where I start getting loads of emails from those who have wrapped up the program and have results to report.  I get a lot of feedback along the way, but it’s awesome to hear where things end up when the entire program is complete.  So, to those of you doing the program, please pass along your results!

14. More Writing at T-Nation – I only published two articles at T-Nation in 2010, and I don’t plan to repeat that poor output!  I’ve already been contacted by them about doing a monthly piece, and while I’m not sure that my schedule will allow me to get one to them every month, I definitely expect to be blowing that 2010 total out of the water.  I’ve already submitted one and have two more in the works.  I owe a lot to the folks at T-Nation and Biotest for the opportunities and exposure they’ve afforded me and hope to continue to return the favor with good content for years to come.

15. Watching Tank grow up – Our puppy, Tank, is about five months old right now, and he’s awesome.  He is pretty much housebroken, and definitely man’s best friend.  As you can tell, he loves hording his toys.

16. The 2011 MLB Season – In addition to the fact that my team (the Red Sox) is looking good, we have quite a few clients who are on the cusp of big league debuts, so I am excited to get out to see them play in the show and enjoy the fruits of their off-season labor.

17. The 2011 MLB Draft – Let’s just say that I very well might just stay home and hit refresh on my computer over and over again during the two days in June that make up the MLB draft.  We have a lot of talent athletes – both high school and college – training at Cressey Performance who will be getting calls.

There are quite a few other things that get me excited for 2011, but this is a good start – and probably all that you care to read!  Speaking of YOU, what are YOU looking forward to in 2011?  Got a big goal for the year?  Share it in the comments section.

Happy New Year!

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Making the Case for Long Toss in a Throwing Program

Written on December 12, 2010 at 12:05 pm, by Eric Cressey

Long toss may have been scorned by quite a few baseball traditionalists, but I am a big fan of it – and our guys have responded outstandingly to the way we’ve used it.  Perhaps it’s just my “1+1=2” logic at work, but I just feel like if you can build up the arm speed to throw the ball a loooonngggg way, then you’ll be able to carry that over to the mound as soon as you get your pitching mechanics dialed in.  And, this has certainly been validated with our athletes, as we have loads of professional pitchers who absolutely swear by long toss (both off- and in-season).

So, you can understand why I got excited when my good buddy, Alan Jaeger – a man who has devoted a big chunk of his life to getting long toss “accepted” in the baseball community – was featured in this article at MLB.com about what a difference it makes – including for the Texas Rangers on their road to the World Series.

I was, however, not a fan of this paragraph in the article:

“Former Red Sox pitcher Dick Mills has a business built around teaching mechanics and maximizing velocity, and he is a staunch opponent of long tossing. He has released countless YouTube videos angrily decrying this practice. In his latest, ‘How Long Toss Can Ruin Your Pitching Mechanics and Your Arm,’ he says, ‘Why would you practice mechanics that are totally different and will not help a pitcher during a game? And why would you practice throwing mechanics that are clearly more stressful where the arm does most of the work?’”

Taking it a step further, here’s a Dick Mills quote I came across a few years ago:

“Training will not teach you how to apply more force…only mechanics can do that. And pitching is not about applying more effort into a pitch but is about producing more skilled movements from better timing of all the parts. That will help produce more force. No matter how hard you try, you will not get that from your strength training program…no matter who designed it, how much they have promised you it would or your hope that it will be the secret for you.”

While I agree (obviously) on the importance of mechanics and timing, effectively, we’re still being told that long toss, strength training, and weighted balls are all ineffective modalities for developing the pitcher – which leaves us with what, bullpens and stretching? It sounds like every youth baseball practice in the country nowadays – and all we’re getting now are injured shoulders and elbows at astronomical rates.  Something isn’t right – and the message is very clear: specificity is a very slippery slope.

On one hand, when it comes to mechanics, you need to throw off the mound to get things fine-tuned to achieve efficiency.

On the other hand, research has shown that arm stress is higher when you’re on the mound (there is less external rotation at stride foot contact with flat ground throwing).  Additionally, every pitch that’s thrown is really a step in the direction of sports specialization for a youth baseball player – and something needs to balance that out.  Why?

Well, specializing at a young age is destroying kids.  As a great study from Olsen et al. showed, young pitchers who require surgery pitched “significantly more months per year, games per year, innings per game, pitches per game, pitches per year, and warm-up pitches before a game. These pitchers were more frequently starting pitchers, pitched in more showcases, pitched with higher velocity, and pitched more often with arm pain and fatigue.”  And people think that kid need more work on the mound?  What they need are more structured throwing sessions (practice, not competition) and a comprehensive throwing and strength and conditioning program to prepare them for the demands they’ll face.

But those aren’t specific enough, are they?!?!?!  Well, let’s talk about specificity a bit more.  Actually, let’s read – from renowned physical therapist Gray Cook, a guy who certainly knows a thing or two about why people get injured:

The physical presentation of differently trained bodies often provides a signature of the type and style of activity that developed it. Those who are exclusive in their activities seem more often be molded to their activities, and sometimes actually over-molded. These individuals can actually lose movements and muscles that would make alternate activities much easier.

Specialization can rob us of our innate ability to express all of our movement potential. This is why I encourage highly specialized athletes to balance their functional movement patterns. They don’t so much need to train all movement patterns, they just need to maintain them. When a functional movement pattern is lost, it forecasts a fundamental crack in a foundation designed to be balanced. The point is not that specialization is bad—it only presents a problem when the singular activity over-molds to the point of losing balance.

While there are probably 15-20 awesome messages we can take home from the previous two paragraphs, here’s the big one I want to highlight: it’s our job as coaches to find the biggest window of adaptation a pitcher has and bring it up to speed – while simultaneously keeping other qualities in mind.

If he’s stiff, we work on mobility.  If he’s weak, we get him strong.  If he’s a mechanical train wreck, we get him more bullpens.  If his arm speed isn’t good, we work more on weighted balls and long toss.  If you just take a 5-10, 120-pound 9^th grader and have him throw bullpens exclusively, he’ll get better for a little bit, and then plateau hard unless you get him bigger and stronger.

How does this work?  It’s a little principle called Delayed Transmutation that Vladimir Zatsiorsky highlighted in Science and Practice of Strength Training.  Zatsiorsky defines delayed transmutation as “the time period needed to transform acquired motor potential into athletic performance.”  In other words, expand and improve your “motor pool” in the off-season, and it’ll be transformed into specific athletic performance when the time is right.

And, as I wrote in The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual, “the more experienced you are in a given sport, the less time it will take for you to transform this newfound strength and power [and mobility] into sporting contexts.”  This is why professional pitchers can find their groove each year MUCH easier than high school pitchers in spite of the fact that they probably take more time off each year (2-3 months from throwing) than the typical overused kid who plays on 17 different AAU teams.

That said, there’s a somewhat interesting exception to this rule: really untrained kids.  I’ll give you two examples from the past week alone at Cressey Performance.

We had a high school senior and a high school junior who both just started up their winter throwing programs to prepare for the season.

The first told me that he was sore in his legs after throwing for the first time in his life.  Effectively, without throwing a single pitch or really doing any lesson work (or even throwing off a mound), this kid has managed to change the neuromuscular recruitment patterns he uses to throw the baseball.  Strength, power, and mobility took care of themselves: delayed transmutation.

The second told me that his arm feels electric.  Ask any experienced pitcher, and they’ll tell you that your arm is supposed to feel like absolute crap the first 4-5 days after an extended layoff, but it always gets better.  However, when you’re a kid who has gotten more flexible and packed on a bunch of muscle mass, it’s like all of a sudden driving a Ferrari when you’re used to sharing a minivan with Mom: delayed transmutation.

Specificity is important in any sport, but a it really is just the work as far to the right as you can go on the general to specific continuum.  Elite sprinters do squats, lunges, Olympic lifts, jump squats, and body weight plyos as they work from left to right on the general-to-specific continuum to get faster.  So, why do so many pitching coaches insist that pitchers stay as far to the right as possible?    Symbolically, long toss is to pitchers what plyos are to sprinters: specific, but just general enough to make a profound difference.

In a very roundabout way, I’ve made a case for long toss as something that can be classified as beneficial in much the same way that we recognize (well, most of us, at least) that mobility drills, foam rolling, strength training, movement training, and medicine ball drills to be excellent adjuncts to bullpens. In the process of learning to throw the baseball farther, we:

1. push arm speed up

2. train in a generally-specific fashion

3. improve contribution of the lower half

4. realize another specific, quantifiable marker (distance) of progress

5. keep throwing fun

6. train the arm with just enough LESS specificity to help keep pitchers healthy, as compared with mound work

The question then becomes, “Why don’t some pitchers respond well to long toss?”  In part 2, I’ll outline the most common mistakes I’ve seen:

Related Posts

The Absolute Strength to Absolute Speed Continuum (video)
Baseball Showcases: A Great Way to Waste Money and Get Injured

Sign up for a Free Copy of the Cressey Performance Post-Throwing Stretches:

Random Wednesday Thoughts: 8/6/10

Written on August 4, 2010 at 7:00 am, by Eric Cressey

1. Mike Reinold polled some of the best in the world of manual therapy, physical therapy, and strength and conditioning (plus a schmuck named “Cressey”) to ask for their best career advice for students and young professionals in our fields.  Here is the post that emerged; it came out really well – and actually serves as an awesome adjunct to yesterday’s advice on starting out in the fitness industry.

2. I’m pumped to report that my advanced copy of Gray Cook’s new book, Movement, arrived yesterday.  I’m digging in to it tonight.  You can pre-order your own HERE.

Gray’s been talking about this book (and working on it) for years now, and there is no doubt in my mind that he won’t disappoint. I’m really looking forward to it.

3. Here’s a link to an interview with Cressey Performance and Lincoln-Sudbury athlete Adam Ravenelle, who is committed to play baseball at Vanderbilt:

Player Perspective: Adam Ravenelle

The thing I like the most about this interview is the fact that Adam emphasized the importance of in-season training and how valuable it is to young pitchers.  You’d be amazed at how many guys work their butts off in the off-season and show up to the start of the season strong…only to skip their lifting and flexibility work for the next 6-8 months.  It’s one step forward, and one step back – but not for guys like Adam who “get it.”  “Rav” has gained over 50 pounds with us since 2007 while going from the high 70s to low 90mph range – and having an open-minded and dedicated attitude toward in-season training has been a big part of it.

3. Speaking of throwing the baseball faster, Haag et al. found that pre-throwing static stretching did not negatively affect baseball pitching velocity.  This is pretty significant, as many modern coaches generally encourage players to universally avoid static stretching right before training and competition for fear of reductions in power output (that research horse has been beaten to death).

Personally, though, I’ve always felt that it was really valuable to stretch the throwing shoulder in the majority of our pitchers before they threw (the exceptions being the ones with crazy laxity).  Typically, we stretch guys (or encourage them to stretch themselves) into shoulder internal rotation and flexion.  It’s safe to assume that getting range in their directions is going to not only minimize the effect of the peel-back mechanism for SLAP lesions at lay-back, but also enable them to have a longer, smoother deceleration arc.

While more research is definitely warranted, my hunch is that static stretching is less “inhibitory” in the upper body than the lower body because the upper body deals with predominantly open-chain motion, and is therefore more heavily reliant on mobility than stability.

5. Last, but certainly not least, here’s a quick article about CP athlete Tim Collins, who was traded for the second time in three weeks, this time to the Royals.

Related Posts

The Importance of Strength and Conditioning for High School Baseball Players
The Lucky 13: Cressey’s Top Reading Recommendations

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The Lucky 13: Cressey’s Top Reading Recommendations

Written on June 7, 2010 at 5:25 am, by Eric Cressey

A few months ago, I gave a two-day seminar to just over 80 fitness professionals and strength and conditioning coaches.  Even with a seminar this long, I can never cover everything I’d like to cover – and it’s generally because much of what I’d like to address relies on some prerequisite knowledge that the attendees may not possess.

With that in mind, at the attendees’ request, I sent a follow up email to all of them with a list of some of the best resources – books/manuals and DVDs – that I’ve encountered along my journey of self-education.

Please keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list, by any means, but it does cover what I’d consider requisite reading to get a good foundation in a lot of the concepts I covered last weekend.

1.  Any anatomy text will do, but I prefer texts that speak more to functional anatomy.  Netter’s Atlas of Human Anatomy is very good, and I know of many physical therapists in the US who keep a copy of this book on hand for patient education.  Kinetic Anatomy is also a solid text that speaks to functional anatomy, and I believe the newer version comes with a tag-along DVD.  Lastly, our Building the Efficient Athlete DVD set was created in part to educate folks on the functional anatomy side of things that they may miss during a conventional college curriculum.  I know of several facilities in the US that use it extensively for staff training.

2. Anything from Stuart McGill – While there are several schools of thought with respect to low back function and rehabilitation (and I’d encourage you to check out each of them), McGill is the one that resonates with me the most.  You can find a lot of his research on Pubmed, but he also has several books (and a DVD) available that I’d highly recommend.  For those of you who are interested in some science and some applied, go with Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance.

For those of you who are a bit geekier and want to learn a lot more about the clinical side of things, check out Low Back Disorders.  If you are going to train clients or athletes, you need to understand back pain.

3. Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes by Shirley Sahrmann is probably the book that has influenced me more than any other in my career.  It’s worth every penny.

4. For shoulder stuff, I think that The Athlete’s Shoulder is a great resource.  It is written by physical therapists and surgeons, though, so it can get very clinical at times.  Those of you who are more interested in actual practical applications would be more interested in our new Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set, which is the video of a seminar I did with Mike Reinold, who is actually one of the co-authors of The Athlete’s Shoulder.  If you enter the coupon code “reinold200osp” today only at checkout HERE, you can get the DVD set with free shipping today as part of Mike’s “sale week” to celebrate his 200th post.

5. Muscles: Testing and Function with Posture and Pain – This is a newer version of Kendall’s classic text, and it’s an incredibly detailed resource that you’ll find yourself referring back to time and time again.  Several of the screens we use in our everyday assessments with clients and athletes were influenced in part or entirely by Kendall’s text.

6. Gray Cook’s work is fantastic.  If you want quick, practical tips, check out Secrets of the Hip and Knee and Secrets of the Shoulder.  Both DVDs give you some tips that you can immediately put into practice.

7. Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers is an excellent read to get you thinking more and more about the role of the fascial system.  I saw Thomas speak this past weekend in Providence, and he was absolutely fantastic – so excellent, in fact, that I’ll probably write up a blog with some quick notes from his lecture.  And, I’ll be reading this for the third time this week, too!

8. Bulletproof Knees – Mike Robertson wrote this manual and I can honestly say that I haven’t seen a better product on the market with respect to information that can be quickly applied to clients with knee pain – both in terms of understanding it and correcting it.

9. Mike Boyle has some excellent products – including all the Functional Strength Coach DVDs (#3 was the most recent).  You can always find some good reading at StrengthCoach.com.  I believe they still have the 14 days for $1 trial period, and as part of that, you get his Designing Resistance Training Programs and Facilities book for free.

10. Anatomy of Breathing – I think it’s valuable to appreciate the muscles involved in respiration and start to put them into your functional anatomy framework as soon as possible.  This book is a very quick read, but you’ll get that foundational knowledge and start to think about how all this stuff lines up.

11. 2008 Indianapolis Performance Enhancement DVD set – This is a product that has largely flown under the radar because it was overshadowed by several other products that were launched around the same time.  However, the short vs. stiff discussion that Bill Hartman presented as part of it is well worth the cost of the entire DVD set.

12. Clinical Applications of Neuromuscular Techniques (Part 1 and 2) – These books read like stereo instructions, but they are insanely thorough.  I recommend them to anyone who is really dorky like I am.  They will definitely help you to collaborate with manual therapists and physiotherapists a lot more effectively.

13. Assess and Correct – Shameless self-promotion here, but I’m extremely proud of this product.  It’s a DVD set and four accompanying manuals that cover 27 assessments and 78 corrective exercises we use with our clients and athletes.  If I had to recommend one of our products to a trainer, this would be it.  Stuart McGill have us some extremely flattering reviews on Assess and Correct as part of his new DVD.

I should note that the countless journal articles I’ve read over the years are noticeably absent from this list, but you can easily access the abstracts of those pieces at www.pubmed.com if you search by whatever keyword relates to your area of interest.  I find myself using it daily, and I’ll generally follow up on these abstracts by getting the full-text articles.  Also, in addition to the few resources I note below, you can find a more extensive collection of recommended readings on my resources page. This includes a collection of links to free blogs that I read daily.  Many of my blog readers don’t know that, in addition to this blog, I have a free newsletter where readers get exclusive content and early notice on things – so you’ll definitely want to sign up HERE if you haven’t already.

It’s also been a matter of interacting with as many smart folks as possible, just making (and documenting) observations with our clients/athletes, and going to seminars.  This list should get you started, though!

Sports Rehab to Sports Performance 2010

Written on January 13, 2010 at 7:01 am, by Eric Cressey

Just wanted to give you all a heads-up that Joe Heiler is following up last year’s successful Sports Rehab to Sports Performance Teleseminar with a 2010 installment.  I’m thrilled to be one part of an incredible lineup:

Gray Cook
Shirley Sahrmann
Robert Panariello
Stuart McGill (bonus interview with Chris Poirier from Perform Better)
Craig Liebenson
Clare Frank
Mike Reinold
Greg Rose
Mike Boyle
Gary Gray
(and Eric Cressey)

In all, it will be nine awesome interviews. The teleseminar series will begin on January 27th and Joe will play one interview per week (Wednesday nights at 8 pm).  If you can’t catch them that night, don’t worry; he’ll be putting them up on his site for another 48 hours.

For more information, check out the Sports Rehab to Sports Performance Sign-up Page.

Random Friday Thoughts: 8/14/09

Written on August 14, 2009 at 6:23 am, by Eric Cressey

1. I work about 315 days per year at Cressey Performance, so when I can get a weekday off, it’s pretty darn special – and that’s the case today.  I got in a great squatting session last night, so I don’t feel quite so bad about staying home today to sit on my duff and catch up on writing, programming, reading, and planning Tony’s Sweet 16 Party (he’s 32, so we’re going to have double the fun with both Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers as themes; isn’t he lucky?).  Actually, it won’t be that exciting; the goal is to get all of the following done before noon (and I’m writing this at 7:13am):

a. this blog
b. the first two blogs for next week
c. one tag-along manual for our new products
d. five programs
e. some emails
f. reading with any time that’s left over

I’m hoping that by mentioning all of this to you that it will make me more accountable to going into tunnel-vision-mode to get it all done.  We shall see…

2. Congratulations to Chad Jenkins of Kennesaw St. – and now the Toronto Blue Jays, who signed a good ol’ $1.359 million contract on Wednesday after being drafted in the first round back in June.  Chad’s been an incredibly hard worker on my programs and deserves all the success that comes his way.  Nice work, buddy!

3.  Here’s a pretty good article about why eggs are actually GOOD for you.  I say “pretty good” not because I think it’s new information to those of us in the know, but because it comes from a registered dietitian in a mainstream publication, who are normally brainwashed to adhere to stupid guidelines.  Kudos to Yahoo on this one, but I’m sorry to say that Dr. John Berardi and others have been preaching this for over a decade.

4. Here is a landmark study on how athletes have gotten taller, heavier, and faster during the past century. You can tell that the study was done by an engineer, because any strength coach could have easily told him that this was the case because resistance training and better nutrition habits were implemented over the course of that time.

5. Right now, in addition to a more geeky textbook, I’m reading Blunder, by Zachary Shore, on Gray Cook’s recommendation.  So far, so good, although I haven’t gotten too far into it (hopefully will this weekend).

Have a great weekend!

Strength and Conditioning Webinars

Written on June 5, 2009 at 6:09 am, by Eric Cressey

In place of our normal “Random Friday Thoughts” blog, I just wanted to use today as an announcement of something I think is really cool, convenient, and forward-thinking.

Anthony Renna has done a great job with the Strength Coach Podcasts, and now he’s taken it a step further with the introduction of the Strength and Conditioning Webinars.  As the name implies, a webinar is a seminar done on the web.  So, you view a speaker’s Powerpoint presentation while he does the voice-over on it.

It’s super-convenient for presenters because we don’t have to travel anywhere to give it, and we can deliver it while in our boxer shorts and beat-up old t-shirts.  And, it’s convenient for the audience for that exact same reason, but also because it’s a bit of a lower price point (no facility rental fees to cover) and because it’s convenient as heck.  You can watch it at your convenience and don’t have to be there “live” – and you can rewind to listen to it again if there is something that doesn’t quite make sense.

Essentially, Anthony has addressed a lot of the shortcomings of traditional seminars – yet still brings together a bunch of great minds.  Thus far, he’s recorded webinars with Mike Boyle, Alwyn Cosgrove, Tim Vagen, and Tim Yuhas.  In the future, you’ll see folks like Gray Cook, Mike Robertson, Mike Reinold, Lee Burton, me, and a whole bunch of other super-talented and smart strength and conditioning coaches, physical therapists, aned athletic trainers.

If you look around, most webinars are going for $25-30 each.   Conversely, Anthony is  only charging $29.99/month for a membership to StrengthandConditioningWebinars.com.   It’s even cheaper if you pay up front for the year!

Even better, if you sign up before Monday, June 8, you can get an unbelievable deal- only $19.99 a month for as long as you are a member, or again, even cheaper  if you sign up for the whole year- only $199.

You’ll get two webinars a month guaranteed from the world’s top coaches, bonus webinars, and access to presenter forums, all for $19.99 a month.

This is seriously a great deal and it is truly a one-time offer.  After June 8, the price goes up.

So go to StrengthandConditioningWebinars.com, sign up for the Special Pre-Launch Offer before June 8 and start watching webinars right away.

Stuff You Should Read: 1/14/09

Written on January 14, 2009 at 11:00 am, by Eric Cressey

This is a random post, but it came about in light of our recent switch to a new hosting company, plus the reorganization of the site.  In this drawn-out, mind-numbing, baldness-inducing process, I came to realize that a lot of my better writing has slipped into an internet black hole – or at the very least, the EricCressey.com archives.  So, with that in mind, over the next few weeks, I’m going to reincarnate some of my old material.

Waiting to Reach Threshold

Back Squats and Overhead Throwers

The Best Thing I’ve Seen All Year

And, if you’re looking for sites that I visit nearly every day, I’ll be posting some recommendations, too.  Today, though, I want to give you a heads-up on a great audio series – Sports Rehab to Sports Performance – that Joe Heiler has pulled together.  I’ll be interviewed, as will Mike Boyle, Gray Cook, Kyle Kiesel, Stuart McGill, Phil Plisky, Brett Jones, and Charlie Weingroff.   The entire interview series is COMPLETELY FREE, and you can get more information HERE.

I’ll follow this up with future installments.

The Truth About Shoulder Impingement: Part 1

Written on November 11, 2008 at 4:27 pm, by Eric Cressey

Shoulder Impingement….Yes, We Get It.

Roughly 10-15 times per week, I get emails from folks who claim that they have “shoulder impingement.” Honestly, I roll my eyes the second I read these emails.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not making light of their pain. It’s just that it drives me crazy when doctors throw this blanket statement out there. I will be completely and 100% clear with the following statement:

Shoulder impingement is a physiological norm. Everyone – regardless of age, activity level, sport of choice, acromion type, gender, you name it – has it.

Don’t reach up to touch that mouse on your computer; you’ll aggravate your impingement and your supraspinatus will explode!

And, don’t scratch that itch on the back of your neck; your impingement will go crazy and your labrum will disintegrate!

Don’t believe me? Check out research from Flatow et al. from 1994.

Yes, this has been out for 17 years now.

So, the next logical question is: why do some people have pain with impingement while others don’t?

In reality, there are several factors that dictate whether or not someone is in pain, including:

1. Tissue quality – the most “impinged” structures are more likely to break down in older age than they are in earlier years.  Younger individuals can regenerate faster even when overall stress on the tissues is held constant, so how you handle a 50-year-old with “impingement” is going to be somewhat different from how you handle a 15-year-old with “impingement.”

2. Degree of elevation – the more one abducts or flexes the humerus, the greater the degree of impingement. This is why folks need to start in a more adducted (arm at side) position early on in rehab.  Those that impinge early in their arc tend to be dealing with subacromial impingement, whereas those who hit it at the absolute top tend to be more AC joint impingement.

3. Acromion type – flat acromions have significantly less contact area with the rotator cuff tendons than hooked or beaked acromions. These structures may change over time due to…

4. Bone Spurs – bone spurs on the underside of the acromion will increase the amount of impingement.

5. Strength of the rotator cuff – the stronger the cuff, the better its ability to depress the humeral head and minimize this impingement

6. Scapular stability – the more stable the scapula, the more likely it is to posteriorly tilt and upwardly rotate effectively when the humerus is raised into the zones of greater impingement. This scapular stability includes adequate length of the downward rotators (pec minor, levator scapulae, and rhomboids) with adequate strength of the upward rotators (lower traps, serratus anterior, upper traps).

7. Thoracic spine mobility – the posture of the thoracic spine dictates the position of the scapulae, which in turn affects impingement as noted in #6.  Assess and Correct is an awesome product for improving thoracic spine mobility – and you can also find some good drills in my recent post, Shoulder Hurts? Start Here.

8. Increased internal rotation – Certain movements that lock the humeral head in internal rotation increase the degree of impingement during dynamic activities. It’s why some people can’t bench press early-on in their rehabilitation programs, yet they can do dumbbell bench presses with a neutral grip pain-free. It’s also the reason why upright rows are a stupid exercise, in my opinion.

9. Breathing patterns – think about what happens when someone has poor diaphragmatic function and becomes a “chest breather:” the shoulders shrug up, and you get extra tightness in the levator scapulae, scalenes, pec minor, and sternocleidomastoid (among other supplemental respiratory muscles). In the process, the degree of impingement can increase.

10. Other issues further down the kinetic chain – I could go on and on about a variety of issues in this regard, but it’s impossible to be exhaustive – so I’ll just give an example. If someone has poor core stability in the sagittal plane that is manifested in an inability to resist the effects of gravity during a push-up, the hips will “sag” to the floor. As this happens, and the upper body remains strong, the scapulae are shifted into an anterior tilt –which increases the amount of impingement on the rotator cuff. So, weakness and/or immobility in other areas can certainly predispose an individual to shoulder problems.

This can also be carried forward to pitchers. We know that shoulder problems are more likely to occur in throwers who have poor lead leg hip internal rotation, as it causes the stride leg to open up early, leaving the arm “trailing behind” where it should be.

Speaking of pitchers, a phrase that has been coined with respect to the “unique” kind of impingement you see in them is “internal impingement.” In next week’s newsletter, I’ll discuss the different kinds of impingement – and why it’s still a cop-out diagnosis for any health care professional to just say you have one or the other rather than tell you explicitly what dysfunctions need to be addressed.

Click here to purchase the most comprehensive shoulder resource available today: Optimal Shoulder Performance – From Rehabilitation to High Performance.

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Random Friday Thoughts: 8/22/08

Written on August 22, 2008 at 5:33 pm, by Eric Cressey

1. There is still no internet at our apartment. Sadly, I’m really not joking. Thanks to everyone for the replies to yesterday’s blog; I wouldn’t wish my Comcast experience on anyone, but to a degree, it helps to know that they screw everyone over and aren’t just singling me out.

2. Stretch sternocleidomastoid like this; it’s super important.

Make sure you’re gentle, though. Broken necks are no fun.

3. I have pretty much come to the conclusion that the only time that leg presses don’t suck is if you are someone who is in rehab for a microfracture surgery. The loading isn’t really enough to cause back problems, and partial ROM and non-weight-bearing are desired.

4. One good thing that did come out of not having internet or cable for a week was that I caught up on some journal reading and got around to watching Part 2 of Nick Tumminello’s Warm-up Progressions DVD set. If you have our MM DVD, part 2 would be a nice complement to it; you can pick one up at PerformanceU.net.

5. Gray Cook made an awesome point at a recent seminar when he said, “We never learned to squat; we only learned to stand up.” So, the deadlift is definitely a more “functional” (God, I cringe at that word nowadays) movement if we’re taking a motor development perspective. He goes into some detail in Secrets of the Hip and Knee – a great resource, if you don’t have it.

6. Good luck to all the Cressey Performance athletes playing in the Lynn Invitational this weekend.

7. The entire CP staff is headed to the Patriots preseason game tonight. I usually just did the Boston Globe crossword puzzle during my Human Resources courses back in college, so as far as I’m concerned, this counts as team-building. Forget that “ring around the rosy, obstacle course, paper cup and string telephone” crap.