Home Posts tagged "Matt Kramer"

Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 7/18/11

It's time to kick off the week with some recommended reading: Meet the Real John Berardi - Dr. John Berardi is a guy I really admire for the way he's built up a successful business (Precision Nutrition) and large following the right way: with fantastic information and and awesome "way" of getting through to people.  As I read this, it makes me appreciate that I could learn a lot from the good doctor on managing my personal time effectively, too! Men's Health: Coffee and Alzheimer's Disease - I stumbled onto this Men's Health blog by accident, but was very intrigued.  My grandfather passed away last fall after a long battle with Alzheimer's, and he absolutely loved coffee.  In the past, I've read stories about how the body seems to know how to self-medicate, and reading this blog about the association between coffee consumption and reduced Alzheimer's symptoms makes me wonder if Gramp knew something we didn't. Two Red Sox Prospects and Former Ivy League Rivals Find Common Ground - This ESPN Boston story features Cressey Performance athlete Matt Kramer, who has made the switch from catching to pitching in the middle of his pro career. Last, but certainly not least, don't miss out on Everything Elbow, the staff in-service I filmed last week. Sign-up Today for our FREE Newsletter and receive a deadlift technique tutorial!
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Lose Fat, Gain Muscle, Get Strong, and Laugh a Little – Installment 2

Time to learn and laugh - and hopefully lose fat and gain muscle in the process. 1. Here's a great study that shows that scapular dyskinesis in swimmers is magnified as training duration increases.  I think that we all assume that you either have a scapular dyskinesis or you don't - but the truth is that you may not have it at rest, but it can kick in with activity as you fatigue.  This is often why pitchers' mechanics change (e.g., elbow drops) as they get tired later in an outing.

It's a perfect example of how managing a pitcher - building up throwing volumes, charting pitch counts, and preparing the body - is much more important in terms of long term health than simply teaching pitching mechanics.  A pitcher might have great mechanics in a 15-30 pitch bullpen, but that can change dramatically if he is asked to extend his pitch count. 2. I woke up this morning to an email from two CP pro guys, Matt Kramer (Red Sox) and Chad Rodgers (Braves), and it included this video thank you/tribute from the off-season.  Not a bad supplemental skill set for a couple of guys who throw 95mph!

3. My wife and I have been doing more and more cooking from Dave Ruel's Anabolic Cooking.  He's got a ton of great (and healthy) recipes in this cookbook that have been a nice change of pace for us, as we seemed to have gotten in a rut when things got busy and we just kept preparing what was quick, easy, and familiar.  I'll write up a thorough review of the product sometime soon, but for now, you can find out more information HERE.

4. On Monday, my wife and I returned from four days in Iceland.  It was an awesome trip; people there are so hospitable and we were treated fantastically.  I could go on and on about our experiences there, but a travel guide could tell you much more than I ever could - so I'll just make an interesting observation...

On average, Icelandic folks live two years longer than those in the U.S.  This is in a country that a) gets far less vitamin D due to minimal sunlight and b) has very few resources when it comes to growing fruits and vegetables because almost the entire country is lava fields.  What do they have that we don't? Portion control at meal time.

Speaking of meal time, I ate whale blubber, rotten shark, and ram's testicle.  Not surprisingly, none of them were very good.

5. I saw this advertisement with Mick Jagger on it in a clothing store at a Reykjavik mall and just had to snap a picture.  Apparently, Jagger has 20-inch biceps in Iceland.

This was definitely one of the better Photoshop jobs that I've seen.  They really made it believable.  The only thing missing from the picture is the purple unicorn that Mick rode to the show.

6. My buddy John Romaniello was on Good Morning America the other day.  I was hoping he'd talk about the time that we ate moose meat sloppy joes together, but instead he talked about fat loss.  I think the sloppy joe story would have come out better, but his appearance still went pretty well.  Check him out.

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Wrapping Up a Great Pro Baseball Off-Season

Today marks the end of one of the funnest "eras" of my life. Back on September 9, we officially kicked off the pro baseball off-season with Tim Collins' arrival at Cressey Performance for his first training session of the off-season.  Coming off a great season that included a promotion to Double-A at age 20 and a Blue Jays organizational pitcher of the year award, Tim was ready to get after it - and that's exactly what he did.  From that day in September through February 6 (when he was called to Florida for mini-camp), Tim added 21 pounds to his frame while getting leaner - and increased his vertical jump by four inches (to 37.9 inches).

Tim was one of over 30 pro guys we had this winter.  Results were typical. Chad Rodgers (Atlanta Braves organization) went from 206 to 233 while adding just under three inches to his vertical jump.  And he dominated "No Shave November."

Jeremiah Bayer (Red Sox organization) packed on muscle mass faster than just about any athlete I've ever seen - to the tune of 13 pounds in only two months - while adding an inch to his vertical.  That's a 5.6% improvement in predicted peak power in a short amount of time - and one that is carrying over to the mound already. Heck, Pat Bresnehan packed on 14 pounds and jumped 37.5 inches (a 6.3 inch) improvement - and got himself signed by the Mariners - after coming to us in the latter phases of his rehab period! Craig Albernaz (Rays organization) increased his vertical jump by over five inches while adding seven pounds before heading to big league camp - and this is a guy who has always struggled to put on any weight, let alone good weight! Cory Riordan (Rockies) and Steve Cishek (Marlins) win the awards for the longest commutes to train.  Cory drove two hours to CP, and two hours home to Connecticut to get in his work with us - and he's got a new body and a lot more athleticism to show for it.  Cishek wasn't far behind with his 1 hour, 45 minute commute from Cape Cod four times a week all the way up through January.  I can say without wavering that both of them would tell you that the ride was 100% worth it. Two other Braves guys - Derick Himpsl and Matt Kramer - also put in some great work that is already carrying over to the field.

Zach Piccola's headed to White Sox camp with a great few months of training under his belt alongside free agent Nick Asselin.  Jim Fuller (Mets) committed himself to train like he never had before, and looks fantastic now.  Another Mets guy, Tim Stronach, has busted his hump to get better alongside his rehabilitation from shoulder surgery. Steffan Wilson leaned out and dramatically changed the way he looks and moves - and it helped get him a much-deserved call-up to big-league camp last week.

Kevin Youkilis had a great off-season as well - due in part to his love of pushing the sled.  So far this spring, Youk's looked good (much better than his strength coach, as is shown below), and we're excited about the Red Sox season ahead.

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Will Inman (Padres), Phil Negus (White Sox), and Kevin Nolan (Blue Jays) put in a great few months in the fall, and Steve Hammond (Giants), Kevin Pucetas (Giants), Nick McBride (Rangers), Benji Johnson (Braves), Matt Morizio (Royals), Justin Edwards (Cardinals), and Howie Clark (Blue Jays) made the most of all their visits to Boston this winter.

And, some "distance-based" guys of mine - Chad Jenkins (Blue Jays) and Anthony "A-Tan" Seraterelli (Royals) - made some excellent progress by following everything to a "T."  A-Tan, Howie, and Morizio even made a hilarious video about their experiences (a joke, FYI):

One athlete, though, stepped it up big time on Thursday to set himself apart from all the rest. Tim Kiely (Angels) added 11 pounds and seven inches to his vertical jump, but his biggest claim to fame is that he took home the Gold in the first ever Cressey Performance Elite Baseball Olympics on the last day.  Granted, the "Olympics" were limited to five participants who collectively agreed to not tell the most athletic guys of the bunch about the event ahead of time - but that doesn't mean that the boys didn't bring their A games!  The Silver (5-lb) went to CP pitching coach Matt Blake, and the Bronze (2.5-lb) went to free agent Alex Szymanski.  Shawn Haviland (A's) finished fourth, but he has a Harvard degree, and probably would have won if Sabermetrics trivia and word searches had been part of the contest.  Here's the much-anticipated medal ceremony:

I am not sure where the championship belt fit in, but the entire day didn't make much sense, so it seemed right.  Congratulations, Tim.

From these videos, a lot of people might think that we're all about goofing around - but that couldn't be further from the truth.  Our guys have a good time, for sure, but it always comes after they've busted their butts in the gym.  And, frankly, if we didn't have such great camaraderie and the guys weren't such good friends, the motivation to train would never approach the level it has.  A good culture and outstanding results absolutely, positively go hand-in-hand.

Most of my writing on this blog is obviously geared toward educating folks on the training, research, nutrition, and other geeky science stuff.  However, I should make it absolutely clear that all the knowledge in the world in these regards won't matter if you don't have a good culture established for your athletes and clients.  They need to enjoy training and look forward to each and every session because they enjoy the process as much as the destination.

They need to be willing to come to you to critique the best man's toast they've written (happened this winter).  They need to feel comfortable staying at your place if they're in town for a few days (happened multiple times this winter).  They need to feel welcome spending Thanksgiving with your family (two of my athletes came home with me this past November).  And, they need to respect you enough as a person to value your opinion as a professional.  As the saying goes, they don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

That's why most of our pro guys train six days a week from September/October all the way up until now, whereas many other places pro guys frequent consist of 3x/week "workouts" for the 4-6 weeks before spring training starts.  And, I feel like it is one of many things that differentiates us from our competition (whatever that may be).  We are about making athletes better, not just "working them out."

I'm proud of all our guys not only for their hard work this off-season, but for taking an ownership stake in Cressey Performance to make it something special now and in the future.

Thanks for an awesome 5+ months, guys.  We can't wait to do it again.

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The Biggest Mistake Pro Baseball Players Make?

The other day, I got to chatting with Tim Collins and Matt Kramer, two of Cressey Performance's longest tenured pro baseball guys.  These two guys were among my first pro baseball guys to get back from the long season and start up training.  Tim's notorious for getting back in the gym just a day or two after his season ends!

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We were discussing baseball development, and one of them mentioned that one of his teammates had just commented on how he was taking a few weeks off and then was going to start training again.  Keep in mind that this conversation took place on October 1, and just about every minor league baseball team wrapped things up on September 7 (playoffs excluded).  While some guys were called up to play at high levels, and others shipped off to instructionals or the Arizona Fall League, most guys went straight home. Now, "home" is a big improvement from the typical professional baseball lifestyle, which (as I described here) consists of a lot of late nights, long bus rides, unhealthy food, alcohol, and (specific to the topic at hand) erratic training.

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In most cases, the weight rooms aren't even close to adequate.  And, obviously, you can never have a great training stimulus in-season; guys just do what they can to "get by."  Yes, they "get by" for almost seven months per year - which obviously makes the other five months incredibly important. Now, if someone takes an extra month off after the season, he's only getting 80% of the benefit of the off-season that his teammates are getting.  In a sport where only 3% of draft picks make it to the big leagues, if I'm a prospect, I don't like my chances if I only have 80% of the preparation of those around me. Let's do the math on that for a guy who gets released after three years in the minor leagues.  That's three months of preparation down the tubes.  Next, consider how many guys who have COMPLETELY OVERHAULED their physiques and performance in preparing for the NFL combine in less than three months. Last off-season, we put 17 pounds of meat on one of our pitchers (and he got leaner!) between November 11 and February 20. He looked like a completely different person - in just three months and nine days.  His broad jump went up ten inches and vertical jump up 4.3 inches in spite of this big jump in body weight, meaning that he improved in both relative and absolute power.  This is not uncommon at all in the baseball guys with whom I've worked, particularly those who were drafted out of high school and never got the benefit of college strength and conditioning. All that said, in my eyes, guys should be back in the gym as soon as possible after the season ends - even if it's just a few days per week.  Simply getting the ball rolling on the endocrine, immunological, and rehabilitative benefits of strength training will do wonders in itself.  Getting started on improving soft tissue quality and addressing mobility/stability deficits is also tremendously valuable, as it paves the way for better training as the December-February "crunch time."  These guys can take a week to gather their thoughts, and then get back to work; otherwise, they'll have more vacation time when they're out of work!

Truth be told, it's one of just a few common mistakes we see, and this could be applied to just about any professional sport; I just chose baseball because it's what I see the most.  Of course, the guys who probably ought to be reading this are the ones who are probably sitting poolside sipping martinis, or cuddling up in their snuggies and then having Mom's homemade pancakes for breakfast at 1PM!

(For the record, I worked really hard to resist the temptation to insert the "In a Snuggie Rap" video here.  Search for it on Youtube, if you're interested.)

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