Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 2/3/12

Written on February 3, 2012 at 12:11 pm, by Eric Cressey

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

The Art of Nutrition Coaching – I thought this guest post from Dr. John Berardi at PT on the Net was outstanding.  He highlights a counseling approach called Motivational Interviewing. I’m anxious to look into it myself.

Strength Exercise: DB Bulgarian Split Squat from Deficit – Since my “Strength Exercise of the Week” column has been very popular over the past few weeks, I thought I’d highlight an old one that has slipped to the archives.

6 Questions About Tempo Training – Mike Robertson published this at T-Nation recently, and it made me realize this commonly misunderstood strength and conditioning topic has never really gotten the in-depth analysis or explanation it deserves.

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Sit in on my Cressey Performance Staff In-Service for Free

Written on January 11, 2012 at 3:04 pm, by Eric Cressey

I’m psyched to announce that today, we begin the “pre-launch” phase of a project – Elite Training Mentorship – that has me very excited.

I’m collaborating with Mike Robertson, Dave Schmitz, BJ Gaddour, and Pat Rigsby to create a virtual mentorship program for trainers and coaches.  We’ll be filming staff in-services on various topics, going over sample programs, providing coaching tutorials, and doing Q&A.  All of us come from different backgrounds and bring unique specialties to the table, so it’s excited to think about what we’ll be creating with this online resource.

We don’t officially launch the program for a few weeks, but in the meantime, as a little sample of what’s to come, I want to encourage you to check out a recent staff in-service I delivered at Cressey Performance on the topic of lower-extremity assessment.  You can get access to it HERE.

I’m confident that this collaboration will become a resource that really helps to advance the industry, and we’ll be using the next few days to highlight some of the expertise that will help it do just that.  So, stay tuned – but for now, don’t miss out on a chance to check out this lower-extremity assessment video at no charge.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 1/3/12

Written on January 3, 2012 at 5:52 am, by Eric Cressey

Here’s my first list of recommended reading for 2012:

How to Pick a Gym in 2012 – This was a Yahoo Sports article to which I contributed.  If you’re looking for a place to train in 2012, give this a read first.  Then, ignore it all, move to Hudson, MA, and train at Cressey Performance!

4 Reasons Everyone Should Squat with Chains – Mike Robertson has an excellent compilation here.  It makes me realize how spoiled we are to have chains.

My Personal Journey to Hell and Back – This was an outstanding post from Jason Ferruggia on where he’s been over the past decade.  If you need motivation, look no further.

Orioles Prospect Oliver Drake on his Training at Cressey Performance – We’ve been doing some videos with our pro guys on their training experience with us; here’s the first installment:

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The Best of 2011: Stuff that was Fun to Write/Video

Written on January 2, 2012 at 7:14 am, by Eric Cressey

Today, I’ll wrap up my “Best of 2011″ series by highlighting the pieces that I enjoyed creating.  Check them out:

1. 11 Years, 11 Lessons, 100 Pounds – This T-Nation article recapped my long journey in the strength and conditioning world to get to where I am.  It was definitely one of my most popular articles of all time at T-Nation.

2. The Fitness Business Blueprint - This product was a blast to create because I think it filled a gaping hole in the market.  Until we launched it, nobody had created a fitness business product that didn’t just discuss how to grow a business, but also how to improve as a trainer/coach.  I had a blast collaborating with Pat Rigsby and Mike Robertson on it.

3. What I Learned in 2010 – I enjoy writing these articles every year, because they serve as a great opportunity to revisit some of the most valuable lessons from the previous year.  And, as the saying goes, the best way to master something is to teach it to others.

4. Strength and Conditioning Program Success: The Little Things Matter – This was a fun blog to write, as I did so right around the time when several of our athletes were recognized for some awesome achievements.  It gave me a chance to reflect on why they were successful – and why many other folks aren’t.  There will be some valuable takeaways for you, regardless of your athletic or fitness goals.

5. Oblique Strains in Baseball: 2011 Update – I’d written about oblique strains in the past, but they continue to be the big fat white elephant in the corner that is being ignored in the context of baseball development.  Hopefully this article got some people to start paying attention to the fact that it’s just the fallout of a lot of things that are wrong with the current approaches being employed with respect to baseball strength and conditioning.

6. The IYCA High School Strength and Conditioning Coach Certification – I was fortunate to be a contributor on this awesome resource that will hopefully change the tide of how high school athletes are trained.  Based on the feedback we’ve received thus far, it’s already helped tremendously in this regard.

7. Strength Training Program Success: How Dr. P did at 47 What He Couldn’t Do at 20 or 30 – This blog (and accompanying video) were awesome because our entire gym got involved on this goal – and were there to see our good friend accomplish it.

8. The Everything Elbow In-Service – This was an in-service I filmed for our staff this summer to prepare them for all the elbow issues that may come through our doors.  It lasted 32 minutes, and sold far better than I would have imagined – and led to a lot of requests for us to continue filming staff in-services and making them available for sale.

9. Strength and Conditioning Programs: Think the Opposite – This has a few tips about a counterintuitive way to achieve success in training and in business.

10. Hip Pain in Athletes: The Origin of Femoroacetabular Impingement – FAI is becoming more and more common (especially in young athletes), and in this blog, I talk about some of the reasons why.

That wraps up our “Best of 2011″ series.  Thank you very much for your support of EricCressey.com in 2011; I’m looking forward to making 2012 even more memorable!

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Test Drive The Fitness Business Blueprint for $1

Written on December 6, 2011 at 5:49 am, by Eric Cressey

Today, Pat Rigsby, Mike Robertson, and I are excited to announce an early holiday gift to people who want to build successful fitness businesses in 2012.

We aren’t just offering you $100 off our best selling product, The Fitness Business Blueprint; we’re also giving you the opportunity to test-drive it for a full 30 days for just $1!

You can pick up your copy or learn more HERE.

We’re very proud of just how comprehensive this resource is.  It doesn’t just cover sales and marketing, but also areas other products along these lines have missed:  staff training, assessment/intake, program design, and personal development (among others).

I should mention that your net payout is actually even lower than you might think, as this is an investment that can be written off on your tax return as a business expense – because it will directly assist you in increasing your income.

The $1 Trial ends on Thursday at midnight, so don’t delay.  Head here for details.

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Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale

Written on November 25, 2011 at 8:25 am, by Eric Cressey

I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of anything I would rather do less than get up at 4am and go stand in line at some store with thousands of other people to take advantage of some sale.  And, it’s with that in mind that Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, Mike Reinold, and I are proud to announce a sale through Monday (11/28) at midnight on the following products:

Assess and Correct DVD Set
Inside-Out DVD Set
Magnificent Mobility DVD
The Bulletproof Knees and Back Seminar DVD Set
Building the Efficient DVD Set
2008 Indianapolis Performance Enhancement Seminar DVD Set
The Single-leg Solution DVD Set and Manual
Bulletproof Knees Manual and DVD
Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD Set

I’ve linked to each one of these products individually so that you can learn more about each of them, but you can purchase them individually or together easily at the Robertson Training Systems Product Page. The only exception would be Optimal Shoulder Performance, which can be purchased exclusively through www.ShoulderPerformance.com with the coupon code bfcm2011.

If you’re someone who is “new” to our products, I’d encourage you to check out this video on Assess and Correct to learn a bit more about how we roll with one of these products.  Assess and Correct is a great place to start, if you haven’t purchased any of our stuff yet:

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How to Fit Core Stability Exercises into Strength and Conditioning Programs: Part 2

Written on November 23, 2011 at 5:12 pm, by Eric Cressey

In part 1 of this series, I discussed an overall approach to the categorization of core stability exercises.  Here, in the second installment of this series, I’ll be talking about how to incorporate various core stability exercises into your strength and conditioning programs.

To recap, the categories we’ll be dealing with are anterior core, posterior core, lateral core, and rotary core.  In reality, though, in my eyes, we only really need to specifically program for three of these categories.  You see, the posterior core seems to take care of itself, as we are already training the ability to resist flexion with various strength exercises like deadlifts, squats, pull-throughs, kettlebell swings, and a host of other strength.  Some folks may benefit from some birddogs in the warm-up period to help learn the anti-flexion patterning a bit better, but most folks are ready to rock and roll with a comprehensive strength and conditioning program that emphasizes the other three.

With that “exception” out of the way, I think it’s important to appreciate three different factors when programming core stability exercises:

1. An individual’s training experience – A true beginner can typically work on low-level core exercises like dead bugs and prone and side bridges on a daily basis to establish motor control.  Conversely, these exercises may be too basic for a more advanced lifter, so he/she would need to focus on more advanced exercises, but do them less frequently (1-3x/week).

2. An individual’s weaknesses – A young athlete with a raging anterior pelvic tilt would need to prioritize anti-extension core stability exercises over the other categories, as you want to master the sagittal plane before getting “too sexy” in other planes.  Sure, you can train the other ones, but you’re better off working on the most pressing issue first.

3. An individual’s training frequency – Obviously, if someone is training 4-6x/week, you can do more in terms of  core stability exercises with his strength and conditioning programs than you could if he was only training 2x/week.  When they train less frequently, you often have to make some sacrifices in terms of core stability exercise volume in order to make sure the big-bang strength exercises (which can serve as indirect core training exercises) still get the attention they deserve.

With these three factors in mind, let’s look at a few examples.  Keep in mind that in each of these examples, I’ve removed the compound exercises, mobility drills, foam rolling, and metabolic conditioning just so that you can see how the core training exercises exist in isolation.

Example 1: 4x/week Strength and Conditioning Program

Day 1: Challenging Anterior Core (e.g., Rollouts), Low-Level Lateral Core (e.g., Side Bridges)
Day 2: Challenging Rotary Core (e.g., Landmines), Low-Level Anterior Core (e.g., Naked Get-ups)
Day 3: Challenging Anterior Core (e.g., ), Low-Level Rotary Core (e.g., Pallof Presses)
Day 4: Challenging Lateral Core (e.g., 1-arm Carries), Low-Level Anterior Core (e.g., Reverse Crunches)

Here, you have all the flexibility in the work to prioritize the areas that are lagging the most.  This example emphasized anterior core, but it could have easily been lateral or rotary core stability with some quick and easy substitutions.

Example 2: 3x/week Strength and Conditioning Program

Day 1: Challenging Anterior Core (e.g., Rollouts), Low-Level Lateral Core (e.g., Side Bridges)
Day 2: Challenging Rotary Core (e.g., Landmines), Low-Level Anterior Core (e.g., Reverse Crunches)
Day 3: Challenging Lateral Core (e.g., 1-arm Carries), Low-Level Rotary Core (e.g., Pallof Presses)

You can still get in two versions of each of the “big three” core stability exercise categories over the course of the week – and that doesn’t even include the “accidental” benefits you get from your compound strength exercises.

Example 3: 2x/week Strength and Conditioning Program

Day 1: Lateral Core (e.g., 1-arm Carries), Anterior Core from loaded push-up variation

Day 2: Rotary Core (e.g., Split-Stance Cable Lifts), Anterior Core from overhead pressing.

You can see that this is far from “optimal” in terms of covering everything you want to cover in a comprehensive core stability exercise program, but when you can only get in two sessions a week (as might be the case for an in-season athlete), you make sacrifices and do what you can.  This athlete might be able to complement this program with some low-level prone bridges, reverse crunches, and get-up variations on off-days.

Hopefully, this gives you a little glimpse into what a few sample weeks of core stability exercises look like in Cressey Performance strength training programs.  For more information and another perspective, I’d encourage you to check out Mike Robertson’s Complete Core Fitness.

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How to Fit Core Stability Exercises into Strength and Conditioning Programs: Part 1

Written on November 22, 2011 at 7:37 am, by Eric Cressey

This past weekend, Mike Reinold and I presented our Functional Stability Training seminar to an audience of about 60 people at Cressey Performance.  The entire seminar was videotaped and should be available sometime in early 2012.  In the meantime, though, I wanted to touch on a topic we covered collaboratively: how to categorize various core stability exercises and incorporate them into your strength and conditioning programs.

Both Mike and I are in agreement that your four general categories are anterior core stability, posterior core stability, lateral core stability, and rotary core stability.

Anterior core stability exercises  teach the body to resist excessive lumbar spine extension, and encompass a variety of drills, starting with dead bug, curl-up, and prone bridging activities.  In prepared individuals, they progress all the way up through more advanced exercises like reverse crunches, stability ball rollouts, and TRX flutters and fallouts.

Posterior core stability exercises are designed to train the body to resist excessive lumbar spine flexion.  Your drills may include everything from the birddog all the way up through more conventional strength training exercises like  deadlift variations.

Lateral core stability exercises teach you how to resist lateral flexion; in other words, your goal is to avoid tipping over.  These drills may start with basic side bridging drills and progress all the way up through more advanced TRX drills and 1-arm carrying variations.

Rotary core stability exercises educate folks on how to resist excessive rotation through the lumbar spine.  Examples include drills like landmines, lifts, and chops.

To be candid, this classification of core stability exercises isn’t anything new to those of you who have been paying attention over the past few years.  However, introducing these categories really wasn’t my intention in this blog; rather, I had three key points I wanted to highlight:

1. It’s not just what you do; it’s how you do it.

You may be able to hold a prone bridge for 25 minutes, but if you’re doing so in terrible positioning and just relying on your hip flexors and lumbar erectors to do the work, you’re doing more harm than good.  You’d be amazed at how many high level athletes can’t do a simple prone or side bridge correctly.

2. A core stability exercise rarely fits into one category, especially when you add progressions to it beyond the initial stages.

Take a kettlebell crosswalk, for instance.

In this exercise, you have different loads in each hand, which makes it a lateral core stability exercise.  With each step, the athlete goes into single-leg stance, which makes it a rotary core stability exercise.  With the load in the bottom hand, there is a tendency to be pulled into flexion, so you have a posterior core stability exercise.  Finally, with the arm overhead, one must prevent the rib cage from flying up and allowing the arm to fall backward, so you have an anterior core stability exercise as well.  This example demonstrates the role of synergy among all the muscles (and fascia) around the core in achieving multidirectional core stability simultaneously.

Taking it a step further, how you control one plane of movement impacts the benefit you derive from a core stability exercise in the intended plane. In this half-kneeling cable lift, for instance, the primary goal is to work on rotary and lateral core stability, as the pull of the cable back toward the column is the primary destabilizing torque.  You will, however, often see athletes perform the entire exercise in lumbar extension, as evidenced by a rib flair in the front, a backward lean, and loss of the packed neck.  I execute the first two reps with the incorrect positioning, and the subsequent reps in neutral spine with adequate anterior core control.

3. When you consider the overlap among the various core stability exercise categories, it can be challenging to determine how to appropriately sequence them in a strength and conditioning program.

This will be the focus of part 2; stay tuned!

If you’re looking for a great core stability resource right now, I’d encourage you to check out Complete Core Fitness from Mike Robertson.  Mike did an excellent job with the program.

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Is an Exercise Science Degree Really Worth It? – Part 1

Written on November 6, 2011 at 8:47 pm, by Eric Cressey

Today’s post is going to rub some folks in academia the wrong way.  Therefore, I want to preface the piece that follows by saying:

a) I am a huge advocate of a multi-faceted education, encompassing “traditional” directed study (e.g., classroom education), self-study, internships, and experimentation.

b) I loved my college experience – both undergraduate and graduate.  I benefited tremendously and made a lot of valuable connections.

However, it didn’t come easily; I got out of it what I put into it.  To be candid, there are a lot of my peers who took the exact same courses and got the exact same degrees who didn’t walk away having gotten their money’s worth.

But, then again, does anyone really get their money’s worth?

College isn’t cheap nowadays. Check out the following statistics from CollegeBoard.com:

• Public four-year colleges charge, on average, $7,605 per year in tuition and fees for in-state students. The average surcharge for full-time out-of-state students at these institutions is $11,990. 
• Private nonprofit four-year colleges charge, on average, $27,293 per year in tuition and fees.
• Public two-year colleges charge, on average, $2,713 per year in tuition and fees.

Of course, this doesn’t take into account the cost of books, travel, food, accommodations, and the $5,000 in on-campus parking tickets you’ll end up paying.  Educations can run upwards of $220,000 – and that’s before you consider student loan interest and the opportunity cost of investing that money.

Assume 24-30 credits per year (12-15 per semester), you’re looking at a per credit hour cost of $399.66-$499.58 for public, out-of-state.  It’d be $253.50-$316.88 for public, in-state.  Public two-year colleges would be $90.43-$113.04. Finally, private would be $909.77-$1137.21. Sorry, Mom and Dad; I’ve never in all my years heard a kid say that an hour with one of his professors – even in a one-on-one context – was worth over a grand.

They also charge you to do internships elsewhere.  In other words, you have to pay to get credits accepted – which means that the cost per hour you actually spend with college faculty is, in fact, even higher.

Many folks go to college to figure out what they want to do.  Others go because it is a social experience that is both fun – and helpful in maturing them as individuals.  That’s fine.

However, it is becoming tougher and tougher to consider it an investment, especially since the “success gap” between college graduates and those who don’t attend college is getting smaller and smaller.  Along these lines, if you haven’t read it already, I’d strongly encourage you to read Michael Ellsberg’s recent New York Time piece, Will Dropouts Save America?

The exercise science field is one in which this success gap is arguably smaller than in any other.  The barrier to entry to the personal training field is incredibly low; independent of schooling and previous experience, one can become certified in a matter of a few hours via an online test, and many gyms will hire people who aren’t even certified or insured.  In fact, as I wrote a few years ago, Josef Brandenburg, a great trainer based in Washington, D.C., actually got his pet pug certified.  The sad truth is that he could probably do a better job than most of the trainers out there who are pulling $100/hour.

Of course, I’m preaching to the choir here.  Most of the folks reading this blog are educated and highly motivated to be the best that they can be.  You seek out the best reading materials, DVDs, seminars, and colleagues from which you can learn.  Personal training means a lot to people who grew up and went to college wanting to eventually help people get healthy, improve quality of life, optimize sports performance, or simply be more confident.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that our profession as a whole has become a “fall-back” career.  It can be what college kids decide to do over summer vacation to make a few bucks, or what extremely well-paid lawyers or accountants take up when they get sick of long hours at desk jobs.

That doesn’t make them bad people; it just means that the minimal regulation in our industry has rendered a college education in this field a trivial competitive advantage in the workplace.

Additionally, this doesn’t mean that college professors aren’t qualified or doing their jobs sufficiently. It just means that the curricula that typifies an exercise science degree simply isn’t sufficient to provide a competitive advantage over non-college-educated candidates in the workforce. There are exceptions, no doubt,in the form of outstanding professors who go above and beyond the call of duty to help student, but I can’t honestly say that I’ve ever heard of a college kid coming out of any undergraduate exercise science program boasting of a competitive advantage that was uniquely afforded to him/her because of the education just completed. The closest thing might be a program with a strong alumni network that provides easier access to job opportunities.

Of course, the cream will rise to the top in any field – and that’s certainly true of exercise science as well.  The industry leaders are, for the most part, people with college educations in exercise science (or closely related fields) – but the question one must ask is, “would these people have been successful in our field even without the courses they took in their undergraduate studies?”

Don’t you think Mike Robertson’s drive for self study would have sustained him in a successful career in this field even without a degree?

Don’t you think Todd Durkin’s energy, charisma, and passion for helping people would have shone through even if he hadn’t gotten a degree?

Moreover, I can list dozens of bright minds making outstanding headway in this field with “non-exercise-science” college degrees.  John Romaniello (Psychobiology/ English), Joe Dowdell (Sociology/Economics), and Ben Bruno (Sociology) are all successful, forward-thinking trainers who come to mind instantly, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg.

Some of my best interns have come from undergraduate majors like English Literature, Acting, and Biology.  We’ve had others who didn’t even have college degrees and absolutely dominated in their roles at Cressey Performance.

Guys like Nate Green, Adam Bornstein, Sean Hyson, Lou Schuler, and Adam Campbell don’t have college degrees in exercise science (although Campbell did get a graduate degree in Exercise Physiology following his undergraduate in English).  However, from their prolific writing careers and by surrounding themselves with the best trainers on the planet, they’ve become incredibly qualified trainers themselves – even if they don’t have to train anybody as part of their jobs.

With all these considerations in mind, the way I see it, you’ve got three options to distinguish yourself in the field of exercise science – and I share them in part 2 of this series.  If you’re a high school or college student contemplating a career in exercise science, this will be must-read material.

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Feedback on The Fitness Business Blueprint

Written on October 10, 2011 at 12:16 pm, by Eric Cressey

Since we released it two months ago, The Fitness Business Blueprint has received some excellent reviews from fitness professionals who have been enable to effectively employ the strategies Mike Robertson, Pat Rigsby, and I outline in the product.  Here’s one such individual:

“The thing I love about Mike, Eric and Pat is the consistently high quality of all of their products.  I’ve been following Mike and Eric’s work for years now, and as a direct result, I was already a great coach with a solid assessment procedure in place.  After Eric’s presentation in the FBB, I was able to streamline this procedure, and make it run that much more smoothly – for me, this alone was worth the price of the product.  But it didn’t stop there.  Mike and Pat followed up Eric’s presentation with some great back end business ideas and systems advice that have had an immediate effect on my bottom line.  You won’t be disappointed with this product”.

James Garland
Strength and Conditioning Coach – New South Wales, Australia

Click here for more information on The Fitness Business Blueprint.