Lose Fat, Gain Muscle, Get Strong: Eric Cressey’s Best Articles of 2010

Written on December 31, 2010 at 4:46 am, by Eric Cressey

Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better – This was obviously my biggest project of 2010.  I actually began writing the strength and conditioning programs and filming the exercise demonstration videos in 2009, and put all the “guinea pigs” through the four-month program beginning in February.  When they completed it as the start of the summer rolled around, I made some modifications based on their feedback and then got cracking on writing up all the tag along resources.  Finally, in September, Show and Go was ready to roll.  So, in effect, it took 10-11 months to take this product from start to finish – a lot of hard work, to say the least.  My reward has been well worth it, though, as the feedback has been awesome.  Thanks so much to everyone who has picked up a copy.

Optimal Shoulder Performance – This was a seminar that Mike Reinold and I filmed in November of 2009, and our goal was to create a resource that brought together concepts from both the shoulder rehabilitation and shoulder performance training fields to effectively bridge the gap for those looking to prevent and/or treat shoulder pain.  In the process, I learned a lot from Mike, and I think that together, we brought rehabilitation specialists and fitness professionals closer to being on the same page.

Why President Obama Throws Like a Girl – A lot of people took this as a political commentary, but to be honest, it was really just me talking about the concept of retroversion as it applies to a throwing shoulder – with a little humor thrown in, of course!

Overbearing Dads and Kids Who Throw Cheddar – This one was remarkably easy to write because I’ve received a lot of emails from overbearing Dads asking about increasing throwing velocity in their kids.

What I Learned in 2009 – I wrote this article for T-Nation back at the beginning of the year, and always enjoy these yearly pieces.  In fact, I’m working on my 2010 one for them now!

What a Stressed Out Bride Can Teach You About Training Success – I wrote this less than a month out from my wedding, so you could say that I had a good frame of reference.

Baseball Showcases: A Great Way to Waste Money and Get Injured – In case the title didn’t tip you off, I’m not much of a fan of baseball showcases.

Cueing: Just One Piece of Semi-Private Training Success – Part 1 and Part 2 - These articles were featured at fitbusinessinsider.com.  I enjoy writing about not only the training side of things, but some of the things we’ve done well to build up our business.

Three Years of Cressey Performance: The Right Reasons and the Right Way – This might have been the top post of the year, in my eyes. My job is very cool.

How to Attack Continuing Education in the Fitness Industry – Here’s another fitness business post.

Want to Be a Personal Trainer or Strength Coach?  Start Here. – And another!

The Skinny on Strasburg’s Injury – I hate to make blog content out of someone else’s misfortune, but it was a good opportunity to make some points that I think are very valid to the discussion of not only Stephen Strasburg’s elbow injury, but a lot of the pitching injuries we see in youth baseball.

Surely, there are many more to list, but I don’t want this to run too long!  Have a safe and happy new year, and keep an eye out for the first content of 2011, which is coming very soon!

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Ahhhhhh!!! Make it Stop!

Written on May 13, 2010 at 8:59 am, by Eric Cressey

Seriously?  This is all the retroversion an Olympic gymnast has?  See what happens when you specialize in one sports early? You get a gold medal, but get laughed at by all 27 people in attendance at a minor league baseball game.

PS – Think this cameraman was drunk, or just laughing so hard that he couldn’t keep the camera steady?

Why President Obama Throws Like a Girl

Written on April 7, 2010 at 8:13 am, by Eric Cressey

Many baseball fans thought that it was a bit inappropriate of President Obama to wear a Chicago White Sox hat as he threw out the opening pitching at the Washington Nationals game on Monday.  However, many others – including those of us on the baseball development side of things – overlooked this fashion faux pas, and instead pointed out that the commander-in-chief’s throwing mechanics closely paralleled those of an 11-year-old girl.

Now that I’ve irritated both my Democrat and female readership, let me explain.

We are all born with a certain amount of humeral retroversion.  For the lay population out there, think of retroversion as a bony positioning that allows for more shoulder external rotation.  As we age, we actually gradually lose retroversion (gain anteversion); as I recall, this process moves the most quickly from ages 8-13, which isn’t surprising, as this is when kids rapidly become more skeletally mature.  It’s why we see more torn ACLs than broken bones in the late teenage years; the bones are no longer the path of least resistance.

However, we actually see something different in kids who are involved in overhead throwing sports during this crucial developmental period.  They don’t gain anteversion as quickly in their throwing shoulder; in other words, they preserve at lot of the bony positioning that gives rise to external rotation (the lay-back position), which in itself is a predictive factor for throwing velocity.  Very simply, it’s easier for them to get their arm back to throw because the bones (specifically, the proximal humeral epiphysis) have morphed to allow for it.  There’s even a theory out there that this bony positioning actually spares the anterior-inferior glenohumeral ligaments from excessive stress during external rotation, but that’s a topic for another day (and president?).

How much of a difference are we talking?  Well, in a study of 54 college pitchers, Reagan et al. found that had 36.6° of humeral retroversion, as compared with just 26° in non-dominant shoulders.  Here’s our fearless leader throwing a cream puff from a different angle at last year’s All-Star Game;you’ll notice that he leads with the elbow and his arm doesn’t “lay back” – a technique we’ve come to term “throwing like a girl,” as politically incorrect as it is. Think he could use an additional 10° of shoulder external rotation?

The good news, however, is that he’s in good company; Mariah Carey has sold over 175 million albums and rocks a 12-foot palmball, too.

We can’t fault these folks (well, maybe for their attire, but that, too, is another blog post), as females traditionally haven’t had exposure to baseball at young ages in order to develop these osseous (bony) adaptations that favor throwing hard.  And, with just a little reconnaissance work on President Obama, I quickly came across this quote from him in the NY Daily News last year: “”I did not play organized baseball when I was a kid, and so, you know, I think some of these natural moves aren’t so natural to me.”  There’s your answer.

Contrast his delivery with that of George W. Bush, who not only played baseball as a kid, but actually owned the Texas Rangers for a while, and you’ll see what a few years in Little League will do for a shoulder.

Interestingly, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at Bush actually displayed some decent lay-back, too.  It makes me wonder if he was born with some congenital laxity, played cricket or tennis, or just practiced a ton for his first international shoe-throwing appearance (cap?).

As an interesting little aside, in our Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set, Boston Red Sox Head Athletic Trainer and Rehabilitation Coordinator Mike Reinold talks about how European soccer players have actually served as the control group against which we can compare overhead throwing shoulders in research, as these athletes are the same age and gender as baseball pitchers, but rarely participate in overhead throwing sports.  So, perhaps we should say “throw like a European soccer player” instead of “throw like a girl” – particularly since more and more female athletes have started participating in overhead throwing sports at a younger age!

However, in the interim, what can President Obama do to get over this hurdle?  It goes without saying that it’s too late to get that retroversion, as he’s already skeletally mature.  However, there is research out there that shows that pitchers gain external rotation over the course of a competitive season – so President Obama would be wise to get out in the rose garden and play some catch because, you know, presidents have plenty of time to do that!

Likewise, as I outlined in Lay Back to Throw Gas, there are several things he could do to improve his pitching-specific flexibility.  The most important thing is to avoid spending so much time hunched over a desk watching NBA TV writing legislation and the like, as being stuck in this position will shorten the pectoralis major and minor, lats, subscapularis, and several other small muscles that need adequate length and tissue quality to get the arm “back” via good humeral external rotation, scapular retraction/depression, and thoracic spine extension/rotation.  To keep it simple, I’d probably just have him do a lot of the side-lying extension-rotation drill:

In terms of volume prescriptions, I’d just have him do one rep for each time Nancy Pelosi blinks in a day (which, coincidentally, is 570 million reps daily):

Of course, there’s a lot more to it than just this, but these quick modifications would be a good start.  For more information, check out our new Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set.

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Stuff You Should Read: 3/17/10

Written on March 17, 2010 at 5:54 pm, by Eric Cressey

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  I was actually going to take today off – not just in honor of my Irish heritage, but because I was hoping to work from home and catch up on work.  As it turns out, I went in to the facility for our staff in-service (given by Brian St. Pierre, who is featured below), some coaching of a dozen or so of our in-season baseball guys, and a quick training session of my own.  Long story short, my “day off” turned into six hours at the facility, plus almost three hours in the car thanks to Boston traffic and a bunch of detours due to flooding after all the rain we’ve received.

Long story short, all this means that I didn’t get around to writing a blog today – but fortunately for me, a few other bright minds did:

The China Study Fallacy – This is a great piece from Brian St. Pierre on how flawed the perspectives of many “experts” is when it comes to interpreting the results of the China Study.  It’s an awesome read.

Measuring Humeral Retroversion – This blog from Mike Reinold will interest those in the crowd who are (like me) shoulder geeks.  If you train overhead throwing athletes, you definitely better understand retroversion.  It’s a concept Mike and I spend considerable time on in our new Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set.

The Proactive Patient – This is definitely one of the articles that I enjoyed writing the most, as it teaches people to be advocates for themselves during the process of trying to get/stay healthy.

Shoulder Range-of-Motion Norms

Written on July 23, 2009 at 5:55 am, by Eric Cressey

Q: As far as the total motion concept goes, is there a certain minimum of total degrees of motion that the “baseline” limb should have? For example, if a right-hand dominant person has fairly limited total motion on the left side and even more limitations on the right, would the goal be to get total motion symmetrical first and then improve both from there?

A: It is definitely population-specific, as overhead throwing, for example, will simply move that total motion to a different range. So, a symmetrical shoulder might be:

Right (dominant): 45°  IR + 125° ER = 170° Total Motion
Left (non-dominant): 55° IR + 115° ER = 170° Total Motion

The difference between the two would be attributed to retroversion (bony adaptations – more info HERE). A 10° internal rotation deficit would be completely normal in a unilateral overhead throwing population.

Of course, if you get a freestyle swimmer, thinks get a bit interesting. You have to go a bit more by end-feel, and mandate that they have at least 25° degrees of total internal rotation.

That said, in a “normal” weight training population, I like to have at least 90° of external rotation and 50+° of internal rotation. I wouldn’t consider those “good” measurements, but they would be workable (assuming symmetrical total motion).

Now, you are going to have situations here and there where someone has lost total motion in the non-dominant side.  My experience has been that this occurs in athletes who spend too much time in computers and those who get “100% shut down” after an injury.

Believe it or not, I once saw a pro pitcher with only 6° (yes, single digits) of internal rotation on his throwing shoulder, and the medical staff’s conclusion was to give him a cortisone shot and make him rest completely – no lifting, sprinting, stretching, anything (I wonder if they assigned an intern to him to help him wash his hair in the shower).  He basically just charted pitches for two months.  This guy lost total motion bilaterally, so the fact that he was forced into inactivity actually made his subsequent evaluation a bit more complex.  The good news is that these guys can generally be recognized by their terrible thoracic spine posture and increased body fat levels!

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

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