A few weeks ago I was contacted by Lisa Shaughnessy of The Fitness Marketing Q & A Show about coming onto her show and talking about Star Wars trivia.
LOLzzzz. Okay, kidding. As if the name didn’t give it away, the show really revolves around fitness marketing.
Outside of beef jerky, Matt Damon, and maybe the occasional re-run of old 90210 episodes on tv, there’s really nothing more I love than talking about myself. But really, who doesn’t love to do that?
Me, me, me, and me. It’s all about ME!!!!!
Putting everything into context, however, I’ve never really thought of myself as a “marketing” type of guy. I see the word “marketing” and automatically think of those cheesy infomercials that everyone watches when they’re up late and can’t fall asleep.
And if I were really going to be honest, I’m not that much of a fan talking about myself.
I mean, I do what I do and just kind of go with the flow. It’s how I’ve always been.
Suffice it to say, by no means do I consider myself a marketing expert, but giving credit where credit is due, I feel I’ve done a decent job of building my “brand” and establishing myself as someone who doesn’t suck in this industry.
Although, I’m sure there are some out there who may disagree….;o)
That said, for those interested, below is a link to the show (it’s around 45 minutes) where Lisa and I cover, among other things:
How having a system in place improved my online coaching program (as well as discussing the advantages and DISADVANTAGES to coaching people in a distance based situation).
How writing for a local publication can be more important for your business than a national publication.
Hear how I used writing, podcasting and speaking engagements to help my information reach a wider audience.
What’s my promise for 2013. Hint: it’s something I feel everyone should be doing, but I haven’t gotten around to doing it myself (tsk tsk tsk).
I think it’s definitely worth your time, and hopefully gives people a little more insight on what I’ve done to help “mold” my career. If nothing else, you get the chance to listen to my sultry voice while you’re driving your car or wherever it is you choose to listen.
I’d love to hear your feedback, and I know Lisa would as well!
Whenever people think of Cressey Performance, there are probably two things that immediately pop into their heads:
1. Deadlifts. And….
2. Baseball.
And neither of the two should come as a surprise. For starters, we kinda have an affinity for deadlifts. Walk into the facility at any given moment throughout the day and you’re bound to find someone pulling something heavy off the ground.
Likewise, and with respects to the latter, roughly 85% of our clientele are Victoria Secret models baseball players.
And while many people are under the impression that we solely train baseball players, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I mean come on: I literally just said that 85% of our clientele are baseball players. You weren’t listening were you? WERE YOU!?!?!??!
Sometimes it’s like I’m talking to a brick wall.
In fact, we’ve had every sport imaginable train underneath our roof. You name the sport, and it’s likely we’ve worked with them: softball, tennis, volleyball, football, ultimate frisbee, hockey, basketball, wrestling, boxing, field hockey, swimming, lacrosse, and you can even add fencing into that pile. Totally not kidding.
About the only sport(s) that haven’t made an appearance are ice curling, synchronized swimming, and competitive eating (if that can even be considered a “sport”).
But lets dial in the conversation to soccer. We’ve trained our fair share of soccer players at CP ranging from high school players to recreational players to even having a cameo appearance by the likes of USA Women’s team member Lori Lindsey on occasion. What what!
Given that soccer is the most popular and widely played sport in the world, I thought I’d share a guest post by both Eric and Chris Martinez (AKA: the Dynamic Duo).
I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I enjoy reading research about as much as I enjoy getting dropped kicked in the face. Which is to say: I freakin hate it.
This isn’t to say that I don’t do it: I just don’t like it. At all.
But thankfully Eric and Chris were kind enough to review a recent squat study as it relates to soccer players, and I felt I’d share here on my blog.
Enjoy!
Soccer Players: To Squat or Not to Squat?
GOOOOAAAALLL! We’ve got one question for all of you soccer players…Do you SQUAT? Although we are not expecting any answers back at the moment, we do hope you are saying yes to your computer screen while reading this.
It’s not a coincidence if you are reading this and questioning, “Well, why should I squat if I do indeed play soccer?”
In all honesty, we could sit here and explain all the great benefits of squats, but that could take a whole other article itself to school everyone on. Instead, we would like to breakdown a study that the great Chris Beardsley and Bret Contreras discovered and dissected on their fantastic Strength and Conditioning Research.
The aforementioned study revolves around how strength training can lead to increases in power and speed for elite soccer players.
So, if you’re a soccer player or coach soccer players we highly recommend you sit back, relax, turn off the FC Barcelona game on the flat screen for a bit and take some notes.
If you are a current soccer player or former soccer player, you should know that the sport involves movements that involve speed and power. Ask any Strength and Conditioning coach how important those two elements are for athletic performance. We promise they will tell you it is very damn important for sports performance. If you want to be the best, you have to train like the best!
Back to our original question: If you play soccer do you squat?
We asked this question because the study we are about to break down by Keiner et al. shows strong correlations that sprint performance and leg strength can improve by doing both back squats and front squats. Man, if only we knew this back in our days when playing futbol, aka soccer. We probably would have been bending it like Beckham 😉
So What Did the Researchers Do?
The researchers wanted to track the development of 30m sprint performance in youth soccer players over a 2-year strength training intervention. So, they recruited 134 elite soccer players, not world cup stars ladies and gents.
The players were subdivided into three age-groups (A, B and C cohorts) and the average ages of each group were 17, 15 and 13, respectively.
To be very clear here, the participants in each cohort were divided into two groups. One group (Strength training group [STG]) was subjected to regular soccer training in addition to strength training twice a week for 2 years. The other group (Control group [CG]) completed only the regular soccer training.
The strength training group performed their workouts on non-consecutive days and the exercises varied between the parallel front and back squats during the week and also performed bench presses, deadlifts, neck presses, and exercises for the trunk muscles as well as the standing row.
Squat training for the strength-training group was periodized such that following initial technique training, the subjects started with a hypertrophy training block, which comprised 5 sets of 10 repetitions with 3-minutes rest between each set.
The next training block comprised a strength period of 5 sets of 6 repetitions with 3-minutes rest between each set followed by an additional training block of 5 sets of 4 repetitions with 5-minutes rest between each set.
The researchers measured 30m sprint times, including splits every 5m, and maximum 1RM front and back squat strength after two years of training.
So What Happened After All of This?
For Maximum Strength, the researchers reported that the strength-training subgroups of all three age-groups displayed greater improvements in the front and back squat 1RMs than the control sub-groups.
For 30m Sprinting Performance, the researchers found that in the A and C groups, the strength-training sub-group displayed significantly better reductions in sprint time than the control sub-group at each 5m split time between 5m and 30m. They found that in the B group, there was a significant difference between the strength-training and control sub-groups at the 5m, 20m and 25m splits.
Correlations; the researchers performed a correlation analysis and found that there was a significantly positive but moderate relationship between strength gains in 1RM expressed relative to body weight and improvement in sprint performance in all age groups.
The correlations were highest for the first 15m of sprinting, indicating the greater importance of squat strength for accelerating rather than maximal speed sprinting.
What Did the Researchers Conclude?
The researchers concluded that a strength training program involving front and back squats led to a positive improvement in the sprinting performances of young soccer players. Pretty cool. Right?
Wrapping It All Up
As you can see the research doesn’t lie. Of course there were limitations, but all studies have limitations. And, at the end of the day if those do not agree with these findings, that’s ok too because science is always open to debate.
We can definitely tell you from anecdotal experience that squats and front squats will 99.9% of the time increase speed, power, hypertrophy, strength, and overall athletic performance. In other words, we highly agree and approve of this study by Keiner et al.
So, just too briefly recap, if you are a soccer player, coach, or just an overall jock, we highly recommend you implement some sort of squat variations into your training regimen to maximize your full potential.
Don’t get us wrong here ladies and gents, we are not asking you to go load up a squat bar and max out for 500 lbs. We are simply saying whether its conventional back squats or front squats that you chose to do, do them with proper precautions, make sure you squat deep, and don’t be afraid to progressively overload.
And hey, if you squat more often, maybe you will score more GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLSSSS than the famous “Pele” did.
“No Excuses, Only Solutions”
References:
1). Influence of a 2-year strength training programme on power performance in elite youth soccer players, by Sander Keiner, Wirth and Schmidtbleicher, in European Journal of Sport Science, 2012.
2.) Chris Beardsley and Bret Contreras, 2012.
About the Authors
Chris and Eric Martinez, CISSN, CPT, BA, also known as the “Dynamic Duo” operate a world class personal training and online training business “Dynamic Duo Training.” They’re also fitness and nutrition writers, fitness models, and coaches that love helping people reach their goals. Their philosophy is “No excuses, only solutions.”
I had every intention of getting up this morning and writing a killer post on rest/pause training, but last night’s telecast of the Oscars kinda put a damper on that.
Not surprisingly, I ended up watching all 17 hours of the show, and needless to say didn’t get to bed until pretty late.
And while I understand that admitting I love to watch the Oscars places me in the stratosphere of ultimate nerdom, at least I don’t play World of Warcraft….;o)
A few candid highlights:
1. Really glad to see that Silver Linings Playbook didn’t win for Best Picture. If it had won, I would have likened it to the travesty of when Shakespeare in Love won for Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan.
Yes, that happened over 15 years ago and I’m still bitter about it.
I love quirky, off-kilter movies (Moonrise Kingdom, anyone!), but this one in my opinion was vasty OVERrated and I don’t really get why it has gotten so many accolades. Sure, hats off to the film makers for making an effort to bring mental illness to the forefront, but when Lisa and I went and saw this back in the fall (before everyone hopped on the bandwagon and it became “cool” to say you went to see it), we were both pretty meh about it.
Lisa almost wanted to walk out.
Anyways, I was happy to see Argo take the award home. After being snubbed by the academy for a Best Director nod (although the guy who ended up winning, Ang Lee, for Life of Pi, 100% deserved to win), it was great see Ben Affleck get some recognition.
2. Really happy to see that my boy Tarantino took home the prize for Best Screenplay.
3. In watching a bit of the pre-show I couldn’t help but wonder: if we put as much scrutiny into solving our national debt issues as we do into best dressed, we’d probably accomplish something.
For the record, Lisa’s pick for best dressed went current woman George Clooney won’t marry, Stacy Kiebler:
4. Seth MacFarlane’s opening number “We Saw Your Boobs” was pretty freaking funny.
Note to Self: Tony, if you haven’t already, make it a point to watch every movie he mentioned.
5. I couldn’t help but notice that 90% of the guys who won for behind-the-scenes stuff like Sound Mixing, Cinematography, Editing, etc all had creepy long hair like the villain from Die Hard:
So yeah, I was up late, slept in, and since I’m running short on time this morning I figured I’d start the week with my list of stuff to read:
Some days you feel like a rockstar, and on others, the second you wake up you feel like you’ve been run over by a mack truck.
While I can count on one hand the total number of times I’ve skipped a scheduled training session my entire life, for many, they’ll use any excuse possible to get out of going to the gym.
The slightest hint of a headache or a hang-nail, and they’re hightailing it to their couch instead of the squat rack.
While there are certainly cases were heading to the gym if you’re not feeling well is more counterproductive than anything else, I’d argue that you can still get a heckuva training effect if you just tweak a few things here and there.
This article sheds some light on that very notion.
I’m embarrassed to say that when I was originally sent this article from someone else and read the first few paragraphs, I thought it was serious.
Apparently I forgot to eat my bowl of sarcasm flakes that morning.
This was an absolutely HILARIOUS post by Chris, and while the article itself is very entertaining, the comments section is borderline addicting. Grab a chair, maybe prepare some popcorn, and enjoy!
Act of Sportsmanship – If This Doesn’t Make You Teary Eyed, You’re the Spawn of Satan
Okay that’s probably a bit drastic, and I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. But for all of those people reading (like me) who generally go out of their way to avoid watching the news because of its incessant negativity, this story is quite the contrast.
Okay, not that I had any qualms or regrets with writing the pregnancy post the other day, because I was more than happy to do it; it’s something that had been running around in my head ANd I wanted to address it for a while now, and a topic I wanted to tackle sooner rather than later; and more importantly, I feel it’s a message that’s going to help a lot of people down the road.
But lets be honest: it was definitely something off the beaten path from what I normally write, and I’m sure there were a fair number of people who read the title and immediately high-tailed it in the other direction.
So, to make up for it, I wrote an article not too long ago for T-Nation that went live yesterday on what else….
[Drumroll please…….]
Deadlifts!
I know, I know – I write about deadlifts about as often as a bear shits in the woods, and I promise this will be the last one for a while. No, seriously….I mean it this time.
Nonetheless I feel there are a number of tips that can be gleaned from this article, so check it out and let me know what you think.
I can just smell the testosterone rising. Enjoy!
It’s no secret that I love deadlifts. I try to write about other things that inspire me – squatting, pull-ups, seeing Nadine Velazquez naked in the first 5 minutes of Flight – yet I’m constantly drawn back to the mighty pull like a jacked-up sockeye salmon returning to its pristine natal waters to spawn.
Fortunately for me, if the amount of email I receive asking about improving deadlifting performance is any indication, the majority of T Nation readers feel the same way.
So what follows are a few lesser-known tricks and tweaks that you can use to quickly improve your deadlift technique and bust through plateaus.
These tricks won’t turn you into Andy Bolton over night, but they could, to steal a line from Dave Tate, take you from “Shit to Suck” – which is still pretty good.
And, if you play your cards right, maybe even from Suck to Good!
While it’s technically not something you’ll be able to read while you’re sitting there at your desk pretending to work, I just wanted to remind everyone out there that today’s marks the LAST day that Spinal Health and Core Training: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Health, Fitness, Rehabilitation, and Performance is on sale for $100 off the regular price.
While I’d like to sit here and say that this DVD will add 50 lbs to your deadlift almost instantly, make you strong enough to wrestle a great white shark (with one arm), and increase your IQ so high that NASA will hold a ticker tape parade in your honor, that would be embellishing things just a tad.
I mean, it’s pretty much common knowledge that it’s impossible to put a great white into a half-nelson. So it’s not like I’m fooling anyone here.
All kidding aside, I really feel this is going to be a game changer for a lot of fitness professionals out there and will undoubtedly place you a step above the rest with regards to anatomy, assessment, corrective exercise, program design, and a plethora of other things like understanding when to progress (or regress) clients with back pain, how to integrate appropriate core exercises, and maybe even more important, how to coach the exercises correctly!
All of the guys involved – myself, Rick Kaselj, Dean Somerset, and Dr. Jeff Cubos – put a lot of work into this seminar and provided over 12 hours worth of information and knowledge bombs that, in our eyes, will make anyone who watches it a verifiable Robocop when it comes to working with athletes and clients with back injuries.
I thought this was a fantastic review by Dr. Freedhoff on the best selling book, Wheat Belly, by William Davis, M.D.
It seems like every few weeks a new diet book comes out throwing something else under the table – in this case it’s wheat.
Now, I’m fully aware the gluten intolerance – and all the nastiness involved with it – exists. And I’m also fully aware that people tend to overemphasize highly processed foods like breads, bagels, and pasta in their daily diets – even if they’re “whole wheat/grain” (and presumably under the guise that they’re healthier options) – and develop a killer “wheat/pot/food” belly as well as a raging case of type II diabetes to show for it.
On the flip side, though, there are still plenty of people out there who do eat whole grains and wheat (as well as many of the other foods which Dr. Davis poo-poos on) without any issues what-so-ever.
Admittedly, if given the choice, I’d lean more towards the camp of telling people to omit much (not all) of the grains and whole wheat products they eat – my gut and experience just tells me that most people are better off that way.
But at the same time I understand that pointing the finger at one thing is a bit naive and sensationalist; and that what works for one person, may not necessarily be the right choice for the next – especially in the long-term.
Thanks to people like Dr. Freedhoff, it’s a bit easier to tone down the stupid.
In light of all the talk surrounding the increased incidence of concussions and the dangers to one’s health that are a result, I thought this was an interesting commentary of the role the strength and conditioning community plays.
Now, just to be clear: I am in no way insinuating that we shouldn’t “hold back” in our efforts to make our athletes (and clients) bigger, faster, and stronger (that’s what we’re paid to do)……..
…..But is there ever a time – and have we reached that point – where enough is enough?
The squat is undoubtedly one of the more popular exercises out there in the fitness world, and with good reason! You’d be hard pressed to find anything else that can trump what it can accomplish with regards to muscle gains, increased strength, improved athletic performance, and even less talked about benefits like increased bone density (staving off osteoporosis) as well as a litany of positive hormonal adaptations that come into play.
While there’s an endless abyss of information available discussing proper squatting technique – what’s the ideal bar placement, foot placement, how to groove a proper hip hinge (and by extension how to engage the hamstrings/glutes to a higher degree), not to mention all the different variations – more cogent to today’s post I want to discuss a factor that’s often dismissed or at best glazed over.
And that’s how not to destroy the back of your pants the set-up.
Quite literally, how you set up to squat can make or break your set, and thinking more long-term, your overall squatting success.
Many people just kinda haphazardly approach the bar, un-rack it without much thought or attention to detail, and then perform their set. And I hate to break it to you: it looks like garbage. And I can only imagine what it feels like.
Suffice it to say, there’s a bit more to it than just approaching the bar and performing your set. Like, a lot more. And in today’s video I briefly cover why taking the time to set-up properly (and yes, even learning how to un-rack and rack the bar without making your spine hate you) can pay huge dividends in terms of keeping your back healthy in addition to aiding overall squatting performance.
* Photo credit above goes to the peeps over at Elitefts.
1. Okay, I hope everyone is starting to recover from their insulin-coma they put themselves into last night. Even more importantly, I hope everyone is fully recovered from that full on make-out session between super model Bar Refaeli and G0 Daddy.com’s resident nerd Walter (who, lets be honest: is officially every guy’s hero today).
While there was a huge public backlash to the commercial due to its “eww factor,” especially with the additional sound effects (which sounded like a five year old eating a peanut butter sandwich – I didn’t mind it so much, and just chalked it up to the overthetopness of the Super Bowl in general.
That’s what the Super Bowl is all about, right?
All in all (and I don’t know how everyone else feels) but no commercial really stood out in my book. Like, nada.
Whatever happened to the good ol’ days when we had Spud McKenzie, The Budweiser Frogs, the Waaaaaaaaasup Guys, or Ali Landry eating Doritos?
Speaking of Doritos, both Lisa and I kept it pretty gluttony-free yesterday during the game. Okay, while I still had my fair share of pizza (and okay, yes, ice cream), we made some fajitas using homemade fajita mix, grass-fed beef, and lettuce wraps instead of regular wraps.
Also, Lisa made some crispy (baked, not fried) buffalo chicken wings that were Paleo friendly. She’s a ginormous chicken wing fan and pretty finicky when it comes to giving any recipe a thumbs up, but this one was a definite homerun.
For those interested, here’s the recipe she followed:
2. Prior to the festivities yesterday, Lisa and I got all “cultural” and had an afternoon date where we headed into the city to see a flamenco show featuring the Paco Pena Flamenco Company.
Now, before I met Lisa the only iota of “culture” in my life was eating out at Applebees and going to the occasional foreign film.
You know, for the art (Read: boobies).
Anyways, Lisa takes all the credit for introducing me to flamenco. She dragged me (kicking and screaming) to a show when we first started dating, and reminiscing back I had every intention of sitting there with my arms folded hating life for an hour and a half.
Truth be told: I absolutely LOVED it! For those unfamiliar there’s a lot going on on stage with all the clapping, dancing, and singing. And it’s beautiful to listen to.
While there is some semblance of choreography between the percussionist(s), guitarist(s) and the dancers, no performance is the same as there’s always a degree of improvisation…..which makes all the more interesting to watch.
Yesterday marked the fourth or fifth show we’ve gone to see together, and the third time we’ve seen Paco Pena. If you ever get the chance to see him in person, I’d HIGHLY suggest it.
3. Heads up! I’ll be submitting my next T-Nation article in the next day or two, so keep your eyes peeled for that. It’s going to focus on what else: the deadlift. While some may be rolling their eyes at the thought of another deadlifting article:
It’s not like I’m forcing you to sit at the table until you finish all your vegetables. You’ll read this article when it comes out, and like it!
I’ll be covering some less known coaching cues that I feel helps a lot of people hone in on their technique.
4. I purposely try to avoid talking politics on this blog for obvious reasons, but for those looking for a good book to read (or just something that will make you angry enough to punch a dolphin in the face), I just completed a doozy called Predator Nation. Written by Charles Ferguson – the guy who wrote and directed the documentary Inside Job – it basically details just how shady and corrupt many of our financial institutions, CEOs, politicians, and (unfortunately)peeps in higher academia are.
It’s pretty sickening, when given an opportunity to actually witness what goes on behind the scenes and to see the man behind the curtain, what these people have been (and currently are) getting away with.
I’m no financial savant, and I’d be the last one to be able to break down the inner workings of what a credit default swap is, let alone what it does – but this book does a bang-up job of laying out the pieces and making us think: why the hell has no one gone to jail for any of this?
What’s more – and this is something that really appealed to me as I was reading it – the book points the blame to all recent administrations – Bush, Obama, Clinton, Reagan, Bush II, and even (Star Wars reference!) the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances.
Okay, obviously not the last one, but no one can wipe their hands clean here.
For those looking for something to better explain why it is where spiraling into more and more debt and continually digging ourselves into a deeper hole, I’d give this book a try.
Giving full disclosure I have yet to open it up, but I’ve always been a fan of Dr. Bowden’s stuff, and I’m always game for pointing people in the direction of why tossing out egg yolks is a dumb idea.
More to the point, I’m always disheartened when people are automatically encouraged (but usually shoved) down the path of reactionary protocols like statin drugs – mostly because there’s a financial incentive to those physicians who do so – and given archaic and ill advice on nutrition and exercise.
It’s high-time that we change our attitudes towards this epidemic and start taking more preventative measures. And this book is (presumably) a step in the right direction.
6. Check out this hilarious video. The girl’s reaction is awesome!
It’s a shark! It’s a big-ass shark!
7. And finally, for all those movie buffs out there: fellow CP coach Brett Kokorunda and I have been debating these two “best of” lists from the 90’s and 2000’s.
While I could sit and talk about/debate movies all day, I have to say I was really impressed with both lists.
They included lesser known gems like Out of Sight, Talk to Her, Rushmore, Mulholland Drive, and Children of Men; as well as the obvious choices like Pulp Fiction, GoodFellas, Boogie Nights (my personal fav), Schindler’s List and Terminator 2.
Although, I’m calling BS that Saving Private Ryan or Swingers wasn’t included in the 90’s list.
UPDATE: and upon second glance, The Shawshank Redemption, too. WTF!!!!!! I’ve yet to meet one single person who’s ever said a bad thing about that movie.
Not including that movie on a “best of” list is like not including The Beatles on a Best of Rock-n-Roll list.
I still have to sift though and read all the entries, but I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions! Agree with the list? Disagree?
Wait, what was that? You never saw Boogie Nights!?!!??!!?
You’re officially banned from this blog until you do.
For those who missed it, yesterday I posted PART ONE(Newsflash: you’re reading part II) of some of the reasons why your shoulder is most likely jacked-up and not jacked.
If you’re too lazy to click the link above, here’s the dealsky:
1. Your technique on just about everything is, for lack of a better terms, is god-awful.
2. The program you’re following, while written with good intentions and attention to detail, may in fact be feeding into your issues and causing more harm than good.
And that’s all I’m gonna say on that front. If you want to dive in and a get a litte more detail you’re just going to have to click on the link and read part one.
Hint: You should read part one.
Moving things along, lets go a head and get the most obvious one out of the way first. And while it’s the most obvious, I’d argue that it’s still something that many people disregard altogether and shove into some back room like a red-headed stepchild.
Not Addressing Tissue Quality
Much like taking your car in to get its oil changed, or going to dentist every six months for a cleaning, or clipping your nose hairs before a big date, addressing tissue quality should be considered preventative maintenance. Or, at the very least – especially with regards to the latter – set you up for long-term success. Maybe even second base if you play your cards right!
Either way, it still dumbfounds me that people (especially those in pain) refuse to put two and two together and aren’t more proactive on this front.
It’s not a sexy topic, which is probably why so many people turn their backs on it. But watering things waaaaay down: when you palpate tissue, it shouldn’t hurt. Conversely, if you palpate your pec (and if you’re really talented, your pec minor) and it makes you jump off your chair, then that should tell you something.
Almost always, the pec (and by association, the pec minor) is going to enter the equation when the discussion of shoulder pain comes up. Think about what I mentioned yesterday and how most programs are aligned: there’s a heavy emphasis towards pushing movements compared to pulling. As such, it’s not uncommon to observe many people with rounded, abducted shoulders – kind of like this poor guy here who I found on Google images:
Putting my Captain Obvious hat on for a second, it stands to reason that this said random guy should become BFFs with a foam roller, and spend a lot of time rolling his upper/mid back, as well as his lats (which is an area that many people neglect).
But that’s just half the equation. Anteriorly speaking, what do you think is pulling is scapulae into a more abducted position?
His pecs!
Taking the time to perform some dedicated self myofascial release on the pecs, and as a result working to get into a more optimal alignment, can pay huge dividends when you’re dealing with a cranky shoulder.
Doing your part to help release built up scar tissue, adhesions, and trigger points is a step in the right direction, but you also need to understand that it’s just as important to lengthen that tissue after the fact and then “cement” that new length with proper strength training.
Stealing a popular phrase from physical therapist, Charlie Weingroff, we need to “get long, and get strong.”
You can’t make the mistake of JUST foam rolling or whatever and then just going about your business. You also need to lengthen that tissue and strengthen it within that new length.
It’s actually a profound litmus test if you’re someone who’s going to a physical therapist or manual therapist. Are they just treating the symptoms with whatever modality they prefer (Graston, ART, dry needling, deer antler spray, Unicorn tears) and kicking you out the door, or are they following treatment with appropriate stretching and strength training?
If the former, I’d be reticent to continue with said therapist.
Doing Too Much Band Work
I’ve mentioned this in the past, but it bears repeating.
If I were to ask you what is the function of the rotator cuff, what would you say? If I were a betting man, I’d garner that the vast majority of people reading would say one of three things:
External/Internal rotation of the arm (glenohumeral joint).
Elevates the arm in the scapular plane.
Where the hell’s the rotator cuff? Isn’t this the part of the post where you post a picture of a scantily clad hot chic
If you mentioned either of the two former options- congratulations you’ve obviously read an anatomy book within the past 25 years. And, while you’re technically not wrong, you’re not entirely correct either.
With regards to the latter option, I’d would post a picture of the rotator cuff to help clear the air but THIS is actually the point where I post a picture of a scantily clad hot chick.
For the record, her rotator cuff would be approximately 2 o’clock from her cleavage. How that’s for functional anatomy….;o)
Okay back on track: While the rotator cuff does invariably play a significant role in external/internal rotation, as well as elevation of the arm, you’d be remiss not to recognize that it’s main function is to simply center the humeral head within the glenoid fossa.
Unfortunately, if you were to take a peek into what most people’s shoulder “rehab” programs look like it would most likely resemble a hodge-podge collection of rotator cuff band exercises done ad nauseam.
Now I’m NOT suggesting that band exercises are a waste of time or that dedicated RC exercises like the side lying external rotation shouldn’t be performed.
Far from it. In fact, side lying external rotations (with the arm abducted slightly) have been shown to have the greatest EMG activation of the rotator cuff – when done correctly.
I think my main beef – especially when it comes to band work – is that people are under the assumption that more is better.
The above couldn’t be further from the truth. Training the rotator cuff to fatigue increases superior humeral head migration, and makes about as much sense as making another Sex in the City movie.
Put another way, when the rotator cuff is fatigued, the humeral head will shift superiorly towards the acromion process, effectively increasing the likelihood of shoulder impingement.
So, contrary to popular belief, all of those 50-100 rep sets of band or side lying DB external rotations you’re doing to keep your shoulder “healthy” isn’t doing your shoulder any favors.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to do them. I just think it’s wrong to do them until you’re blue in the face.
Your Shoulder Probably Isn’t Even the Issue!
Let me clarify before I proceed, because I know I’m getting some people scratching their heads at that last comment.
Looking directly at the shoulder does make sense – especially if 80-90% of your clientele make their living throwing a baseball.
As an example if we get a pitcher walking through our doors who complains of shoulder pain, it only makes sense to look at the shoulder and check out things like total ROM (glenohumeral internal + external rotation), upward/downward rotation, so on and so forth.
But when working with the general population, it’s often advantageous to dig a little deeper.
This isn’t to say that the shoulder ISN’T the problem, it very well could be. But it’s been my experience that it’s usually not.
I just find it comical whenever I read a random article or blog where someone starts throwing out things like “check for big toe dorsiflexion” or “can they recite the alphabet backwards in less than 17 seconds?” as if any of that really matters.
Sure, I guess we could make a valid (albiet far reaching) case that limited big toe dorsiflexion can effect things up the kinetic chain, but more often than not I just feel people start throwing out that kind of verbiage as a way to make themselves sound smarter than they really are.
Nevertheless, there are a multitude of factors that we have to take into consideration as to why someone’s shoulder is flipping them the bird that may or may not have anything to do with the shoulder.
At CP we take the following into consideration that may have nothing to do with the shoulder:
A handful or maybe all factors above may need some attention and have their share of the limelight, but the real take home message is that you need to think outside the box. Just because your shoulder hurts doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a shoulder issue.
And that’s that! Hopefully I was able to shed some light on an often murky and confusing topic. If you liked this, please do me a favor and “Like” it, as well as share on as many social media outlets as possible. I’ll give you a hug if you do.
A while back I was contacted by the editors of T-Nation to contribute to an article specifically geared towards people interested in pull-ups: how to not suck at them, how they can go about building a back wider than Kansas, you know, stuff like that.
It went over really well, so the higher-ups at T-Nation decided to ask the same crew to write their thoughts on chest training, and this was the end result.
I was truly honored (and humbled) to have my blog listed amongst so many other esteemed health and fitness professionals. As it turns out, many of the blogs I follow on a consistent basis (Mark’s Daily Apple, Bret Contreras, Adam Bornstein, Eric Cressey, Kellie Davis, Girls Gone Strong, to name a few) made the list, which doesn’t really surprise me because they’re all fantastic.
But it was nice to get e-introduced to a number of other blogs that are equally as awesome and badass.
Honestly, Dan had me a “Gun Show,” so I’m already in and an easy sell. But in case you’re not up to snuff with broscience lingo, my good friend Dan Trink, Director of Training at Peak Performance in NYC and co-author (along with me) of the first three month’s of programming for Greatist’s Workout of the Day (GWOD), released his very first fitness product this week that’s a 4-week arm specialization program.
For those who don’t know Dan, he’s a brick shit-house and has arms bigger than both Optimus Prime and Megatron combined.
See? Told ya.
But he’s also one of the nicest and most down-to-earth human beings I know. Not that that really matters when purchasing a product, but I just thought you should know….;o) I generally shy away from people who are a-holes, let alone endorse their products.
Anyhoo: As a dude, I know the first thing I do when “sizing up” other dudes is to look at the size of their arms. While it doesn’t necessarily tell me much in terms of how strong they are (or if they have some super secret Jedi mind trick powers that I don’t about), chances are if someone’s rocking 18″ pythons, I’m not going to attempt to take their lunch money.
Having big arms is the “holy grail” for just about any guy who has ever lifted a weight in the history of the world, and this 4-week program delivers the goods.
The manual includes 4-weeks of programming, training templates, and links to videos of every exercise. The only thing it doesn’t include is a tape measure and a copy of Hulk Hogan’s theme song, “Real American.”
It’s on sale now for $14.99 until this Friday at midnight, and then it reverts to the normal price of $27.99. So for 0.54 cents per day, you could have Rambo arms. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
The weather in Boston today is pretty craptastic, and as such, I spent a fair amount of time cleaning off both our cars this morning.
For me it’s not that big of a deal because I’m able to park my car in the parking lot at the adjacent building next to our apartment complex, so I only have like a 30 second walk to my car.
Lisa on the other hand has to park her car down the road a ways at some random person’s driveway in a spot that she rents on a month by month basis. I rent a spot too. But like I said, I’m only like a 30 second walk away.
You see Brookline, the town in which we live, has a “no overnight street parking” policy where the powers that be decided it would be an awesome (and be “awesome” I mean the complete opposite of awesome) idea to not allow any street parking from 12-5AM.
Why? I have no idea. Either way it sucks whale vagina, and unless you own a helicopter and can park that badboy on a rooftop somewhere, or can somehow defy the law of physics and teleport yourself from point A to point B, you’re renting a parking spot.
Anyways long story short: the weather sucks, I just spent half an hour clearing off both our cars, and I now only have a few minutes to get this here post up for ya’ll before I have to head out the door early to give myself ample time to get to work on time.
And yes, I just used the word ya’ll. I have no idea where that came from.
I had the pleasure of meeting Joy in person a few weeks ago when she came to Cressey Performance to observe for the day. We had the opportunity to talk some shop, and I could tell right off the bat that she was someone who really had a passion for what she did, not to mention had an insatiable appetite to get better.
I mean, why else would she spend an entire day at CP? It certainly wasn’t for my good looks and witty banter.
Nevertheless, I was stoked to see the above article on T-Nation last week that was written by her, and thought it was fantastic.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE: Guys, read this article before even thinking about approaching this topic with your significant other.
There’s definitely a lot more to it than just slapping your girl on the tush, handing her some creatine, and yelling out, “lets go get hyyyyyyyyyyoge.”
Trust me. Don’t do it. This will have the opposite of the intended effect. Just read the damn article, okay?
An incredibly thorough (and honest) review of some research on the topic of squat depth and glute activation by Chris Beardsley via Bret Contreras’ blog.
The geek factor is high here, but Chris does an amazing job at breaking things down and explaining things in way where us mere mortals can understand.
I “stole” this article from Jen Sinkler via Twitter, and loved it.
We sit, like a lot. And there are a plethora of long-stemming health ramifications from all the sitting we do.
And while I’m a bit hypocritical in posting this article given I’m typing this while in fact sitting down (bad Tony!), I also know that I’ll be spending the next 6-8 hours running around coaching my tail off.
In case you’re wondering, I’m totally sticking my tongue out at you…..;o) I have the coolest job ever.
Chris and Eric Martinez, CISSN, CPT, BA, also known as the “Dynamic Duo” operate a world class personal training and online training business “Dynamic Duo Training.” They’re also fitness and nutrition writers, fitness models, and coaches that love helping people reach their goals. Their philosophy is “No excuses, only solutions.”
punch a dolphin in the face), I just completed a doozy called 
5. On a less “I-want-to-throw-my-face-through-a-wall” note, another book to check out is Jonny Bowden’s 
