Powerful Potassium

Beet juice is high in potassium, which helps regulate fluid in the body. Unsurprisingly, some studies show that adequate potassium intake is essential for athletes. The performance daily intake of potassium for physically active men and women is 2,500 to 4,000 milligrams. Those who typically train in a hot climate, where they lose more body fluid through the sweating process, should get even more. One cup of beets contains more than 500 milligrams of potassium, which is a good start for helping athletes reach their daily goal.

Cardiovascular Health

Beet juice is loaded with dietary nitrates, which recent studies have found to contribute to lower blood pressure and a healthier cardiovascular system. Studies conducted at Barts and the London School of Medicine last year showed that ingestion of dietary nitrates contribute to a decrease in blood pressure, both immediately and over a 24-hour period. The study suggested that regularly drinking beet juice could play a role in maintaining a healthier cardiovascular system and might play a significant role in reducing high blood pressure. The vegetable also contains a high number of antioxidants, which may also play a part in heart health.

Inflammation Reduction

Many athletes worry that the wear and tear on their bodies from training may take its toll on the body over time. Chronic inflammation that may result from overworking muscles and joints can contribute to a number of risk factors, including osteoarthritis.

Beet juice contains a high amount of betaine, which provides similar benefits to choline in reducing chronic inflammation. In addition to the advantages to athletes, the reduction of chronic inflammation can also decrease the risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and type-2 diabetes.

Beet Greens

Beet greens aren’t typically found in beet juice, but their nutritional benefits to athletes are clear all the same. Beet greens are higher in even higher in iron than the highly touted spinach greens. Iron is an important element for healthy blood flow, which means oxygen is more efficiently carried to muscles and energy levels are maintained throughout workouts. While you are enjoying that refreshing glass of beet juice, eat a few spoonfuls of beet greens for maximum benefit.

Beets and beet juice are an excellent addition to an athlete’s diet. With a powerful punch of vitamins and nutrients and a relatively small caloric content, beets provide one of the biggest returns for your nutritional dollar. Whether you are a weekend warrior or a serious athlete in training, you can enjoy the many health benefits of this root vegetable.

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Post tags: 500 Milligrams, Active Men, Barts And The London, Beet Juice, Benefits Of Beets, Cardiovascular Health, Cardiovascular System, Chronic Inflammation, heart health, High Blood Pressure, London School, Lower Blood Pressure, Nitrates, Potassium Intake, Reducing High Blood Pressure, Risk Factors, Root Vegetables, School Of Medicine, Sport Nutrition, Vitamins And Minerals

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Just about every week, I get someone who comes to Cressey Performance – either as a new client, or as a one-time consultation from out of town – and they have some issue that is bugging them to the point that they opted to see a doctor about it.  This doctor may have been a general practitioner or an actual sports orthopedist.  In many cases, the response from this medical professional is the same “Just rest.”

“It hurts when you lift? Then stop lifting.”

Huh?  When did COMPLETE rest because a viable recommendation?

In case folks haven’t noticed, 64% of Americans are overweight or obese.  Even if rest was the absolute key to getting healthy, telling them to not move is like not seeing the forest through the trees.  Your bum knee will feel better, but you’ll have a heart attack at age 43 because you’re 379 pounds.

Oh, and nevermind the fact that exercise generally improves sleep quality, sexual function, mood, and bowel function.  I’m not going to lie: I would rather have an achy lower back than be fat, chronically ill, sleep-deprived, impotent, angry, and constipated.

But you know what?  The good news is that you can still exercise and avoid all these issues – regardless of symptoms.  I can honestly say that in my entire career, I’ve never come across a single case who couldn’t find some way to stay active.

I’ve trained clients in back braces.

I’ve trained clients on crutches.

I’ve trained clients with poison ivy.

I’ve trained clients less than a week post-surgery.

I’ve trained a client with a punctured lung.

And, when I  did an internship in clinical exercise physiology, we trained pulmonary rehab patients in spite of the fact that they often had interruptions during their sessions to cough up phlegm for 2-3 minutes at a time.

All over the world, people are using exercise to rehabilitate themselves from strokes, heart attacks, spinal cord injuries – you name it.

However, Joe Average who sleeps on his shoulder funny and wakes up with a little niggle needs complete rest and enough NSAIDs to make John Daly’s liver cringe.

Sorry, but you’re going to need to be on crutches, in a back brace, with poison ivy and a punctured lung to get my sympathy.  And, you’re sure as heck not going to get it if you’re just “really sore” from a previous exercise session.  Seriously, dude?

I don’t care what your issue is: “just rest” is almost never the answer (a concussion would be an exception, FYI).  When a health care practitioner says it, it’s because he/she either a) doesn’t have the time, intelligence, or network to be able to set you up for a situation where you can benefit from exercise or b) doesn’t think you have enough self control to approach exercise in a fashion that doesn’t make it more harm than good.

There is almost always something you can do to get better and maintain a training effect.  While adequate rest for injured tissues is certainly part of the equation, it is just one piece in a more complex puzzle that almost always still affords people the benefits of exercise.

A great resource along these lines with respect to shoulders is our Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set.  If you haven’t checked it out already, I’d highly recommend it.

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If you actually slow things down and example joint angles, you’ll see that the shoulder and elbow positioning most of these guys get to is very similar to what you see in more overhand throwers.  The difference is in how much lateral trunk tilt they have; the more trunk tilt, the lower the release point.

The primary difference you’ll see is that sidearm/submarine throwers will typically break down at the elbow a lot more than the shoulder.  Aguinaldo and Chambers found that sidearm throwers had significantly higher elbow valgus torques than overhand throwers. It’s not surprising, given that they do tend to lead with the elbow a bit more.

Position players who throw more sidearm can largely get away with it because a) they don’t have anywhere near the volume of throwing in a single outing or a season that pitchers do, and b) they aren’t throwing off a mound.  We know that just stepping up onto the elevated mound dramatically increases arm stress.

So, what are the practical applications of knowing the demands are, for the most part, very similar?

First, spend a considerable amount more time focusing on core stability and working to iron out excessive right-left asymmetries that arise secondary to all the lateral trunk tilt.  In other words, worry as much about the spine as you do about the arm.

Second, I’d put an even greater emphasis on soft tissue work at the medial elbow – particularly on the common flexor tendon (the muscles that join to create this tendon protect the ulnar collateral ligament from excessive valgus stress).

Third, as is usually the case, use these guys as relievers to keep their throwing volume lower while still maximizing their utility.

Other than that, manage them as if you would any other pitcher – which should always be a tremendously individualized process, anyway!

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Post tags: 3b, Aguinaldo, Angles, Asymmetries, Chambers, Core Stability, Elbow, Flexor Tendon, Mu, Perils, Pitchers, Position Players, Practical Applications, Soft Tissue, Spine, Ss, Strasberg, Tilt, Tissue Work, Torques

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Bogus Workouts and the Official Blog Of… – This is more of a rant than anything educational, but it’s an entertaining look at the obnoxious solicitations I get on a daily basis.

Frozen Ankles, Ugly Squatting – Here’s a piece about people who have ankles that are (structurally) like crowbars – and how they should modify their training.

Strength Training Four Days in a Row – Every have to do it?  Here’s how to optimize it.

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Post tags: Ankles, Blog, Crowbars, Daily Basis, Email, Free Newsletter, Newsletter Name, Rant, Solicitations, Stuff, Training Strength Training, Workouts

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On Thursday’s edition of Baseball Tonight, my buddy Curt Schilling made some excellent points about Strasburg’s delivery that likely contributed to the injury over time.  Chris O’Leary has also written some great stuff about the Inverted W, which is pretty easily visualized in his delivery.

The point I want to make, though, is that an injury like this can never, ever, ever, ever be pinned on one factor.  We have seen guys with “terrible mechanics” (I put that in quotes because I don’t think there is such a thing as “perfect mechanics”) pitch pain-free for their entire careers.  Likewise, we’ve seen guys with perfect mechanics break down.  We’ve seen guys with great bodies bite the big one while some guys with terrible bodies thrive.

The point is that while we are always going to strive to clean things up – physically, mechanically, psychologically, and in terms of managing stress throughout the competitive year – there is always going to be some happenstance in sports at a high level.  As former Blue Jays general manager JP Ricciardi told me last week when we chatted at length, “you’ve only got so many bullets in your arm.”

Strasburg used up a lot of those bullets before he ever got drafted, so it’s hard to fault the Nationals at all on this front.  In fact, from this ESPN article that was published when the team thought it was a strain of the common flexor tendon and not an ulnar collateral ligament injury (requiring Tommy John surgery), “Strasburg has told the team he had a similar problem in college at San Diego State and pitched through it.”  It’s safe to assume that the Nationals rule out a partial UCL tear in their pre-draft MRIs, but you have to consider what a common flexor tendon injury really means.

As I wrote in in my “Understanding Elbow Pain” series (of interest: Anatomy, Pathology, Throwing Injuries, and Protecting Pitchers) the muscles that combine to form the common flexor tendon are the primary restraints – in addition to the ulnar collateral ligament – to valgus stress.  If they are weak, overused, injured, dense, fibrotic, or whatever else, more of that stress is going on that UCL – particularly if an athlete is throwing with mechanics that may increase that valgus stress (the Inverted W I noted above) – the party is going to end eventually.  Is it any surprise that this acute injury occurred just a few weeks after Strasburg dealt with a shoulder issue that put him on the disabled list for two weeks?  The body is a tremendously intricate system of checks and balances, and it bit him in the butt.

There are other factors, though.  As a great study from Olsen et al. showed, young pitchers who require surgery “significantly more months per year, games per year, innings per game, pitches per game, pitches per year, and warm-up pitches before a game. These pitchers were more frequently starting pitchers, pitched in more showcases, pitched with higher velocity, and pitched more often with arm pain and fatigue. They also used anti-inflammatory drugs and ice more frequently to prevent an injury.”  And, they were also taller and heavier.

Go back through the last 12-15 years of Stephen Strasburg’s life and consider just how many times he’s ramped up for spring ball, summer ball, fall ball, and showcases – only so that he can shut down for a week, just to ramp right back up again to try to impress someone else.  Think of how many radar guns he’s had to pitch in front of constantly for the past 5-7 years – because velocity is all that matters, right?

Stephen Strasburg’s injury wasn’t caused by a single factor; it was a product of many.  And, it can’t be pinned on Strasburg himself, any of his coaches or trainers, or any of the scouts that watched him.  Blame it in the system that is baseball in America today.

We already knew that this system was a disaster, though.  Yet, people still keep letting their kids go to showcases in December.  Heck, arguably the biggest underclassmen prospect event of the year – the World Wood Bat Tournament in Jupiter, FL – takes places at the end of October.  When they should be resting, playing another sport, or preparing their bodies in the weight room, the absolute best prospects in the country are pitching with dead, unprepared arms just because it’s a convenient time for scouts and coaches to recruit – because the season is over.

They’re wasting their bullets.

Now, I’m not saying that Strasburg’s injury could have been avoided in a different system – but I’d be very willing to bet that it could have been pushed much further back – potentially long enough to allow him to get through a career.  An argument to my point would be that if it wasn’t for all these exposures, he wouldn’t have developed – but my contention to that fact was that it is well documented that Strasburg “blew up” from a good to an extraordinary pitcher with increased throwing velocity when he made a dedicated effort to getting fit when he arrived at college.

My hope is that young pitchers will learn from this example and appreciate that taking care of one’s body is just as important as showing off one’s talent.

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Post tags: Blue Jays, Bullets, Collateral Ligament Injury, Curt Schilling, Elbow Injury, espn, Espn Article, Flexor Tendon, Great Stuff, Happenstance, Jp Ricciardi, Last Friday, Managing Stress, Strasburg, Time Chris, Tommy John, Tommy John Surgery, Ulnar Collateral Ligament, Ulnar Collateral Ligament Injury, Washington Nationals

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1.  Bam!

You weren’t expecting me to come out with such amazing humor, were you?  Let that be a lesson to you; nobody is more random than EC (and nobody pulls off referring to himself in the third person better, either).

2. We all know that warm-ups are importance for enhancing power output, grooving appropriate neural patterns, and avoiding injury.  Here is some cool research that demonstrates how much more effective an active warm-up is than a passive warm-up when it comes to metabolic responses to exercise.  Namely, those who undergo an active warm-up demonstrate increased oxygen uptake and lower heart rate at a given workload than those participating in a passive warm-up (or no warm-up at all).

Anecdotally, I can tell you that there have been some days where I have felt like there was lead in my shoes and that there was no way I could get any interval training in on a day I’d planned to do so.  However, after a good dynamic flexibility warm-up, things “miraculously” got a lot easier.

3. A big congratulations go out to CP baseball athletes Jordan Cote, who committed to Coastal Carolina, and Joe Napolitano, who committed to Wake Forest. Both made their decisions last week and were featured at ESPN Boston.  We’re proud of our boys!

4. Likewise, I’ve got to give a congratulations to CP athlete and Lincoln-Sudbury All-American soccer player Cole DeNormandie, who became the second CP athlete featured on the cover of ESPN Rise Magazine in just the past few months (he joins Vanderbilt-bound pitcher Tyler Beede):

5. Mike Robertson published a three part series on Knee Pain Basics this past week; it is absolutely fantastic and I’d strongly encourage you to check it out.  Here are the links:

Part 1 – Philosophy
Part 2 – Programming
Part 3 – Coaching

Along these same lines, if you haven’t checked out Mike’s Bulletproof Knees Manual yet, I’d strongly encourage you to do so; it’s an excellent resource.

6. Greg Robins recently came down to spend some time observing the madness at Cressey Performance, and wrote up a detailed review of his experience; check it out: Science and Attitude: My Trip to Cressey Performance.

7. Here is a link to a great blog from Bret Contreras; it’s definitely worth a read: Sprint Research, Biomechanics, and Practical Implications – An Interview with Matt Brughelli.

8. I need some advice from the dog lovers out there.  Both my fiancee and I grew up with dogs and are thinking about getting a puppy after our wedding (less than six weeks away right now).  We both agree that we want something small – but at the same time, I’d like something that doesn’t make me want to instantly turn in my man card, like the silky poo for which she is currently pushing:

I actually really like bulldogs, but that’s going to be a tough sell for her unless it’s a “hybrid” where you can’t see a whole lot of bulldog.  Plus, I know a lot of people have said that they have a higher propensity for health issues.  I like puggles, mini pincers, and a few others, but what do those of you in-the-know suggest?  Thanks for any help you can offer!

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Post tags: American Soccer, Anecdotally, Beede, Coastal Carolina, Denormandie, Dynamic Flexibility, espn, Heart Rate, Interval Training, Joe Napolitano, Knee Pain, Lincoln Sudbury, Metabolic Responses, Mike Robertson, Neural Patterns, Oxygen Uptake, Random Thoughts, Soccer Player, Ups, Warm Ups

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For more detail, check out The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual.

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Post tags: Absolute Speed, Absolute Strength, Continuum, Detail Check, Pro Baseball, sport

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Deloading in Maximum Strength – While The Art of the Deload goes into a ton of detail on a variety of deloading strategies, several folks have asked me how it specifically applies to the Maximum Strength program.  This clears things up.

Lower Back Savers Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 – This three-part series at T-Nation are among my most popular articles there.

Unstable Ground or Destabilizing Torques – This blog will make you think about what you see when you watch sports on TV – and, more specifically, how athletes prepare themselves for those demands.

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Post tags: Blog, Maximum Strength, Sports, Strength Program, Stuff, T Nation, Unstable Ground

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What I want to know is that specifically with my feet if wearing a supportive shoe with orthotics is such a bad thing. Everyone is on this barefoot kick, but it just doesn’t work for me. If I go barefoot my hips move out of correct position and my ankles and calves ache. In fact, when I was a child, my dad had to massage my calves and arches at night because I’d be in tears from the pain of being flat-footed. Once I got my first orthotics at age 7, I was so much more comfortable. I feel that orthotics and a nice flat shoe for me helps me use my feet correctly and allows me to stay away from internal rotation of the tibia and femor, and reduces pelvic tilt, etc.

Or, I could be mistaken? What do you think, and have you heard anyone else talk about this? Other hypermobile people and I have talked about this and we all seem to feel the same: barefoot is not the way to go for us.

A: Extensive barefoot stuff is definitely not for everyone, and if you were having issues that significant at such a young age, you’re probably just someone with a structurally different foot type.  There are definitely scenarios where orthotics are indicated, and the fact that you’ve gotten so much symptomatic relief from them tells me that they’re a good thing in your case.

That said, you might still benefit from just a bit of barefoot training – like deadlifting barefoot and doing some bowler squats and the like.  Basically, just use it for situations where foot positioning doesn’t change.  Then, you don’t have to mess around with how it affects the gait cycle.  I think you’ll get some of the benefits of strengthening the small muscles of the feet and improving proprioception (in light of your history of ankle sprains) without all the unfavorable compensations further up.  And in folks who don’t have your hypermobility, improving dorsiflexion ROM would be an added benefit.

I wouldn’t say that it’s specific to hypermobile individuals, though.  A lot of them probably have issues with barefoot training because they lack the strength and underlying stability required at the lower leg and hip to take the ground reaction force stress off the feet.  Remember that mobility and stability are always working at odds with one another; if you’ve got too much of one, you have to train the other one to pick up the slack.  My hunch is that most of these people don’t have structural pronation; they have excessive functional pronation because the anti-pronators – specifically the hip external rotators – aren’t strong enough to decelerate that pronation.  Check out the valgus (poor) positioning on the left here:

Of course, in the general population, we see it for this reason, as well as the fact that most people walk around in terrible cinder blocks footwear that completely “tunes out” the joints and muscles of the feet.

A lot of the folks that try barefoot training and wind up in pain get that way because they’re idiots and jump right in full-tilt.  You can’t go from wearing cross-trainers to wearing thin pieces of cloth/rubber overnight.  And, as Nick Tumminello wisely pointed out recently, while our ancestors were barefoot all the time, they weren’t barefoot on CONCRETE for loads of mileage.  And, they weren’t as overweight as today’s society is, with such low relative strength. As always, people get hurt because they are stupid and not because a specific training modality is bad.

Typically, in a broad sense, I recommend that people do their 1-leg (pistol) squats, all deadlifting variations, and box squats without sneakers.

As long as they aren’t really overweight – or presenting with a history of foot problems – we’ll also have them do their warm-ups without sneakers.

Everything else (including more quad dominant squatting variations) are done with footwear.

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Post tags: Ankle Sprains, Ankles, Arches, Calves, Correct Position, Excessive Pronation, Femor, Flat Feet, Foot Pronation, Foot Type, Internal Rotation, John Travolta, Mike Robertson, Muscle Imbalances, orthotics, Saturday Night Fever, Spondylolisthesis, Squats, Symptomatic Relief, Tibia

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