Customize Your Training Program (and Win Free Stuff!)

In anticipation of the release of his new training system The High Performance Handbook, Eric Cressey released three great videos last week that I hope you had an opportunity to check out. In addition to watching the videos, I spent the last week digging through the High Performance Handbook and am really impressed with the resource Eric put together (and the nutrition piece that Brian St. Pierre put together…UNbelievable).

As you may know, I’m a firm believer in individualization. There are a lot of different ways to individualize a program, but 3 major ones are:

Intended physiological response
Training frequency, duration, load, volume, etc.
Exercise selection and performance of prescribed exercises

There are times when individualizing these factors are easier than others, but as an individual training on your own, you really have the freedom to alter variables to best suit your needs. Naturally, there is also a benefit to having a structured training plan. The cool thing about The High Performance Handbook is that it provides sufficient structure to ensure your progress, but also enough options for individualization for it to best suit your needs. The accompanying video database also allows you to hear how Eric teaches ALL of the exercises in the program, meaning it’s the closest thing to actually training with Eric you can get without relocating to Hudson, MA.

Even better, if you buy the High Performance Handbook TODAY, you may actually get a chance to train in Hudson! Eric has a nice list of free prizes he’s giving away to customers that buy today (think first come first serve giveaways). Check out what he’s offering:

Be entered to win an all-expenses-paid trip to train at Cressey Performance for two days.
Be entered to win one of three pairs of New Balance Minimus sneakers, which Eric refers to as “the most-badass minimalist sneaker on the market”
Be entered to win one of five Cressey Performance t-shirts
Receive access to Eric’s 25-minute video, 7 Ways to Progress a Push-up

Getting access to a great new program, having an opportunity to go train at CP or getting some free swag…Not a bad deal! I don’t promote many training programs like this because I think it’s hard to really replicate quality training without actually getting coaching. That said, I completely understand that it’s not feasible for everyone to train at a great facility. The High Performance Handbook is unique in that it doesn’t just offer great programming from a coach that actually trains people (extremely rare in the internet world), it offers multiple avenues of individualization and a video database where a coach is walking you through how to do the exercises correctly. This would be worth the price of admission in itself, as one of the big reasons people don’t succeed with a program is they don’t know how to do perform the exercises correctly. Whether you’re a competitive athlete or just looking to make a change in lifestyle, following a quality training program designed to meet your needs can have a profound impact on your results. And since Eric backs all of his programs with a 100% Money Back Guarantee, you have nothing to lose to give it a try!

Get your copy now! >> The High Performance Handbook

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

P.S. I highly recommend you pick up the Gold Package of The High Performance Handbook, as it includes an awesome nutrition and lifestyle guide from Brian St. Pierre of Precision Nutrition. There is some really eye-opening and useful stuff in there.

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Individualizing The Deadlift

Cressey appreciation week continues with another short video from Eric walking through some of the finer points of an extremely important exercise that he knows a thing or two about.

Eric lifting…one hundred, MILLION, pounds.

Check out the video here >> Individualizing The Deadlift

While Eric may be the Michael Phelps of deadlifting, I saw some fairly ordinary looking people moving a lot of weight at his facility when I interned there years ago. In other words, he’s not just a genetic anomaly, he knows how to teach other people how to get strong too, which is the perfect segway into today’s video. The deadlift is one of the best strength training exercises out there for, and variations are incorporated into almost every program we write. That said, being able to perform the exercise with optimal technique is what leads you to setting personal records and not to prolonged back pain. So many people perform deadlifts improperly that it’s actually commonly thought of as an unsafe exercise. As with everything, safety needs to be put in context. Sprinting can be beneficial. Sprinting against traffic on a major highway, however, may be less desirable. Similarly, while I don’t think it’s common to deadlift in traffic, I don’t think most people have a great understanding of how to set up for, perform, and finish the deadlift, and how these things may need to be tweaked depending upon your unique structure.

This is a great video because it provides very practical information and some simple coaching cues that you can start applying immediately. Take a few minutes to check it out!

Check out the video here >> Individualizing The Deadlift

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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The Most Overlooked Part of Exercise Performance

My outlook on optimal exercise performance has changed drastically over the last 3 years, largely as a result of having taken 8 PRI courses and 2 DNS courses. There are positions/postures and stabilization strategies that make me cringe now, that I and the rest of our staff, spend a lot of coaching energy on trying to correct on a daily basis. Today, my friend Eric Cressey is back with another outstanding video that includes:

How posture can affect breathing and how this ties in to certain common injuries
A powerful exercise to better position the breathing musculature and improve posterior expansion (a limitation common to almost ALL athletes, and many general population folks as well)
A 3-exercise mobility -> stability continuum to help improve upper body range of motion and core control, the last of which can also be used as an assessment

And yes….Tony is back:

As I mentioned about Eric’s last video, there are 4 exercises presented in this video that we use a lot with our clients. More importantly, Eric is referencing a philosophy of view of movement in general that underlies everything we do.

Check out the video here >> Breathe Better, Move Better

One of the things Eric mentions it a bit in passing is that using one of these exercises tends to improve range of motion in other areas (notably shoulder and hip rotation, which is incredibly important for everyone, but especially baseball and hockey athletes, the two sports that Eric and I work with the most, respectively). In many cases, aggressively stretching to improve range of motion without FIRST addressing the position of the involved bones (e.g. rib cage/spine positioning in an upper body example) can be driving pathology/further injury. Similarly, the inability to appropriately position and utilize the diaphragm can drive imbalances in length, tension, and control throughout the entire body. In other words, this stuff is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!

Check out the video here >> Breathe Better, Move Better

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

P.S. The 4th exercise Eric presents is a great assessment. Check out the video and give it a try yourself! Breathe Better, Move Better

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Before You Bench Press Again…

This past weekend we were very fortunate to host Michael Cantrell and the Postural Restoration Institute for their Postural Respiration Course. This was my 8th PRI course, including sitting for their PRT certification earlier in the year, and it really cleared up a lot for me and gave me some different tools to use. That said, I always leave these courses with a slightly larger notes file and A LOT more to think about, which means my brain is mush right now. In the future, I’ll write about some of the bigger take homes from this course and more about how I’m applying it with our athletes. That said, I’m in no condition to write coherently today!

Fortunately, my friend Eric Cressey just released a free video (minutes ago!) outlining how individual shoulder positioning will influence exercise selection and performance. As you may already know, Eric trains a lot of high level baseball players and has helped a lot of athletes and lifters get freakishly strong without compromising their shoulder health. In short, when it comes to shoulders, when he speaks, I listen.

The “Shoulder Guy”

I had a chance to check out this video yesterday and think it’s great for a few reasons:

The video is short and to the point, so you can pick up some great information without writing off an afternoon
Eric uses simple language to discuss how a common shoulder pattern develops and influences exercise performance
The video provides several great exercise alternatives that will serve to improve performance while also addressing imbalances around the shoulder
Cressey Performance Adonis Tony Gentilcore is the guest host of the video and in this historical moment, he appears to be wearing a medium sized t-shirt, two sizes larger than his typical go-to

In all seriousness, the video is well done and provides some great strategies that are easy to implement. Check it out at the link below:

Click here to watch the FREE video >> Upper Body Exercise Variations

Eric told me he has a few other videos coming this week that identify ways you can individualize your training to make it more effective for you. I’m looking forward to checking them out, as I’m sure you are. Stay tuned!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

P.S. We use these exercise variations with almost all of our athletes. Make sure you don’t miss a great opportunity to learn for FREE from one of the best in the industry! Upper Body Exercise Variations

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Hip and Thoracic Mobilization

As athletes get deeper into their seasons, being diligent about recovery becomes increasingly important. In general, athletes tend to focus on positive habits when it’s too late. For example, some may wait until they’re already sick before they start getting enough sleep every night and drinking water, or wait until they’ve strained a muscle before they start doing their mobility and corrective work. While it’s never bad to adopt good habits (late is always better than never), the reality is that a little everyday is better than a lot all at once. Over the last week I’ve added a couple articles that discuss different recovery considerations and strategies. If you missed those, you can check them out at the links below:

While this has a little less to do with recovery and overtraining, I also thought I’d remind you about the recipe I posted the other week. Give it a shot: Seasonal Post-Workout Snack

Hip and Thoracic Mobility
Over the last several years, I’ve talked a lot about the importance of maintaining, and in most cases improving, hip and thoracic mobility in all athletes, but especially hockey players. I have a lot of different mobility exercises that we use for these purposes. Having a variety is helpful both in terms of addressing slightly different planes of movement and in keeping the players interest. For the players that buy in and do some of this work almost every day of the week, doing the same exercises over and over can get pretty stale.

For the Flyers Junior Team I’m working with, we’re basically rotating 5 mobility drills every 4 weeks, which we perform after rolling, but before the dynamic warm-up. This week we started a new series that included one of my favorite integrated hip and thoracic mobilizations, a “Static Spiderman Lunge w/ Rotation”.

Static Spiderman Lunge w/ Rotation

[quicktime]http://www.kevinneeld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Static-Spiderman-Lunge-With-Rotation.mp4[/quicktime]We’ve been using a slightly more static variation of the above by not having the players return to the standing position between rotations. In other words, their feet don’t move, only their upper body.

A few coaching points to keep in mind:

You have to step forward far enough to get full hip extension on the back side while keeping the front foot flat.
If you’re having trouble getting full hip extension, squeeze your butt on your back leg.
Actively pull your front knee out.
Reach straight up toward the ceiling, not back.
Think of getting “long” through your arms by actively pushing into the ground with the bottom arm and actively reaching up with the top arm.
Look through your hand.

Rotating the neck to “look through the hand” helps to unlock more thoracic rotation.

If performed correctly, you’ll probably feel a stretch to your posterior adductor magnus on the front side (think back side of the high groin), the hip flexor on the back side, and your chest/shoulder on the top arm. That said, everyone is built differently and will experience this position differently. From a coaching perspective, I tend to just look for optimal alignment and if the athlete has that, they’ll “feel it” wherever they’re supposed to. Athletes with limited hip flexion or thoracic rotation will really struggle with and benefit from this. If there is a structural limitation to hip flexion (e.g. FAI), then you can put a 12-18″ box or bench under the athletes hand which will help keep them up a little higher.

This is a great exercise to address hip and thoracic mobility together. Give it a try and post your comments below! If you want to get access to over 800 other exercise videos, including over 70 mobility/warm-up exercises, check out the Ultimate Hockey Training Insider’s Section today!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

P.S. The first step toward driving physical adaptation is making sure you’re following a quality training program. If you don’t have a written training program that tells you EXACTLY what to do, then check out Ultimate Hockey Training‘s Insider Section!

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