Cressey Performance - Day 1

Despite purchasing some super-cheap Southwest Air tickets up to Boston, we were still 30 miles from CP and the T in Boston just couldn't get us to Hudson, Mass. Megan and I found ourselves a comfy Honda Civic ZipCar and made our way out to the facility.

As we left the city behind and found ourselves driving on a winding 2-lane highway through several quaint MA towns. The Fall season was in full effect and the drive out was scenic. Of course, it brought on a few questions from Megan about EC's training methods. She was concerned that we were coming all this way just to pick up some training tips from Rocky IV.



Then we happened upon the facility. Basically a small office building on the side of the road, it contained a Comcast office, cafeteria, and Cressey Performance. I'd seen pictures of the gym before, so I was a little surprised to see that it was housed in this place. After I convinced Megan this place was legit, we went inside. I was greeted by Connor (one of the interns at CP) before I even made it into the gym, and saw a number of younger athletes walking around the cafeteria carrying various supplements and putting together their shakes for the day. Yeah, I was definitely close to a gym.

Walking in the door, I was met by some of the CP guys and a few minor leaguers who were training during the offseason. These kids looked like they'd been getting some work done too. Pete told me I needed to wait a bit since EC was with a "celebrity" client, but I was early so that was no big deal. As we took care of some paperwork, he asked if I was a baseball fan and if I knew Kevin Youkilis. Well, not much of a baseball fan, but I did know Youkilis... saw him spank the Nationals this year, actually. Turns out, he was the "celebrity" client. I have to admit I felt pretty cool training back-to-back with a major leaguer.

Once they finished up, it was onto the table for me. I went through a series of flexibility tests while Eric took a look at my mobility and asked me some training questions. We covered a lack of t-spine mobility, hip mobility, concern about the heel pain I've been experiencing, and some tightness in my pec minor (causing my right shoulder to "dip" a bit). As expected, I was put onto the foam roller next to get warmed up for my training session. Pretty straight-forward progression on the roller and then we worked with a lacrosse ball on some of the harder to work points like the glutes, calves, and feet. Ben (another intern) walked me through these drills before putting me through a mobility warm-up. A lot of the focus was on hip, thoracic spine, shoulder, and ankle mobility.

Once I was thoroughly warmed up (and I was, sweating through my shirt) we took a look at my deadlift form. I was definitely happy to have two sets of eyes on me as I bent for the bar. Brian St. Pierre (who's blog is linked in the sidebar) and Ben helped me along as I performed a few lifts. My own concern about my technique was confirmed when I attempted a conventional deadlift. After trying a few times to get my back flat while keeping my butt up, we moved on to a "sumo" deadlift. The sumo was much more appropriate for my current level of mobility and they walked me through the process. After plenty of chest out, tuck your chin, don't shrug your shoulders, tighten your scaps, don't shrug your shoulders, tuck your chin, chest out.... I think I had it figured out! The last set felt pretty solid and I felt like I finally had things working for me.

So, to summarize:
- Legs wider than shoulder width apart (more like 4 feet apart, lined up at the narrow smooth line on the straight bar)
- Hybrid grip with arms between the legs
- Stabilize the scaps
- Keep your chin tucked (don't hyperextend your cervical spine)
- Bar starts about an inch from your shins
- Lower back is stable, butt is fairly high in the stance (I was sitting my butt down pretty far and turning the movement into a quad-dominant lift)
- Keep your chest up and your arms extended to start the lift
- Pull with your back, hamstrings, and glutes at the same time to move the weight (I was starting with my legs and finishing with my back)
- Lock out at the top by thrusting your hips through
- Do the movement in reverse to set the weight down

So yeah, if nothing else, that part was awesome for me. I've always been mostly a self-trainer, and I'm realizing that it really pays off to have somebody knowledgeable look at your technique! Hopefully this means no more tweaking my back!

In between sets here I did more ankle mobility work to help out my heel, and then moved to some single-leg work. We did single-leg reverse lunges on a slide board and single-leg Romanian deadlifts to finish of the first day. Those slide board lunges are killer! Just taking the back foot out of the exercise throws a ton of emphasis on your butt and hamstrings of the front leg. I can honestly say that pain is finally gone from my body, but it was sore for a good 3 days afterwards (and that was with a fairly light weight!). These lunges can be replicated with a paper plate under your shoe if you don't have a board. Here's an example (no, I didn't use a keg and weight vest, just some dumbbells...):



So yeah, that was day 1. Day 2 to come soon.