Been Awhile

A lot has happened since I last blogged.

1. Went to Vegas (yes, I survived my first plane ride) and dropped $80 gambling. The girlfriend, however, won $800. Needless to say dinner was on her the last few nights we were there.

2. Lost 7 lbs in a week due to moving and getting into an accident while moving. Read: moving sucks donkey balls.

3. Been training a lot of athletes in the new facility, which has been a blast and has taken up the majority of my time obviously.

One of the cool things about the new facility is that we have been having a few people here and there stop by to observe and see how we operate. Last week I was discussing program design with one such person and he asked, "what are some of the main variables you take into consideration when designing a program for an athlete?"

Simple answer: decide what they should NOT be doing, and go from there. A great example would be baseball players. The vast majority do not need to be performing overhead movements, and we tend to exclude any overhead pressing (more specifically any BARBELL pressing) into their programming. We do allow pressing movements, but most entail the use of dumbbells, and with a neutral grip. Barbells lock "us" into a pronated grip, which promotes a bit more internal rotation of the glenohumeral joint. By having our baseball players stick to dumbbells or any bar which allows for a NEUTRAL grip, they're able to get a bit more external rotation, and thus "save" their shoulder.

Certainly there are a plethora of other variables that go into program design, but trying to figure out which movements a certain athlete or client shouldn't be doing will make the job much easier in the long run.