A great weekend with EC

As many of you know, I spent the past weekend in Boston with my boy Eric Cressey. Even though I was smoked by the time I got in Friday night, hanging out with EC is a sure-fire way to get the juices flowing. As soon as we got to his apartment we got down to business planning some future projects and discussing business in general.

Saturday morning we were up by 6 am to attend a seminar in Andover, MA. The primary presenters on this day were Kevin Wilk and Bob Mangine, and the entire day was spent talking about knee injuries, rehab and training. Needless to say, I was in heaven! If you haven't heard these guys speak before and you're serious about your continuing ed, you owe it to yourself to hear them speak. This day alone was well worth the cash I shelled out to attend.

While I have no plans on doing PT any time soon, it really helps to understand what PT's go through on a daily basis. If nothing else, you'll refine your knowledge of functional anatomy and how it applies to the training you're doing. Taking it a step further, if you are good at what you do and have a great network, you can brand yourself as the post-rehab guy in your area - the one that takes them AFTER rehab and gets them back to 110%. Not a bad niche if you ask me.

After the seminar EC and I decided we had sat all day, we needed to train. We got a quick and dirty session in, and I got beasted by a bar only known as El Gordo. This bar is friggin' thick, and it was definitely a shock to the system. I hit 3x5 there, 3 sets of chest-supported rows superset with alternating DB bench, some face pulls, some ab work, and called it a night. I'm still sore two days later.

Later that evening we caught up with the one and only Tony Gentilcore, and Cressey Performance's newest coach Brian. It was a great meal (turkey tips rule!), but the combination of tryptophan and two Miller Lites and I was ready for bed.

The next morning started with Kevin Wilk dropping repeated knowledge bombs on us regarding shoulder health and function. Did I mention this guy is ridiculously smart? And oh yeah, his patient lists reads like a Who's Who of the NBA, NFL and MLB. I was pleasantly suprised on this day, though, that nothing he said went too far over my head. While my primary focus is on knees, I want to learn as much as possible about every joint, and I've been working hard to get my shoulder info up to snuff. It doesn't hurt when you have EC and Bill in your corner, so I don't have any excuses to lack knowledge in that regard.

The day finished up with my Colts stealing a victory from the Texans, and my alma mater Ball State has broken into the college football Top 25 for the first time ever! As I stated, it was a great weekend.

Unfortunately all good times must come to an end, and a bumpy flight home paired with a pre-6 am morning and I'm back to reality. As the saying goes, though, "You can sleep when you're dead."

In the interim, it's time to kick ass and take names. Have a great week!

MR

Random Thoughts - 9/30

In case you missed my newsletter yesterday, it was a doozy! All kinds of good info but here's a short recap (and more!)...

- I was on the FitCast this past weekend; we discussed mobility, knees, and the fallacies surrounding corrective training. You can check it out at www.thefitcast.com

- I had a new article go up today at FigureAthlete.com titled "Breaking into the Industry." If your goal is to become a personal trainer or strength coach in the future, you owe it to yourself to read the article.

- I'm headed to Boston this weekend for a weekend with those freakin' studs from Cressey Performance - you know, Cressey, Gentilcore and Larrabee. And oh yeah, I guess I'm going to a seminar too :(

In all seriousness, the seminar sounds sweet - you know you're a dork when the thought of two-days worth of talk on spines, shoulders and knees gets you excited.

- I also expect some serious brainstorming between Eric and myself this weekend. It's hard to get us together, but whenever it happens we get serious work done.

- Training is going really well right now, and I feel like I'm in a good place overall. I haven't updated it in a while, but I'm going to update the training log ASAP.

That's it for today; have a great day!

Best
MR

Random thoughts...

Pretty busy this week, but here are some random thoughts:

- My lovely wife Jess had foot surgery yesterday. Please keep her in your thoughts.

- I'm getting prepped for the Aussie seminars and things are going well. Two six hour days back-to-back is going to kick my ass though!

- Leaving Australia at noon on a Tuesday and getting back to Indianapolis at 6 pm on Tuesday is the closest thing I'll ever get to time travel.

- My upcoming newsletter interview with Michael Boyle is going to be excellent. If you aren't already signed up, go to my home page and do so now!

- Tony Gentilcore and Eric Cressey both had articles go up at T-Nation in the past week, and both are quite good. Check them out.

- It's fitting that Eric and Tony's article go up in the same week; the only thing more appropriate would be if they went up on the same day, since they do everything else together!

- Front squatting for months at a time makes for a great front squat. Not so great for the back squat, though.

- I'm tired of the cold.

That's all; have a great day!

Stay strong
MR