I received a pretty cool email this morning from a college athlete I’ve worked with—Division I baseball—who trained with me a few summers ago and reached out after his junior season. He walked into CORE, and after a thorough assessment and a discussion of his season and what he needed to work on (including his nagging back pain), he said, “The time I felt best was when you were writing my programs.” With that, we mapped out a summer plan focused on addressing his back issue and building a solid base.
We emphasized anterior core strength and stability to promote better pelvic position, and we set up drills to dissociate hip movement from the lumbar spine—think a lot of deadbugs and bird dogs. Not flashy, but effective. We also worked on restoring scapular upward rotation through real shoulder‑blade movement, rather than extending through the lower back or shrugging. We taught rib positioning through breathing drills to control extension, with an emphasis on a full exhale. We also focused on how the reach allows the shoulder blades to move around the rib cage, since extension tendencies can reappear.
And yes, we still lifted heavy things, but I coached him to “pump the brakes” when needed. The idea wasn’t to lift heavy at all costs, because that mindset is probably why this athlete had injuries in the first place. The point was to stress the QUALITY of movement and show that building a wider base with submaximal loads can help you reach a higher strength peak.
Most people would think I was going soft, but the athlete bought in and stuck with the plan for three months. This morning I got an update: after our first testing day, he hit 515 on a one‑rep max trap‑bar deadlift, and his back felt good afterward. He had never gone above 405 all summer, and in the last week of our training together he reached 515.
We stayed busy all summer with squats (two‑kettlebell front squats), single‑leg work, carries, glute bridges, rows, Pallof presses, push‑ups, and a bit of good‑humored ribbing about never watching The Usual Suspects. The majority of his strength work stayed in the 60–80% range, and every rep was pain‑free with solid technique.
Because we addressed alignment, stability, and movement quality, he could express his “true” strength when it mattered. The lesson isn’t always to lift heavier. Something to think about.
Credit to Chad Wesley Smith of Juggernaut and Greg Robins for the analogy. And now we may have to discuss “when is strong, strong enough?” I doubt there’s any real benefit in chasing a 550‑pound deadlift, and I’d encourage him not to pursue it.
