The Strength House

The Strength House Follow along as we continually work to evolve our training process to best serve our athletes.

06/02/2026

Not all low right shoulders are what they seem.

In baseball a low right shoulder on a right-handed pitcher often gets read one way: a byproduct of throwing, the same in everyone, addressed the same way. It isn’t the same thing. What it means depends on structural bias, and treating every low right shoulder the same is shortsided.

On a narrow, the low right shoulder can be a right-sided compressive strategy. It’s not acquired relatively. It’s how the narrow holds the base of support against the body’s rightward drift. The narrow carries an ER bias, so posterior compression is the starting point, and anterior compression is the reciprocal response to it. Sequentially this works top down. That anterior orientation is what you see at the shoulder: forward center of gravity, loss of IR, bends and twists that leave a visual look to the scap being positioned forward and down.

When the go to response is to row more, drive shoulder ER, etc. you add posterior compression on top of the posterior compression that is already baseline. The reciprocity means the anterior compression you were trying to resolve only deepens.

On a wide, the low right shoulder is likely not a compressive strategy taking hold. It’s often the oblique right turn itself. The left unweights, which raises the left shoulder, the right sits relatively lower as it takes on more IR. The right shoulder is relatively lower, than the left. The wide’s order is reversed from the narrow’s: anterior compression baseline, posterior as the initial response, sequencing from the bottom up. Play the wide’s relatively low right shoulder as compressive bending and twisting… and you’ll often find your lost in the sauce.

The assumption that the shoulder is a held compressive adaptation is closer to true on the narrow than the wide. However, in any context…it would be best to have diagnostics to place better bets. Treat every low right shoulder the same and you may not be successful: or maybe worse mislead as to why when things do work out.

05/29/2026

ER of the humerus is an upward movement in the joint space.

Orientation into ER early on can be helpful for some. For throwers that’s often a positive adaptation — more time and space in ER, which expresses as velocity.

But it can go further. As the center of gravity shifts forward, you get a relative ER of the extremity. To stay inside the base of support, the body answers with a compressive IR strategy — anterior orientation of the rib cage, scap dumped forward and riding up over the top, IR loaded onto the humeral head. (The higher right shoulder starts to become the common lower right shoulder).

That pushes the proximal humerus away from midline. The carrying angle ends up abducted and externally rotated, so when the arm hangs the elbow points in and slightly down. The space to the side isn’t there anymore, so bringing the arm down requires orienting into IR.

A lot of what we’re looking at is already compensated before we start.

The push and row that changes humeral angle in ER…still finishes in space that’s often unavailable.

If we want to restore the space lost in the joint, we have to train away from midline, in the space available, and use non compensated IR to turn the thorax away from the humerus (relative movement of the scap / humerus)

Save this for the next time you’re reviewing movement at the shoulder in real time.

Perfectionism isn’t high standards. It’s the belief that less than flawless is unacceptable, and that your worth depends...
05/24/2026

Perfectionism isn’t high standards. It’s the belief that less than flawless is unacceptable, and that your worth depends on achieving it.

Hewitt & Flett’s research draws a clear line: perfectionists don’t just want to do well, they need to avoid being seen as inadequate.

Brené Brown says: “Perfectionism is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame.”

3 reasons it exists:

1. Shame-based self-worth. When identity fuses w/ output, errors stop being information & become indictments. It originates in conditional approval: praise that tracked performance, not effort or character.

2. Anxiety & control. Often, perfectionism is a regulation strategy. If I get it exactly right, nothing bad can happen. It’s not about the work. It’s about managing perceived threat.

3. Environment. Elite sports, academia, high-performance workplaces reward perfectionism short-term and condition it. Dweck’s mindset research shows: systems that prize outcome over process teach people that mistakes are catastrophic, not instructive.

3 ways to define good enough:

1. Anchor to purpose, not product. Ask what the work actually needs to do. Good enough is where function is fulfilled.

2. Set your exit condition before you begin. Simon called this satisficing: commit in advance to “done when it accomplishes X.” Without that, the evaluative loop has no stopping point.

3. Treat completion as data. Ship it. Perfectionism thrives in the hypothetical. Real signal comes from contact with reality.

Perfectionism front-loads all quality demands before real feedback exists. Stop optimizing against an imagined standard.

Good enough gets work into contact with reality. Adam Grant’s research on creative output is clear — the people who produce the most exceptional work also produce the most mediocre work. Volume and quality correlate because the feedback loop is the development mechanism.

Perfectionism doesn’t raise the ceiling. It lowers the floor by reducing reps.

Inside mentorship I address programming as more than sets and reps…it’s also about clarifying the purpose. Apply though the link in my profile.

I didn’t pick these at random.They’re the beliefs I see most often, held hardest, by people who’ve never actually examin...
05/21/2026

I didn’t pick these at random.

They’re the beliefs I see most often, held hardest, by people who’ve never actually examined them.

Straps don’t cheat your grip. They let you train more effectively. Squat shoes don’t hinder your ankles. They let you actually squat more effectively. Machines aren’t the lesser tool. For growing tissue, they’re often the better one. Chasing failure isn’t training harder — it’s needing to feel like you trained harder than everyone else. Carbs aren’t the enemy of your diet. They’re how you fuel training and set the stage for anabolism.

I’ve sat with the counter-arguments on each of these. None of them survive.

If you’ve got one that does — make the case in the comments. I want to hear it.

A lot of what I talk about can probably sound more complex than it is intended to be.But the goal is not to make coachin...
05/17/2026

A lot of what I talk about can probably sound more complex than it is intended to be.

But the goal is not to make coaching sound advanced.

The goal is to make it harder to hide behind answers that do not actually explain what is happening.

“Get stronger” might be true.

“Improve mobility” might be true.

“Clean up the technique” might be true.

But a true statement can still be too incomplete to help.

That is where I think coaches have to be careful.

Over time, personally, I started to realize how easy it is to use the right words without asking a better question.

Is this athlete actually lacking force output?

Or can they not realize the potential in the time window the task gives them?

Are they actually limited in movement, in need of “mobility?”

Or are they holding a strategy that’s limiting them because they do not have another way to manage pressure, position, or the ground?

Is this athlete’s (insert token muscle or muscle group) weak?

Or is the current joint position relationships creating a conflicting tissue behavior?

That is the part I care about more now.

Not complexity for the sake of complexity.

Not using different language just to sound different.

Just a more honest attempt to see the athlete and the possibilities in front of you.

Better coaching is not always having the most detailed explanation. In fact, it never is.

Being willing to admit that your first explanation was too convenient,

And not letting yourself get away with that, that is the work. Sure, that work may be more difficult at times…even frustrating.

But it also gets a lot more useful.

Address

256 Ayer Road
Harvard, MA
01605

Telephone

+19788462882

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Strength House posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to The Strength House:

Shortcuts

Share

Category