Elite Baseball Mentorship Takeaways

By David Drinks

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Hudson, MA with Bob Gorinski to take part in the Elite Baseball Mentorship at Cressey Sports Performance (CSP). The experience had me walking away with a much greater appreciation for the unique demands baseball places on an athlete, as well as the need for individualizing the training approach for each athlete. Coming from a background of playing baseball through the collegiate level, as well as currently working in the fitness industry, I have had ample opportunity to experience firsthand the lack of understanding that surrounds training for baseball. Fortunately, CSP offered a safe haven, as we had the chance to learn from and observe some of the brightest minds in the industry. In this brief review, I hope to highlight some of the foundational qualities of optimal training for baseball.

baseball - yes!

The foundation for many issues in the fitness industry is that most trainers and coaches do not assess their clients before they start training them. This is like a doctor prescribing medicine without asking questions or conducting tests. As crazy as that concept sounds in the medical world, this approach is commonplace in the fitness and sports performance world. This problem is amplified when it comes to training a population of athletes for high performance, especially those who need to get in unique and dangerous positions during their sport such as a pitcher in baseball. A phrase they often use at CSP is, “If you’re not assessing, you’re guessing.” I, for one, am not okay with guessing when it comes to optimal performance training and injury prevention.

The Elite Baseball Mentorship was not about pointing fingers. Rather, it was an objective and logical look at what is currently happening in the baseball training world and how it can be improved. What stood out the most to me was the current practice of many baseball and strength and conditioning coaches grossly generalizing training and preparation in the baseball population.

To use a specific example, I will share my own experience of team training as a high school and college pitcher. In high school, each pitcher ran 6 poles every day. That was it. In college, we advanced to running many more poles, as well as adding in silly looking arm care exercises with 5lbs weights and resistance tubing. Every pitcher, from the 6’7’’ lefty who was extremely flexible and unstable at many joints, to the 5’10’’ righty who was extremely stiff, did exactly the same thing! It would be an understatement to say that the current system is broken. With this understanding in place, we need to move forward to looking at what can be done to better prepare each individual for the demands in their sport.

The traditional “one size fits all” approach is popular because it’s efficient, cost-effective, and easy to implement in situations where coaches are out of their element. In reality, every athlete’s body is unique and their training program should reflect this. Should we stretch the heck out of an athlete who is already extremely lax because they “feel tight” or everyone else is doing it? Should we give heavy farmer’s carries to an athlete who already has a heavily depressed scapular position? Absolutely not; this makes it even more challenging for them to elevate their arm to the proper throwing position. Should we give any exercise indiscriminately to all of our athletes because some study said it showed great activation of the rotator cuff? I don’t think so. What needs to be done is a thorough assessment by someone qualified before a training program is devised.


After this assessment is done, and the athlete is educated on what their individual body needs for optimal performance and injury prevention, then the discussion of how the plan is implemented must take place. Even with perfect programming, there is a large amount of variability in how it is performed. The staff at CSP constantly reinforced that it is the job of the coach/trainer to teach correct movement, whether it is on the field, in the weight room, or anywhere in between. Correct movement is the foundation on which every athletic movement takes place. If this is not rigorously taught and re-taught, then the athlete is going to repeatedly stress the wrong parts of the body which will eventually lead to injury. 

layers of "baseball - no"

In fact, repetition of poor movement and posture is indicative of exactly what injury will ultimately occur. If athletes are allowed from a young age to get really good at moving poorly, then there should be no surprise when injury ultimately pops up. To quote physical therapist Eric Schoenberg, “Subtle deviations in the precision of movement are the cause of injury, and this starts at a very early age.” Schoenberg went on to encourage a proactive approach that prevents injury by being aware of the signs before the symptoms occur. Just because something doesn’t presently hurt doesn’t mean it's working well! The bottom line is that, if we can identify and correct movement faults at a young age, we can prevent many injuries later on.


One final concept that was evident at CSP was that training can be effective without crushing the athlete each workout. The traditional “conditioning” focus of training for baseball creates fatigue which promotes inefficient movement and poor movement patterns. Simply because an athlete doesn’t feel “crushed” after every workout does not mean that the training was ineffective. Instead, Schoenberg was very adamant about the idea of what he termed “deliberate practice” over “practice.” He said that typical practice "Often reproduces faulty movement patterns; generally focuses on a person’s strengths; is generic; is mindless; and occurs in a group format.”

On the other hand his concept of deliberate practice “Corrects faulty movement patterns; is focused on addressing weaknesses; is specific; is mentally exhausting; is individualized; and results in drastic improvement over time.” What does deliberate practice look like in a real life training environment? CSP demonstrated this well by the lack of puke buckets available (or needed) after workouts, and the number of athletes who were dialed in and extremely focused on what, why, and how they were performing their workouts.


In summary, the knowledge level and example set by all the staff at Cressey Sports Performance was outstanding. They clearly understood the need to train each of their athletes in a way that fits the individual. They assess posture and movement for each and every one of their clients, and write an individualized program based off this assessment and the athlete’s unique injury, exercise, and athletic background. On the other hand, the generic training model that many use pales in comparison. Throwing a bunch of unique athletes into a group exercise class and giving them the same workout toes the border between acceptable and dangerous, but it most certainly is not optimal. Fortunately, there is a better way, and the results that CSP gets with their athletes is proof that they’re onto something that works.

Yoga does not fix everything

"My back is feeling mostly better. Now I just need to get back to yoga to stretch and strengthen my core."

This, a direct quote from a former physical therapy client, is the type of statement that I hear fairly often. In two physical therapy sessions, this patient had made fair progress in terms of pain control and basic function. She would have gained a lot from a few more weeks of PT.

Yoga can be challenging. Yes, I've done yoga. Three times. I'm not anti-yoga. Let it be known that I'm definitely pro- good yoga. What I'm against is the many yoga instructors and their followers who preach yoga as the magical end-all, be-all solution to every ailment.

With yoga, the total body movement is quite limited. It doesn't burn many calories as compared to other forms of activity like a modest walk or cleaning the house. The intensity is limited. Jogging up a hill or a few minutes of step-ups will better increase your muscular and cardiovascular endurance and rev your metabolism. Although better than nothing, the benefit of yoga for strengthening is limited as there are no external forces to control. Even in terms of improving flexibility, yoga is far more limited than you may think.

Creepy yoga.

-Gasp- He won't even concede that yoga is good for flexibility?

Yes, I said yoga is limited in its ability to appreciably effect flexibility. I know from experience, that for every person who learns how to bend their body into an inverted, single leg wobogong, there is someone who achieves minimal gain in flexibility. People who are already quite mobile gravitate toward yoga because they are good at it. They are usually not powerhouses in activities that require running, jumping, and change-of-direction. But for those with average or below average flexibility, the chances of improving is truly about 50/50.

How could this be? Well, here are a few reasons why yoga may fail to appreciably improve flexibility.

1. When there is true stiffness at a muscle or joint, the body will take the path of least resistance unless given a darn good reason not to. I often see this in the clinic: people who frequently do yoga still have spines that move too little at some segments and too much at others. I see people who stretch their legs daily yet their ankles and hips move horribly. They unknowingly stretch and move in the path of least resistance. Getting the tightest segments to contribute to the movement requires much intent.

2. The feeling of tightness may be from inadequate strength elsewhere. A common example of this is that errbody wants to stretch their tight hamstring, when in reality the hamstring are on over-drive in order to help stabilize hypermobility (too much movement) at the spine. If this is the case, more stretching of the spine will not help the situation, and aggressively stretching the hamstring may make matters worse.

3. The feeling of tightness may be from too much flexibility elsewhere. This happens often. An overly flexible foot will present as tightness or shin splints in the lower leg. A too flexible spine will present as chronic muscle spasms in the back and hips. Again, stretching will do little to correct this and definitely has the potential to worsen the issue.

There are more examples of when a yoga type stretch is not ideal for addressing perceived inflexibility. The important thing is not to simply stretch or strengthen, but to concern yourself with the details of exactly how you're moving when you stretch and strengthen.

Please understand that my claim is that yoga, in a generic sense, is by no means a magical cure for every ailment, including poor flexibility. While I'm picking on yoga, the same could be said for many other forms of exercise. And here we arrive at what I believe is the heart of the matter.

Some version of this comes up fairly often in this time of escalating copays and less financial margin. I get it. The alternatives are enticing: the $50 per month boot camps, the $10 per session or $5 per month gym membership. It's certainly more affordable than the cost of having an expert professional (yes me, but not only me) assess an individual structure and way of moving, and match that up with what that person needs and wants to do in life.

Can *good* yoga take the time to perform an individualized assessment and come up with a detailed exercise and form prescription? Absolutely! But it's rare within most fitness settings. This level of service demands a certain skill set, time, and attention. There is no trainer or facility that will stay in business providing this level of care for $10 per month.

The guy to the far right is approaching ideal form.
The rest of them could use a detailed assessment. 

But does $10 per month work well? Can a person effectively manage their own pain and recover function armed with a membership and maybe some knowledge from a friend or YouTube? Sometimes they can, quite honestly. But the success is often short-lived. Problems seem to resurface with a vengeance.

The adage holds true in the fitness realm: You get what you pay for.

The First Game-Changer

People always speak of game changers as the athlete who performs outstanding while under pressure, or the athlete who has physical or mental attributes to rise above everyone on the playing field.

Yesterday was the third and last day of the Cressey Performance Elite Baseball Mentorship. You can find the first two parts below. After an 8-hour drive yesterday evening and a full day of work, I'm a bit on the crushed side. But I wanted to reflect on the day before life rolls too far ahead.

In the morning we reviewed what a *targeted* warm-up and training may look like for a pitcher in- and out-of-season. Once again, every athlete is unique in how they function and the demands placed on them physically and psychologically. But there are definitely a few common patterns.

In the context of their system, it makes complete sense to think that MANY athletes are wasting their time at best with their warm-up.  And there is a good possibly they are making things worse. For example, pitchers with known hypermobility (some degree of looseness at select joints) should be shooting to achieve a sense of proprioceptive control and joint stability, and NOT stretching their joints to end range. On the other hand, a generally tight athlete should be doing dynamic movements to end range and even performing static holds (longer duration) on select joints.

This lecture reminded me to finish a writing that I started, Stretching Doesn't Fix Everything, that will list a few good reasons why you do not want to stretch everything that feels tight.

Whatever the pattern, each athlete is given a specific series of warm-up activities, based on their assessment, that serve as both pre-hab and preparation for the more demanding activities to come, be it intense weight training, practicing, or playing. Contrast this with "take a lap and stretch" where, in the words of Cressey himself, "Athletes mostly shoot the breeze and sit around grab-assing." This is a completely accurate description, in my experience.

It's ironic that Eric, David, and I got to talk a bit personally while he was warming up for his workout. I was recovering before some Farmer Walks and Cressey was foam rolling as we talked, so I refrained from titling this post Grab-Assin with Cressey.

Later that morning we watched pitching instructor Matt Blake give some constructive feedback to a few pitching prospects. These pitchers were doing a lot right, but Matt made a few recommendations and suggestions that seemed to be new and relevant to the athletes. Of the three pitchers that I watched closely, all of them were hoping to be drafted soon, had underwent at least one shoulder or elbow surgery, and were throwing damn hard but struggling for one reason or the other. This is the typical June client at Cressey Performance. And it's why Cressey is so adamant about being *specific* with big-picture programming, appropriate warm ups, exercise selection, and exercise execution down to every rep.


"The shoulder blade is slightly downwardly rotated so we're not going to do rows or farmer walks at all and instead we're going to do some wall slides that begin with the scapula in a neutral position and making a broad sweet to recruit the serratus anterior to assist with upward rotation and elevation at end range."

Cressey is careful with his assessments and precise with his programming and obsessive with his attention to form. Cressey's knowledge base and verbage is part and parcel to my world as a physical therapist. But out of the context of a world class sports performance gym, one could easily say he is absurd with how seriously he takes the concept of exercise and form.

Cressey speaks as if the next rotator cuff exercise
will solve world hunger.

BUT...

The attention to detail, the precision program design and training and convincingly speaking as if something as small as a posteriorly directed force over the anterior shoulder during rotator cuff activation is a critically monumental thing in this world...

It's working. In more than one way, it's working extremely well.



Maybe the first Game Changer truly is the person who identifies and attacks the smallest dysfunction movement in a young man with extraordinary potential. Maybe that upper trap activation pattern truly is the first link in a long chain of season- and even life-changing performances.

Programming, Pitching, and a PRs

"You can observe a lot by just watching."
         -Yogi Berra''

Today was day two a CSP Elite Baseball Mentorship in Hudson, MA. It was another long day of drinking baseball-related information out of a fire hose.

The day began with a lecture on strength training programming. Eric Cressey pointed out that training for baseball has traditionally gone one of two directions: excessive coddling or "do what the football guys do." He went on to contrast this with the idea of understanding the unique demands of the sport, the individual athlete, and knowing what acceptable movement patterns look like off and on the field. He went into little detail regarding why they do not perform Olympic lifts (something I've listed in more detail here).

Next we heard pitching coach Matt Blake regarding pitching mechanics. I've read some of Matts material and I love how he goes about the business of balance. How do we balance this idea of key positions in the pitching delivery (as typically identified by the pitching big-shots at AMSI) with how the pitcher moves dynamically to attain said positions? How do we balance the idea of "normative ranges" with the pitchers own rhythm and feel? How do we balance the nuts and bolts of biomechanics and movement patterns with *sensitive* personalities? How do we balance health and performance? Do you shoot for a bright spark of effectiveness or longevity? If you bring pitchers into an acceptable normative range, are they still peak performers?


I'm eager to stand in on a few of his assessments and lessons tomorrow. It was encouraging to see that some of my current ideas regarding assessing pitchers and analyzing mechanics is definitely on par with what Matt and the team at CSP are doing (though I certainly have some gaps to fill in).

For most of the afternoon we had the chance to wander and observe the trainers interacting with the clients on the floor. There is much to be said, but here are a few things that I noticed:

1. Every client had interaction with a trainer, some far more than others.
2. Every client had an individualized agenda for the day.
3. Cressey expects a LOT of his interns. He has a rigorous application process and they seem to function seamlessly with the clients and other staff.
4. The training is, well, a nice balance. The clients do a *smart* and individualized warm-up, plenty of mobility work, and fine-tuning motor control type exercises. It's not all knock-down-drag-out, go-until-you-puke-you-animal. But neither is it all (in their words) foo-foo. They do encourage heavy and hard. But it's far more about quality movement to apply to other endeavors and far less about being better at working out.
5. The culture: no weird gawks for foam rolling the hip adductors or whatnot, no extra attention for athletes doing huge or tiny resistance, no bros making noise for no reason, and not even one person on their cell phone between sets.

Lastly, they gave us open gym time from 5:30 to 7:00 pm. I got to train. On deadlift day! At Cressey Performance!!

My partner in crime David Drinks dead lifted a PR! I pulled well over 500 for reps and it felt easier than ever. I never realized that an official Olympic deadlifting bar could make such a difference. The bar is thin (and therefore easier to grip) and has a little flex to it (which effectively shortens the total arc of movement). I'm certain that it was 5 or 10% easier than pulling with the standard generic bar in my basement. We did some other lower- and upper body work, and I pulled out a massive farmers walk just for good measure.

Now of course, this new found strength could also have to do with resting well and being far less active for a few days. There were no kids or dogs or ducks to wake me up. Nothing to fix or organize or straighten up. Nobody to feed and clean up except myself.

Gosh. I miss my crew back home.

A table, a wall, and a camera

GoWags - on the lower left?

Today was my first of three days at the Cressey Performance Elite Baseball Mentorship. And it was awesome.

Yes, I'm here to learn an integrated system of performance enhancement, injury prevention, and rehabilitation in athletes. I picked up more than a few worthwhile clinical assessment and treatment methods that are unique to pitchers. As physical therapist Eric Schoenberg said, "If the athlete needs to function in risky positions as in throwing, they need to be able to do it well."

More than anything, I was eager to observe the flow of a truly world-class training facility. How did they organize their clients, their staff, their equipment and programs and culture in order to achieve what they want to accomplish? What is it about Cressey Performance that makes the business and clients so successful?

The reason for their success is not gear or some outlandish facility. Their success is not due to any one exercise or program. There is no high-tech instrument for measurement and evaluation. They have a lot of free weights, two cable type systems, and loads of open space to move. But today we didn't even get into that.

Cinderblock Wall = state-of-the-art equipment!

At one point I realized that we drove 6-hours to learn how to use a table, a wall, and a camera. Most everything they spoke or demonstrated today involved one of these items that can be found in any rehab or training facility across the country.

Of course, what is valuable (far beyond a $10 per month Planet Fitness membership) is their experience and know-how. What Cressey et. al. offers to their clients and other allied health professionals like me is a holistic approach to managing the athlete (rather than only weight lifting or pitching instruction or injury rehab) AND the ability to communicate their message exceedingly well

The very first thing Eric Cressey spoke about was genuinely caring about the client. Of course that's not all you need to succeed, but it's a necessary starting point.


In my practice, people often ask if they should be doing something. Should I have adjustments for this? Should I be doing Yoga? What shoes do I need? The bottom line is that it's impossible to truly know the physical and psychological needs of an athlete without having time with them. A *quality* assessment requires much time and knowledge, something that will always demand more than $10/month. But this is critical to accomplish what Cressey defines as true success; empowering the athlete and his/her parents to be able to advocate for themselves. And it's the only way to establish mutual caring.

Why Women Struggle With Pull-ups

The reasons why pull-ups are such a challenge are precisely the same reasons why they are one of the greatest of exercises. Many women, even fit athletes, struggle with them or don't bother trying. Many men are in the same boat, but here I'll focus on some of the challenges unique to women.

Here are a few of the largest reasons why women struggle with pull-ups.

1. Females are born this way:

If you took a cut of muscle from the upper body of a female and placed it under a microscope, you would visualize spindly pink gossamer threads, as opposed to a male muscle fibers, which appear as tetrahedral bundles of steel and steak.

That's actually a lie. At the cellular level, male and female muscle fibers are no different in appearance. But there are a few differences having to do with muscle structure.

       -Females, on average, have a lower proportion of fast twitch muscle fibers and a higher proportion of slow twitch endurance type muscle fibers.

       -Pound-for-pound, men and women have nearly equivalent lower body strength. But this is not true for the upper body, which mostly has to do with the fact that men carry relatively more of their total muscle mass up top.

       -Women generally have more loose, flexible joints, and men generally have more stiff, stable joints. This type of hypermobility may allow you to reach your left thumb behind your back to your right hip, but it's not helpful for functional strength.

But many ladies can easily overcome these. It's worth it!

2. Many women don't care about pull-ups:

But they should. The typical person (of either gender) does not appreciate what pull-ups can do for their overall function and appearance. Pull-ups are an easily accessible way to build upper body size and strength. They work the arms and core (yes, the lats and abs are huge components of the core), which helps with staying efficient and injury free during running and other athletic pursuits.

All of those chasing "toned" should recall that it's impossible to appear that way without carrying a fair amount of muscles. And it's the muscle that is metabolically active and useful around the clock, which allows you to eat like a human (rather than a mouse) without gaining fat weight.

3. Many women who do care about pull-ups are doing them wrong:

Let's say that a teenage boy can't do even one pull-up and decides that he would like to give it a try. He will jump up and hang. He will flail his feet and tuck his knees and inch his way up with poor form. Later on he will bang out a few shoddy, half-range of motion pull-ups and claim that he can do them. Soon after that he will be able to do a half dozen full reps with decent form.

Contrast this to the typical female, who is far more likely to obey the rules of training: slow controlled reps, full range of motion, and no bouncing. She reaches up and finds herself stuck hanging from the bar in the bottom position. Unable to do one appropriate, full repetition, she proceeds to do sets of 10 pull-ups with the assistance of the huge rubber band for assistance, or a TRX suspension trainer or the Planet Fitness machine that provides lift under her feet.

Her low ego, good form, by-the-book training works against her. What she is missing out on is time under tension. Time where she must give her brain the input of what it feels like to support her full body weight. Time where the biceps, shoulders, lats and abs must fire quickly and in sync.

I'm not saying that it's always wise to use poor form during resistance training, but learning the pull-up is one situation when some leg swing and a lot of controlled partial reps are relatively low-risk and extremely beneficial.

Give this a try:

1. Hang from the bar with upper back engaged and chin over the bar in the "up" position. You may have to jump up or get something to step up on.

2. Keep your muscles locked and engaged as you lower a little less than half way down.

3. Once you hit that point, quickly transition to pull yourself up. Congrats! You just did a partial rep.

4. With your body now in the "up" position, again lower yourself, this time VERY slowly, through the entire lowering range of motion until your elbows are straight. Be sure to keep the shoulder blade muscles engaged until the end.

This is one rep. Repeat it for 2 to 3 sets of just 2 to 3 reps. Do not rush the recovery period between sets! Remember that the main thing that you want to keep track of is time under tension. Be patient. Give it a month or two, but keep trying.

Let me know how you do!

Orthopedic Snake Oil

The original.
No to be confused with the poser snake oils like emu oil.

Snake Oil never went away. In terms of popularity, snake oil is more potent then ever! Let us put aside the fad diets, most (but not all) supplements, over-the-counter joint creams (Emu oil, really), or exercise gadgets. For now I'll run with what I know well, the structure and function of the neuromusculoskeletal system.

To be clear, I'm rarely against any one treatment or method, especially if the side effects are minimal. If you have found some item or method that sounds suspect to me but has proven beneficial, who am I to tell you to stop? What I'm against is all the weaseling and pandering and clearly false promises in the healthcare and wellness communities.

The gimmicky sales and fraudulent claims can be found everywhere. A good example of medical pseudo-science can be found at Inlet Physical Medicine.

http://inletphysicalmedicine.com/neck-shoulder-pain-relief/

First off, the name. To me the word "physical" implies some type of active involvement where the patient (er, customer) actually has to move or, ya know, do something on their end. But there is not one hint of this. The entire site speaks "it is up to us to fix you and unlike everybody else, we can."

Most of the site is clearly written to please a Google bot far above an actual person. Which is fine, but let's not pretend this is medical information. For example;

In Murrells Inlet, SC, chronic pain management, is managed by the medical professionals at Inlet Physical Medicine, who work within physical medicine disciplines to create a customized treatment plan.

They go on to make many claims, chief among them being that you will Avoid Surgery with a New, Non-Surgical Treatment That Delivers Safe, Lasting and Remarkably Effective Results!

I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, for I understand that neck and back pain is common, complex, and often treated inappropriately. But the magic healers at Inlet Physical Medicine are apparently standing against the world.

They ask how it can be possible that a treatment for back and neck pain does not exist. I suppose they have not considered the countless people who physical therapists (and other providers) help every day. No, most people do not fail traditional models of physical therapy. I see most (but certainly not all) of my clients walk out the door feeling and functioning much better.

No, orthopedic doctors usually do not rush to surgery. I've spent hours in the exam room with some of the most well known orthopedic doctors in central PA. My point of contention is with their emphasis on cortisone injections, but that's another matter. But they definitely do not push surgery until patients are practically begging for it.

BANDS AROUND THE WAIST
seem to be an enduring gimmick.

Inlet Physical Medicine claims to possess a technology that allows them to determine precisely what's wrong and where the pain is coming from. To the average Joe this sounds like common sense. But to the trained clinician it's generic bunk. How are they determining precisely what's wrong? With nerve conduction studies? Diagnostic ultrasound or MRI? Palpation? I would guess that it's something gimmicky such as detecting "hot spots" of temperature variation along the spine. Where are their reliability studies? Any legitimate healthcare professional will freely admit that there is no one method to reliably diagnose all typical sources of pain.

Another no:

Their "Spinal Decompression" is neither new nor cutting edge. What's relatively new is using that term rather than calling it "spinal traction." Although the details of the on:off cycle may vary between typical "decompression" and traction, there is no evidence that any one method provides a better outcome.

They also claim that Plasma Rich Protein and Laser Therapy are sure-fire ways to lasting pain relief. These modalities have been proven somewhat effective at the tissue level, and I would possibly use these if I had easy access to them. But there is far more to recovering well. For example, lets assume that we use these to facilitate healing of damaged and irritated tissues. The root of typical orthopedic problems is often mechanical (movement-related) in nature. Functional well in the long-term almost always requires consistent movement-related intervention.

One yes:

Yes I understand that just because I don't understand or believe in a certain treatment does NOT mean that it doesn't work. For this I rely upon a collective. I've worked taking formal and informal notes on thousands of typical and atypical people typical and atypical problems over the last 15 years. I've developed professional and personal relationships with a handful of family physicians, orthopedists, podiatrists, physiatrists, dentists, pain management doctors, and personal trainers. Over time, the truth gradually comes out.

In the end, I suppose that the real problem is the complex levels of bureaucracy among traditional healthcare professionals. Not that greedy and fraudulent mainstream professional don't exist. But even the sharpest clinicians with the best of intentions are usually rushed and unable to address their patients from a holistic, "whole person" perspective. They will not cater to a persons need to shun responsibility (at least in part) for their problem.They are unable to always offer clients a compassionate ear and take the time to research and refer them to an appropriate provider.

But there are plenty of pseudo scientists who will...

Instead try
Examine.com

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/books

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
American Physical Therapy Association
American Academy of Orthopedics