Craig Liebenson

Promoting a positive health approach while supporting people to achieve sustainable athleticism & healthy longevity. [email protected]

[Philip O'Callaghan 🎾 @Mr_Tennis_Coach]

Getting players 'comfortable being uncomfortable' is really important for coaches.

How do you do this in practice?
•Make every point count
•Keep the score
•Have consequences present (not physical punishments)
•Playing different players
•Games are sufficiently challenging

[Brad Schoenfeld, PhD @BradSchoenfeld]

Most people associate resistance training with increases in muscle mass and strength. But a growing body of evidence suggests its benefits extend to virtually every major organ system, including mental health.

A recent meta-analysis (PMID: 38710640) examined the effects of resistance training, performed alone or combined with other forms of exercise, on symptoms of depression and anxiety in young people. The analysis included 10 RCTs involving 376 participants with clinically elevated symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. Interventions lasted 5–20 weeks with training typically performed 2–4 times per week.

Compared to control conditions, exercise interventions that included resistance training produced large, statistically significant reductions in depressive- and anxiety-related symptoms. Importantly, analyses restricted to resistance training alone demonstrated significant benefits for both conditions.

Collectively, these findings suggest that resistance training can be a valuable component of mental health treatment in young adults.

It should be noted that several interventions combined resistance training with aerobic exercise or other activities, making it difficult to isolate the effects of lifting weights. Moreover, there was substantial variability between studies, which reduces confidence in the precise magnitude of the benefits. Also, the relatively short-term nature of the studies makes it unclear whether improvements persist over longer time periods.

Bottom line: Resistance training isn't just specific to building bigger muscles. Current evidence suggests it can also meaningfully improve symptoms of depression and anxiety in young people. Other meta-analytic evidence indicates that the benefits extend to older adults as well (PMID: 38281452). While exercise shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as a universal replacement for established mental health treatments, at the very least resistance training deserves consideration as part of a comprehensive approach to psychological well-being. It has a large potential upside with virtually no downside.

https://t.co/JNGvM0hrc3

[British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) @BJSM_BMJ]

The #MSKplaybook 📄

Meniscal root tears - what makes them different? 🦵

The latest blog in the series breaks down root tears, imaging modalities, surgical options and RTP guidance.

Make sure you are up-to-date 👉 https://t.co/XBpid3WzOv

[Andre @TheSevenSermons]

ESPN Article [from 2003]

"Shaq is a great player. McGrady is great player. Garnett, J-Kidd, Duncan, Iverson, all great. Yet Kobe still stands above them all.

As yours truly pointed out in GQ last summer, days after the Lakes had won a third straight NBA title, “If Kobe's hands were as big as Michael's, they'd have to shut down the league.”

Kobe Bryant has become the most unstoppable scoring force in the game, in a line with Wilt, Abdul-Jabbar, Doc, Bird, Jordan.

Observing Kobe's most recent scoring jag -- 44.6 per in the last five, nine straight with 35 points or more, best scoring run-out the NBA has seen since the mid-'80s, when Mike Jordan was 24 and 25, the same age Kobe is now -- we may conclude Kobe is the greatest scoring force in the league.

Ever.

It will still be him who is expected to lift the Lakers, not Shaq, not Phil, not the spear-carriers; and when they lose -- not if, when, because Sacramento is better and deeper, and not even Jordan won them all -- it will all be brought back home to him. I saw it happen to Magic. It is what happens, in the short term, in the day-to-day coverage. The newspaper (and now the website) is going to come out every day, isn't it?

Especially when you are the greatest scoring weapon in basketball, and possibly the greatest scoring weapon in the history of basketball. He is the greatest because he is the latest. He is the greatest now.

The other Lakers are utterly dependent on Kobe and Shaq to get their open shots for them. Not a one of them has the one-on-one offensive capabilities of a Dennis Johnson, a Kevin McHale, a Robert Parish, a James Worthy, a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a Byron Scott. They are limited.

When it comes to winning time in the fourth quarter, Fish can't guard anybody on the defensive end, and can't get his shot off -- unless the Kings or the Mavs or the Spurs double Kobe the Puppet Master. It will be Kobe, if anyone, who will make the Kings, Mavs or Spurs sleep with the Fishers.

They all -- we all -- are dancing on Kobe's strings now."

[Baseball’s Greatest Moments @BBGreatMoments]

Mantle had a well-known temper about his own at-bats. Teammates used to say he was harder on himself than any manager could've been, so fuming over BP swings that don't even count is basically him in his most honest form.

Same intensity that produced 536 home runs, just aimed inward for once.

[Brad Schoenfeld, PhD @BradSchoenfeld]

Findings from this just-pubbed umbrella review suggest that occasional use of cold water immersion may be a viable recovery strategy. Alternatively, frequent use can blunt muscular adaptations

https://t.co/7fJHWKHICa

[Lindsay Berra 〽️ @lindsayberra]

When I was playing high school softball at @LivSchools, I used to drag bunt all the time. Opposing teams said it was a "cheap" way to get on base. I told Mickey. He said, "Cheap? Who's payin'?" and told me to keep right on runnin'. I remember Grampa Yogi laughing his butt off.

[P.D. Mangan Health and Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 @Mangan150]

Vigorous physical activity (e.g. jogging) of 12 minutes a week yielded the same mortality reduction as 150 minutes of moderate activity (e.g. walking).

Guidelines suggest that vigorous activity is ~2x more effective than moderate, but this new study suggests it's 12.5x more effective.

This is observational data, so it's likely confounded by reverse causation, i.e. healthier people are more likely to do vigorous activity.

https://t.co/lqtm3cQ6cs

[THE KOBJECTIVE VIEW @WhozMEECH]

You can make a case that Kobe won back to back Championships with a worse Co-star and/or team than:

-All of Larry Bird Chips
-All of Magic Chips
-All of Kareem Chips
-All of Jordan Chips
-All of LeBron Chips
-All of Steph Chips
-All of Durant Chips
-All of Duncan Chips
-All of Shaq Chips
-All of Wilt Chips

[Baseball Bros @BaseballBros]

Absolutely nuts first-person POV showing the arm strength of a big league catcher. Not even one of the *elite* big league catcher arms, but just a mainstream one. This is an absolute LASER BEAM down to second!

[Baseball’s Greatest Moments @BBGreatMoments]

Mickey Mantle trying to hit in the 1961 World Series while dealing with a painful thigh abscess. Mel Allen is on the call, and Mantle is clearly not moving like himself.

That's what makes the clip valuable beyond the at-bat.

Historical highlights can make it easy to forget how much pain a player was carrying into the moment, and this footage makes the physical limitation visible.

[Baseball’s Greatest Moments @BBGreatMoments]

Donaldson was one of the first guys to build a swing around launch angle instead of the old chop down cue, and it made him the 2015 AL MVP over Trout and Cain with 41 homers and 122 runs. When he says tell your coach no, he has the trophy to back it up.

[Jerry Weinstein @JWonCATCHING]

HOW SIMPLE IS THIS HR BY WILLIAM
CONTRERAS?
Two strike 406’opposite field HR off of a 99.4 mph up & out fastball. Widish base with his bat on his shoulder. Starts with controlled toe tap & lifts his bat off his shoulder. Balanced “effortless effort” swing.

[Craig Liebenson @CraigLiebenson]

@MSKPhysioJnl @bunzli_s @jpcaneiro @PeteOSullivanPT “Guided behavioural experiments can be used to assess the patient’s pain, behavioural and emotional response during the performance of these tasks...

Repeat exposures of tasks to build confidence, and gradually progress them towards their goals.”

[Craig Liebenson @CraigLiebenson]

@MSKPhysioJnl @bunzli_s @jpcaneiro @PeteOSullivanPT “non-judgemental observation of the behaviours adopted by the patient…autonomic responses (e.g. respiratory pattern, body tension), pain behaviours (e.g. grimacing) & safety-seeking behaviours (e.g. bracing, avoidance of limb loading) during performance of the nominated tasks.”

[MSKPhysioJournal @MSKPhysioJnl]

Exercise prescription in musculoskeletal physiotherapy is framed as a transparent, patient-centered reasoning process: not standardizing the exercises themselves but standardizing how clinicians select and adapt the exercises.

This shift aims to turn implicit clinical judgment into an explicit, teachable, and reproducible framework that helps distinguish warranted individualization from unwarranted variation.
Link here: https://t.co/8XrSEbZNCS

#Framework #Exercise prescription #Clinical reasoning #Musculoskeletal physiotherapy

[Baseball’s Greatest Moments @BBGreatMoments]

Mickey Mantle explaining his approach to hitting, including how he handled batting from both sides and when he'd use the drag bunt. Mantle had to maintain two different swings as a switch hitter.

Hearing him walk through that himself is a lot more useful than a modern analyst guessing at what he was trying to do.

[BeatinTheBookie.com®️ @BeatinTheBookie]

I inject this Nick Saban speech directly into my veins at least once a week to get the blood PUMPING. Let’s have a day!!

[Kate Purcell @k8purcellphysio]

We have loads to learn from educational research. Mentorship is one way of instilling good practice, but only if mentors themselves understand the principles of facilitating learning!

https://t.co/0xNNJ0uakx