This is the 4th year of our coveted Athlete Development Program. The idea behind this program is to get participants training in a format similar to that performed by athletes during the competitive season. Even if you are not a sports fan, most of us have a huge appreciation for an athlete’s dedication to their…
In the next phase of training, we change the focus of the program from out and out strength and move to a strength/power focus. However, we don’t do this without maintaining an element an element of the strength component, as we do not want to lose any of the capacity we just established in the…
I have always been critical of Crossfit, so much so that seeing Crossfit participants in their active (insert Reebok here) wear at my local breakfast spot, talking about ‘Fran’ ‘Linda’ and ‘Mary’ used to drive me crazy. As a scientist, I’m naturally skeptical. I’m always reading articles and looking for information that might impact what…
By Riley Gould If you’ve been hanging around Hammer HQ lately, you may have heard the buzz about our upcoming training clinic ‘Overreaching’. If you’re wondering what the overreaching clinic involves, it’s a 10-day training clinic which we run at the end of each year intending to impose a super-compensation phase while you recover during the…
Having just completed 10 months of our annual periodisation plan with only Overreaching to go, it’s high time we share some of the results from our strength and conditioning testing battery that you’ve all been put through. The Data This is important. I have taught you guys to scrutinise every article or piece of information that you…
There is a lot of conjecture when it comes to training the elderly. The general rule of thumb is, the older we get, the gentler the exercise progression should become. This consititues less complex movements and more gradual, steady state activity like walking, water aerobics or other means of endurance-based cardiovascular activities that are less…
Physical activity. We are witnessing a generational shift right before our eyes – no longer are we resting on our laurels content with the fact that our feet are disappearing beneath our trunk, we are doing something about it! We are walking, running, triathlon-ing, yoga-ing, bootcamping, you-name-it-ing and that’s bloody great. With the explosion in…
By Matt Ham When periodising our programs the way we do, we always consider external loads both outside and inside the gym to achieve optimal results while minimising fatigue, illness and injury. Our upcoming Run Forrest, Run Clinic will incorporate the principles of concurrent training including a higher loads of conditioning (running) combined with resistance exercises that complement our running…
In announcing our Athlete Development Program we made the very bold claim that participants would “train like an athlete would train, you will eat, be measured, tested and coached in all the ways an athlete would be”. So we thought what better way to back that claim up than to speak directly with a professional…
By Riley Gould When participating in a structured exercise program/routine, you may find yourself absolutely killing it some days and barely holding it together on others. You’re not alone, as this can be a common occurrence during all modalities of training from lower intensity cardio-based efforts through to explosive weight lifting efforts (Olympic lifting). Does…
