Wild Geese
Fitness Training

Push Ups are a big bang exercise for most people. Once you’re strong enough to do the basic push ups well, and by that I mean do 25 solid reps to a very high standard, ie locked core, tucked pelvis and good scapular movement, then it’s time to add in a few variants. This is the Persian Push Up You will see in the video I have my hands on blocks, but they can just as easily be done on a flat floor. The blocks allow me to work deeper and take some stress off the wrists in the

Aerobic training doesn’t necessarily mean dancing around in a leotard with big hair It’s not the 80’s any more….. But it does need to be done. Your cardio vascular system underpins everything else, the other cooler energy systems rely on the aerobic system for replenishment, to take over when they’re done and keep you moving forward. In the last round of the fight, in the last quarter of that game, this is where you are going  to wish your aerobic system was better developed.

Last week we restarted our Monday Mobility series with a great Thoracic Mobility drill ( <– that was a link to it in case you didn’t spot it) Lets stay on a theme, the upper back, shoulder and chest. Ie, the thoracic region. If there was a single catch all for the entire thoracic region, I’d have to say the Indian Club is it. Last weeks drill showed you how to extend the spine, which open the ribs and allows the scapula to move more freely. Swinging the Indian Club shows the

A strong core is vital for any athletic endeavour. Even if that athletic endeavour is simply looking good on the beach. Ursula Andress in 1962’s Dr No. That’s athletic right? Most of the people I train are involved in a sport or activity that requires good levels of strength, mobility and endurance to control their body, someone elses body or a piece of equipment through space with some degree of force. I recently published a photo album of some of our clients doing what they

You may have noticed that “Movement” is the current new trend in the fitness world. You may also have noticed that many of the drills used my “movers” have been taught in Wild Geese since we opened. Why? Because at my heart still I’m a martial artist, one who became a strength coach. And martial arts are the origin of many of the movement skills we see today. I’m not talking about the modern incarnation of MMA and combat sports, I’m talking about the all encompassing training

So yesterday was a Bank Holiday Monday, so the gym was closed except for a few dedicated members who have their own keys to get in. I spent the day with my family. Which, as you can imagine, as a full time gym owner and coach, is time that is precious. On Sunday son no 1 made his 1st communion, which here is Ireland is pretty much mandatory if one wants to stand a chance of getting into the better schools. Part of the tradition is that the kids are given gifts of cash. So yes

Could Strength Training Help Prevent Concussions? That is the title of Chris Beardsley’s now post. Chris who? He’s the dude that trawls through the sports science research and gives an independent review of what he finds. You should check out his site, which I’ll be sending you to shortly. But this particular post is of particular interest to a particular segment of my clientèle. Namely my combat athletes. But also my Mountain Bikers and field sports guys. Concussions are a

When teaching self defence or working with our Thai Boxers and Kyokushinkai fighters I talk about the wrist. Think about the punishment our hands and wrists take on a daily basis, never mind the trauma that goes through it when a punch impacts. Is it any wonder boxers need to wrap their wrists to the point of immobility? But with MMA gloves there’s little wrapping. In karate and in self defence, there’s no support what so ever. So why not build you own? Why not train the han

Combat athletes are my favorite athletes to train. It stems from my own extensive background in martial arts and security work. It’s the entire basis of the training carried out in Wild Geese. It’s why we don’t over emphasise any one element of training over any other. While many worship strength, others flexibility and the ever growing trend of super high intensity saggital plane circuit training. The WG-Fit method worships the well rounded, the adaptable and the focused. St

Recently I shared an Instagram video of me doing the Lizard crawl as part of my warm up routine. A video posted by Dave Hedges (@dave_hedges) on Jul 29, 2015 at 8:46am PDT This has generated a good bit of feedback across social media, including people asking how to work up to doing this movement. What I’m going to show you is the teaching progressions I received from Ido Portal last year. If you haven’t heard of Ido, he’s probably the most well known person in the “movement”

There are a few things I really love doing. They are (in no particular order): Playing with my Boys Playing with my Dog Playing with my wife Seeing my clients reap the rewards of their training Lifting heavy things lots of times Hitting stuff, really hard. Lets talk about that last one. I like hitting stuff really hard. I’ve been around the martial arts my whole life, starting Karate at the age of 11 and studied a variety of arts in the 25 years since that day. I also spent

It seems everyone is talking about MMA these days, slightly fewer people are wearing all the gear (but have no idea), less again are actually practising and a few are genuinely training and competing. This for the competitors. The rest of you can read if you want to. Since the birth of MMA in the 90’s and it’s seemingly unstoppable rise to global domination, more and more people are jumping on the band wagon. At first it was martial arts instructors suddenly billing themselve

Is it over? Tell me it's over! I just threw up a facebook message following this mornings Boot Camp performance. I stated that the guys Speed was increasing while their recovery times were dropping. It got me thinking about today’s blog post, the importance of recovery time. Most of my guys, and indeed most of the people reading this blog are more interested in improving their performance than they are in improving their aesthetic appearance. Which is good, I’ve little inter

This Sunday I’m running the Level 1 Kettlebell Lifting Workshop from 11am at Wild Geese HQ. There are a couple of spots left open if you wish to attend. Price is €35 and includes a copy of the Level 1 PDF Manual. These workshops