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Dave Hedges
- May 5, 2016
- 2 min
A Perfect Warm Up
Warming up is a critical piece of any workout. Any performance. Yet there’s so much misinformation, so much dogma, so much nonsense surrounding the subject. Over the years I may even have been part of the problem in propagating some of the nonsense. Thankfully, these days I know better. So what is a warm up all about? – Raising the body temperature – Improving muscle function – Focussing the mind – Rehab and Prehab – Doing the things that are important. So a 5 minute jog foll
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Dave Hedges
- May 3, 2016
- 2 min
Monday Mobility: How To Kick a Storm Trooper in the Head
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
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Dave Hedges
- Apr 17, 2016
- 1 min
Monday Mobility: Open the Hips with the Frog Stretch
A long time ago I had a weekly feature called Monday Mobility. Which in case you couldn’t guess, was a post about mobility that came out on a Monday. It was popular. So I’m bringing it back. As you should be aware if you follow my work, I believe fitness is made up of three core properties Strength
Mobility
Endurance And no single part is any more important than the other unless you specialise in a particular sport.
But even for the specialists, all three have to exist. A
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Dave Hedges
- Apr 15, 2016
- 3 min
Why Are You Wearing Those Shoes?
This mornings first client is a keen amateur runner. Over the weekend he went out to Amphibian King, he preferred running shoe supplier to buy himself some new kit. The guys in the shop do a gait analysis to help decide which shoes you buy. He’s always been told to buy shoes to prevent “over-pronation”
He was wearing them on the day he went to get a new pair. The guys in the shop were baffled as to why he ever thought he needed over-prontation shoes, as this gait analysis sh
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Dave Hedges
- Apr 11, 2016
- 1 min
A Simple Hip Opening Sequence
Stretching is far from my favourite topic, but that doesn’t mean I don’t do it or teach it. Usually I like people to move with their stretches, I’m not a fan of pure static work.
I find the body responds better to movement. The reasons for why the body responds better to movement seem to change every few years depending on whichever study is currently at the forefront, so I’ve stopped thinking too much about it. It works.
It always has done. I reckon it always will do. This
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Dave Hedges
- Apr 11, 2016
- 1 min
That is the Right Question
The movie I Robot was on tv the other day. I forgot how enjoyable it was. Sci-Fi, robots, explosions, chases, guns, robots, what’s not to like? Oh, and who wouldn’t want an indestructible super strong robot arm? I know I would, it’s be awesome! Through the movie though Will Smiths character is investigating the death of his old buddy and genius scientist Alfred Lanning.
Lanning made a holographic recording of himself with clues as to why he dies. But it can only respond to c
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Dave Hedges
- Apr 4, 2016
- 2 min
This is first time ever to be pain free doing this
I know I talk a lot about the competitive athletes that train with me, the fighters, the mountain bikers, the Kettlebell sports guys etc But if I’m fair, most of my guys are simply in to train for life. Which if we think about it, is the only competition really worth entering as it’s one that we ultimately all lose. But as the saying goes, it’s about the taking part, not about the winning. So when one of my older clients, a man named Shay who has had more struggles than most
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Dave Hedges
- Feb 29, 2016
- 2 min
HRV and the Wild Geese Training Methods
Over the last couple of days I was in the company of a group of trainers listening to Joel Jamieson talk about his Bioforce HRV system. With Joel Jameison of 8WeeksOut.com and Bioforce HRV Now, I’m still processing this info, i tend to take my time with things like this, not really talking too much about things until I’ve had some practical experience using the tool and/or techniques. But, after reading Joel’s book, going through his online video course, listening to him talk
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Dave Hedges
- Feb 21, 2016
- 2 min
2 Workshops, 1 Cert
Sometimes you just have to get a little bit giddy and excited. Here’s my excited face: But seriously, the next couple of months promise to be awesome! Here’s why, in order of appearance: Upper Body Mobility & Strength Workshop Stuff you’ll learn:
Joint mobility from the finger tips all the way to the spine
Mobility drills taken from:
-Martial Arts
-Gymnastics
-Anatomy in Motion
-and more Scapula control and why it is vital to the shoulder
Relationships between the shou
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Dave Hedges
- Jan 5, 2016
- 3 min
Some Highlights from 2015
Well, it’s 2016 and everyone is just getting back on their feet and finding their rhythm again after the Xmas break. While I’m not one for sentimentality, the end of the year does remind us to look back and take stock of what we have done over the last 12 months so that we can be better armed for what is to come in the next 12 months. So what did happen in 2015? Anatomy in Motion has really taken off!
I’ve been using AiM in the gym both as part of peoples regular training as
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Dave Hedges
- Dec 1, 2015
- 3 min
8 Exercise to Armour Plate your Knees
On Monday I posted about the worrying amount of knee injuries recorded in field sports. The article I referred to was from Ireland’s native GAA, but it’s the same across most team field sports. While I have several rugby, GAA and even a Hockey player in my gym, most of my crew are in the martial arts. A large chunk of whom are BJJ. So while the predominance of knee injuries in field sports happen off the ball, ie the player hurts themselves. In BJJ (and many rugby injuries) t
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Dave Hedges
- Nov 29, 2015
- 3 min
A Missing Link in the War Against Knee Injuries
One of the most common complaints in sports is Knee pain and / or knee injury. If you look at injury statistics, most common field sport injury is the knee. David Moran, from Kerry GAA blew out his cruciate last year This article in the Independent yesterday for example: http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/gaa-counting-cost-of-injuries-26839935.html The best part? The statistic is for non-contact injuries. How is this so? Why is the knee so vulnerable? Is it reall
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Dave Hedges
- Oct 30, 2015
- 2 min
The Complete Guide to the Kettlebell Snatch
The Kettlebell Snatch is an iconic lift. To be perfectly honest, it’s a non essential lift for many and it’s not a lift that features strongly in the programs I write for people. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend the time to get to know the lift. In short, it’s the Kettlebell Swing’s big brother.
And while we get most of the benefit of the lift from the swing, the Snatch does add in a lot more challenge. But it’s also a technical beast. in action.Must have been inspi
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Dave Hedges
- Oct 4, 2015
- 2 min
From Russia with Love……
About 2 months ago one of my regular members, Kevin”Hardcore” Callan who is the head of the Kyokushin Karate Ireland Federation asked me to help out one of his fighters. I work with him and several of the IKK senior instructors so was more than happy to help out. The fighter was due to compete in the Kyokushin Karate World Championships in Russia and Kevin realised she needed sharpening up with a period of Strength and Conditioning work. Aneta throwing an Axe Kick in Russia
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Dave Hedges
- Sep 23, 2015
- 3 min
A Great Warm Up Drill To Approach With Caution
I hate warming up. I understand it’s a vital part of training, and I’m incredibly particular about how my clients warm up. But when it comes to my own training, it’s just not something I ever enjoyed or dialled in as a habit. Terrible I know! I’m the coach, I should be doing everything perfect. But that aint the truth, and any coach that pretends to be perfect is filling you full of shit. So in my own warm ups I set a timer. I set it for 10 minutes. In that 10 minutes I move.
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Dave Hedges
- Sep 20, 2015
- 2 min
Make Your Shoulders Happy with the Bottoms Up Turkish Get Up
Last week I wrote about the Bottoms Up Kettlebell grip and waiters walk. We talked about how and why I like to use them in Wild Geese, and how they benefit the shoulder. Thanks to every one who got in touch following that post, it seems there’s a need for more information on the issue of shoulder friendly training. So without further ado, lets pick up where we left off last week. (If you missed the previous post, click HERE) Now the next of my favourite Bottoms Up Kettlebell
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Dave Hedges
- Sep 16, 2015
- 2 min
2 Events, 2 training opportunities
We’re taking on new clients! To be honest, we’re always open to enquiries, but at the moment there’s two items on the calendar that are of particular interest. They are: The All Ireland Kettlebell Lifting Federation competitions and The European Brazillian Jiu Jitsu Championships. On December 5th, in Cork, there will be the last event on the AIKLF calendar.
They’re running a 5 minute competition, which is ideal for lifters new to the sport and fro experienced lifters to test
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Dave Hedges
- Sep 13, 2015
- 2 min
Bottoms Up For Better Shoulders
The nature of the clients that come to Wild Geese for training means that they’re the type of folk who see physical limits as challenges rather than actual limitations. This means I get people coming to me with all sorts of injury issues. A very common injury site is the shoulder, especially with our Rugby, BJJ and MMA guys. That’s me, checkout the clavicle on the left of the image (it’s my right) So we have developed a fairly good system of training to get these guys back in
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Dave Hedges
- Aug 17, 2015
- 2 min
Avoiding a Common Trap
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
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