Athletic Performance Academy

15/11/2021

Lifting eccentrically - another tool in the box! 🏋‍♂️🔧

An eccentric movement is the lowering part of a lift, when your muscle is lengthened, like your glutes when lowering into a squat or your biceps when lowering a dumbbell after a curl. Eccentric training has lots of benefits:

1. Rep for rep, it’s SUPERIOR TO FASTER TEMPO LIFTS, for building muscle size and strength.

2. Slowing down your eccentric phase can significantly INCREASE your resting metabolic rate, THE CALORIES YOU BURN AT REST

3. IMPROVED FLEXIBILITY

4. BETTER SPORTS PERFORMANCE. Eccentric movement is are a given in any sport.

The main focus of my current block of training is 3s eccentric movement on the major lifts. Today that was squats, wide grip pull ups and bench press. Notice the timing on the lowering phase. I’ve worked on faster tempo hypertrophy for the past 6 weeks, now we’re simply changing the tool / stimulus.

For help with your programming, simply pop us a DM!

08/11/2021

🔥 My Personal 4 Week Challenge 🔥 ⁣
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Conor here 🙋‍♂️

Just finished the first four weeks our pre season block.
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What's went well: ⁣
✅ I have put on mass. A long football season of plenty of cardio burnt lots off as you can see in the before picture. ⁣
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✅ I increased the weights I was lifting slowly over the 4 weeks ⁣
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✅ I enjoyed this different style of training...less cardio than my body is used to ⁣
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Areas for improvement over next 4 weeks ⁣
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➡️ I didn't track food once 😂 something I really need to do to make sure I get as much return as possible from each session ⁣
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➡️ I haven't been as disciplined with mobility work, yoga, foam rolling, cold water sessions and you know what, I feel it. So I'll address that. ⁣
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If you know how to train but just need a good plan to follow likw the above, one that will get you well prepped for the 2022 season, we can help, simply pop us a mail.

02/11/2021

3 simple primer exercises to try before just before you hit those working sets and after a thorough warm up 👇👇👇

1. Counter movement jump
2. Ball slams
3. Pogos

Primer exercises are important to help avoid injury, to make sure you are ready for those heavy lifts and to perform those subsequent lifts well.

Pogos and CMJ's are a simple and practical bodyweight primer combo to also use before a pitch based session.

02/11/2021

21/10/2021

Why circuit training and 5 km runs for pre season simply doesn't cut it anymore 🤔👇

19/10/2021

Greasing the groove 🎯

My current training block is a transition one. The season has finished for me and the new one is quite a while off.

The plan therefore is to touch on everything for the first few weeks, practice the basics moves, eliminate flaws, improve fluency and get better at expressing force without wasting effort, to 'grease the groove'

Today's session included a power circuit, two strength circuits and a finisher, all in line with the above.

If you need a solid programme to follow at any stage of your sporting calendar, simply pop us a mail.

14/10/2021

The APA core team 🙋‍♂️
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Meet Cormac.

12/10/2021

The APA core team 🤦‍♂️🙋‍♂️
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One of the major strengths of our services at APA is the fact that all of our programming has input from and the quality assurance of, several of the top coaches that exist across the country. ⁣
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Each coach offers their own unique skill set, experience and academic background and it is their collective ideas and contribution that forms the end product for each of our clients.⁣
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On that note here is a quick video explaining the relevant background and experience of coach ⁣
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11/10/2021

Remove the guess work from your pre season preparations 🤔🤔⁣
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Gaelic games and local ladies football is finished or close to finishing for the season so it's back to the gym to recuperate recover and rebuild for the season ahead. ⁣
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Most players however, really don't know what they should be doing or where to even start. That's where we come in. We have just finished our pre season programming block and it is available to purchase ⁣
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We cover everything, strength, power, acceleration, speed, agility, conditioning, corrective exercises and more, you just need to get to the gym and follow your plan and the results will follow.⁣
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Heres a few clips from my own session today. I'm also in re-build mode 🔥🔥🔥

06/10/2021

𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩

𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠, 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬!

For this drill, we want to carry that thought into 3 successive steps, so our focus is trying to get 3 steps that look quite similar in terms of our body angle and positioning and aiming to cover as much ground as possible with each step!

Any questions feel free to get in touch!

05/10/2021

𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩 💥

Phase 2 of the acceleration series, once you’ve got a basic understanding of positions we move toward exercises that allow us to be powerful!

Aside from what we’ve mentioned to look for in the first exercise. Think about:

1️⃣ Pushing hard into the floor to initiate the movement, think about how a heavy squat feels- 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲!

2️⃣ Throw your hips as far forward as possible, acceleration is about 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞!

Try these out and feel free to give us a shout if we can help you at all with your training!

04/10/2021

𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 🏐

As a starting point for acceleration we have the wall drill.

We are looking for three things here:

1️⃣ 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 relative to the wall

2️⃣ A 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐝 on the standing leg, acceleration is about pushing, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐩𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐠!

3️⃣ Heel off the floor, vitally important to promote stiffness through the ankle. 𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐩𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞!

Throw these in as a primer for your pitch sessions or in general to promote effective acceleration mechanics