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With Game 6 tomorrow and a chance for Giannis to w

With Game 6 tomorrow and a chance for Giannis to win his first NBA Championship, let's rewind 3 weeks ago when we all feared he'd potentially miss a year of basketball. To the casual viewer, it was impossible to imagine him playing again this season. Three weeks later, and the 26-year-old is producing one of the great NBA Finals series in recent memory.

The key to his timely recovery? Years of Physical Preparation in the bank, creating an incredibly robust athlete (and a gun medical team).

Giannis was praised by his coach and medical staff for the hours and hours of strength and conditioning work he had completed since entering the NBA as a skinny 18-year-old in 2013. Giannis is renowned for his ‘no stone unturned’ approach to preparing his body for the rigours of professional basketball. His reward? One win away from the ultimate prize: an NBA championship!

No matter what level of sport you're at, a structured S&C routine is imperative for your body to withstand the inevitable challenges of competitive sport.

Over the last 4-6 weeks we’ve integrated 20-30 m

Over the last 4-6 weeks we’ve integrated 20-30 minutes of speed & acceleration drills into our Thursday session for the Rugby boys. The change paid off last week with both the boys hitting 20m PB’s.
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@eman.tuariki - 3.08s ✅ (previous 3.15s)
David - 3.28 ✅ (previous 3.32s)
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Here are a few drills we’ve been working on to get better shapes and promote more efficient/explosive lower & upper body driving 🔥

⚠️ Women’s Football Program ⚠️ Coaches

⚠️ Women’s Football Program ⚠️

Coaches Josh and Georgia answer some recent FAQ’s about our women’s football program which kicks off next Wednesday. Interested in learning more or want to secure a spot? Send us a DM

On Saturday morning coach @j_sanseviero was given

On Saturday morning coach @j_sanseviero was given the opportunity to take a group of 15 residents from @wyndham_city through a presentation and exercise circuit highlighting how exercise can improve your quality of life!

Our @coachdarrenzahra on Cold Water Immersion: Co

Our @coachdarrenzahra on Cold Water Immersion:

Cold Water Immersion (CWI) also known as ice baths have become a very popular method to decrease recovery time and reduce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMs).

CWI involves immersing body in water below 15 degrees for at least 10 minutes for greatest effectiveness.

Despite subjective reports of improved DOMs and lower rating of perceived exertion (RPE) post CWI, there is little objective evidence to prove why this is the case. There are a few theories about how CWI improves recovery including;

⚡Blood vessel constriction is thought to reduce blood flow to muscle reducing oedemas (swelling) and inflammatory responses
⚡Analesgic effect of cold water reduces nerve conductivity hence reducing pain perception
⚡Hydrostatic Pressure is essentially the pressure water has on the body when submerged. When body is submerged at hip level Hydrostatic Pressure forces fluids from lower extremities to upper body reducing exercise induced oedemas, increases displacement of waste products into bloodstream and increasing cardiac output.
⚡Placebo (still effective if you feel better)

There is still a lot of research to be done on CWI but it's short term reduction in DOMs and RPEs is beneficial to the athlete. The long term effects of CWI on blunting adaptions to exercise has not been fully established but some research suggests that continual CWI can lead to reduction in long term positive adaptations. This is why I personally suggest you only use CWI after competition (matches on weekend) to help promote recovery for training week and reduce localised oedemas obtained in competition. Can also been used in heavy schedules like tennis tournaments where recovery between matches is vital in short turnarounds. Research also suggests thermo-neutral (34=35c) may have just as good or even better effect on recovery as you are still obtaining Hydrostatic Pressure without constricting cardiovascular system as seen in CWI.

So I would suggest being submerged in thermo-neutral water regularly for recovery and using CWI after heavy competition to reduce muscle damage and improve recovery time between events.

📸 Credit: AFL PHOTOS

Melbourne Athletic is proud to announce our Women’s Football Program! Register your interest today. Limited spots available!

🥊 This week we welcome aboard Eldin as he looks

🥊 This week we welcome aboard Eldin as he looks to take the next step in his boxing career.
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Eldin has years of boxing under his belt and has come to us to look after his physical preparation as he narrows in on an Amateur debut later in the year.
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His power testing was through the roof and we’re excited to be a part of his pathway to the amateurs.
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Ps. Check out @celsiuscryo which will be opening later in the year 🔥

Listen to our Head Coaches @michaelculliver & @j_s

Listen to our Head Coaches @michaelculliver & @j_sanseviero speak about how the year has gone so far for Melbourne Athletic and what is to be expected for the remainder of the year!

How to include Strength & Conditioning components

How to include Strength & Conditioning components in a local team environment 💪

The largest amount of Athletes in Australia are found in local teams across multiple sports, all with the desire to play as well as they can but most importantly not get injured! A great tool all coaches can use at local level is setting up a warm up that includes:
• Pre Activation exercises
• Dynamic Movements that correlate to movements in the respective sport
• Plyometrics
• Change of Direction
• Acceleration / Deceleration

If all of these components can be correctly completed during the warm up pre game / before a training session the risk of a player getting injured decreases enormously.

We need to get away from the old fashioned couple laps around the ground and the players will be ready to go! Let’s make sure we are giving the athletes who are going to their chosen sport the best chance to succeed without injury!

This week we welcome Maddie Scott to the MA commun

This week we welcome Maddie Scott to the MA community!
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Maddie is a multi-sport athlete, juggling Football, Tennis and Cricket throughout the year. Over the first month of training with @joshsmeato we’ve been massively impressed with her Strength and Power for her age.
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Although it’s football season, Maddie sees herself taking her cricket to the next level with the assistance of us at MA.
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On ya Mads! 💪🏻

Who’s keen that gyms are back from Friday!💪🏼
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Our team have had a big couple of weeks behind the scenes and we can’t wait to show off our latest improvements for our athletes!
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We are excited to see all our athletes and clients back in the gym soon! Let’s gooooo! 🔥

Recovery is one of the most important parts of an

Recovery is one of the most important parts of an athlete’s weekly routine. Recovery allows for improved performance, permits time for our body to heal itself in preparation for the next training load and decreases the risk of potential injury. 🧘🏻‍♂️
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Our coaches @melbourneathletic have created a recovery protocol for all our athletes to use especially during in season training. The idea is to make it a simple and easy for our athletes to follow to achieve 8 points of recovery. 🏋🏻‍♂️
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Active recovery along with nutrition, hydration and sleeping are all featured as crucial parts to our athletes recovery process. Following a protocol like the one above can help athletes gain a small % increase going into the next training session / game day and sometimes that small difference can pay off massively! 🏆

Although it’s been a long couple of weeks not be

Although it’s been a long couple of weeks not being able to train our athletes and clients face to face in a gym, our team has been doing a fair bit behind the scenes to plan for a big next 6 months🔥
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Yesterday our team got together to run through a PD session brainstorming and analysing some recovery protocols we can implement as coaches.
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We are looking forward to putting together a few strategies for our athletes to use when they arrive for their first session back hopefully next week🤞🏻

Rafael Nadal is looking to win a record-setting 21

Rafael Nadal is looking to win a record-setting 21st Grand Slam title at this fortnight’s French Open, 16 years after winning his first Slam.

The key to the 34-year-old’s longevity? Preparation.

Told as a teenager that his career could last no more than a few years due to chronic injuries, Nadal has worked with a team of experts to modify his training to put less stress through his knees and joints, while not sacrificing any strength or stamina.

Knowing how much his body can handle at any given point in an eleven-month season has allowed Nadal to defy expectations that his career would be short lived.

Committing to a specific and personalised training plan allows athletes of any sport to maximise their talents for as long as possible!

How can you reduce risk of injuries in sport? 🤕

How can you reduce risk of injuries in sport? 🤕

Prehab! This is an important aspect that all athletes should be completing. Prehab is a preventative measure to reduce the risk of injuries for athletes. For many teams prehab is completed before training and games. Here we have Josh and Georgia walking us through some Prehab exercises.

What do you do for your prehab?

What does your training week look like? If you’

What does your training week look like?

If you’re playing sport this season then your week probably looks something like this: training 2-3 times a week plus a game day and trying to be consistent with your gym training. Sounds super stressful but we will show you how to break it down to make sure you’ll be able to do everything while keeping your body in prime conditioning to perform at your best! 💪

Game day is the biggest dictator into when gym sessions should occur as they will also dictate when training sessions are. As our last post identified a gym “priming session” 24-48 hours before game day can be super important in increasing performance. A full body workout split into two separate sessions a pull day and pull day is also an easy way to ensure an athlete isn’t overloading a specific muscle group all in one session. It also allows load to be spread over the course of a few sessions instead of just one.

If game day was Saturday, then Monday would be a heavy push session, Wednesday a heavy pull session with Friday a priming session. Slotted in your week training days of Tuesday / Thursday! 💪

A resistance training (RT) session or a high quali

A resistance training (RT) session or a high quality training session performed 24-48h before competition can lead to an increase in athletic performance.

@coachdarrenzahra has looked at research that included an intervention of 5 sets of 4 reps of Jump Squats @ 40% of 1RM, found that counter movement jump was higher at 24 and 48hours with a 5.1 and 3% increase respectively compared to baseline. Reactive Strength Index and rate of force development were also higher then baseline at 24h mark and rate of force development at 100ms was also higher at 48hour mark.

Velocity based movements such as ballistic movements can be used to prime athletes 1 to 2 days prior to competition. Loads should be low to not induce too much fatigue but encourage neuromuscular stimulation.

Resistance training is also thought to encourage testosterone production and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system (calming effect). So any resistance training that won't develop too much fatigue can be beneficial within 48hours of the game. For example some athletes like completing an arm session prior to competition as it excites the nervous system and makes the athlete feel good without any residual soreness.

The effects of priming workouts are different on a person by person basis but are proven to be effective in increasing athletic performance. Ballistic movements, such as jump squats, cleans, speed deadlifts, bench throws and medicine ball throws plus many more exercises can be used to stimulate central nervous system without inducing great fatigue hence giving you a great priming stimulus.

So talk to your coach about adding a priming workout to your program and feel the benefits in your game!

Recent research from Victoria University has outli

Recent research from Victoria University has outlined the importance of the movement mechanics of female footballers. In this study knee and hip angular velocities for preferred and non preferred kicking leg was highlighted.

To work off this study we can increase power bilaterally by adding bands to our squats or deadlifts as this will assist in increasing power and therefore increasing hip and knee angular velocity.

This training has the potential to develop athletes to kick further and have more accuracy in their kicks!

For those who aren't aware, our man @jimmy._anthon

For those who aren't aware, our man @jimmy._anthony jetted off to Italy 2 weeks ago to pursue his cycling dream. Initially working closely with @samlesliept James was referred to us to assist with his end stage rehabilitation on a knee injury.

From there we managed to change his mindset on what it takes to be an elite athlete, and he began committing more time to getting his body and preparation right. We began with only 1 session with @michaelculliver a week, then put him into a program where he was putting together 3 sessions a week. There's only so much 1 on 1 coaching we can do with our athletes (time & financial constraints), and making them self sufficient is key as it gives them more opportunity to be better. From there his Cycling Power outputs began hitting PB's and he hasn't looked back.

We have no doubt James will take his cycling to another level over in Italy and we'll still be working closely programming for him while overseas. Can't wait to see where James takes his cycling this year!

Our dietitian Laura is back for part 2 of her nutr

Our dietitian Laura is back for part 2 of her nutrition series. Part 2 is on Sodium! 💪

Sodium is a key electrolyte in the body. Electrolytes are minerals that the body needs in significant amounts and they carry electric charge when dissolved in body fluids such as blood. This property of electrolytes enables signals from the brain to reach nerves and muscles telling them to contract. Sodium also helps keep fluids in normal balance in and outside cells in the body.

Your body is pretty good at keeping sodium concentrations in the body within safe parameters, but strenuous exercise, insufficient water intake, insufficient sodium/salt intake can mess with it and affect both hydration and body function - and dehydration can severely affect performance, so getting the balance of sodium intake and output right is important for high performing athletes.

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