Auitsm Fitness Charity Sandbell Walk from Eric Chessen on Vimeo.

What a special guest we have to start a new series of MMM this year! Jim Liston, founder of the Competitive Athlete Training Zone, has joined us out at the American Football Coaches Association Conference, in Orlando, Florida. Along with Jim is our own CATZ Austin Coach, Blake Gould.

This week they are showing us a little warm up series with the SandBell. This warm up is ideal before any type of exercise, whether it be weight training, plyometrics, or even running. One of Jim’s philosophies of training is to always cover 5 keys of training: exercises that cover square stance, split stance, single leg stance, a push, and a pull. Cover these and you’re in for a great workout no matter who you are!

Enjoy!!!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

We are going to start off 2010 with an oldie but goodie in the Hyper Wear list of fun activities. We take a game of catch and add a little challenge. First, we all stand on one leg as we toss the SandBell from person to person. We call out the person’s name before we throw it and try to toss it so they have to reach for it, challenging their balance, stability and strength. Longer reaches also add a dynamic stretch into the mix. To make it more challenging, stand on a SandBell as you toss the other set around. If you want to make it really tough, add more SandBells into the mix.

Enjoy!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

Jessica is a rockin’ personal trainer who just happens to workout with us at CATZ. She may be tiny, but she’s tough and we think she’s the bomb!

Thanks for the shout-out, Jess! You rock!

Today’s video is a little different – we’re showing you the year in pictures as a way of reviewing all the amazing things that have happened this year! None of this would be possible without our fans, customers, and friends!

Thanks for all the great memories!

We’ll be back in the new year – January 11th to be exact – with fresh videos and ideas for you to stay hyper and never stand still. Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

The final week of our Female Athlete Series with Diane Vives is here, and we thought we’d end with one of the, if not the, most popular sports for young females to play: volleyball.

This week, Diane brings us a few basic exercises on how to improve an athlete’s passing technique through a lateral lunge exercise designed to stress the muscles but not the joints and ligaments. As always, if your focus is injury prevention through the exercises we’ve brought to you the past 4 weeks, make sure the correct technique and speed is used during the exercise. If not done correctly, the issues a female athlete may have in the hip, knee, or ankle may simply be compounded instead of treated through these exercises.

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

Next up in our series related to the female athlete, we are tackling shoulder stability.

Gone are the days of military press and open-chain shoulder raises as the way to create a strong shoulder.

Although there are lots of injuries that take place in sports due to non-contact, open-chain activities (such as repetitive spiking of a volleyball and meter after meter of a certain swimming strokes), several injuries occur from contact with another athlete or the ground. Therefore, performing closed-chain shoulder stability exercises creates a well-rounded shoulder that is used to taking force at all angles and is more efficient at staying in its girdle during activity. Weight machines with a fixed range of motion don’t do the trick, as movement in sport requires a strong, stable shoulder in all planes of motion and at extreme angles.

Try giving these exercises a shot and take the time to feel the difference of an open-chain exercise versus a closed-chain. Enjoy!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

Hyper Wear is so excited to be a part of ABC again this year (Orlando, FL – Dec. 3&4) and we are looking forward to seeing you and catching up on all that’s happened in the last year. The biggest news for us is the SandBells™, which made their debut shortly after the conference last year. If you keep up with our Monday Morning Muscle, you’ve already seen them in action, but if you’ll be in Florida this week, you’ll get to give them a test-run for yourself.

Be sure to stop by our Booth #2352 to check them out.

Also, come by the
Demo Stage on December 3rd at 4 p.m.
to watch Coach Blake give a high-energy illustration of what these versatile, safe SandBells are capable of!

Be Hyper~

Cosmo Raines
President, Hyper Wear
888-460-0628

This week we will continue the topic of training female athletes and how we can create a safer, stronger, and more stable athlete for any sport activity.

For many reasons, female athletes incur more lower body, non-contact injuries than their male counterparts do. One of the more technical reasons is that the Q angle is much larger in females than in males. (The Q angle is the angle formed by a line drawn from the ASIS to central patella and a second line drawn from central patella to tibial tubercle.) This increased angle creates more valgus-driven force on the female athlete’s knee. Valgus pressure at high speed or extreme force can cause debilitating injuries in the knee such as the dreaded ACL tear.

In this week’s video, Diane Vives and I show you a simple and fun exercise to assist female athletes in strengthening their lower body to avoid unnecessary valgus forces in a non-contact situation. This exercise can be done each training session or even daily to help produce muscle memory for the athlete, creating a more stable knee. Enjoy!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

Today we have a special treat for you as Diane Vives, fitness guru here in Austin, TX, joins me on the Hyper Stage. She’s going to help me kick off the next topic in the MMM series.

Diane and I recently got together to talk training and discovered that we both train a large number of female athletes from all sports. We decided to do a series of videos specifically geared to the female athlete and the non-contact injuries that they incur.

You don’t have to go far to find a female athlete in your circle that has had a serious non-contact injury happen to them in a sporting activity. Some say that lower-extremity injuries for female athletes is more of an epidemic than a simple problem. So over the next few weeks, we’re going to show you a number of simple exercises that will help decrease the chance of running into one of those pesky injuries in sports.

This week we’ll start off with a short interview with Diane and then introduce a grip exercise with the SandBells™ that everyone can enjoy!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

Today Coach Blake and I are tackling a new drill with SandBells™ for some on-field training for the big fellas. That’s right, this ones for you guys on the O-Line.

Run blocking is key and today Blake has come up with a drill to help the big men on the line increase their acceleration off the line and to help finish the tackle. Watch as Blake runs me over with a 30-lb SandBell in this explosive drill that you can do in the weight room or on the field!!

And don’t forget about Monday Night Football tonight as the Ravens take on the Browns down in the Dog Pound!!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

Mike’s point is that the conventional squat is more of a lower-back, restricted exercise instead of a maximal-strength, lower-body exercise. Now, is squatting bad for the body? No. Does it match the demands of several athletic movements that athletes perform on a daily basis? Absolutely. So it has function, but what I’m saying, and what I believe Mike is saying is that a heavy barbell squat might not exactly be as functional for the lower body as some of us may have once thought. So we’ve agreed that we can’t rely on the squat as a lower-body, maximum-strength exercise; however, it is still an important movement pattern that assists in sports performance for millions of athletes across the world.

Here at Hyper Wear, we’ve been attempting to cross the two ideals perfectly and continue to use the squat pattern, but just in an even more functional way than the traditional exercise. Check out my videos to see more about performing squat patterns with SandBells that encompass strength, power, endurance, and flexibility, all with one simple piece of equipment.

And always, Never Stand Still!

Best regards,

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Director of Coaching, CATZ Austin
“Where Athletes Train!”
SPARQ Certified Instructor
Director of Texas, Tudor Bompa Institute

Part 3 in the Squat Series is looking at coming off the line of scrimmage as fast as possible. The Viking Toss (or Caper Toss) is a fantastic way to create explosiveness through the hips and ensure that your athletes are fully engaging their glutes in their squat pattern. Bottom line is that the Viking Toss is a fun and competitive exercise that can help bring out the best in your players.

Check out the video link to see Coach Blake execute the Viking Toss with SandBells™ weighing from 20 – 40 lbs. As always, we’re both wearing a Hyper Vest® for added weight and resistance to get even more out of our workouts.

Enjoy!!

Make sure to tune in to the Steelers take on the mile high Broncos tonight on Monday Night Football!!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

Part 2 in the Squat Series…..Time to introduce some power. Last week we worked on creating strength with heavier loads and slower tempo. Now it’s time to be quick, explosive, and train at game speed.

Here’s a variation of a squat-to-push-press that you can do with any size group of athletes using a medium-sized SandBell™. Make sure you still focus on triple extension of the ankles, knees, and hips as you let the SandBell fly!! And also remember that creating a strong base in the core and legs is always necessary before going into a power series, no matter who the athlete is.

Enjoy!!

Tonight the Falcons are invading Bourbon Street as the Dirty Birds take on Reggie Bush and the high flying Saints! Be sure to tune in!!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

Ok, let’s get down to it. What’s the number one exercise in the weight room you think of when you’re training football players? The Squat. What a fantastic exercise for overall strength and stabilization. Having a strong squat is one of the major exercises to enhance an athlete’s ability to produce force, hold their ground, and be explosive.

In honor of the squat, we’ve decided to do a three-part series on a few variations of the traditional squat using a heavy SandBell™. Enjoy the simple variations of the exercise, but always remember to think about proper form with each repetition! A heavy squat is nothing to take lightly…!

Be sure to watch the Eagles march into the Capitol to take on the Redskins tonight on Monday Night Football!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

Everyone knows that it’s not just the wide receivers and running backs that catch the ball on the gridiron; all 22 players on the field need to have good hands. Coach Blake and I got together and took a traditional practice field drill and changed the ball to a light SandBell™.

The advantages of using a SandBell in this drill are to incorporate grip strength and shoulder stabilization as well as working on mental focus. Each SandBell I throw at Blake are a different color and therefore a different weight. Imagine the possibilities of the mental progressions that are can be reached with a creative coach.

Enjoy the drill, and make sure you catch the Broncos charging into San Diego to take on the Bolts on Monday Night Football!!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

So our next step in the football series is using the SandBells™ for training offensive linemen on the practice field. One of the best things about the SandBell is the soft grip of it. Unlike a medicine ball, the SandBell is safe to catch without worrying about a finger/wrist injury, but with the benefit of it feeling like an opponent’s uniform because it’s not solid like a ball.

The kick block is a traditional technique for all pass blocking offensive linemen to work on. Once again, Coach Blake has joined us to show us the drill he’s done with lots of his football athletes, both on and off the field. Click on the link below to check out his drill, and don’t forget to watch the Jets take on the Dolphins tonight down in South Beach!!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

When you put the words “Monday” and “Football” together, what do you usually think of right away? For me, it’s Monday Night Football and more specifically, Hank Williams’ rendition of “Are You Ready For Some Football?” So let’s get right into it shall we?

Today we’re talking about cut blocks on the defensive side of the ball, and how we can incorporate SandBell™ training on the football practice field and in the weight room.

I’ve got Coach Blake Gould helping out with the drill today. The main purposes of the drill are spotting the opponent coming at you, decelerating his force, and stepping aside while throwing him to the ground. This drill allows you to work on the technique behind preparing for a possible cut block but without risking injury to a player on the practice field. It’s a fun drill that makes sense for football players at all ages. I’ll see you out on the practice field and don’t forget to watch the Packers try to stop Adrian Peterson and the Vikings tonight on Monday Night Football!!

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

Are you Ready for some Football?