# Sledgehammer Training



## dubnut71 (Jul 25, 2006)

SLEDGEHAMMER TRAINING 101 - SORTOF!

You may not know but I have moved to the frozen north of Scotland and had to turn my training back in time a little bit, been reading with great interest a few articles on sledgehammer training and old school GPP (general physical preparedness). Now I am lucky enough to have a fully equipped gym at the fire station in work where I can train each lunchtime but I have recently scored myself this tire to train at home with too. It was nice day up here today (unlike frozen England) and I put together this guide in case it might be of anyone else planning to give this type of training a go.
Most tire fitting places will be only too glad to see the back of these as they have to pay for disposal, just rock up and ask nicely and you can usually get a truck or trailer tire.

Ok so for the basics then….

You are going to need the following kit, 1 - truck tire (or car tire of the largest size you can get your hands on. (this one is from an airport fire engine, its about 110Kgs in weight so works well for the tire flip as well). I have about another 2 or 3 of these if anyone wants them but for obvious reasons you would need to collect.

Next bit of kit is the sledge itself. This is a fiberglass handled one from B+Q , about 10lbs in weight. Doesn't sound like a lot but hang on, don't rush out and buy the heaviest one you can find, it wont be a harder workout. A simple understanding of Newton's second law of motion will clarify this confusion. Acceleration depends directly upon the net force acting upon the object, and inversely upon the mass of the object. As the mass of the object increases, its acceleration will decrease. Consequently, you can often generate more force with a lighter sledgehammer.

We are after explosive movement here, involving all the core and stabilizing muscles in the body, rotating and exerting force by using the hammer so an explosive movement can be achieved. In general terms the ability to train in this way adds strength and speed, involves the muscles of the fingers / hands (grip), the forearms and upper arms (strength), the shoulders and hips, abductors and core (core strength and support). It's a compound exercise that also involves the large muscles of the legs as you bend and explosively drive the hammer down into the tire.

Start position 1:










You are going to work both sides equally so start with your dominant side, for me this is the right. Feet shoulder width apart and back from the tire by the approx. length of the shaft. Place your right foot forward if you are training your right side. Place the head of the sledge where you want it to fall on the inner rim of the tire (less bounce). Take a 2 handed grip with space between the hands this will allow you to explosively swing the hammer back.

Mid Position 2:
[MEDIA=flickr]5[/MEDIA]

Hammer is back, ****ed and loaded ready for the downswing. Note the hands are still wide apart and in control of the head of the hammer, getting ready to accelerate it don and start towards the tire.

Down position 3:
[img] [MEDIA=flickr]9[/MEDIA]

As soon as the hammer starts to accelerate and you can feel it "go over the top" them slide the upper hand down to meet the lower one. This gives you something that's close to a golfers grip ie one hand on top of the other. This is important for 2 reasons…. 1- It gets your head out of the way and stops any risk of the head if it bounces hitting you square in the face… agreeably that would be a bad thing….. and 2- It makes you control the bounce or the strike of the head when it hits the tire using your forearms and there fore dynamically involving them in this movement and resisting the movement of the head when it strikes. This gives a very good forearm workout for free, more of that in part 2……

Strike position 4:
[img] [MEDIA=flickr]1[/MEDIA]

As mentioned you are aiming to strike the inner rim of the tire (in this case on the "M" of Michelin) but each tire is different and you will find the sweet spot where there is the least amount of bounce. The head when you strike might try and wobble from side to side if you have been at all uneven. Far from this being a bad thing it involves the stabilizing muscles of the forearm and hands (grip) to resist this. Slide your upper hand back up to the head of the sledge and repeat to position 1, easy!!!!!!!!

A couple of words on frequency. I tend to do these as "ladders" or "tabatas".
Ladders are simply working up with 1 rep, 2 reps , 3 reps etc and then back down. Aim for a number (such as six) and the time you take is however long it takes you to strike the tire once, twice, three times etc working up to 6 and then back don through 5 4 3 2 and 1.
Tabatas are purely 40 seconds of explosive striking, followed by 20 seconds rest, repeat 4 times, remembering to work both sides (8 times in total), alternating between a right and left handed grip and stance.

[B]I have a few more of these routines, will be back with part 2 in a bit!!!!![/B]

Disclaimer - If you are daft enough to miss the tire when swinging downward then you need to examine your technique quickly before you break a shin. Start very slowly and work up the speed. Stand an appropriate distane back from the tire, gauge the "bounciness" first. I am not your mum, if you are big enough to try this then you are on your own. Trust me you will only get it wrong the once……….


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## dubnut71 (Jul 25, 2006)

PS - no gloves they are for girls and you want to promote the mind / muscle connection when you grip the sledge, improve your grip and generally harden the hands. A tight grip os essential in this. (oooh er missus)!!!!!

I have also done a quick video of the complete movement :


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## chunkytfg (Feb 1, 2009)

Wohoo! Hitting stuff with a sledge hammer is great fun!

My dad has a pic somewhere of me aged about 6 or 7 swinging his sledge hammer the break up a concrete garage base. Him and my godfather had gone in for a coffee and I thought i'd have a go. Next thing dad knows is he can hear thins 'thud, thud, thud,' Come outside and i'm going for it. Broke up quite a bit off it too!


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## Ti22 (Mar 24, 2009)

Nice one G! get rolling that thing!


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## [email protected] (Sep 22, 2009)

do it the poundstone way hands at the bottom all the time very hard training


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## ITHAQVA (Feb 20, 2011)

Hammer Time :devil::devil: :thumb:


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## VIPER (May 30, 2007)

Nice one G - thanks for sharing bud :thumb: 

My word, it looks positively balmy up there! :lol:


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## Lee.GTi180 (Apr 28, 2010)

Does it work if I use a jackhammer??? :wave:


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

ITHAQVA said:


> Hammer Time :devil::devil: :thumb:












:thumb:


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## Shug (Jul 13, 2007)




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## ITHAQVA (Feb 20, 2011)

The Cueball said:


> :thumb:





Shug said:


>


:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: :thumb::thumb:


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## silverback (Jun 18, 2008)

The Cueball said:


> :thumb:


its not the guy with the hammer i laugh at everytime i see this,its shovel man in the background that cracks me up :lol:


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## ITHAQVA (Feb 20, 2011)

silverback said:


> its not the guy with the hammer i laugh at everytime i see this,its shovel man in the background that cracks me up :lol:


Yeah i keep on imagining hes saying "do ya dig it" ...shovel, dig, geddit  :tumbleweed: Hat & coat time


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## silverback (Jun 18, 2008)

ITHAQVA said:


> Yeah i keep on imagining hes saying "do ya dig it" ...shovel, dig, geddit  :tumbleweed: Hat & coat time


Jesus wept  :lol:


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## Guest (Feb 9, 2012)

thanks very much dubnut71 :thumb: 
i live on a farm so I've got all the equipment, just need to get my ass in gear lol


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## dubnut71 (Jul 25, 2006)

Thanks lads, part 2 coming up tomorrow night - oh and yes its actually 9 or 10 degrees up here, moved to the frozen north my bahookie!!

I can see the poundstone way working too, I am a way off that though, I mean have you seen the back on the lad!! He's a very strong lad right enough. Next routine has some hands together stuff.


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## dubnut71 (Jul 25, 2006)

Ti22 said:


> Nice one G! get rolling that thing!


Will do James, if I let go it might end up at your unit, its that heavy!!!:wave:


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## dubnut71 (Jul 25, 2006)

SLEDGEHAMMER TRAINING 102 - STRAIGHTS AND SINGLES

Ok so on with part 2:

A very similar Start position 1:










This time hands are close together and we are going to be lifting straight up in front of the body to an overhead position

Up position 2:

[MEDIA=flickr]3[/MEDIA]

You will note that having the hands together does position one arm higher or dominant in the movement, this is ok but remember to alternate arms (unlike the poundstone video above)

Apogee or top position 3:

[img] [MEDIA=flickr]3[/MEDIA]

This is where the explosion or the full force of the resistance comes in. Stop or resist the backward movement of the sledge, and explosively drive it downwards. Remember to engage or tighten up your core / midsection muscles. All of your forearm muscles come into play here as you concentrate on making sure the head of the hammer is straight and absolutely vertical on the way down, no deviation at all.

Bend the legs on the way down to "unlock" them and introduce your quads, glutes, hams to the movement, concentrate on the hammer as it strikes the tire and make sure you resist and bounce of the hammer with your forearms and wrists!


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## dubnut71 (Jul 25, 2006)

Now for the singles:

Start position is the same but we are going to alternate the arms each strike, so start with your dominant hand then immediately on striking pass the hammer to your non-dominant hand and go again.

Start position 1:

[MEDIA=flickr]5[/MEDIA]

Up position 2:

[img] [MEDIA=flickr]3[/MEDIA]

As you don't have the other arm to steady you then we are going to be able to take this movement right back, rotating the shoulder, bending slightly in the back and really setting up for a drive forward:

Mid position 3 and 4 :

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7149/6824764851_c86f91f5d1_b.jpg

[MEDIA=flickr]5[/MEDIA]

here you should be really resisting the side to side movement of the hammer, stabilising it looks easy but isn't, all the forces acting on the swing of the hammer mean its easy for this bit to "get out of hand" and go awry on the way down. That's the secret to the single arm movements, resist, resist, resist on the way down to control the head and make sure it hits the tire exactly and only where you want it to.


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## dubnut71 (Jul 25, 2006)

And lastly the stabiising movements:

We ar just going to use the hammer for this, not striking the tire so a really eay one if you cant get a hold of or have no space for a tire at home.

Lift the hammer directly from the floor with the aim of getting it in a balanced or vertical position, start position 1:










Holding only with the hand you raised it with (either dominant or non-dominant) allow the hammer to tip forward, keeping it from wavering or moving side to side. This engages the wrist more than the forearm but then, just at the point where it feels its going to get away from you and fall, use your forearm to stop it, mid position 2:










Allow the hammer to "over correct" ie swing back beyond the vertical, then resist at the end of that movement too, returning it to the vertical or balanced position.










A lot of people liken this to swinging a mace or if you google "macebell" you will see that if you want to spend $195 then a similar effect can be gained (glad you bought a hammer for 25 quid now aren't you!). Its all relative to the handling of the hammer with the elbow tucked in tight to the body, the forearm only involved and trying to resist the movement in all directions. Once this becomes easier, try allowing the hammer to fall side to side ie left then right. It engages a whole bnew set of forearm muscles and is hard to achieve all over again! Enjoy!!


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## Ross (Apr 25, 2007)

Doing that with a big hammer is always a good workout,gets aggression out too.


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