A Gridiron Workout Beats the Grind
Once a Week, PR Executive
Trains Like an NFL Star
October 16, 2007
The Executive
Kristen Hammer never imagined she would be in the best shape of her life at age 30. Nor did the maniacal Philadelphia Eagles fan ever dream she'd be able to replicate the drills she watches players run through when she attends the team's preseason training camp each year. "I was never very coordinated growing up and I didn't play any sports," says Ms. Hammer.
But once a week Ms. Hammer works out like an NFL player: running through ladders laid down on turf, jumping hurdles, doing box squats and suicide sprints, and performing other agility, strength and speed drills. For the past two years, she's been exercising with a trainer at Velocity Sports Performance, a national fitness training center chain with a branch in midtown Manhattan.
Ms. Hammer is the senior vice president of Nancy J. Friedman Public Relations, an agency that specializes in travel, hospitality, and lifestyle industries. She is 5'9'' and weighs 137 pounds and lives in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.
THE WORKOUT
Two years ago, Ms. Hammer was watching ESPN at the gym and saw a commercial for Velocity Sports Performance. "They showed an indoor track and turf and hurdles. I thought this looks different than the regular gym," she says. At the time her workout consisted of using weight machines twice a week and doing cardio twice a week.
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Ms. Hammer works with a medicine ball at a recent training session.
Recently engaged, she was looking for a way to tone up for her wedding. She went to Velocity for an assessment and discussed her goals and current workout with a trainer. After being videotaped doing standard exercises like lunges and squats she watched the video with a trainer who pointed out where she needed to improve her form and technique. Then she had her first 90-minute session, which included a warm-up, cardio and strength. "I couldn't move the next day," she recalls. "I went into the office and was so sore. But I like to feel like I did something."
SHOULD YOU PAY FOR A PERSONAL TRAINER?
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Ms. Hammer's weekly 90-minute training session costs $135 and she's clearly happy with the results. Readers, do you think that the benefits of working out with a trainer offset the cost?
Join a discussion with Jen Murphy.
Ms. Hammer was married this past May but decided to continue her weekly workouts at Velocity. She organizes the rest of her exercise program around that Thursday session. Coincidentally, her boss, Nancy J. Friedman, also trains there. "We compare workouts," says Ms. Hammer. "She boxes for 60 minutes and I might try incorporating that."
Thursday mornings, Ms. Hammer wakes at 6 a.m., and takes a taxi from her apartment to the training center where she completes an intense 90-minute full-body workout session with her trainer Justin Goonan. She never knows what he has in store for her, which is part of the fun, she says. The facility consists of a 40-yard, four lane track; a 25-yard football turf field and "toys" like kettlebells, jump ropes, stability balls, hurdles and medicine balls. Unlike a typical gym, there is hardly a weight machine in sight.
Ms. Hammer's 15-minute warm-up consists of functional exercises. She starts out putting slipper-like coverings on her feet and slides back and forth on a slideboard. Then it's over to the track where she skips, jogs backward, shuffle-steps sideways and draws each leg up and around as if she was clearing an imaginary hurdle.
Mr. Goonan then yells out drills that one might perform in high school gym class. At one recent session, Ms. Hammer ran quickly through a ladder laid on the ground, then pushed a weighted plate across the turf until she hit a wall. At the wall she picked up a medicine ball and tosses it sideways, 20 times on each side. Another series might consist of slow, controlled one-legged squats or pulling a weighted sled down the track or balancing on a BOSU stability ball while tossing a medicine ball to Mr. Goonan.
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An exerciser doing a "sled sprint" at Ms. Hammer's gym.
Few of the exercises are flattering to perform and Ms. Hammer says sometimes she gets embarrassed. "The most ridiculous looking is a side slide I do on the track," she says. "I look like an ape."
The drills are non-stop except for quick breaks for water and by the end of 90 minutes Ms. Hammer is dripping in sweat, muscles shaking from exhaustion. She cools down by jogging home.
Other centers across the country offer similar programs for professional, amateur and recreational athletes, such as The High Intensity Center, AthletiCo Sports Performance Center in McCook, Illinois; St. Vincent Sports Performance Center in Indianapolis and Chelsea Piers Bluestreak Sports Training in New York City.
Ms. Hammer has to carefully plan her workouts for the rest of the week to make sure she's not too sore for her session. "I could never run the day before," she says. The night before her session, Ms. Hammer takes an hour-long aqua aerobics class taught by a former Rockette at the pool in her building. The day after she swims laps in the pool for about 40 minutes and also does some stretching in the water. "I couldn't work out as much as I do without putting the pool into my routine," she says. "The swimming helps me recover," she says.
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Box jumps (left) and bungee resisted jumps on the Vertimax machine.
Ms. Hammer has a gym in her building. On Mondays she does an hour of cardio in the morning, alternating between 20 minutes on the elliptical machine, 20 minutes on the stair stepper and 20 minutes on the treadmill. "If I mix things up I don't get bored and I'm not hogging the machines," she says. She saves her strength training for the weekends, usually for an hour in the morning. On Saturdays, Ms. Hammer focuses on her upper body, using mostly machines, such as the assisted weight dip machine. On Sunday she works her lower body using some machines but also doing lunges, squats and step ups. Ms. Hammer alternates between completing three sets of ten to 12 repetitions and two sets using a higher weight until exhaustion.
THE DIET
"I am really disciplined during the week and eat whatever I want on weekends," says Ms. Hammer. She eats a bowl of high-fiber cereal and drinks two cups of coffee in the morning. She doesn't like to eat before she does her football workout. So, by the time she gets home she' says she's "starving," and will usually have an egg white omelette.
During the week, she's busy with business lunches -- typically a salad with grilled chicken or other protein. She usually makes an omelette for dinner if she's not out for business or with friends.
Ms. Hammer doesn't have a sweet tooth, but says she does like greasy foods and her biggest indulgence is pizza. She tries to avoid drinking too much alcohol. "I really feel like I have gained weight during a week that I have two glasses of wine here and there and then a big night out." When she's traveling for work she makes sure at least one meal per day is balanced and low fat. She also drinks green tea and water throughout the day.
THE COST
Ms. Hammer pays $800 per year to use the gym and pool in her building. This includes group exercise classes. Each 90-minute workout session at Velocity costs $135. "Given what I do the price is justifiable," she says. "If I was paying that just to have someone show me how to use the same machines I already know how to use then I wouldn't do it. But I'm given variety every week. Sometimes I go two months without repeating an exercise." She estimates that she spends about $500 a year on workout clothing, running shoes, bathing suits, swim caps and swim goggles, most of which she purchases at shopping outlets.
THE EFFORT
Ms. Hammer says she struggles not to hit snooze when the alarm buzzes in the morning. "I had to change my entire schedule to fit in working out," she says. "If I leave it until after work I end up working late or having another commitment."
She sets out her workout clothes and iPod the night before. She also tries to avoid late work events on the night before she trains, as well as work dinners and salty foods.
"If I'm tired it majorly impacts my balance," says Ms. Hammer. "And if I eat salty food the night before, no matter how much Gatorade I drink the next morning I can only workout at 75%." Ms. Hammer is also diligent about keeping her once-a-week training appointment. If she's traveling for work then she reschedules her workout for earlier in the week. She typically travels for work three times a month for three-day stretches and always packs gym clothes. "If you have them with you you'll at least try to fit in a workout," she says. "I make sure I do something at least one day when I travel. If you don't have that discipline your routine can fall apart."
THE BENEFIT
Ms. Hammer says that she's noticed improvement in her balance, stability and coordination -- and she's become more toned. Her form has improved as well and Ms. Hammer says she's more creative with her own workouts. "Instead of only using machines when I exercise on my own I have a greater range of potential non-machine based exercises."
Still, Ms. Hammer adds: "I'm not going to do suicide sprints or box jumps by myself."
