Men_s Health Australia - April 2016__

04/16

Run and Gun

Use these workouts from Wingard

to build speed, endurance and

explosive power

SPEED

• Hill sprints
  8 0m x 10 with jog recovery

ENDURANCE

• 3km time trial
  Run it twice a week, aiming to
  improve your time each session.
  Under 11 minutes is excellent. Port
  Adelaide’s best runner, Sam
  Colquhoun, does it in 9:20.

POWER

• Full squat x 3


• Half squat x 3


• Box jump x 5


• Step-ups x 10 o n eac h le g

NAME

Chad Wingard

AGE

22

WEIGHT

83kg

HEIGHT

181cm

20M SPRINT

2.91 secs

3KM TIME TRIAL

10:50

SQUAT

170kg

RUNNING VERTICAL LEAP

95cm

Goals in 2015

53

All-Australian

2013, 2015

AT A GLANCE

“YOU’VE GOT TO

CHALLENGE

YOURSELF

CONSTANTLY

AND NOT GET

COMPLACENT

WITH WHERE

YOU’RE AT”

the key to managing heat, hills,

or both, Wingard says, is to quit

worrying about yourself.

“Having your hands on your

knees is not acceptable. Bending

over is not acceptable, because

that’s about you and your pain,”

s ay s Wi ng a rd. “O u r fo c u s a s a

group is to get out of your own

pain and worry about how the

guy next to you is doing.”

Slogging though a set of

burpees in an F45 class? Forget

about your agony by making

your mate’s pain your priority.

AERIAL ASSAULT

Wingard has made a name for

himself taking hangers, most

notably the Round 12 grab over

St Kilda’s Sean Dempster to

claim mark of the year in 2014.

He attributes his spectacular

leaping ability to his background

shooting hoops, where despite

being a 181cm point guard, he

h ad no proble m s du n k i ng. “ I

was a bit shorter than most guys

s o I h ad to rea l ly l au nc h i nto my

lay-ups,” he says.

To reach such rarified heights

you need to build explosive

power in your pins. Try

combinations of full and half

squats, Wingard recommends,

lowering the bar slowly before

exploding back up. Add

plyometric exercises like the box

jump and step-ups to extend

your hang time.

quick sprint, rest,
then sprint
again,” he says.
But if he wants to
play midfield, he’s
going to need to
work on his engine.
Wingard’s three-
kilometre PB is
10:50. Port’s best
midfielders, such as
Travis Boak, run it in under
10:25. Wingard has that time
squarely in his crosshairs and
expects to knock it off in the
2017 pre-season. “It’s all about
attacking your weaknesses,” he
says. It’s simple stuff, but if you
truly want to get better, there’s
no other way. Run the rule
across your physical output,
advises Wingard. Where are you
coming up short? Where’s the
benchmark? Now go out there
and get it.

SHORE UP YOUR CORE
A titanic engine is only one part
of the equation when it comes to
excelling in midfield. In the
helter-skelter of stoppages and
ground contests, you also need
to b e st rong e noug h t h roug h
your core and upper body to
break tackles and keep your feet.
“ I don’t w a nt to b e t h i s sm a l l
playing midfield,” admits
Wingard, who weighs 83 kilos
but would like to get to 85.
He’ll put the weight on with
upper-body lifts like the bench
and shoulder press. To
strengthen his core, Wingard
relies on band work. “We do a lot
of marking with someone
pulling you from different
directions,” he says. To improve
core stability in the gym, try
medicine-ball throws with a
mate, catching and releasing
the ball with your weight on
alternate feet.

HANDLE THE HEAT
Port’s renowned running game
is one forged in the heat and
honed on the hills. As much a
mental battle as a physical one,

Walking on air: Wingard

takes to the skies to claim

2014’s mark of the year.