Who I am
My name is Albert and I’ve been a sport scientist and strength and conditioning coach for over 10 years. I’ve worked in competitive fitness, Weightlifting, Powerlifting, adaptive athletics and much more. During my career I’ve worked with athletes from every level and background you can imagine and I’ve seen this plateau thousands of times.
Why athletes struggle
In my experience, athletes are held back by 3 primary problems:
- A simple lack of strength.
- Lack of time spent building that strength.
- No structured and efficient plan to get stronger.
What is strength?
Strength is simply the ability to produce force and power is the ability to produce force quickly. The best athletes are the most powerful ones. From something as simple as doing a squat to something as complex as a gymnastics ring routine, the stronger you are, the better you will perform. It’s not your lack of practice that prevents you from doing a muscle up. You’re simply not powerful enough (yet).
So, I created Athletic Forge with one simple goal in mind. Making you as strong and as powerful as possible.
Athletic Forge philosophy
The Athletic Forge process is entirely evidence based. This means our training is designed based on the latest scientifically backed methods. Every session has a purpose in mind and you receive guidance and advice throughout to gain maximum benefit. Say goodbye to randomly thrown together workouts, silly children’s games and time-fillers and embrace a culture of hard work with like minded people. Although our training is serious, we most certainly are not. Expect terrible jokes, great music, even better coffee and perhaps a game of ping pong to settle some scores.
Athletic Forge methodology
So how does training at Athletic Forge work? We have 3 distinct training phases, each lasting 12 weeks.
The 1st phase we call Preparation. During this time we focus on hypertrophy (getting bigger muscles), tendon strength to reduce the risk of injuries and lifting technique.
The 2nd phase is Strength. Here we increase your ability to produce force, using a foundation of Powerlifting and gymnastics training. Expect to add bigger numbers on the barbell and gain more control of your own bodyweight.
The 3rd phase is Athleticism. Here we take all the strength you’ve built and turn it into power. We will focus on Weightlifting, sprinting, plyometrics and more advanced gymnastics skills.
Now for the good news. You don’t have to wait for the preparation phase to start training. You can sign up at any point and jump right into training. This is because simply going through each phase once won’t be nearly enough to build the power you need to excel. I want you to keep repeating these cycles until you’ve maximized your physical potential. Strength training is a very long, very hard process. There’s a reason you see 10 000 people at a marathon and 10 at a Powerlifting competition.
The gym
All this training is performed at my gym located in Nieuwegein. Here you will have access and free use of power cages, lifting platforms, barbells and air bikes. If you feel like simply hanging out, enjoying a cup of coffee or playing a round of darts, make use of our lounge area.
Do you have any questions about our membership rates or training methods or would you like to book a free trial? Get in touch by clicking the button below.