Athlete Development Program

Excerpts from "Local trainer pumps up X-men star,"
- Vancouver Sun, Monday, May 12 '03

Local Trainer, Steve Ramsbottom worked together with "mild mannered" Hugh Jackman, star of the latest X-men movie to help him "achieve every man's dream." Steve, worked with Hugh Jackman over six months ­ one to hours a day, five days a week to help Jackman put on approximately twenty pounds of muscle for the movie while staying quite lean. "Jackman didn't want to just look tough.so Ramsbottom, a local guy with a degree from UBC in Human Kinetics who also does rehab and special Olympics training, drafted a training routine that built his athleticism."

Ramsbottom worked with Jackman at his facility at 8-Rinks ­ the Performance Institute-a not so typical gym. While you will see the odd standard weight machine at his facility, in general, Ramsbottom feels that machines alone "don't prepare the body for real physical activity in the field. They may improve fitness, but people who then go out and try to play a game of soccer, or climb a mountain, often end up injuring themselves." With Ramsbottom's novel approach to training, "You get the look but you also get the function."

For Jackman, whose action-packed role as Wolverine included multiple combative scenes and holding a fighting pose while being suspended on a wire, maintaining both muscular size and definition without compromising athleticism was essential. To meet Jackman's needs, "Ramsbottom chose a regime that involved free weights for body building and swiss balls and balance boards for core strength and balance."

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