HMMR Podcast Episode 279: The long road back (with Tuomas Seppänen)
In 2016 Tuomas Seppänen was on the verge of a breakthrough when everything went wrong. It took him years to build but now, at age 36, he is throwing better than ever. On this week’s podcast he joins us to discuss his long road back to the top, including overcoming vertigo, rehabilitating injury, adjusting his training, dealing with the pandemic, balancing work, and much more.
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Notes and quotes
Tuomas Seppänen is the current Finish national champion in the hammer throw. He has competed internationally for Finland on various occasions at both the European and World Championships. At the 2014 European Championships he reached the final.

- 0:00 – Introduction.
- 1:30 – Nick’s reflections on the World Championship throws.
- 4:00 – Martin’s reflections on the World Championship throws.
- 7:15 – Introducing Tuomas Seppänen and how he got his groove back.
- 12:30 – Dealing with vertigo.
- 16:00 – Learning from Koji Murofushi.
- 19:00 – Real length vs. fake length.
- 21:15 – Other coaching influences.
- 23:00 – Evolution of strength training post-injury.
- 25:15 – Hammerobics.
- 26:30 – Breaking down a 10-day training cycle.
- 33:45 – Balancing work with training.
- 38:30 – Thoughts on getting into coaching.
- 40:30 – Lessons to to a young Seppänen: quality over quantity.
- 42:45 – Refinding the focus and passion after the pandemic.
- 45:00 – What the future holds.
To hear more on these topics, listen to the full episode above. Also be sure to subscribe to our podcast and review it on iTunes.
Further reading
- This episode is brought to you by HMMR Plus. Become a member for full access to our videos, articles, and podcast archives.
- You can follow Seppänen on Instagram (@moukarituomas).
- Koji Murofushi was a big influence on Seppänen. You can read about some of his biomechanical research, as well has an introduction to hammerobics and some of the unique gym methods used by Murofushi.
- We discussed some ideas on accelerating the hammer in this episode, and even more ideas on the topic can be found in our Video Lesson 30: Accelerating the hammer.