The Sydney Swans hit the gym this morning for their first official pre-season weights session.

While most of the group were familiar with their surroundings at the Swans gym, it was the first time the club’s four new draftees had been exposed to a professional weights program.

Sydney Swans Strength, Power and Contact coach Damien Austin said today’s session was about educating the club’s new players, as well as setting the existing players on the right track for pre-season.

“Today was pretty much their first session back here in the gym officially with the program,” Austin told SwansTV.

“For the young guys, it was about just getting to know them and how they function.

“There’s a fair few of the young guys that we’ve got who haven’t done too many weights before, so we just teach them how to do weights.

“For the older guys, it’s about getting back into the routine.”

While lifting weights was the core element of the session, Austin said stability work was also an important part of the Swans pre-season training program.

“With the weights the guys will come in and do stability as well as some core and a lot of glute work,” he said.

“The aim of the stability work is to work the ankles, knees and hips so they’ve all got some level of conditioning to help them run.”

Austin said that leg work was another key component of the early pre-season strength and power sessions.

“Most of them have done an off-season program, which is just trying to get that leg work into them, which is the hardest thing,” he said.

“They all like doing the upper body but it’s mainly about getting the squats and the dead lifts through.”

The Swans strength program will continue for the next two weeks before testing sessions are held just before the Christmas break.