David's Rugby Training Journal

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1

I decided to start up a training journal, just for interest - maybe I can learn something from it or maybe it can help others.

I have decided to halt running track for sometime while I concentrate on the rugby season which is starting soon. This year I will be playing 2nd 5/8 (inside centre) instead of on the wing. This would be similar to a move to running back from wide receiver for you football junkies. Also, there is a big defensive requirement - I have to make big hits!

Due to the positional requirements, I will need to bulk up a little. Right now, I’m just under 80 kg, preferably I would like to increase my bodyweight to around 86 kg to be more of a presence on defense.

I also need to bring up my strength a little more, since I lost a little while stupidly cutting down for track (although I was walking around with a shredded 8-pack, my lifts weren’t going up!) Damn, should’ve taken a picture. :slight_smile:

As far as running goes, basically all of my sprint work is done at distances under 30m, plus a lot of endurance work (which is worked on in team training sessions or just playing games of 1 vs 2 soccer). I am not doing tempo at this time, since I feel all my aerobic needs are taken care of and recovery is just fine.

08/3/03

Speed:
12x30m acceleration from various starting positions:
(side steps off either feet, rolling start, lying start, standing start, forward roll into start, etc)
Only did 10 reps eventually, since speed was starting to get worse.

Weights:

Originally had planned to do cleans, but I took a hit near my neck at rugby practice a few days back and my neck was a little tight and I felt it would’ve affected my cleans form.

Back Squats: 5x5 - 150 kg - 5 min rest
Achieved five on all sets. Most sets were quarter squats since my lower back was a little tight from rugby practice and had trouble going deep.

Weighted Chinups: 5x5 - BW+30 kg - 5 min rest
Ended up with 3, 3, 2, 2, 2 reps.

Bench Press: 5x5 - 100 kg - 5 min rest
4, 3, 3, 2, 1. This was rather poor, since I used to be able to do 6 reps with 105 kg.

Abs: Weighted Swiss Ball Crunches - 10kg dumbell - 5x25 - superset with other exercise.

Saxon side bends - 3.75 kg dumbells - 5x25 - 1 min rest.

Did a few hip flexors stretches. That was it. No recovery work done.

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09/3/03

After putting my friends through some weight workouts (they’re not training seriously), I went to the park to play some 1 vs 2 soccer (small field and small goals of course). It was a bloody tough aerobic workout! Bit more fun than tempo too. :slight_smile:
I actually ended up winning 5-3 (at one point was 4-0 to me - yay for speed!) but then they wanted to keep going until 6 pt when they realised how fatigued I was and I ended up losing 6-5.

Did some stretches. And practiced some tackling technique on my friends, just because they made me lose in the end.

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10/3/03

As far as my diet goes now, I have been eating supramaximally. 6 meals a day, plenty of meat and eating as much as humanly possible without regurgitation. All clean foods though, about the worst thing I’m eating is probably the occasional white bread.

Onto training: originally I planned to repeat the other workout from 09/3 but my lower back and glutes were still too sore, so I just did upper body - no speed work.

Bench Press - 5x5 - 100 kg - 5 min rest
5, 4, 3, 2 , 1. A better effort this time, but still could be better.

Weighted Chinups - 5x5 BW+30kg - 5 min rest
4, 3, 2, 2, 1. Slight improvement, should be able to do 5 reps next time I do them.

No stretching, no recovery work. A bit slack you could say!

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11/3/03

I’m up to just under 80 kg now (about 79.5 kg I guess). This is fantastic, since I was actually only just 75 kg 6 days ago! At first I was worried that I had just put on a lot of fat, but the mirror says otherwise. Not totally shredded like before of course, but certainly still remains of 8-pack visible. As long as my strength has improved also…

Team training
-Game of touch
-“Irish miles” (basically just long runs which add up to about 300m each rep)
-Various ball handling skills
-Rucks, mauls, clearing out.

No speed today

Weights
Power Cleans from the floor: 5x3 - 80 kg - 5 min rest
Felt easy (3 on all sets), first time doing cleans for a while so I didn’t want to use too much weight.

Back Squats: 5x5 - 150 kg - 5 min rest
Didn’t feel too bad, I got 5 reps on all sets but I haven’t been hitting parallel on some of the reps which is disappointing since I used to do 5 reps on 150 kg full depth.

By the time I finished squats, gym was closing so no time for abs.

Will be back on Thursday to do team training session plus probably upper body weights.

5

David,

It’s been a while since your last update…any progress?

xlr8

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xlr8, I didn’t think there was much interest, also there has been very little to talk about from a physical training point of view!

We have been doing a lot of work as a team, almost everyday working on moves/patterns, which leaves me with very little energy to do speed/plyo/weights.

I have been doing my own individual speed/weights/plyo work once or occasionally 2xweek. I bumped the weights volume down to 2 sets of cleans, squats, bench and chins. Currently power cleaning 85kg x 6 reps, bench press 105kg x 5 reps and deep squat 145 x 6 reps. Chin-ups - I leave them at the end of the workout and as a result they’re usually dropped to save energy.

My original plan had been to add more mass but it is incredibly difficult considering the amount of running we’re doing as a team, although I am happy with where I am at and am fully capable of landing some big hits albiet at a light bodyweight!

We have our first game tomorrow, I’m starting at centre (13).

7

Good luck at the season opener!

xlr8