Training summer 2011/12
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First week with a saturday rugby game and a 40 hour week at work has been good so far. Im still trying to get the balance of my trainings right but so far it's not to bad. Monday morning was Bench, deadlifts, power cleans/front squats and triceps. I had increases in all exercises. I hit my rep ranges for bench this time and got up to 120 kg x 6 in dead lifts. Monday night was spin class. After my first day back at work after a fortnight on holiday I was pretty tired before hand but it actually worked to wake me up.<br />
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Tuesday morning was squats, high pulls, push press and bicep curls. I wore my weights belt for the squats just to help with the stability at the bottom of the range. It definitely helped me maintain my form and protect my back. Im starting to notice my form improve for all of the exercises now and it feels good to be making gains again. Last night was club training. Contact drills and a bit of pattern work. Low key session but valuable.<br />
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Today was a rest day. Always going to be my sleep in. But I pulled the pin on the plyometric session planned for tonight. Body needed a rest. Might try get to training a little bit earlier tomorrow to get it in. -
it gets bloody hard to work, do weights, run, train and play rugby. Weights has to end up maintenance, aim at the core exercises, and try not to lose too much strength (in my past experience anyway)!! Supplements important, are you using any? Ness can now get Horley's too, I am sure we can give you a bit of a discount if you want to use any - also some other proteins that I can't remember the name of but are bloody good, and taste good too, whcih helps!
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yeah gym might have to end up being maintenance. Im doing three sessions which over the 3 I do bench, deadlifts, back squats and front squats. These are mixed in with power exercises and back/shoulder exercises. I have noticed this week that Ive lost a lot of opportunities to do conditioning. It wasnt to bad the last month or two when club trainings had a lot of fitness involved but this week was basically all handling skills and pattern work. Im tossing up on whether to get a RPM session done on wednesday, or to do RPM on thursday morning and switch that gym session to friday morning. Time will tell.<br />
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I presently used Myofusion protein. Find it really nice but I do find that Ive started my annual drop in weight which is tied in to the season starting. I was contemplating on whether it would be worth while trying the mass protein range? What proteins do you find the most effective? And how much would it cost me to get protein through you guys? -
Out of all my sessions my thursday morning session seems to wreck me. The deep front squats wrecks the glutes and the hammies. its crazy what 4 sets of 105kg x 10 does.<br />
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Saturdays game was good. Normal scrappy preseason and the team prep was shit but there was some good parts when we stuck to our structure. Its awesome having the x factor in the backs which can pull something out of there arse when the play breaks down as well. Played 60 mins. Wasnt overly happy with my first 40. Fealt sloppy, and wasnt doing enough of the good stuff at the right times. I think my lack of game fitness really shone through during that time. the last 20 mins though I managed to finally hit my 2nd wind and it was like a completely different game. had some good runs and was back to my old 'annoying bastard self', come the rucks and mauls by getting annoying hands into everything just to mess with their ball. I wasnt meant to play that last 20 mins but was so glad that I got it.<br />
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This morning was gym. A good hard session and got a good sweet up. Noticing some nice small gains. Eg for dead lifts I went from the last set last week at 120x6, to the last 2 sets today at 120x 6. Its not much but Im picking away at it. -
Wow its been a couple weeks since Ive posted. My bad. Had a week off of gym last week. Body was buggered and needed a rest after the previous 4 weeks. Add on the effects of the first game of the season and it was a well timed break. Back into the gym today. Pushing the same weights as I did the week before last so havent lost anything. Was a little bit rusty movement and stiffnesswise for the first set on most exercises. Was so good to get back into the gym.<br />
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Having the afternoon off tonight, and will be up early for a 6 am spin class tomorrow morning. Im going to spread the trainings out a little bit more than usual, and add a couple spin classes this week as we have a bye this weekend.<br />
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Rugby has been good. Two games into the season and picked up 80mins both times. Im totally noticing the difference from having done the extra training. The fitness is amazing. Im still dead come the last 10-20 mins, but am getting around the field so much easier than what I normally do this time of the season. Challenge now is to keep it up. -
Spin class Tuesday and Thursday morning, followed by club trainings on both nights. Starting to get some good contact in at the club trainings. Play against the Bs each week which is good. They go all guns blazing and we have to start learning not to fuck around otherwise we get made to look like idiots.<br />
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Did my squats session on Wednesday night after tea about 8pm. Was surprised how good I fealt come Wednesday night. Pushed some good weight to. used my push press and upright row as warm up for my squats. Had a double benefit of allowing me to push/pull more weight in the 2 exercises as well as warm me up for the squats where I got up to 125 kgs for the parallel squats. I know it doesnt seem like a lot, but its taking me a while to build up the strength in my lower back to handle the added depth of the squats. Ive also decided to stick with the weights belt. Having the extra support for my lower back is simply to important to me, and is allowing me to keep my form which other wise Ild probably struggle with. -
Changed up my programme slightly this week. I wasnt getting the work on my upper body and was loosing to much size. Ive seperated the exercises back into one lower body and two upper body. I still have the power exercises in there though.<br />
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Because i had Saturday off of rugby I went to the gym yesterday. Bench 90/10, 95/8, 97.5/6. I was pumped after hitting that 6th rep. Ive been trying to hit it for the last 6-7 weeks and it was the first time Ive completed the reps. Finished the session with incline bench, explosive bench, some cable work then tricep dips. Starting to get some good gains on a couple of those exercises which I did the programme before last.<br />
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Today was legs. Did squats 115/10, 120/8, 125/6, followed by jump squats 115/5 x 3 sets, finished off with dead lifts 110/6, 115/6, 120/6, 120/6, and biceps.<br />
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Ive got spin class tomorrow morning then team training. After this week Im going to make an effort to do spin classes every tuesday and thursday mornings. Wont do it this week because we're playing friday evening as the curtain raiser to the hurricanes game. -
Not looking forward to work on Tuesday. Had rugby on Friday. Got dropped down to the bench for A's so went and started for the Bs because they were short of players. Was only meant to play 40mins but the other prop got injuried so ended up playing 70mins. Had an absolute blast. Score my first hatrick in years. Had a four hour wait after the game then got on for the As in the curtain raiser for the Hurricanes. Got about 25 mins. Lungs handled it really well, but the muscles were quite stiff. Woke up Saturday morning sore from head to toe. Pool session loosened every up a bit, but the shoulder is still a bit tender.<br />
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To make things more entertaining we have the defending club champions for the last two years tomorrow as the second half of the easter double header. Looking forward to the opportunity to have a go at them. Tuesday morning at work will suck though. Considering maybe a spin class Tuesday morning. -
Have had a light week this week after the 2 games over the long weekend. Had a pool session last night, and physio tonight. Ive strained the rotator cuff in my shoulder. Will be back into the gym tomorrow. It will be the only one for this week due to the game on Saturday, so Ill do a full body session. Was told today to avoid over head exercises, so will stick to squats, deadlifts, and will try bench. Will throw in a couple other exercises, but will see how the shoulder goes.
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Well these last 3 weeks have sucked. I got my shoulder good enough to play footy the following week (Even now its still not great in the gym), only to get twisted in a tackle and bugger my knee up. Thankfully the MCL and ACL are good now, and any damage thought to be done turned to be bruising. Unfortunately I have damaged my cartilidge in my knee. Its getting better but Im struggling to get rid of the swelling inside the joint. Ive been doing swimming and some low intensity spin bike sessions partnered up with plenty of rehab and body weight exercises to keep the calf, quads and hammies strengthened. I was able to do some light jogging on Saturday as water boy. The knee flared up yesterday and today after Saturday (a night on the piss probably didnt help). Ive finally gotten it to settle down, with some more rehab and icing tonight but it was a good indication that things arent quite right yet. Hopefully I continue to get good progress, otherwise they'll be booking me in with a specialist.<br />
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As for the shoulder, Ive finally gotten back into the gym. Still struggle with some exercises, but its just a matter of doing the ones which feel good, and if it hurts dont do it. Being able to do exercise again certainly helps, I was going crazy there when I couldnt do anything. -
Got booked in to see a specialist today for my knee. It is starting to get a little bit better, but is still restrictive inside the joint. I managed to go for a short jog last night. Got about 3.5 km under the belt. Cant get out of 2nd/3rd gear, but I managed to survive the run with out the knee blowing up swollen. Just dont tell the phsyio <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/rugby/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' /> haha
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Well things are going just brilliant. Got back into training and had my first game back since I injuried my knee. I came off the bench 30 mins into the game. It was all going well for the first 29 mins, scrummed probably the best I have all year and was making it good around the field. Was cautious around the contact, and couldnt fully stride out but made it around the field ok considering. I just managed to build the confidence up and took a hit up 29 mins in to get tackled, leg twisted up and the exact same pop and pain as 5 weeks ago. The knees not as bad as last time, but the knees blown right up again and Im hobbling like a crippled old man again. Got the specialist on wednesday so it will be interesting to see what he has to say. I wouldnt be surprised if surgery was on the cards after an MRI. Hoping for the swelling to go down so I can give playing another crack, but its not that great.<br />
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One benefit atleast this time around is that my shoulders recovered so I can atleast do upper body weights which will help with the sanity atleast in the short term. -
damn, sounds like something that won't go away eh, so somthing not right in there. And yes, that is now the only way to think - looking at the bright side of things. So upper body weights, you'll end up looking like those poofs at the gym that only do upper body and have PeeWee Herman's legs...!!
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Stink bro - knee problems suck : (<br />
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At least you are doing the right thing and getting it looked at. Hope it's nothing too serious.<br />
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lol you'll be doing a Richie - he's come back to super rugby pretty top heavy... although you wouldn't call his legs PeeWee Hermans!! well not to his face! -
D Day was today with my specialist appointment and it wasnt good news. He thinks that Ive ruptured my ACL. Ive been booked in for a MRI asap which is expected to take 4-6 weeks. In that time it will be focusing on rehab, attempting to minimise the swelling. If the rupture is confirmed in the MRI then it will be trying to get into surgery in July.
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shit bro that is stink news. But better to get it seen to properly. Hopefully that chance of it not being a ruptured ACL comes through.