Training summer 2011/12
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Well that hurt haha. Had club sevens today. Played for our club B side and really enjoyed it. Used it solely for fitness and to get used to contact Played two full games, and two half games. Our team had 4 props in it (one game our starting forward pack were all props) so we just went out there to bully the smaller players and to keep it nice and tight. We lost every game, but we got closer to the opposition as the day went on (and we learnt to keep it tighter). With saying that we did strike a tough draw. The two teams who fought in the final were both in our pool.<br />
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Over all a great day, glad I agreed to play. Will be interesting to see what the body feels like tomorrow. Especially with the sun burn added in haha -
Just a quiet day today. Body was still quite tired and I think I may of gotten a bit of sun stroke yesterday. Sun burns settled down as well which is nice. We for a 4km run tonight. Body fealt really good and loose. Clocked in 18 min 45 sec which Im reasonably happy. Get back into the gym tomorrow which after a week off Im a bit nervous about, but should be right.
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Back in the gym today. It didnt go to great. Half way through doing my squats/deadlift super set and I tweaked my upper back. I tried to stretch it out and keep going, but it just didnt loosen up, so I pulled the pin. Hoping it will loosen up to get back into it tomorrow.
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good work on the sevens - Hauraki North used to put in two teams all the time, a 'real' team, and a tight forward team. WE used to win sod all, but blet teams to pieces as much as possible. You'd break the oppo line, but you'd all be too slow to make the tryline!! <br />
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Bugger on the back! -
Backs settled down a lot. Its not as major as me tweaking my lower back which can be a right pain in the arse when I do it. I went and did some running last night. Ran the start of my 5km run to the closet park (500-700m) and did some intervals. The goal was to do 10 sets of the 100m/200m double. Unfortunately I only made it half way and pulled the pin after 10mins of work. I was gutted, so got back on the road and finished off the 5km. It loosened the back up quite nicely.<br />
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This morning was chest and triceps. It was really, really good to get a good session under my belt. -
Got to training tuesday night and found out that we were going for a 5km run to warm up. Finished the training off with break down drills. Had a rest day yesterday as the body was wrecked. This morning tried to get some testing done. Im getting a programme done up for me for the following 5-6 weeks which will incorporate power exercises while focusing on squats, bench and dead lifts. I havent dont dead lifts consistantly for a while, and have been doing machine hack squats the previous couple months and before that I was doing box squats. The trainer wants me to take the box away and go down so that the hamstrings are parrallel with the ground. Today was about trying to get a baseline 1 RM for the 3 main exercises.<br />
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I got 140 kg x 1 for squats. 130kg x 2 for dead lifts and 117.5 x 1 for bench. I probably could of got a couple more reps on some of the exercises but I racked up to try a heavier weight then failled. I think Im heading into sets of 6-8 reps based on a percentage of what I pushed today. Plenty of room for growth, and I did notice that the hack squats Ive been doing made it easier for me to get lower than I previously have been able to. I did feel those extra couple inches though. Should be fun though, looking forward to a change up. -
First day of the new programme today. 3 sets of bench supposed to be 10/8/6 however I only managed 90/10 - 95/5 - 95/5. Next exercise was 3 sets of 5 of power clean with a front squat at the top of the clean. Got up to 85 kgs. I found the cleans not to bad but the front squats burnt. I then had dead lifts 4 sets of 6 and tricep rope pull down 3 sets of 10.<br />
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It was good to do something different, especially after the last training block being lighter weights but high reps/endurance. -
Last night had a line out session to sort out the calls for our first game this weekend. In order to kill to birds with one stone I ran to and from training which worked out to be about a 4.5 km run all up.<br />
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This morning I did the second session of my gym programme. Started off with squats. 2 sets of 12 for warm up, followed by 3 sets of 10/8/6. Did the first 2 sets at 110kg but failled on the 3rd set. Im still surprised how much the deep squats wreck me.<br />
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I followed squats with high pulls (50kg) and push press (80kg) both of 3 sets of 5 reps. Finished off the weights with 3 sets of 10 bicep curls.<br />
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Went straight into a spin class to finish myself off. -
Training last night. Starting to finally do unit work and patterns. Makes for some longer trainings but its nice for a change. We have our first preseason this weekend which I'm looking forward to.<br />
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Tonight I was given some plyometric exercises to start doing once a week. Bounding, knee tucks and vertical jumps. Each will be 4 sets of 30 seconds with a 1 minute rest. Its amazing how tiring it will be.<br />
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Tonight was also my second beep test. I thought I had gotten an 11.2 last time but he was thought that I had only got a 9.2. I had 11.2 written down but either way Ive improved. I scored an 11.6 today. I have definitely noticed running getting a little easier now that I have started contact training etc. -
I don't think I ever broke ten on that cursed 'beep' test, and I seem to recall Carl Hoeft as an 18 year old lapping me in the 12 minute run thing we used to do 20 years ago!! Good days, I don't think!!<br />
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What is the 'standard' expected for props on the beep?? NPC level? -
Not sure because they do the yo-yo test now which is a variation of the beep test but at the same time is significantly different. For the yo-yo test I think they have to crack level 17 which I think is roughly a level 13ish in the beep.<br />
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Did my day 3 gym session in the new programme for the first time yesterday. For a programme that looked relatively low key it still managed to do a number on me and have me leaving the gym sweating from head to toe. 4 sets of 8 deep front squats, 2 sets of 4 snatch with overhead squats, 3 sets of 5 B/B bent over row, and 3 sets of 10 seated db press.<br />
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Its been a nice change up from the heaps of super sets and endurance work to have 4 exercises and be in and out in 45 mins. With saying that though they've still managed to do a number on me. Switching from supersets to 3 days of pretty much full body sessions is a different type of tiring. I have enjoyed (if thats the right word, ask me again next week) having variations of squats every day of the programme, as well as having the power exercises power cleans with front squats, push press and snatch with over head squats. -
First game of preseason yesterday. Went really well. Played against the defending champions and lost by 10 points I think. Playing quarters we played pretty much a different forward back for the first 3 quarters to give everyone some game time, then finished off the last quarter with basically our top team. I played 30 mins (the first quarter and 10 mins of the last quarter). Fitness held up really well, got some good contact work in and scrummed well considering we've done no scrum work at all this year. There was a lot of promising stuff come out of the game, only early days but we seemed to have grown a lot. Last year we had a million dollar backline with a forward pack which was up and down, but this year we've got a forward pack which is fitter and stronger and looks like we should be able to bully a few teams. It will give us a bit of variety so we can change up the style of play which we will be able to. Bring on next week for the next preseason and hopefully a bit more game time to get some more game fitness.
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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.