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Thread: Rugby in season lifting

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Posts
    65

    Default Rugby in season lifting

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    Hi all, I am three weeks into the season and have been doing 531 on Monday's and Wednesdays. Bench / squat on Monday and deadlift / press on Wednesday + 3 assistance type exercises per day. We train very hard on Tuesday's and Thursday's a lot of sprints \ running and games are on Saturdays. Main goal is to maintain strength for the season.

    Roughly early intermediate lifter aside from crap squats as are guys I train with.

    1rms roughly 415 deadlifts, 300 squats, 165 press, 260 bench, 205 lbs @ 6 feet.

    Some questions if anyone has advice.

    1) skip the Deload week on 531?

    2) would it be advisable to not move the weight up as called for, or at least to be very conservative in doing so? Would seem hard to progress given recovery limitations of playing rugby.

    3) should I still eat a ton if only lifting twice a week?

    4) occasionally I get a weekend with no game, should I just repeat the previous Monday / Wednesday workouts on say Friday / Sunday?

    5) if anyone else has other programming suggestions or thoughts that'd be great.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Gaithersburg, MD
    Posts
    471

    Default

    I found the hardest part about in-season rugby training was not so much the recovery capacity (which you've addressed by moving your workouts to 2x/week), but more so the random injuries that would crop up. You know, one week I'd jam 3 fingers, next week, a shoulder would get bent all funky in a ruck, I pulled a quad during sprint drills in January (fuck sprinting in sub-freezing temps). So find ways to train around what's hurting.

    Forwards definitely benefit from specific shoulder and neck hypertrophy, make sure some of your assistance work addresses that.

    Move up the weight if you can lift the heavier weight. If you're under-recovered, it won't be possible to lift the heavier weight so that's when you try to maintain/back off slightly, but you probably still have weight to gain, and thus you can still eat big and keep driving the weight up. Remember, as a rugby player, any weight gain (@6', 205lbs) is still useful, so keep eating and getting stronger.

    I don't have the experience to address all your points, but that's my .02.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    1

    Default

    Gene, I'm a newby member, but I'm 43 and have played and coached rugby most of my adult life, to a decent standard (back in the amateur era). I just finished playing a season after a few years out, and made sure I got my strength work in, and actually made some gains (size and strength) DURING the season - albeit from a relatively low base for me, since I stopped playing and lifting for a few seasons due to various life circumstances. I was running a very similar program to you. If I had a light game on Saturday or didn't pull up too sore on Sunday, I would go back to my old routine of squatting and deadlifting Sunday afternoon - gives max recovery time, then run just upper body sessions on Mon/Weds. But as Squeakguy says, you really have to go with how you feel. You need to listen to your body (especially at my age!). Training in season can't be rigid programming a la 531 - some weeks your body will just give you the big F-you, and if you're smart and listen, you'll be fine. If you don't, you'll pay. My programming was more a 5/4/3/2/1 warmup to around a top single of say 90% of 1RM, then either one all out backoff set (upper body) or some quality backoff sets (lower body). I found the one all out set lower body makes me too sore to recover in the week. As you can see this isn't too much work, like 531 its quality over quantity which allows for recovery.

    Keep assistance work to a minimum - apart from the big 4, I used snatch grip high pulls to warmup for deads, chins/rows, and calves/abs (maybe neck harness work if you have one).

    So my answers would be: (i) Deload as required, don't be a slave to a program. (2) Likewise, don't be a slave to programming. If anything, I got good gains in season by adding reps rather than pushing the weight on the bar up. (3) 2 trainings, 2-3 strength sessions and a match a week? Eat like a fucking trojan and enjoy it. (4) Yes, but again... see how you feel, some time weekends off are a good thing. (5) Per above.

    Hope that helps. Good luck. Stay safe.

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