My preseason workout, thoughts

[rick_steel]

Hi guys,

I've been away from the game for about 5 years and am going to start playing again in Brisbane, Australia. I am 181cm tall and weight about 104kgs (a better weight for me would be about 90-95kgs. I play number eight or blindside flanker and hopefully I'll be able to stay at this position. I haven't played since highschool and have just turned 22. I read some Australian studies into preseason rugby workouts and this is my week 1-4 plan. Its currently 4 weights sessions per week (this will come down later). I would like a bit of feedback on this and any suggestions on substitutions. This doesn't include other work I've been doing i.e long runs, swimming, interval training and plyometrics.

This first phase is for hypertrophy.

Day 1.

Bench 3 x 10
Bent Over Rows 3 x 10
Shoulder Press 3 x 10
Shrugs 3 x 10
Bicep Curl 3 x 10
Tricep Extension 3 x 10
Crunches - 3 sets to failure

Day 2.

Squat 3 x 10
Deadlift 3 x 10
Leg Curl 3 x 10
Calf Raise 3 x 10
Back Ext 3 x 10
Reverse Crunch - 3 sets to failure

Day 3.

Incline Press 3 x 12
Dips 3 x 12
Lateral Pulldowns 3 x 12
Seated Row 3 x 12
Upright Row 3 x 12
Bicep Curl 3 x 12
Tricep Pushdown 3 x 12
Crunches - 3 sets to failure

Day 4.

Leg Press 3 x 12
Front Squat 3 x 12
Leg Curl 3 x 12
Single Leg Calf Raise 3 x 12
Stiff Leg Dead Lift 3 x 12
Reverse Crunch - 3 sets to failure

This goes on a Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri schedule and then moves onto a further 4 weeks. After that is 6 weeks of strength-focussed training and then 6 weeks of power training.

Feels great so far after my first couple of weeks, except I have experienced a bit of back pain as I had a fairly weak back before commencing.

 

[Tomsey]

The content looks alright but if I were you I would try to isolate a bit more. For example on day one you are working your pectorals (Bench), deltoids (Shoulder Press), trapezius (Shrugs), biceps (Bicep Curl), triceps (Tricep Extension), latissimus dorsi (Bent Over Rows)and abdominals (Crunches).
For strength training you should focus on one muscle area at a time, ie day one you do pecs, day two you do arms (bi’s and tri’s), day three you do shoulders (traps and delts) etc. You obviously do more than one exercise in a session.
For example on chest day I will do three sets of ten reps on barbell bench, dumbbell bench, flys, pec dec and incline. Obviously the muscle your isolating gets fatigued quite quickly so its important to keep your form good or other surrounding muscles will start supporting and the exercise will be ineffective. Start with lightish weights to begin with of you will get DOMS from hell.
Because you do chest one day, then arms the next, and shoulders the next then, back the next then legs etc. by the time you get back to chest the muscles have had a good recovery time.

 

[A Crappy Winger]

http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles.html

Do westside for skinny ********. Read this guy's rep and his results with other athletes and see if you're convinced.

I've done it myself for about a month now and have seen really good results, even within such a small time frame

 

[the_cogitator]

http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles.html

Do westside for skinny ********. Read this guy's rep and his results with other athletes and see if you're convinced.

I've done it myself for about a month now and have seen really good results, even within such a small time frame

Honestly westside for skinny ******** is an amazing workout and fits perfectly with the sport. It is a very reasonable split workout. If you want to throw in some olympic lifts replace the jumping on the first leg day, but all in all the guy trains champions and his results speak for themselves

 

[Sam Owen]

The weights side of things looks great. I too am doing off-season trainning, I started 6 weeks ago. I do similar weight trainning to yours but at the moment Im doing heavy weights, Im goin after a beach body lol.

Dont forget your cardio that is king. At least an hour a day of cardio with hill running, sprints or just an hour jog. Interval sprints will help to get you to 90kgs, do it 3 times weekly, jog for 3mins sprint for 1min at least 5 1min sprints so thats a 20min workout on the treadmill. In the game, a well trained cardiovascular system is your true strength.

 

[Sam Owen]

This doesn't include other work I've been doing i.e long runs, swimming, interval training and plyometrics.

Ah, just saw this. Well, you need not hear from me lol.

 

[Geoff_]

Looks good but I agree with tomsey, you should focus on one set of the major muscles at one time. Apart from that it looks good though and good luck.