horan's rugby journal - journey to play university rugby

[horan]

nice progress man hope ur watching the rugby world cup games!

thank you! Haha of course, seen every single one so far. Definitely gonna do my best to make it to the 2015 world cup, would be an amazing experience.

Deload week day1
- nothing really to say about the deload week since the exercises are quite easy and I'm just trying to give my body a rest for the tournament

3x5 Squat: 185lbs

3x5 Overhead Press: 95lbs

1X5 Deadlift: 255lbs

5-7 minutes of stretching
10 minutes on the bike

EDIT: 2nd page of journal!

[horan]

Deload week day 2

3x5 Squat: 185lbs

3x5 Bench press: 115lbs

3x5 barbell rows: 115lbs

10min stretching

10min bike

[horan]

Took the day off yesterday cause i was pretty wrecked after the tournament, we ended up 3rd. We should've at least ended up in the final but we ****ed up, were in the lead at full time but didn't manage to get the ball out and the other team scored a try. My tackling was pretty bad, i have a lot of work to do on it...
After that I spent almost 8 hours straight drinking beer. Woke up the next morning not feeling too great both from the tournament and the drinking :P

Power cage wasn't available so had to do hack squats instead
2x5 Hack squat: 230lbs (just counting the plates added)
1x5 Hack squat: 270lbs

1x3 Overhead Press: 125lbs
1x3 Overhead Press: 125lbs
1x2 Overhead Press: 125lbs
- I'm gonna reset this to 115lbs, I know i'm not gonna be able to get this next workout either.

1X5 Deadlift: 355lbs
- No issues here

Assist work (all with 30sec rest between sets):
3x5 Pull ups

Curls for the girls:
1x10: 55lbs
1x10: 65lbs
1x5: 85lbs

[horan]

My family has a history of high cholesterol so i recently got a check up to see mine, and my levels were quite high...the doctor told me to lay off the protein shake for 3 months as well as switching up my diet and then to come in for another test to see if they're lower. I'm reluctant to stop taking protein powder cause it's an easy way for me to get in all the required protein as well as some extra calories, i'm gonna have to start eating probably another meal a day or so now which is gonna be tough cause i'm already pretty cramped with time trying to balance school, rugby, gym and now preparing stuff for college applications...

3x5 Squat: 225lbs
- reseting to 225lbs and working my way up passed 245lbs

3x5 Bench press: 160lbs
- was a grind but got it in the end

3x5 barbell rows: 160lbs
- also pretty tough

no assist work today

[horan]

Its been away for a while cause of **** coming up but i finally got to working out today, did explosive and core work:

- 3x10 Box squats: 155lbs
(1 min rest)
Was a lot harder than I thought it would be, have never done box squats and have never really done squats above 5 reps

- 3x10 Barbells rows: 135lbs
Supersetted with 3x12 Fast deadlifts: 135lbs
(1min rest between each round of sets)
This burned me out pretty bad for some reason, I felt the deadlifts especially much in my legs

- 5kg Medine ball throwdown x15
Supersetted with 10xburpees
- 5kg Medine ball throwdown x15
Supersetted with 10xexplosive push ups
- 5kg Medine ball throwdown x20
(30 sec rest between each round of sets)

- 3x 1min plank
supersetted with 20x leg raises
(No rest time, continuos)

- 3x5 clean and press: 95lbs
(1 min rest)
Should probably mention that I reset each rep, as in I did the clean, and then pressed it, and then put it down on the floor and cleaned it again and pressed it etc etc

[BenT]

nice bit of training mate.

just wondering, are you playing for singapore by any chance (u-19s etc)?

[horan]

nice bit of training mate.

just wondering, are you playing for singapore by any chance (u-19s etc)?

thanks, nah im not, i'm not even eligible to play cause i've just been in singapore for about a year (swedish national), i think you have to be in a country for something like 3 years to be eligible? i play with guys who are playing for the national team though

[horan]

Did a short HIIT workout today for cardio, my fitness is lacking and going to try to get in some cardio sessions now and then

Warm up
1 km run

HIIT session
- 6x 215m sprint (made sure to get it at least under 50s) with a 30s rest between sets

- 200m 60% transition to 100m 100%

[horan]

Had a pretty **** day today, no energy...hopefully it'll be better on friday. Haven't been eating enough the passed few days, half-term this week so late nights and early morning which means i've missed lunch on a few occasions, can't be doing this ****....

3x5 Squat: 230lbs
- Felt really hard for some reason...

1x3 Bench press: 165lbs
- Didn't get it on the first try so just gave up...was super pissed and felt really discouraged, didn't feel like doing anything after that

3x5 chest supported rows: 95lbs added
- not bad

Assist work (all with 1min rest):
65lbs incline bench press x10
95lbs incline bench press x10
115lbs incline bench press x5

[horan]

did some more HIIT today

Warm up
1km run

session

- 6x 170m sprint (within around 34-36s) with a 30sec rest between sets

- 100m walk -> 100m sprint -> 100m walk -> 200m sprint -> 100m walk -> 100m sprint
(may have done 1 more 100m walk and sprint but can't quite remember :P was getting tired so wasn't fully paying attention)

[BenT]

thanks, nah im not, i'm not even eligible to play cause i've just been in singapore for about a year (swedish national), i think you have to be in a country for something like 3 years to be eligible? i play with guys who are playing for the national team though

That's cool. You reckon you could make the national side (eligibility issue aside)?

Keep up the training!

[horan]

That's cool. You reckon you could make the national side (eligibility issue aside)?

Keep up the training!

Skill wise i think im pretty much up to par with a lot of the forwards on the team, in terms of size and strength however, i'm definitely lacking quite a bit...

WS4SB1
Gonna give joe defranco's ws4sb program a shot, have been really interested in this before but was put off due to time restraints, however i found his ws4sb1 program which was only 3 times a week (had previously been looking at his ws4sb3 program that has 4 days of training) so i gave that a go.
It's gonna take me a while to settle in with this program as there are a number of exercises i have never done before in my life but hopefully i'll get the form down on them soon

Max effort upper

Group A (work up to max set of 5):
barbell bench press:
165lbs
170lbs
- Felt great, was about to take off all the weight after getting 165lbs but said **** it and decided to try 170lbs, really glad i did. The spotter did something pretty annoying though, he held onto the bar the entire time so i dono how big of a difference that made...

Group B (3x10)
Incline dumbbell bench press:
50lbs
- I started off with 60lbs which was definitely too much, 50lbs was good

Group C (4x10)
Chest supported rows:
70lbs
- No comment

Group D (3x12)
Bent-over dumbbell rear delt flyes:
15lbs
- This was wayyy harder than i thought it would be, definitely found a weak point

Group E (3x10)
Barbell Russian twists:
2x10 with 10lbs plate
1x10 with 25lbs plate
- This was a really weird exercise so i'm gonna have to work quite a bit on form on this

[horan]

WS4SB
max effort lower body
**** this was tiring for my lower back...

Group A (work up to max set of 5)
Deadlifts:
2x365lbs
- was purely psychological that i didn't get this...pissed

Group B (3x10)
Squats:
1x10 185lbs
2x10 165lbs
- deadlifts tired my lower back out quite a bit for squats so this was pretty tiring, never do squats of more than 5 reps so this was a nice change of pace. Was much more tiring than i thought it would be

Group C (3x10)
Glute-ham raises
2x10 with 25lbs plate
1x10 with 35lbs plate

Group D (3 sets of timed sets)
Plate pinch gripping
2x25sec with 70lbs plate (was way too much)
1x40sec with 50lbs plate

[horan]

WS4SB

repetition upper
Group A (3 sets of max reps, 60s rest)
Barbell bench press: 95lbs
set 1: 25
set 2: 12
set 3: 10
- this was pretty hard to do as i work out alone so i wasn't able to go completely till failure

Group B (3x10)
Rolling triceps extensions
25lb dumbells
- this absolutely destroyed my triceps, holy **** this was a good exercise

Group C (4x5)
Pull-ups
- i suck so bad at pull ups, was only able to get 5 reps...i guess it's the curse of having ****ing gorilla arms and a high bf%

Group D (3x12)
Lateral raises (dumbbell)
15lb dumbells
- wish they had 20lb dumbells cause 15 was too light and 25 was too much

Group E (3x10)
Hammer curls
30lb dumbells
- no comment

Group F
Ab circuit:
20x leg raises
10x V-ups
10x toe touches
10x Leg Pull-In
- god damn that burned

[horan]

cardio

2km cross country run (rounded down, i think the run is actually around 2200-2300m or something but whatever)
- time: approximately 10min

6x 100m sprint -> 100m walk continuous

[horan]

WS4SB1

Max effort upper

Group A (work up to max set of 5):
barbell bench press:
175lbs PR
- **** yes! felt great, spotter said he didnt help but it felt like he did a bit

Group B (3x10)
Incline dumbbell bench press:
1x10 55lbs PR
1x7 55lbs
1x8 55lbs
- Felt pretty good

Group C (4x10)
Chest supported rows:
80lbs PR
- Last rep on the last set should probably only count as 1/2 but ill count it anyway :P

Group D (3x12)
Bent-over dumbbell rear delt flyes:
20lbs PR
- Felt a lot better today compared to last week

Group E (3x10)
Barbell Russian twists:
2x10 with 10lbs plate
1x10 with 25lbs plate
- I'm gonna focus on getting the form down for a bit until i start upping the weight, i've heard great things about this exercise but i've also heard of the importance of getting the form down so wanna focus on that for a while

[horan]

cardio

2km cross country run, same run as I did before
- time: 11min 5sec (was slowed down to a walk for a bit however because of crowded sidewalk so could've done it faster)

7x 70m sprint -> 70m walk continuous

[horan]

WS4SB
max effort lower body

Group A (work up to max set of 5)
Deadlifts:
2x365lbs
- I'm obviously stalling on this for some reason...even if it is purely in my head, i think i'm gonna rotate this exercise to something else

Group B (3x10)
Squats:
175lbs PR

Group C (3x10)
Hyperextensions
35lbs plate PR

Group D (3 sets of timed sets)
Plate pinch gripping
25s with 35lbs in each hand
- this went horrible, not even sure if i should count the 3 sets i did

[horan]

WS4SB
repetition upper

Group A (3 sets of max reps, 60s rest)
Barbell bench press: 95lbs
set 1: 27 PR
set 2: 13
set 3: 11
- this was pretty hard to do as i work out alone so i wasn't able to go completely till failure

Group B (3x10)
Rolling triceps extensions
30lb dumbells PR
- not too sure about the form, may have cheated a bit, still tough though.

Group C (4x8) PR
Pull-ups
- put my hands a bit closer together this time and it went a lot better than last time

Group D (3x10)
Lateral raises (dumbbell)
20lb dumbells PR

Group E (3x10)
Hammer curls
35lb dumbells
- last set was a bit of a grind but got it

Group F
Ab circuit:
10x leg raises
10x V-ups
10x toe touches
10x hip ups
6x sprinter sit ups
- when i finish this it felt like my abs were on fire

[Efedrine]

Which club do you play for here? Bucks, Wanderers, Bedok, SCC? Also which grade(conference, championship, prems)? If you want to get much better then you have to play in another country, season here is 10 weeks long while in rugby playing nations its a 30 week season usually(not-counting playoffs).

[horan]

Which club do you play for here? Bucks, Wanderers, Bedok, SCC? Also which grade(conference, championship, prems)? If you want to get much better then you have to play in another country, season here is 10 weeks long while in rugby playing nations its a 30 week season usually(not-counting playoffs).

as of right now just playing for my school team, don't have time to take on anything else at the moment, it works fine for me though, we have a really long season with both 7s and 15s stretching out over about 7-8 months

had a tournament this weekend and it went alright, played with both the a side and b side and came 3rd with the a side and 6th with the b side, there were a total of 8 teams. I'm completely dead right now so won't be returning to working out until tuesday

[Efedrine]

as of right now just playing for my school team, don't have time to take on anything else at the moment, it works fine for me though, we have a really long season with both 7s and 15s stretching out over about 7-8 months

had a tournament this weekend and it went alright, played with both the a side and b side and came 3rd with the a side and 6th with the b side, there were a total of 8 teams. I'm completely dead right now so won't be returning to working out until tuesday

when you do have the time join a senior club, clubs I'd reccomend are either Bucks or SCC. Good coaches and lots of advice from decent players, guys who play prems division were more often than not professionals. James Forrester is a trainer at UFIT Singapore now so might be good to have a chat with him(amazing player with real talent, 54 tries in 102 games for Gloucester at no8, flank and center).

[horan]

when you do have the time join a senior club, clubs I'd reccomend are either Bucks or SCC. Good coaches and lots of advice from decent players, guys who play prems division were more often than not professionals. James Forrester is a trainer at UFIT Singapore now so might be good to have a chat with him(amazing player with real talent, 54 tries in 102 games for Gloucester at no8, flank and center).

aight thanks man will definitley look into those clubs


went to the gym today for the 1st time since the tournament even though I wasn't really feeling it, gave up after almost failing 155x3, my body's gonna need a bit more rest until ill be ready to return to the gym

[horan]

WS4SB1

Max effort upper

Gonna look into rotating a few of the lifts for next max effort upper body day

Group A (work up to max set of 5):
barbell bench press:
175lbs x3
- stalling....

Group B (3x10)
Incline dumbbell bench press:
3x6 60lbs PR
- not great

Group C (4x10)
Chest supported rows:
85lbs PR
- Was a grind but got it

Group D (3x12)
Bent-over dumbbell rear delt flyes:
25lbs PR
- Was a bit tough

Group E (3x10)
Barbell Russian twists:
3x10 with 25lbs plate

[BenT]

good work on all the PRs mate

[horan]

good work on all the PRs mate

thanks man

WS4SB
max effort lower body

Group A (work up to max set of 5)
Front squats:
115lbs
- First time in my life doing front squats and it went pretty bad. My grip is terrible, i can't do the clean grip cause of lack of flexibility and even when i do cross grip it feels like the bar is slipping, so i'll have to start at 115lbs, even though it's not hard for my legs at all, and work my way up to heavier weights

Group B (3x10)
Squats:
185lbs PR

Group C (3x12)
Hyperextensions
35lbs plate PR

Group D (3 sets of timed sets)
Heavy dumbell holds
30s with 15lb dumbell in each hand
- wasn't too bad, i just wanted to get an idea of what sort of time and weight i should be doing for this

[horan]

WS4SB
repetition upper

Group A (3 sets of max reps, 60s rest)
Barbell bench press: 95lbs
set 1: 28 PR
set 2: 15
set 3: 11
- once i hit 30 reps on the first set i'm gonna switch to 115lbs

Group B (3x10)
Rolling triceps extensions
30lb dumbells
- really need to work on form, i have a feeling im doing it wrong

Group C (4x10) PR
Pull-ups
- went great, used a bit of assistance from momentum though

Group D (3x10)
Lateral raises (dumbbell)
25lb dumbells PR

Group E (3x12) PR
Hammer curls
35lb dumbells
- did 12 reps this time so that's why it's a PR

Group F
Ab circuit:
10x leg raises
10x V-ups
10x toe touches
10x hip ups
- i think i should increase the reps to 12 per exercise

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[horan]

WS4SB1

Max effort upper

first day of second cycle of exercises

Group A (work up to max set of 5):
incline barbell bench press:
155lbs
- spotter helped a bit

Group B (3x10)
flat dumbbell bench press:
60lbs
- last few reps were tough but got them

Group C (4x10)
barbell rows:
135lbs
- form was ugly

Group D (3x12)
Bent-over dumbbell rear delt flyes:
30lbs PR

Group E (3x10)
Barbell side bends:
3x10 with 25lb plate on either side

[Efedrine]

Profile pic looks a lot like the OFS field near dempsey, the one near the scc field.