The CasinoApe's Rugby Training Journal

[CasinoApe]

Swimming sessions again, 1 hour 30mins.

Been performing Defranco's agile 8 aswell.

Might try to do a small run tomorrow see how I feel.

[CasinoApe]

The rugby isnt going for me sadly. I have the same problem as you, patella mistracking. Is yours due to a weak VMO and glutes like myself? If so maybe we could exchange some ideas because its so fustrating I have a constant pain all the time in my knees

Yeah thats what I had. Just stretch the quads, use a foam roller aswell on the outer thigh, around the IT band and so on. Perform exercises like lunges to strengthen the VMO, any sort of pushing exercise is good, like leg presses. Avoid movements such as the knee extension like they're the plague.

[JT4Rugby]

Yeah thats what I had. Just stretch the quads, use a foam roller aswell on the outer thigh, around the IT band and so on. Perform exercises like lunges to strengthen the VMO, any sort of pushing exercise is good, like leg presses. Avoid movements such as the knee extension like they're the plague.

Thanks mate. My knees cant quite deal with lunges yet which sucks. I found taping it has helped me very quickly,, youtube patellofemoral McConnell taping

[CasinoApe]

Went for a short jog to test out my legs, probably ran around 1km, shins are still not perfect but running did feel ok.

Gonna try to do some sprints on monday, just something light.


Also I am going to have an injection on my hip on tuesday to help speed up recovery.

[CasinoApe]

Went to the hospital for the surgery, got knocked out by general anaesthetic, bit sore in the leg where they injected, the surgeon said I nearly woke up when he put the needle in me and I needed a double dosage of the anaesthetic which was pretty funny.

Gonna have to rest for atleast a week, then I get into some exercises next week. All in all they expect it will take about 6 weeks to heal fully.

Got a few different physio exercises to help.

[CasinoApe]

Small swimming sesh, been going on walks too, and performing other physio exercises.

Hips feeling much better, hoping to start the sprints around next week, don't wanna stress the hip though!

[CasinoApe]

1mile rune - 8min 30s, did this at a very comfortable pace, could quite easily have done another lap or gone faster.

Picked up a fairly bad cold now though so I've not done anything else, hoping to start doing some sprinting once this illness clears up.

[CasinoApe]

Just to clear a few things up as I'm making a few changes to my training I'm gonna put the general plan in one post.

Mon- Sprint shuttles + Circuit, Hip/Glute (H/G) work + Strecthes/flexibility (S/F)
Tue- H/G +S/F
Wed- Sprint shuttles + Circuit
Thur- H/G +S/F
Fri- Sprint shuttles + Circuit
Sat- H/G +S/F
Sun- H/G +S/F

Details:
Sprint shuttles - Pretty self explanatory title, will run shuttles varying in distance from 20m to 100m. This is to help build up the posterior chain, sprinting is one of the best ways to activate the glutes after all, along with other benefits that I cba to go into now! Will be completed in the morning along with the circuit.

Circuit - Mainly a bodyweight complex, wanted to add this in so I could throw in a few specific exercises for VMO development just to help me finish the patella mistracking problem off once and for all! I was thinking of doing this is in a HIIT style, but i'll have a think about that, Its probably gonna look something like this, though it isn't written in stone and will be subject to some changes:
- Weighted lunges 8-10 reps
- Pull ups 30s
- Sit ups 30s
- Press ups 30s
- Rest 1minute

H/G - Rehab work on the hip, consists of various rehab exercises for the hip and glute strengthening, such as hip thrusts, heel lifts, lateral raises etc.

S/F - This is basically Defranco's agile 8 with a few extra changes to help with my specific problems, particularly including extra work stretching the calves and so on.


Diet - I generally eat the same things each day, and given that I have been losing weight I therefore know that it is currently at the appropriate calorie levels to lose weight. I have been following a pattern of intermittent fasting, the lean gains variation that is quite popular on the misc, this involves eating with an 8 hour window, and then not consuming any calories at all for the next 16 hours of the day. Currently I tend to eat between 2-10pm or 3-11pm, but this will change when I start doing the exercise in the morning, probably from 11am - 7pm.

Progress and goals since july 20th (Around when I started to perform HIIT sprinting):

Weight - 224lbs(16st) now down to 201lbs(14.4st). I don't have a particular goal for my weight, I will continue losing weight at around 2lbs per week from now on until I am able to begin Starting Strength. I probably see myself going down to 180lbs(12st 12lbs) around January 1st.

Waist - 40" down to 35". Good measure of bodyfat, helps make sure I'm losing fat!

1 Mile run - 9:40 odd, down to 8:30 at an easy pace, sub 7min isn't particularly fast but it would be good progress, in all honesty I wouldn't be surprised if this target is beaten easily, going to test this on December 1st.

Begin starting strength - By February 1st, to do this I'm gonna require my hip and knees to be fully recovered, the flexibility to perform all the exercises with good form (ATG squats will be the hardest of the lot I imagine). I will measure my readiness to do this primarily be testing my ability to perform ATG aquats.

Right thats a long post, inb4 TL;DR, really its just a mental note to self, nice to consolidate my mental planning into some written words. Also side note I'm a little ill so might still have to miss monday training.

[CasinoApe]

My computer hasn't been working too well so I haven't been updating and future updates might be a little sporadic.

Mon- 800m run at fair pace + circuit

Wed - Sprint shuttles (2x20, 4x40, 2x60) + Circuit

Fri - Sprint shuttles (2x20, 4x40, 4x60, 2x80)

Edit: Waist down to 33.5"

[CasinoApe]

Mon
- Sprint shuttles 2x20 4x40 2x60
- Pull ups x 2 sets
- Press ups x 1 set

Wed
- Sprint shuttles 2x20 4x40 2x60
- Pull ups x 2 sets
- Press ups x 1 set

Fri
- Sprint shuttles 2x20 2x40 2x50 6x60


This includes all stretches etc. I have also performed two 1hr 20m walks.

Weight down to 195lbs, waist down to 33.5".

Note: I saw the surgeon who performed my hip op for a check up, he recommeded that I avoid doing any long distance running, so I'm gonna scrap the 1mile run on dec 1st.

[CasinoApe]

Sprint shuttles - 2x20m, 4x40m, 8x60m

Rested 4 hours and then completed some bodyweight exercises:

Pull ups 3 sets, to failure
Sit ups, 3mins total
Press ups 2 sets to failure (27, then 15 reps).


Weighed myself this morning, was directly on 90kg. I've been at this weight for a few weeks now, despite reducing my calorie intake. This does seem odd, however my waist measurement has been reducing, now down to 33", this suggests that my bodyfat % has been decreasing. From my physical observations it seems clear that this is the case, so i'm not to concerned with my weight staying the same, as long as the waist keeps coming down.

It seems only reasonable that, as this has coincided with my return to exercise, the loss in fat is being balanced by gain in muscle.

[CasinoApe]

Sprint shuttles - 2x20m 5x40m

Pain in the hip, after the warmup it went away so I did a couple of shuttle and decided to take it easy. Will see how it feels on monday, was already considering resting next week anyway, better slow and steady.

Also i've been regularly taking ibuprofen for the anti-inflammatory benefits to help with the hip.

[CasinoApe]

Sprint shuttles - 2x20 4x40 4x60

[CasinoApe]

Sprint shuttles - 2x20 4x40 4x60
Pullups - 7,6,5

Some pain in hip when first warming up, however it quickly disappears, but i'll be careful.

[CasinoApe]

Sprint shuttles - 2x20 4x40 4x60
Pullups - 10, 9, 8


Weight now staying firmly at 89kg, however bodyfat continues to reduce, otherwise pleasing.

[CasinoApe]

Sprint shuttles - 2x20 4x40 4x60

Pull ups x3 sets and push ups 1 set to failure.

[CasinoApe]

Sprint shuttles - 2x20 4x40 3x60

[CasinoApe]

Sprint shuttles - 2x20 4x40 8x60

Circuit: 2 Sets
- Pull ups (Failure)
- Sit ups (1minute)
- Lunges (1minute)
- Press ups (Failure)
-1min rest

[CasinoApe]

Just a few notes:

Walking most day at a fast pace for around an hour, also performing a stretching and strengthenin routine on most days as follows:

Foam roll: Outer thigh, inside thighs, calves and glutes

Strecth: Glutes and hip flexors

+ Groiners x 10, fire hydrants x 10, hip thrusts single leg, side squat with band.

[CasinoApe]

Did a recover session today:

2x 20m 2x 40m 1x 100m

Then 26x 5m, this was part of a specific recovery workout, I might post the article in here sonn if I cba to find it.

Circuit : 2 x 5 overhand widegrip pullups with 1x8 underhand pull ups
2x 15 press ups.

This was just an easy session, going at a moderate intensity.

I feel much, much faster, and even in my slow jog warm up I get alot less tired, so my fitness is definitie improving well too.

[CasinoApe]

Circuit : 1 x 5 overhand widegrip pullups with 1x8 underhand pull ups
1min of lunges
2 x 10 press ups.

Easy session again.

Waist now down to just under 33".

[CasinoApe]

Did some squat work earlier with the bar, flexibility and mobilty are decent but needs some work as my back is still rounding a bit deep into the squats (butt wink), no hip pain though which is a good sign.

So lots of reps of high and low bar squats, threw in a few pull ups every now and then but nothing to get tired about. Going to try to do this on all my off days.

[CasinoApe]

Had a cold so couldn't train last week.

Sprints - 2x20m 6x40m
Front squats - 65kg, 5 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps
Wide grip chins - 7, 8
Hip thrusts - 2 x 15

Not going to hard today as the effects of the cold are still wearing off, but pretty good, haps with the front squats, technique could do with some work, but they gave me a great workout for my VMO's which is good news for the whole patellar mistracking, which is lingering a little. Also did a few low bar squats with the same weight and they felt great so haps with this.

[CasinoApe]

Squat work today:

Multiple sets and reps of squats with the bar to practice technique, I was recording the sets and watching them afterwards to pick up on a few things.

Atm I can go to parallel using a low bar position before I start getting a bit of butt wink, I can go then continue below parallel to ATG without too much rounding, but it is there so it needs some work.

A few points to work on:
-Sort out the butt wink, I think this requires more flexibility in the hams and glutes, I was pretty tight from the squats yesterdat so maybe this wouldn't be such a problem anyway
-Drive out of the bottom with the hips first rather than the back, there was a bit more rounding of the back on the way up being caused by me sort of performing a good morning.

[CasinoApe]

Light sprint sesh:

2x20m 4x40m

Performed this a few days ago, waist is now down to 32.25" which is a new low.

[CasinoApe]

More sprints
2x20m 4x40m

[CasinoApe]

Sprints
2x20m 6x40m

[CasinoApe]

Did some squat work, worked up to 60kg, think thats were i'll start on SS from

[CasinoApe]

Bulgarian squats - 55kg, 3x5 each leg
Weighted pull ups - 15kg 2 reps, 2 sets of 6,5 with 5kg
Hamstring raises - 60kg 10 reps

[CasinoApe]

Bulgarian squats - 60kg, 3x5 each leg
Weighted pull ups - 6.25kg 3x5