New Program -- Trying to do too much at once??

[nsrugbyguy]

**Edit, added to allow for more educated info**
Basic Info:
5'9, 220 lbs, bit out of shape due to injury time off but have been training again for long enough to have "broken in" the muscles and am ready for a more serious program. The goal is to maintain approx. current weight but drop fat percentage, (I had posted before with plans to lose weight but I've been reading alot more and wised up, that was coming from a bit of vanity about the chub I gained while injured without taking into consideration the long term/sport so much..)
My training is being aimed towards lots of strength and explosive power for Rugby, looking good is a consideration but a secondary one. I have a 2.5 years of pretty good lifting experience, but I've only have about a year of "smart" lifting under my belt, I started off a dumb high school kid doing TOOO much arms and upper body in general and nowhere near enough compounds/legs. Anyways, heres what I'm hoping for help with

Hi,
I've been reading a bunch on the boards and have been working on a program to meet my needs. I've got pretty much the lift days I want to do, the basic breakdown being :

Heavy Upper (Rippetoe format)
Heavy Lower (ditto)
Core (Heavy proper lifts, ie weighted decline crunches, medicine ball throws, weighted toe touches)

Then I also want to include some "Hypertrophy" days with higher reps/supersets, for more endurance and either divided into
Legs, Chest/Arms, Back/Shoulders or
Legs, Push, and Pull

The final component I would like to include is some training for Explosive Power. Its pretty much a sport specific exercise (the staggered squat for Tackling Power) a DB Snatch which would be switched with either Power Cleans/BB Snatch once I get access to a good coach/teacher for form, Bench, Push Press, and possibly Chin Ups, all done with a speed scheme of Normal, Medium(a bit faster), and 2 Fully Explosive, with declining amounts of reps and generally lighter weight. I might be patronizing explaining this but its to recruit more Type IIa muscle fiber and promote nervous system response.


Basically, its pretty similarly based to the highly acclaimed program Layne Norton/Warbird use, thats pretty much what I used for a blueprint. However, I feel that I can't sacrifice the serious Core day or the explosive exercises while training with rugby and my athletic development in mind... Maybe I'm wrong, and I should just do the more basic program? Or maybe theres a way to incorporate all this into a more basic layout, I could be just overthinking it..

I'm really serious about training hard, but I don't want to overtrain and restrict my gains, nor do I want to ignore any facet of my development.If its possible to do all this with one program, ideas of how I might order it and what rest days I should use would be greatly appreciated, but I think maybe you guys are going to tell me I should do it in phases, possibly starting with 5X5 for a few months, then working towards Hypertrophy/Explosive training... Proper university season doesn't start until September, which is ultimately when I need to be ready for. I will likely play some Rugby over the summer though, but its mostly for development and training. Still, maybe its because I'm overkeen but I feel like I want to address it all at once..
Anyways, thanks in advance for any advice.

P.S. I will rep the sh*t out of people who give me solid info, even if its not necessarily what I want to hear

[thumpernovember]

I ran into the same thing. I used to be a kick-boxer and wanted to use weights to help me. I go down and buy Arnold's Encyclopedia and start lifting like a body builders.

Basically what I found was that Hypertrophy is bad for any sport except body building.

I was slower, weaker and less explosive.

What I did was adjust how I lifted. I kept the core lifts. Dead lift, squat, Bench.

The rest I pretty much changed over to high rep cardio resistance training.

Plyometrics was my secret for that explosiveness. Body-builders get really defensive about that too. They want to promote their sport and believe that body building will make any athlete stronger, faster. This is just not true.

Look at worlds strongest man as just an example. Or challenge some body builder to a game of basketball. You'd get more of a challenge playing a fat smoker.

Power lifting
Plyometrics
Aerobic weight resistance

[nsrugbyguy]

What sports had you been training for?
Also, do you have any advice where I could find a good pliometric routine for Rugby? Jumping is pretty much irrelevant to me where I play at Hooker/Flanker, but tackling power and sprinting are HUGELY important.
I'm starting to think maybe lifting heavy, focusing on compound/olympic lifts, for a few months to add some good mass and strength, then a couple months before season scaling down the amount I lift heavy and switching over to Interval Training, Pliometrics, and Explosive lifting as my main form of training. Repped for being the only person to help!
I'm thinking about doing Rippetoe, and I hear all these people talking about how well it works, but it just doesn't seem like a heavy enough work load for me I'm used to lifting alot more frequently and doing more volume. I think I'll do it anyway though if so many people talk about how good it is theres gotta be something to it.

[EPMD]

It seems like you want to build strength and athletic performance and aren't too concerned about hypertrophy. If I were you, I would drop the three hypertrophy days from the plan. Stick with 2 complete full-body workouts (might take 2-3 days to do this) covering the compound moves at low reps to build strength. Then add a day for explosive moves like you had suggested.

But most importantly for your sport, I would add a sprinting training session at least once per week. Building hamstring and overall leg strength can help you sprint faster, but nothing will help you as much as doing the real thing again and again. You can turn your sprinting sessions into a high-intesity interval training type of session by alternating 30 second sprints with jogs. You'll get in great shape doing these sessions a couple times a week. They are much harder and probably more fun than cardio.

[nsrugbyguy]

Thats what I'd been drifting towards. I definitely plan on doing sprints at least once if not probably twice a week. I think I might throw in one or two "fun"/vanity exercises after a couple weeks but for now I'll probably stick to Full Body Compounds/ Explosive Training plus sprints. Thanks guys,