BobisMighty's Rugby Training Log

[BobisMighty]

Great job for not making excuses bro and still hitting the gym even though it's not the best. In the end consistency wins!

thanks man. the one thing i hate when it comes to training is excuses. if i fail it just means i need to put in more work. ever since i messed up my shoulders my upperbody has been lagging tremendously so it just means i need to hit it twice as hard.

[audieswu]

thanks man. the one thing i hate when it comes to training is excuses. if i fail it just means i need to put in more work. ever since i messed up my shoulders my upperbody has been lagging tremendously so it just means i need to hit it twice as hard.

Dude, I messed up my rotator cuffs playing rugby and football and I was never been the same. But slowly but surely building them back up is what I keep telling myself everytime I step into the gym for a shoulders day.

You'll be fine bro, way to keep it consistent. Many can't stick to our lifestyle and just find excuses all the dang time.

[BobisMighty]

Dude, I messed up my rotator cuffs playing rugby and football and I was never been the same. But slowly but surely building them back up is what I keep telling myself everytime I step into the gym for a shoulders day.

You'll be fine bro, way to keep it consistent. Many can't stick to our lifestyle and just find excuses all the dang time.

Yeah I don't understand guys on my team who don't lift. I guess it's more social for them. I just want to be the best I can be on the pitch and off.

[audieswu]

Yeah I don't understand guys on my team who don't lift. I guess it's more social for them. I just want to be the best I can be on the pitch and off.

Exactly. Not lifting is definitely worst than shooting the boot . Lucky enough I never messed up any songs.

[BobisMighty]

Exactly. Not lifting is definitely worst than shooting the boot . Lucky enough I never messed up any songs.

Haha same here. I usually just sing quietly if I think I'm going to mess up.

[BobisMighty]

I'm doing a pre-season workout this week. It's a bit late. Come to think of it I should have done a pre-season/in-season template for 7's season but I was trying to push some heavy ass weight. I'll be doing a modified version of WS4SBIII In-season and 5/3/1 Football In-Season. I like both so I'm taking some ideas from each.

Monday:
Dynamic Stretching
Jump Rope:
150 Jumps
20 each leg
20 side to side
20 front to back
20 split stance switching legs
40 alternating each leg

Barbell Squat:
45x10 155x5 190x5 220x3 250x3 280x3
Supersetted with Scapular Push-ups
3x10 (only supersetted for the 1st 3 sets with weight on squat)
I'm doing that PAP where you do a plyo movement approximately 8-12 minutes after you ME lift. So i thought while I wait for this, I would do my ME Bench seeing as how that's uppperbody.

Barbell Bench
45x10 130x5 155x5 180x3 205x3 230x2
I started to break form on the 3rd attempt so I didn't count it. My shoulders felt way too unstable. I'm thinking it was from not warming them up properly as 70% and 80% went up smooth as silk and quite fast.

Box Jumps
3x5

Clapping Push-Ups
5x4

Wall-Slides
1x20

Dips (Bodyweight)
3x10

Chest Support Barbell Rows
135x10 (brought my elbows up as far as I could go, squeezing at the top)

Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press
50x10 50x5restpause45x3 45x5restpause40x3
This was most likely from not warming up my shoulders right and doing dips before shoulders. I should have realized Dips should have been left to the end if my shoulders weren't feeling stable to get the best out of my shoulder routine.

Lateral Raise machine
70x3x10

Cable Facepull
40x2x10 50x10

[BobisMighty]

I didn't have access to my normal gym so I had to figure something else to do at my crappy hotel gym.


Foam Roller

Bulgarian Split Squat
100x3x8

Dumbbell Overhead Press
50x2x10 50x7restpausex2

Single Leg Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
100x10 (each leg)
i didn't like the way these felt. I didn't feel my hams being worked. Switched to swiss ball leg curl.

Swiss Ball Hip Thrust+Leg Curl
2x12

Dumbbell Flat Chest Press
50x16 50x13 50x12

Lateral Raises
20x3x10

Chin Ups
3x8

[BobisMighty]

I didn't work out Monday and this past weekend due to family obligations.

I had practice yesterday, 9/07/10.


9/08/10
I was at the crappy gym today

Dynamic Warmup

Leg Press (light long band wrapped around weight stack to provide constant tension)
300x10
320x10
340x10
360x10
380x10
400x10
Machine maxed at 400. So I did 6 sets going up in weight. The bands helped a little. I set the machine so I would have the biggest amount of ROM possible .

Dumbbell Overhead Press
50x4x8

Swiss Ball Leg Curl
4x12

Triangle Grip Pulldown
150x2x15

Standard Grip Pull down
220x2x15

[BobisMighty]

I've had trouble getting my in-season workouts last week. I had a death in the family as well as some other issues. This week I planned to hit it hard.

Monday - Squat and Bench

Dynamic Stretching

Barbell Squat:
45x10 155x5 185x5 205x5 235x5 265x5

Barbell Bench:
45x10 135x5 155x5 165x5 195x5 220x5

Good Mornings:
135x10 185x2x10

T-Bar Row
135x3x10

Dumbbell Overhead Press
50x10 50x2x9

[audieswu]

Sorry about your loss bro. Still great session put up here despite all the stuff happening.

[BobisMighty]

Sorry about your loss bro. Still great session put up here despite all the stuff happening.

thanks man i appreciate it. i'm trying to keep it simple when in-season right now. don't want to spend too much time in the gym when i need to be concentrating on strategy. i'm probably going to bring the weight down for my assistance exercises and up the rep and set numbers to get the hypertrophy in.

[audieswu]

thanks man i appreciate it. i'm trying to keep it simple when in-season right now. don't want to spend too much time in the gym when i need to be concentrating on strategy. i'm probably going to bring the weight down for my assistance exercises and up the rep and set numbers to get the hypertrophy in.

There you go, no shame on lowering the weights bro. I've learn this now. Many guys I know who were one dimensional (go heavy all the time, like I was) now have all types of joints/ligament problems due to heavy pounding they get and they are in their late 30's early 40's. I've learn to throw the ego out the door and focus on what's good for my body. I can tell you, my joints don't bother me at all this week and I feel like I can go heavy this week.
Next week I'll be back to 20% lighter weights.

[BobisMighty]

There you go, no shame on lowering the weights bro. I've learn this now. Many guys I know who were one dimensional (go heavy all the time, like I was) now have all types of joints/ligament problems due to heavy pounding they get and they are in their late 30's early 40's. I've learn to throw the ego out the door and focus on what's good for my body. I can tell you, my joints don't bother me at all this week and I feel like I can go heavy this week.
Next week I'll be back to 20% lighter weights.

yeah everything i've been reading supports the notion that you don't need to go heavy when building muscle, you just have to go to failure. for sports training i need to build strength in the movements, but the #1 priority for assistance exercises is building muscle, plain and simple. So I think for now I'm going to tweak my assistance numbers and find a happy medium between lighter weight and reps. I'll probably go as heavy as i normally go this week to figure out how much I need to lower the weight.

[audieswu]

yeah everything i've been reading supports the notion that you don't need to go heavy when building muscle, you just have to go to failure. for sports training i need to build strength in the movements, but the #1 priority for assistance exercises is building muscle, plain and simple. So I think for now I'm going to tweak my assistance numbers and find a happy medium between lighter weight and reps. I'll probably go as heavy as i normally go this week to figure out how much I need to lower the weight.

Great approach here Bob, as always will follow your progress. Always pulling for a fella Pinoy brah Let a lone a fella rugger.

[BobisMighty]

Deadlift and Military Press


Dynamic Warm-up

Deadlift
45x10 225x5 275x5 295x5 340x5 385x4
I knew I couldn't get a 5th rep so I didn't try. For my in-season workouts I'm going to do my max effort exercises 1 rep shy of failure if I feel it's coming to that.

Military Press
45x10 65x5 75x5 95x5 100x5 115x5

GHR
2x8

Leg Curl
135x8

Single Leg Leg Curl
70x8

Assisted Pull ups, mixed grips
40x8 50x8 60x8 70x8

Triangle Pushups
3x10
Superset with Facepulls
50x3x10

[BobisMighty]

Squat and Bench

Dynamic Warmup

Barbell Squat
45x10 155x5 185x5 205x3 220x3 250x3 280x3

Bench
45x10 135x5 155x5 165x4 180x3 205x3 230x2 225x1
The bar I used sucked. It was too smooth. It was my fault for picking a ****ty bar. My shoulders also felt very unstable even though I squeezed my rear delts and arched my back for a platform.

Good Mornings
135x3x10

Dumbbell Overhead Press
45x3x10 45x9

Chest Supported Barbell Row
135x3x10

Dumbbell Shrugs
90x3x15

Facepulls
70x12 80x12 90x12
Supersetted with Triangle pushups
3x10

[audieswu]

Great work today Bob. How's the rugby season coming along?

[BobisMighty]

Practice last night was a little rough. Lot's of touch rugby. Lot's of running on my part. I also ended with practice with lots and lots of hill sprints. As a result my left heel is killing me. Might be getting a heel spur. Taking today off.

[BobisMighty]

Great work today Bob. How's the rugby season coming along?

Thanks man! Sorry its taking so long for me to update or get back to you. I've been tired from work and training and such. We lost our first 2 games. But this past game that I played, I played my heart out and was complimented by all the players. I was a tackling machine, drove rucks, picked the balls. Our problem with the team is general fitness. A lot of these guys get gassed out when it comes to 3rd and 4th phase ball. We do pick and go, hammering their line, and after the 3rd phase, these guys can't get up fast enough to help support the backline. I'm hoping this saturday's game goes better.

[BobisMighty]

I had the trials for the Philippine National Rugby team this past weekend. It was pretty grueling. Friday night from 7:30-10:30 we did lots of drills and some fitness testing. We started off with some tackling drills. The first was to make sure you can keep up with a guy trying to cut around you. Then it was a box drill. Then we did passing lanes that got wider and wider. We did various passing drills, running blockers and unders as he called it. We also did timed sprints, though we weren't given our times. The first sprint was 100mx2. We ran to one end of the field and ran back. I put everything I had into that run. Then we did 50mx100m. We started at the half way point of the field, ran to one end, and then sprinted the length of the field. Then we ended with a 100m sprint. The next drill we did was sort of a rectangle. we had to sprint the length within 10 seconds, then the width within 4. the backs did it along side us, but they had a bigger rectangle to sprint. that was actually the easiest part for me.

Saturday I had a game with my normal team, Montclair RFC at 1:00pm. I only played the first 40min as the Philippine team had a game in NYC at 2:30pm. I didn't want to completely miss a game for Montclair as I'm a starter. We had a really good first half for Montclair. We dominated the scrums, had great runs. We were up about 4 tries to 2. Unfortunately when I finished the Philippine game, I found we lost by 4 points. It came down to missed conversions.

The Philippine game went well. I think the score was 45-20. We played against the Village Lions RFC. I played No. 8. I was pretty tired out but I was always running. It was a great game. Made some good hits, stole the ball a lot. Coach Expo said I have the athleticism for the game and "raw talent". I think that's a nice way of saying I still need a lot of work to do. Hopefully I get picked for the extended squad and get invited to training camp in Manilla in April.

[audieswu]

I had the trials for the Philippine National Rugby team this past weekend. It was pretty grueling. Friday night from 7:30-10:30 we did lots of drills and some fitness testing. We started off with some tackling drills. The first was to make sure you can keep up with a guy trying to cut around you. Then it was a box drill. Then we did passing lanes that got wider and wider. We did various passing drills, running blockers and unders as he called it. We also did timed sprints, though we weren't given our times. The first sprint was 100mx2. We ran to one end of the field and ran back. I put everything I had into that run. Then we did 50mx100m. We started at the half way point of the field, ran to one end, and then sprinted the length of the field. Then we ended with a 100m sprint. The next drill we did was sort of a rectangle. we had to sprint the length within 10 seconds, then the width within 4. the backs did it along side us, but they had a bigger rectangle to sprint. that was actually the easiest part for me.

Saturday I had a game with my normal team, Montclair RFC at 1:00pm. I only played the first 40min as the Philippine team had a game in NYC at 2:30pm. I didn't want to completely miss a game for Montclair as I'm a starter. We had a really good first half for Montclair. We dominated the scrums, had great runs. We were up about 4 tries to 2. Unfortunately when I finished the Philippine game, I found we lost by 4 points. It came down to missed conversions.

The Philippine game went well. I think the score was 45-20. We played against the Village Lions RFC. I played No. 8. I was pretty tired out but I was always running. It was a great game. Made some good hits, stole the ball a lot. Coach Expo said I have the athleticism for the game and "raw talent". I think that's a nice way of saying I still need a lot of work to do. Hopefully I get picked for the extended squad and get invited to training camp in Manilla in April.

Great updates bro, and sounds like you are well conditioned to even participate on both games Good luck on getting invited to the extended squad and making the trip to Manila.

[BobisMighty]

Squat and Bench

Dynamic Stretching

Barbell Squat
45x10 155x5 185x5 205x3 235x5 265x3 315x2
I decided to do 315 because I wanted to squat 3 plates haha. I did it twice. I only went parallel though, but it was a highbar squat.

Barbell Bench
45x10 135x5 145x5 155x3 180x5 200x3 225x1
I lowered the 1rm for this session because I had trouble with 235x3 last week. I'll keep it here for now. I have to reassess my assistance work for my upperbody.

Saftey Squat bar Good Mornings(bar is 65lbs)
155x10 135x2x10

Uni-row machine(weight is each hand)
25x15 35x15 45x15
I started low because last time I didn't do so well with this machine, but now it seems I can really put on the weight.

Dumbbell Overhead Press
35x2x15 35x12

Dumbbell Lateral Raise
15x3x15

Dumbbell Shrugs
90x12 90x10 90x9

Cross cable face pulls
30x3x12

[BobisMighty]

Great updates bro, and sounds like you are well conditioned to even participate on both games Good luck on getting invited to the extended squad and making the trip to Manila.

Thanks man! Yeah it helps that my squad always makes me play A-side and B-side games "because I'm young." Even if I don't make it, I still got some encouraging words from the coach. Actually the coach for the Philippine squad, Coach Expo, is in New York for 6 weeks coaching the Village Lions RFC. We play them this coming Saturday, so it's almost like a second tryout for me since he'll see how I play with my normal squad.

[audieswu]

Thanks man! Yeah it helps that my squad always makes me play A-side and B-side games "because I'm young." Even if I don't make it, I still got some encouraging words from the coach. Actually the coach for the Philippine squad, Coach Expo, is in New York for 6 weeks coaching the Village Lions RFC. We play them this coming Saturday, so it's almost like a second tryout for me since he'll see how I play with my normal squad.

Show him what your made off! Punish his squad and he'll be more than happy to include you to the national team

[BobisMighty]

Practice was cancelled tonight due to thunderstorms and high wind tonight. Going to hit the gym since I wasn't able to yesterday. going to do deadlifts (depending on how my hand holds up) and military press. if my hand sucks, i'll do wide stance squats and ghrs. thinking about doing some conditioning work while i'm there. I'm either going to do burpees to pullups as a drop set from 10 then back up, maybe just do interval sprints on either treadmill or rowing machine.

[BobisMighty]

Deadlift and Military Press

I may have gone a little high in the weights, but I want to go heavy today for ego's sake. To make sure I still have it.

Dynamic Warmup

Box Jumps
4x5

Deadlift
45x10 225x5 275x5 295x3 315x5 365x3 415x1 415x1
I want to make sure I can still get 4 plates up. And I did. I only waited about 10 seconds before putting it up again. Felt great.

Military Press
45x10 75x5 95x5 105x3 115x5 125x3 135x1
Weak shoulders are weak.

Barbell Lunges
135x3x10
What a difference sets of 10 versus sets of 8 make.

Wide Parallel Grip Lat Pulldowns
160x3x10
Brought the bar down to my upperchest. Strict form, no jerking back.

Incline Dumbbell Chest Press
60x3x10

Cable Facepulls (weight is each hand)
35x3x12

Dumbbell Lateral Raises
20x3x10

Shrugs
250x3x10
Supersetted with
Dips
10,5,6

[BenT]

just had a quick read through - training's looking good mate. And good luck with the national team!

subbed.

[BobisMighty]

just had a quick read through - training's looking good mate. And good luck with the national team!

subbed.

Thanks man! I appreciate it.

[BobisMighty]

Squat and Bench

read an article by TNation about muscle imbalances causing people to plateu on lifts:
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...mpaign=tnation

I will be incorporating this kind of prehab work into my regiment. Especially the rotator cuff and pelvic work.

Dynamic Stretching

Band Pullaparts
Lying Internal Rotations
Scapular Wallslide
Done as a triset of 15 reps each x3

Barbell Squat
45x10 160x4x10

Barbell Bench
45x10 135x4x10

Light Long Band Assisted GHR
3x12

Chest Support Bent over row
135x3x12

Dumbbell Overhead Press
30x15 35x12 40x8

Cable Facepulls (weight each hand)
35x3x12

Dumbbell Lateral Raises
20x3x12

Machine Shrugs
240x15 240x2x13

Dips
10,6
Stopped there as my shoulder was getting agitated.

[audieswu]

Hope you recover soon bro. Great work yesterday nonetheless.