2012 Weight-grade Rugby Thread

[ClubmanGT]

After two years on the sidelines due to work and study commitments, I've decided I want to play rugby again next year in 2012. I'm aiming for the Under 85kg weight grade, which I've played in in previous years, which guarantees fast and flowing rugby with a slightly lower risk of being mutilated. It's a fun league and I've enjoyed it every year I've played in it. It calls for a combinaton of speed, strength and skill.

Skill aside, the problems I'm going to run into are speed and strength. I have zero upper body strength these days, and while I have no problem building up endurance strength, I want to build some serious speed. Sounds easy enough, right? Just bulk, lift and push intervals. As with most things, life just isn't that simple.

The complicating element here is that I've got PKU. It basically means no protein. This makes weight training difficult because I just shed weight like it's going out of fashion. I've got until late February to get on top of this, so I'm starting the clock ticking now. I'm going to need all the time I can to get on top of this, hence the long lead time. It's going to be experimental and a lot of **** probably won't work, but maybe something will.

As of now, all my weight stats should be considered zero. Fortunately I've got the ability to just zone out and train hard on a spin bike, so I've been using that to build up hamstring strength in preparation.

I'm 184cm tall and about 78kg fully clothed with about 20% body fat. This is my log. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

E: Now that I think about it, BF is probably closer to 30%

[ClubmanGT]

After taking yesterday as a recovery day, I figured I'd better do some benchmarking to figure out where I'm at. Just hoped on the bike today and maxed out the weight and tried to sit there for as long as I could. Held out for 25 minutes, which took about five months to get to before I stopped training. Considering I've been on and off for a week, things could probably be much worse.

Tomorrow I'm going to run through a basic lift programme (minus leg work) to see where I'm at. But at least I can stick with what I know in terms of my legs, because that seems to be working well enough.

[ClubmanGT]

I've been having a play with my strength, trying to find a good way to keep on top of cardio, and it's occurred to me I'm going to have a major problem:

My arms and shoulders.

I have basically no strength there but a ridiculous amount of power in my legs. It's gotten to the point where I can't help by slowly falling forward as I sprint.

I guess I'm going to have to find a good split plan to work with that will let me focus on adding power in my upper body without losing what I've build up in my legs.

[ClubmanGT]

In the last few days, I've established a few things;

1) Diet is going pretty well in terms of leaning off weight. I need headroom for a bullk and I'm making some pretty fitness inroads. Awesome stuff.

2) I am scared of going to the gym. Not so much because my numbers will be way off, but I've got a pretty funhouse mirror thing going on with my body (big legs, moderate torso, skinny as **** upper and lower arms) and it's embarrassing.

Just going to have to suck it up I guess. I suppose I can be happy that everything I've done so far has worked pretty well, so I'm not firing randomly in the dark like I used to. But ****, I am not looking forward to getting to the gym, doing presses and maxing out at 20 pounds.

[CasinoApe]

Good luck, I used to hate sprinting int he park becuase loads of people would always stare at me, doesn't bother me now though, you just get used to that sort of thing i suppose.

What position you planning on playing?

[ClubmanGT]

What position you planning on playing?

I usually played as lock because I was tall and thin growing up, and then I just got fat but never got fit. Somehow I still managed as a lock. Those poor lineout lifters. I'm wanting to play lock again (anywhere else feels kind of dirty) but I want to bring a bit more speed and power into it so I can play an openside's game.

Thanks for the reply, it's really heartening to know someone is reading this. I'm making really solid cardio inroads, and I got some awesome news today that might make everything a whole lot easier. Game changing stuff once I figure out the implications, but it might mean I can finally build some power without just losing weight.