Power lifter? Bodybuilder? come on in!

[RGRCamaro]

Originally Posted by Mydivorcegift

Well more training means you need more sleep. But off the top of my head....

You could try contrast showers, ice baths, epsom salt baths, and a good massage probably wouldn't hurt either.

I will try the above! Yes the sleep I am trying to work on, slowly starting to get to sleep earlier.

[Normagene]

Originally Posted by RGRCamaro

Thank you sir! A few people have told me that I do not take enough rest or rest days/weeks. It's tough to take these rest days, but sounds like I really need to just need to force myself.

What is your workout routine? Are you doing legs/lower body say twice a week? Twice a week should give ya sufficient time to recoup.

I do six days a wk. Sun/Wed lower body, Mon/Thurs Chest & Back, Tues/Fri is Shoulders & Arms, w/Cardio 7 X a wk and Sat is Stretching/Abs. I do Abs everyday, but on Sat I Kill those Abs.

Love my routine! Every three months I change it up.

[RGRCamaro]

Originally Posted by Normagene

What is your workout routine? Are you doing legs/lower body say twice a week? Twice a week should give ya sufficient time to recoup.

I do six days a wk. Sun/Wed lower body, Mon/Thurs Chest & Back, Tues/Fri is Shoulders & Arms, w/Cardio 7 X a wk and Sat is Stretching/Abs. I do Abs everyday, but on Sat I Kill those Abs.

Love my routine! Every three months I change it up.

I am about to change my routine (Due to my recovery issue and season starting)

Basically right now my training from January 1st to now is as follows:

Sunday: Chest & Biceps
Monday: Agility
Tuesday: Rugby Practice
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Rugby Practice
Friday: Back & Tris
Saturday: Game day (Starting last weekend)

Now that I am not recovering and season has started I have decided I am going to switch from hypertrhopy to more powerlifting movements.

I am still researching more power development routines as this is NOT my expertise, but I am really pushing to get faster and more powerful as the guy starting ahead of me is very quick. This is my main motivation right now as I want to beat this guy out and make the starting line up (Don't care for gaining muscle during season)

He is not a big guy (Maybe 5'9 and 170-180lbs) and his tackling technique is not very immpressive. The only other thing he has on me other than his short yardage speed, is his experience, he has been playing longer (I played about a year and half in highschool) took 4 years off, now I am back to it.

Coach likes my size - 6'2 - 6'3 and 225lbs - and my speed is slowly coming back, I am a better tackler than him for sure, and coach wants to use me as the guy who bangs for the short yardage, but I am not and will never be a bench warmer. I did anticipate riding the bench for a few months, as I get back into the swing of things, but this will be temporary.

Any advice from anyone on the above is very appreciated!

Divorce, you are the powerlifting guru right? A routine or advice would help alot!

[Mydivorcegift]

Originally Posted by Iron Lung Jimmy

Train less.

I'm serious, all the (natural) supplements in the world will not fix inadequate rest. If your legs are always fatigued they need more rest... at least for now.

You just got back into it so give your body a chance to adapt to high workloads again.

(I come from a triathlon background... ten Ironmans amongst countless other shorter races... and triathletes are famous for overtraining. Been there done that more times than I care to admit.)

False.

He made need more recovery (of the active and restorative nature) but doing nothing will not help.

Sit and think about what you are saying. Essentially that training less will somehow get his legs in better shape.

The fittest people in the world, in any sport, train multiple times a day. That's the reason they are the best in said sport.

[Mydivorcegift]

Originally Posted by RGRCamaro

I am about to change my routine (Due to my recovery issue and season starting)

Basically right now my training from January 1st to now is as follows:

Sunday: Chest & Biceps
Monday: Agility
Tuesday: Rugby Practice
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Rugby Practice
Friday: Back & Tris
Saturday: Game day (Starting last weekend)

Now that I am not recovering and season has started I have decided I am going to switch from hypertrhopy to more powerlifting movements.

I am still researching more power development routines as this is NOT my expertise, but I am really pushing to get faster and more powerful as the guy starting ahead of me is very quick. This is my main motivation right now as I want to beat this guy out and make the starting line up (Don't care for gaining muscle during season)

He is not a big guy (Maybe 5'9 and 170-180lbs) and his tackling technique is not very immpressive. The only other thing he has on me other than his short yardage speed, is his experience, he has been playing longer (I played about a year and half in highschool) took 4 years off, now I am back to it.

Coach likes my size - 6'2 - 6'3 and 225lbs - and my speed is slowly coming back, I am a better tackler than him for sure, and coach wants to use me as the guy who bangs for the short yardage, but I am not and will never be a bench warmer. I did anticipate riding the bench for a few months, as I get back into the swing of things, but this will be temporary.

Any advice from anyone on the above is very appreciated!

Divorce, you are the powerlifting guru right? A routine or advice would help alot!

Is there any way you can train twice a day for shorter periods? Looking at the above it's no wonder you are experiencing fatigue. While I believe you should train more, and more often, to get in the shape you want, ultimately you do need 1 day "off". Can you move your Sunday workout to Monday and do it with your agility? In addition I'd put bench and triceps together and back and biceps together.

Also out of curiosity, how long has it been since you took an entire week off for recovery? I do this every 13 weeks. Train hard for 12 weeks, 13th week is a light (deload) week, and take week 14 off all together.

To improve your quickness there are two things you need to incorporate and just remember when you do it will take time.

First you need to start box squatting with bands attached to the barbell and really you need to squat 2x a week. You can purchase the bands here:

http://www.elitefts.com/shop/bars-weights/bands.html

One session will be dynamic using 50-60% of your 1RM for 8-10 sets of two with about 45 seconds in between each set going up 2.5% every week.

Second will be a maximum effort workout that you will need to change every week by changing your band tension (start with a mini, then monster mini, then light, and end with the average) and after you get done with this cycle change your box height and start back over with the mini and progress up again. The easiest way to do this is if you workout at a traditional gym is to use the reebok steps that have risers with them. If they don't have one generally you can pick them up used on CL or Ebay.

Along the lines of bands, you can use these to do short workouts at home first thing in the morning. There's a ton of uses for them....overhead squats, good mornings, shoulder presses, tricep pushdowns, curls, rows, etc. This is a way you could train more. 20 mins or so in the morning. It will pay dividends both serving as active recovery and improving your GPP.

The second thing to improve your quickness/explosiveness would be to start a box jumping routine.

[RGRCamaro]

Originally Posted by Mydivorcegift

Is there any way you can train twice a day for shorter periods? Looking at the above it's no wonder you are experiencing fatigue. While I believe you should train more, and more often, to get in the shape you want, ultimately you do need 1 day "off". Can you move your Sunday workout to Monday and do it with your agility? In addition I'd put bench and triceps together and back and biceps together.

Also out of curiosity, how long has it been since you took an entire week off for recovery? I do this every 13 weeks. Train hard for 12 weeks, 13th week is a light (deload) week, and take week 14 off all together.

To improve your quickness there are two things you need to incorporate and just remember when you do it will take time.

First you need to start box squatting with bands attached to the barbell and really you need to squat 2x a week. You can purchase the bands here:

http://www.elitefts.com/shop/bars-weights/bands.html

One session will be dynamic using 50-60% of your 1RM for 8-10 sets of two with about 45 seconds in between each set going up 2.5% every week.

Second will be a maximum effort workout that you will need to change every week by changing your band tension (start with a mini, then monster mini, then light, and end with the average) and after you get done with this cycle change your box height and start back over with the mini and progress up again. The easiest way to do this is if you workout at a traditional gym is to use the reebok steps that have risers with them. If they don't have one generally you can pick them up used on CL or Ebay.

Along the lines of bands, you can use these to do short workouts at home first thing in the morning. There's a ton of uses for them....overhead squats, good mornings, shoulder presses, tricep pushdowns, curls, rows, etc. This is a way you could train more. 20 mins or so in the morning. It will pay dividends both serving as active recovery and improving your GPP.

The second thing to improve your quickness/explosiveness would be to start a box jumping routine.

Then entire workout above I can change around, with the exception of Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday (game day is usually every other \Saturday or third Saturday)

I am guilty of not taking rest days, and not taking rest weeks. The only time I have ever not trained for a week in the past 5 years was when I had my knee surgery.

2 a days will be tough for me. I get to the office around 6:45am and leave between 4:30 - 5:00pm and usually go straight to the gym or relax for an hour before rugby at 6:30 (Depending on the day)

I train at two different gyms right now. one is Lifetime fitness (Just a normal gym) and the other is Ultimate Performance Center (and training gym for athletes where I've done most of my athletic training style workouts - power, agility, and speed development) and it has everything an athlete would need (boxes, bands, sleds, vertimax, TRX, everyting pretty much, I am pretty close with the owner and he's been a mentor of mine for years) he is so busy lately and my time constraints has made it tough, or I would use him for most of this. i have contemplated getting with my manager at work and seeing if I could take an extra 30 minutes to an hour at lunch and go to his gym, and I am not "hourly" so this might be a possibility.

Lifetime opens at 4:00 am and I have thought about going in before work for cardio and then hitting weights or other workouts in the afternoon, I just struggle with morning workouts (no energy, super hungry) but I have done it before.

Thank you for everyone's input! It is great having this avenue for more education.

[Iron Lung Jimmy]

Originally Posted by Mydivorcegift

False.

He made need more recovery (of the active and restorative nature) but doing nothing will not help.

Sit and think about what you are saying. Essentially that training less will somehow get his legs in better shape.

The fittest people in the world, in any sport, train multiple times a day. That's the reason they are the best in said sport.

The fittest people in the world didn't get off the couch and start training multiple times a day. They worked up to it. And then, even though they are training multiple times a day, they are very cognizent of not over stressing their bodies. Over training will turn even the fittest person in the world into an also ran and they know that.

And OP is not on the same planet as the fittest people in the world so that really isn't relavent anyway.

Training less (I never said do nothing) will allow his legs to recover from the training he is doing. Then as he gets stronger he can up either the intensity or the volume. Thrashing yourself into perpetual soreness and tiredness is not optimum, to say the least.

Sounds like OP wants to be a good rugby player by training like a powerlifter. I don't think that is going to work.

[RGRCamaro]

Originally Posted by Iron Lung Jimmy

The fittest people in the world didn't get off the couch and start training multiple times a day. They worked up to it. And then, even though they are training multiple times a day, they are very cognizent of not over stressing their bodies. Over training will turn even the fittest person in the world into an also ran and they know that.

And OP is not on the same planet as the fittest people in the world so that really isn't relavent anyway.

Training less (I never said do nothing) will allow his legs to recover from the training he is doing. Then as he gets stronger he can up either the intensity or the volume. Thrashing yourself into perpetual soreness and tiredness is not optimum, to say the least.

Sounds like OP wants to be a good rugby player by training like a powerlifter. I don't think that is going to work.

I understood what you meant! I believe you meant the same as Divorce in that I do need to take a proper rest before uping intensity. (deloading and rest weeks)

As far as the powerlifting, I considered this for 1 main reason, as powerlifting itself wont make me a good rugby player, but it will make me powerful. My advantage over the guys ahead of me in my position (inside center or outside center) thus far is my size and strength. In rugby, power is very much desriable, mostly in three situations, tackling, rucking, and hitting (when ball carrying) all three of these critical parts of rugby involve loading your hips and exploding. something I believe powerlifting will directly benefit me. It will only be one form of training (out of 4) as so far it seems, for me to be successful:

Power, Speed & agility, Endurance, and technique.

Thank you everyone so far for the advice!

[Iron Lung Jimmy]

I used to know some rugby players. You guys don't do the elephant walk, do you? That's just sick.

[RGRCamaro]

Originally Posted by Iron Lung Jimmy

I used to know some rugby players. You guys don't do the elephant walk, do you? That's just sick.

We dont...but I have done those before, they are no joke.

Our new coach this year is an 18 year retired British special forces operative. Our training sessions are tough....he is very determined to make us the most "feared and violent" team in the league...

He told us that it turns him on to see us in pain. He is a special kind of crazy.

[Mydivorcegift]

Originally Posted by Iron Lung Jimmy

The fittest people in the world didn't get off the couch and start training multiple times a day. They worked up to it. And then, even though they are training multiple times a day, they are very cognizent of not over stressing their bodies. Over training will turn even the fittest person in the world into an also ran and they know that.

And OP is not on the same planet as the fittest people in the world so that really isn't relavent anyway.

Training less (I never said do nothing) will allow his legs to recover from the training he is doing. Then as he gets stronger he can up either the intensity or the volume. Thrashing yourself into perpetual soreness and tiredness is not optimum, to say the least.

Sounds like OP wants to be a good rugby player by training like a powerlifter. I don't think that is going to work.

And neither am I nor my significant other and we train multiple times a day. Only way to get accustomed to more volume is to train more and this is best done with multiple workouts during the day. Not 2 hr sessions...an extra workout of 20 mins pays big dividends. It also aids in ACTIVE recovery (think you missed that part).

A powerlifting style of training would benefit the OP's rugby game tremendously for the reasons he stated and in addition he will become a quicker, more explosive athlete.

The OP is young and in reasonably good shape. It's not like he is starting from scratch. There will be an accommodation period, like with all things, but it will pass PROVIDED he takes the necessary breaks in between cycles and employs some other methods of restoration.

[Mydivorcegift]

Originally Posted by RGRCamaro

Then entire workout above I can change around, with the exception of Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday (game day is usually every other \Saturday or third Saturday)

I am guilty of not taking rest days, and not taking rest weeks. The only time I have ever not trained for a week in the past 5 years was when I had my knee surgery.

2 a days will be tough for me. I get to the office around 6:45am and leave between 4:30 - 5:00pm and usually go straight to the gym or relax for an hour before rugby at 6:30 (Depending on the day)

I train at two different gyms right now. one is Lifetime fitness (Just a normal gym) and the other is Ultimate Performance Center (and training gym for athletes where I've done most of my athletic training style workouts - power, agility, and speed development) and it has everything an athlete would need (boxes, bands, sleds, vertimax, TRX, everyting pretty much, I am pretty close with the owner and he's been a mentor of mine for years) he is so busy lately and my time constraints has made it tough, or I would use him for most of this. i have contemplated getting with my manager at work and seeing if I could take an extra 30 minutes to an hour at lunch and go to his gym, and I am not "hourly" so this might be a possibility.

Lifetime opens at 4:00 am and I have thought about going in before work for cardio and then hitting weights or other workouts in the afternoon, I just struggle with morning workouts (no energy, super hungry) but I have done it before.

Thank you for everyone's input! It is great having this avenue for more education.

Ugh....I had a feeling you were going to say that. Big mistake but I was guilty when I was your age of the same. (Back to the wish I knew then what I know now).

Do me a favor...starting Sunday cut your volume in half for the next week and the week after that take completely off from the gym and spend the time doing things I suggested above along with some stretching and rolling and maybe an ibuprofen cycle if you don't already take it.

After that we can form a plan. It sounds like you have good facilities to train at.

[RGRCamaro]

Originally Posted by Mydivorcegift

Ugh....I had a feeling you were going to say that. Big mistake but I was guilty when I was your age of the same. (Back to the wish I knew then what I know now).

Do me a favor...starting Sunday cut your volume in half for the next week and the week after that take completely off from the gym and spend the time doing things I suggested above along with some stretching and rolling and maybe an ibuprofen cycle if you don't already take it.

After that we can form a plan. It sounds like you have good facilities to train at.

I have actually been taking all of this week off. Haven't worked out since Monday, and there is no game this weekend so I am taking off all weekend too. Just going to stretch, foam roll. I am going to buy some epsom salt after work and start those. Hasn't been easy taking off, but I already feel much better.

[Dznts]