The Rugby Muscle Podcast Q&A - Food Prep, Bodyweight Training, Pre-season Plans
Questions
Rob Noble: Hi TJ, Thanks for the conditioning download, there's some good stuff in there. Unfortunately I don't have easy access to a commercial gym with various machines, but I've been doing some of the drills you've included for a while already; Bear complex, touch+run back, touch+up& down, sprint intervals. I've got a barbell, rack, bench & dumbbells at home, it's nothing fancy. I play for a village team of about 20-30 players, although we only ever put out 1 team with 4-5 subs. Ages range from 18 upto early 40s, with a few props in their 50s. I play second row, so I've no aspirations to be a speedster, but I'd like to feel like I can could with 10mins of a game before puffing like a chain smoker. Ideally I'd still have some pace left by 60mins.
My normal training week looks like:
• Mon - Total Body weights (medium) 45mins + core 15mins
• Tues - Total Body weights (light) 45mins + assistance 15mins, Rugby Training (currently 90mins touch)
• Wed - Total Body weights (heavy) 45mins + core 15mins
• Thurs - rest (sometimes I swap this with Wed session, depends how rugby training goes)
• Fri - Run (usually with sprints or burpees interspersed) 45mins
• Sat & Sun - rest...would be a game Sat pm if that ever happens again!
I'm following a weights programme called "Built for Battle", which has a conditioning focus (v.low rest), my aim is to build strength and then the programme shifts to converting that into power. So last 4 weeks is pretty much Olympic lifts or similar.
What I'd like to do is sneak in another short conditioning session, e.g. bear complex, by swapping out a core session. I'm limited to an hour max workout time.
What do you think? Am I kidding myself thinking I can actually make some strength gains and also improve conditioning?
Steffen Griffin: I want to be big and strong as possible. My gym just opened up but there's usually a line and I can't wait around. Should I focus on bodyweight stuff?
Ali: Do you recommend meal prep to manage nutrition
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