[Dogstar]

This morning did a session based on one of the training cycles we did last year.

Five rounds of

10 Squat jumps
10 Tuck jumps
10/10 Plyo Step-ups
10 Pressups
10 Sandy Jumps
10 Situps (different exercise in each round)

Took 12.59 min to do this with a 30-45 second rest at the end of each round.

We usually have a coach who supervises the sessions (which are for the rugby club I play for) but he has been away for the last three weeks winning a gold medal at the Commonwealth Judo Championships. Normal training resumes next Monday.

Training consists of a seven week cycle (seventh week is deload week) with the following sessions (this is in-season it changes in the summer):

Monday (am) - recovery session plus core/technical work (e.g. sprint technique or balance work)
Tuesday (am) – strength session 1
Wednesday (am) – strength session 2
Thursday (am) – conditioning session (usually on a rower)
Thursday (pm) – circuit (usually some kind of crossfit type circuit)
Friday – rest
Saturday – game
Sunday – rest

Before Christmas the two strength sessions looked like this

Strength 1

Front Squats 3x5 (superset)
Squat Jumps 3x5
Hamstring Curls 3x6 (with band)
Power Cleans 3x3
Seated Calf raises 3x6
Standing Calf raises 3x13
Abs 3x20

Strength 2

Weighted Chins 3x5
Weighted Dips 3x10
Bench Press 3x4
DB Bicep Curl 3x6
DB Shoulder Press 3x6
Lat Raises 3x8
Seated Row 3x6
Kettlebell Clean and Press 3x8

Any comments/questions very welcome.

[Dogstar]

Circuit in the Gym tonight. Six of us from the rugby club turned up so did

6 x 10 Squat Thrusts
Walking Lunges 15 metres
6 x 15 Pressups
Standing long jump 15 metres

Then did a 1-10 rep pyramid of
Pressups
Burpees
Squat Thrusts
Sandy Jumps

And finished off with

60 Squat Thrusts

Whole thing took about 25 minutes.

[Dogstar]

15-JAN-10

Rest day

16-JAN-10

Did a Fran.

21-15-9

45kg thrusters
Pullups

Time at 18.28.

This was alot tougher than I thought it would be. The thrusters are normally OK but struggled today. Pullups are a work in progress for me and I haven't done any for about six weeks as I've had really sore forearms. So overall not to upset with the whole thing.

Then went to the park and played touch rugby for an hour.

[Dogstar]

17-JAN-10
Shoulders and arms sore so had a look through the site and found this.

20-15-10

Deadlifts @50kg
Medicine Ball Pushups (pushup onto a medicine ball - subbed for clap pushups)

Time 5:20

18-JAN-10

Expected a recovery session this morning but our coach sat us down and had a talk to us about various things and also the training programme for the next six + one weeks. Going to be a lot more heavy weights, core work and conditioning. With the weights we are now being made to set our own targets for final week weights and then work back to the start week. So for example I've set a 120kg target for a 2 rep Front Squat in week 6 (w/c 22 February) so working back this week I should be working up to a 2 rep 90kg front squat.

Also had a weigh in - I clocked 89.5kg which is a bit lighter than I was before Christmas; suspect have dropped some muscle for fat. One of the things we are going to be looking at is making sure that our diet supports our training/weight.

We also talked about recovery as we are going to be doing a heavy wieghts session on Mondays instead of the recovery session we have been doing previously. Need to focus more on post-game recovery and also post training. Our coach basically told us to do contrast baths every day, i.e warm bath followed by cold bath for 5 minutes. Not looking forward to this but suspect it's going to be a must going forward.

EDIT -In the evening did yoga. Left feeling great. We did a variety of backbends leading up to Urdha Dhanurasana, which is basically what we used to call a crab when I was at school - a backbend with feet and hands on the ground. I managed to get up into the pose which is a first so pretty pleased.

[Dogstar]

19-JAN-10

First session of the new six week cycle. Tuesdays is a light cardio session at a heart rate of (220 - 2 x age)bpm. Did a row for 45 minutes at an average heart rate of 134, average pace 2:25.1/500mtrs at a stroke rate of 11-13 a minute. Total distance covered 9,322 mtrs.

Pretty easy session but it gives me a chance to focus on technique rather than all out effort. One thing I do is slouch so really concentrated on correcting this today. I also usually drop my hands when recovering so again concentrated on my hands going back in a straight line.

[Dogstar]

20-JAN-10

Today is the first day of upper body and core work.

Deadhang Chins 5/5/5/5
Dips 11/10/10/9
Ring pressups - feet on Swiss ball 8/8/8/8

Sit-up (more like a pilates roll up) 15/15/15
V-sit ups 5/5/5

Should also have done overhead medicine ball tosses and hanging knee rotations but ran out of time. Will do the whole core section again tomorrow with a heavy met-con session, thinkin 'fight gone bad'

[Gubernatrix]

Have you been doing your contrast bathing then? How is it?

[Dogstar]

Gubernatrix, on 20 January 2010 - 01:44 PM, said:

Have you been doing your contrast bathing then? How is it?

It's cold. It's easier in the summer when the water's a bit warmer. One trick is not to empty the bath completely but leave some warm water in the bottom, it takes the edge off the cold a bit.

The main problem is we have quite a short bath athome so its easy to do legs or upper body but not both at the same time and switching is a real challenge, especially if you start off with your legs. It does work though - I've done my legs for the last two days and had no soreness at all. After todays session going to try upper body which I find a lot harder to force myself to do.

[Chet]

Dogstar, on 20 January 2010 - 01:54 PM, said:

The main problem is we have quite a short bath athome so its easy to do legs or upper body but not both at the same time

Isn't that what wheelie bins are for?

[FK Pimp]

i have "aquired" an extra wheelie bin somehow - I'm sure it will come in useful now!!!

[Chet]

FK Pimp, on 20 January 2010 - 07:36 PM, said:

i have "aquired" an extra wheelie bin somehow - I'm sure it will come in useful now!!!

Aight!

Wheelie bin use #437: Big-a** box jump.

Dogstar - apologies for the trash-talk ( ) on your trog.

Man, someone should really moderate this rubbish... ( )

[Dogstar]

21-JAN-2010

This session is supposed to be a cardio session at just below lactic threshold. Decided I would have a go at 'Fight gone Bad'. I originally planned to do five rounds to give me a half hour workout but only managed three.

Fight Gone Bad

Thrusters 30kg bar
SDHP 30 kg bar
Box Jumps
Push press 30kg bar
Row

Round one: 15/13/14/10/13
Round two: 12/13/13/10/13
Round three: 9/12/12/10/11

Total: 180
Average heart rate:159 BPM

Was hoping for something like 240-250 so disappointed but this was the first time I've done this. Found the transitions hard as doing the timing off a wristwatch and having to move around a bit to do the box jumps and rowing.

Then did the abs work I didn't do on Wednesday.

Situps 3x10
V-situps 3x5
O/H medicine ball tosses 3x10
Hanging knee rotations - didn't get these at all. Need to practice the technique more. Might have to resort to doing them lying on my back to start with.

Finished off the day with a cold bath.


22-JAN-2010

Rest day - still very sore after the training earlier in the week soa welcome relief.

Not playing rugby tomorrow as have decided to go and watch Villa (my team) play Brighton (where I grew up)in the FA Cup. I'm intending to do a 'GI Jane' in the morning to make up for not playing.

[Dogstar]

23-JAN-2010

'GI JANE'

100 Burpee Pullups

Time 21:03

Bar just out of reach but was highest pullup bar in the gym. Done in sets of ten all the way through.

[chronyx]

Great detailed log! Looks like you do pretty solid sessions

[Dogstar]

chronyx, on 23 January 2010 - 04:30 PM, said:

Great detailed log! Looks like you do pretty solid sessions

Thanks for that. The detail is mainly just reproducing what we are encouraged to write down in out training diaries anyway. Sessions have worked pretty well. Everyone I train with seems to make consistent gains over each training cycle.

24-JAN-2010

Rest day.

25-JAN-2010

Legs - Week 2

This is the second session of the six week cycle. Weights reps as follows:

Walking Lunge - 4 x 10mtrs 10kg DB's (this is a modified lunge where you take a shorter step and don't fully stand up)
Front Squats - 8/6/4/2 70/80/90/100 kg
Lying Hamstring Curls - 8/6/4/2 (on each leg) Green band plus 0/2.5/3.75/5 kg
Hamstring Curl Machine - 4x8 (both legs together) 60kg
Seated Calf Raises - 4x8 30kg
Straight Leg Calf Raises - 4x8 120kg


Yoga in evening. Did lot of variations on a pose called baddha konasana which is a simple groin stretching pose. Noticed that I have a lot better flexibility on my left in this pose - I generally seem to be a lot more flexible on my left hand side.

[Dogstar]

26-JAN-2010

Woke up with tingly hamstrings, they weren't sore but I knew I had worked them the day before. The hamstring curls we did yesterday are obviously harder than they seemed. Also my core is reminding me that we did front squats yeasterday.

Anyway today's session is a light cardio session. Did 45 minutes on a a bike in the gym, average heart rate 132 BPM. Bike at level 4 and cadence around 80-85 rpm. Managed to get my Ipod sorted out this week so listened to Francois K Essential Mix part 1 to ease the boredom. I find it a lot easier to do the short sharp sessions as there is no chance to get bored. Music definitely helped today though.

Looking forward to tomorrow. It's a bit of a funny day training wise as I have a session in the morning and I'm then playing my first game of Vets rugby tomorrow night.

[Dogstar]

27-JAN-2010

This morning's session was:


Deadhang Pullups 6/6/6/6 +1 from last week
Dips 12/12/12/12 +2 from last week
Ring pressups feet on swissball 10/10/10/10 +2 from last week

Then

Plank 3 x 1min
Pressup pyramid 1-10 reps
Knees to Elbows 3 x 6 (actually more like knees to chest but working on it)

Finished with a cup of tea and a flapjack. Very civilized.

Have a rugby game tonight. I feel absolutely knackered so will be interesting to see how this goes.

[Dogstar]

28-JAN-2010

Rest day today and got the day off work.

Last night played forty minutes of rugby. First game of the season for me and I'm really feeling it today - my ribs are sore and I've got stud marks all over my right thigh. We won 35-7 and I played very well so the morning's training obviously didn't have too much of an affect on me.

[Dogstar]

29-JAN-2010

This tends to be a very light day as usually have game the following day. Legs still sore after Wednesday so did a 20 min light cycle and then 30 minutes of foam rolling and stretching.

30-JAN-2010

Woke up with a bunged up nose so not a great start. Reminded myself that I didn't need to feel great to play great. Second game in four days. Another win. Played sixty minutes on a half frozen pitch. Out on the shandies (no really) with the boys in the evening - had to drag myself off at ten o'clock as was falling asleep standing up.

31-JAN-2010

Rest day. Really noticed yesterdays exertions in my lower back - I suspect this is a consequence of the hard ground yesterday.

1-FEB-2010

Legs Session - Week Three

Walking Lunges 4x10mtr 12.5kg DB's (modified action)
Front Squat 8/6/4/2 75/85/95/105(PB)
Single leg Hamstring Curls 8/6/4/2 3.75/5/6.25/7.5kg (with Green Band)
Leg Extension machine 4x8 70kg
Seated calf raises 4x8 40kg
Standing calf rasies 4x8 130kg

Front squats were tough today as the lunges really pre-exhaust the quads; when doing the 85kg lift didn't think I was going to make the 105kg.

[Dogstar]

2-FEB-2010

Rest day. Felt rubbish so decided to have a day off rather than do the light cardio session in the evening.

3-FEB-2010

Upper Body Week Three

Dead Hang Pullups 7/7/7/7 +1 from last week
Dips 13/13/13/13 +1 from last week
Ring Pressups 10/10/10/10 +2 from last week

V-situp 3x12
Knees to chest 3x8
Med Ball Tosses 3x14 (3kg med ball)

The dips were a real struggle today form went to pot on the fourth set. Strangely the ring pressups were really easy where they are normally a problem after the dips. V-situps were tough and were more like four sets of 4.

Evening did yoga. Mainly variations on standing poses using a chair for support when leaning forward and with back foot against the wall.