It occurred to me this week that the fitness industry is still plagued by paralysis by analysis and none more so that when it comes to getting rugby players fit for championship.
The Functional Movement Screen for example has its place (and other functional based tests). But to do it at the exclusion of ‘work’ that has a direct correlation to how they will PERFORM come 2.30 on a Saturday is just wrong.
Like anything it is another tool, and a sensitive one at that. You can pick up (to the trained eye) some imbalances, weaknesses and then work on correcting them. I do elements of it myself in a 1-1 setting when I have a good bit of time to take them through it.
The problem comes with ‘how far do you then take it?
You could end up spending the whole training session working on your ankle dorsiflexors and ‘core stability’ at the expense of ‘balls to the wall training’ that actually develops and nurtures rugby players. Remember your training is not just about physical development.
I spoke with my friend Tom McLaughlin, the Connaught Strength Coach yesterday and we agreed that it is a tool and should be a) used outside of the training sessions and b) as part of a movement prep based workout prioritizing 1-2 things that you can glean off the 400 page essay on how fecked up you are. I mean come on! Show me a rugby player who doesn’t have dysfunction. I could pull up some rather evil looking overhead squat videos which would make you wince in agony.
One of them has just qualified for the Olympics.
The problem comes when you try and dictate that a player can’t do X because of Y. I agree, but find a regression. Can’t squat, try and split squat but make it heavy and all out balls to the wall. Can’t Bench Press try an incline bench press or a loaded press up. Can’t deadlift? Stick a few plates on a reverse hyper and move on. Work round it. You can find a way.
The last thing I would make a rugby player feel like is a patient. Imagine turning to your star player the week of a match and telling him to just work on his bridge score and avoid all intense work. He will be softer than a pensioners turd come the weekend. I have played and train heavy with a fractured C5 (unaware) and now a stenosis at this level, a ruptured pec, torn lateral collateral ligaments, broken and dislocated fingers to the extent that I had to ‘make’ a gripper to hold onto anything as I finished out the season with it. This is not to brag or display random bouts of hardness. Merely to show that you can work round things. Make an excuse to train, rather than not to train!
Monday was the usual high intensity but mainly all over strength based workout with the higher reps to allow for a little more recovery time. We focused on Incline DB Bench with Chins and then some Reverse Hypers or GH Raises working in the 6-8 rep range.
Tuesday all the lads were in and ready to rock and roll working up to a workout that included Back Squats up to 3 RM with some reverse hypers and reverse crunches for the assistance work. I threw in a treat at the end to get a bit of blow on. Any lads who could’t load her up were lifting heavy on a DB split Squat for sets of 5.
It is a period of rest until next week where I want to focus on one all out balls the wall session on Tuesday before the league game on Saturday. Roll on….
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