Tip No 1 – Understand the Difference Between Training and Exercise
When you drive your car would you leave it in 1st gear on the motorway speeding along at 120 km/hr? Training is intense and geared towards stimulating a response with your body. Hormones (our chemical messengers) are kicked into gear in the right direction, fat is melted and rugby fitness levels improved.
The trouble is you can’t keep up this pace forever. If you do you will likely breakdown, suffer from a niggly illness and then not be able to train! The car packs in!
Can you see where this is going?
We would use exercise in the sense that it is a gentler form of training that can be done at any time, any place any where. This should ideally be performed between training sessions and act as a balance. It is like move your car up through the gears to save your engine! Walks, toss a ball around, skills sessions are ideal in this situation. Just move!
Tip No 2 – Know Your Programme
A training programme is split into ‘phases’ which normally last 4-5 weeks. Any longer than that and the body adapts and you begin to plateau. This is one of the biggest mistakes people make then they go to the gym. They don’t change anything! The same weights, same programme with the same exercises! Here is what a programme means:
Exercise – this is the exercise that we want you to peform
Order – This is the order of the exercise within the context of the programme. Where you see 1a and then 1b you will complete these as a circuit of exercises. For example, perform 1a and then 1b and then back to 1a.
Sets – This is the number of times you will do this exercise within the circuit. In this case you will make 4 rounds of this.
Reps – This is the number of times you will perform the exercise. Let the number of repetitions prescribed determine the weight you pick. If it asks for 8 reps pick a weight that allows you to perform the exercise with good technical form. If you can do 15 it is too light. Likewise if you can do 5 it is too heavy.
Rest – This is crucial. This is the amount of time you will take after you finish the exercise. Some of us will want to rush this if we don’t have time. Don’t. You are defying your own physioslogy and the quality of your exercise session will deteriorate into nothing! Most of us rush through things. This is one exception!
Tempo – this is how fast you need to perform the exercise. In this case the first number denotes the lowering speed (4 seconds), the next number denotes the pause at the bottom of the exercise (0 seconds), the third number denotes the speed with which you lift the weight (X for Explosive) and the fourth number denotes the pause at the top of the movement (0 seconds).
Tip No 3 – Keep to the Rest Period
Do not rush your training session. If you are stuck for time drop the number of rounds you need to do. Instead of doing 4 sets of the exercise, do 3 for example. Remember the old adage – stimulate don’t annihilate. Having said this 45 minute is ideal for a training session. Any longer and your testosterone (male AND females) tends to drop off.
Tip No 4 – Train Hard, Rest Harder
Unfortunately we don’t grow or change during most of our training sessions. It is merely a stimulus for change in the period following our sessions.
We get firmer, fuller, thicker, leaner mainly in the period following our training sessions.
But this is dependent on one factor – rest.
No rest, no gains.
We must ensure that we are eating cleanly, sleeping 8-10 hours per night and taking time for ourselves. Most of us feel the need to get our money’s worth with gyms and make sure we are training at least 3-4 times a week.
Unfortunately being frugal doesn’t outwit mother nature. If you are tired then modify your training sessions to walks, jogs, stretch and core, a sauna, low intensity conditioning and best of all nothing! You will then be fully recovered to the point whereby you can then give it 100% time and time again.
Tip No 5 – Exercise Between Training Sessions
To enhance your results, reduce your stress and get more from your training then you need to exercise between your sessions. 40 minutes of walking on most days of the week is recommended. If you struggle with this then divide this up into 20 minute walks twice per day. A walk in the morning, lunch or evening is ideal.
John Lark is author of Get Fit for Rugby – A No-Nonsense Guide for Total Rugby Fitness for the Amateur Rugby Player
