Gray's Gym

M6W1D5

2010-10-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

Lift Day 3
Back Squat 3X4 80%
Push Jerk 5X3 80%
Weighted Walking Lunges 3X10 (5L5R) with 40% of 1RM back squat
Thrusters 3X5, work up to 5 rep max

Core Work
2x
20 med ball toss sit ups w/20lbs
20 med ball lateral toss (feet off ground
Dead Bugs - (45 sec, alternate leg and arm, 45 sec, same leg and arm)

M6W1D4

2010-10-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

Conditioning Day 2

2 min max rep burpees
1 min rest
2min max 15 yd shuttle runs
1 min rest
2 min max reps jumping squats
1 min rest
2 min max 15 yd shuttle runs
1 min rest
2 min max reps squats

M6W1D3

2010-10-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

Lift Day 2

Front Squat - 3X5 80%
Push Press - 3X5 80%
Hang Power Clean 5X3 85%
Bent Over Row 5X5 80%

Core Work
Total 3 minutes of "L" sit hold. For the "L" sit, hang from a pull up bar and hold your legs out parallel to the ground, putting yourself in an "L" shape. The clock only runs when you are holding your position. If your legs fall below parallel, stop counting the time. Try and keep your legs up for at least 20 sec at a time. If you must drop your legs more than 12 times, you incur a 5 burpee penalty for each time they drop over 12 times.

M6W1D2

2010-10-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

Conditioning Day 1
Tabata Run - Horrible version

Tabata intervals are 8 sets of 20secs max intensity (run as fast/far as possible) followed by 10 secs rest. One complete set of Tabata intervals will take 3min 50sec.
For our terrible Tabata we will have three special conditions.
1. This will be performed while wearing a weight vest or a well fitting backpack filled with weight. 20-35lbs is recommended.
2. All rest periods will be spent lying face down. You must jump to your feet at the start of each work period.

3. After completing the first set of Tabata runs, you will rest 2 minutes and go again with a second set of Tabata runs.

M6W1D1

2010-10-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

Practice is back in full swing so we will be reducing our workout volume to 3 lifting days per week and 2 conditioning days per week.

Lift Day 1:
Back Squat - 3X5 80%
Bench Press - 3X5 80%
Hang Snatch - 5X3 85%
Weighted Chins - 5X4-6 85% (4-6 means range of 4 to 6 reps. If you get 6 or more, add weight)

Core Work:
2X
20 V-Ups with 20lb plate
20 Berry pickers w/ 20lbs (sit on butt, hold feet off ground, touch plate to ground on both sides of body to count 1)
20 weighted sit ups w/20lb

M5W4D3

2010-09-27T14:37:00.001-07:00

Medium Lift Day

Back Squat 60%/4, 70%/3, (80%/3)x3

Muscle Snatch 60%/3, 70%/3, 75%/3, (80%/3)x2

Super Set

Bench Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Max rep Pull ups

M5W4D2

2010-09-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

Heavy Lift Day

Front Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/4)x4

Power Clean 60%/5, 65%/4, 75%/4, (85%/4)x2

Hang Power Snatch 75%/4, (85%4)x2

Super set

Push Jerk 60%/3, 70%/3, (85%/3)x6

Weighted Chins 3 sets of max weight on 4-6 reps

M5W4D1

2010-09-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

Practice and school start this week so we're going to go a bit light, only three days lifting, no met-cons. Listen to Shack and wear your practice kits!

Medium Lift Day

Back Squat 60%/4, 70%/3, (80%/3)x3

Hang Clean 60%/3, 70%/3, 75%/3, (80%/3)x2

Super set

Bench Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Bent Over Rows (85%/5)x3

M5W3D5

2010-09-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

Medium Lift Day

Back Squat 60%/4, 70%/3, (80%/3)x3

Muscle Clean 60%/3, 70%/3, 75%/3, (80%/3)x2

Super set for last three sets only

Bench Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Bent over Rows (85%/5)x3

Endurance

1:2 work to rest ratio

100m

rest

200m

rest

400m

rest

M5W3D4

2010-09-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

Heavy Lift Day

Front Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/4)x4

Clean 60%/5, 65%/4, 75%/4, (85%/4)x2

Snatch 75%/4, (85%4)x2

Super set

Push Press 60%/3, 70%/3, (85%/3)x6

Wide Grip pull ups, max reps.

M5W3D3

2010-09-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

Met Con

Tabata Push.

Using the tabata interval (20 sec on, 10 sec. rest X8), push either a prowler sled or your car (in a parking lot, put it in neutral). Repeat 3 times, resting 4 minutes between each set of tabata intervals. If pushing a car, feel free to do this in teams of two. I also recommend having someone in the driver's seat to stop the car during rest/avoid running into things.

M5W3D2

2010-09-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

Heavy Lift Day

Back Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/4)x4

Hang Power Snatch 60%/5, 65%/4, 75%/4, (85%/4)x2

Hang Power Clean 75%/4, (85%4)x2

Super set

Bench Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Weighted Chin Ups 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

M5W3D1

2010-09-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

On the minute for 12 min. Deadlift 2/85% 5 push ups

then

On the minute for 12 min run 5-10-5 shuttle 5 push ups

M5W2D5

2010-09-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

Medium Met-Con Day

5 rounds

Max Reps Body Weight Front Squat (whatever your body weight is, load the bar with that much weight)

Max reps Chin Ups - close grip (hands should be inside of shoulders)

M5W2D4

2010-09-07T18:36:00.002-07:00

Heavy Lift Day

Back Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/4)x4

Power Snatch 60%/5, 65%/4, 75%/4, (85%/4)x2

Power Clean 75%/4, (85%4)x2

Push Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Snatch Pull 95%/3, 105%/3

M5W2D3

2010-09-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

Medium Lift Day

Back Squat 60%/4, 70%/3, (80%/3)x3

Muscle Snatch 60%/3, 70%/3, 75%/3, (80%/3)x2

Bench Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Pendlay Rows (85%/5)x3

Endurance:

1:1 work to rest ratio

20m

rest

40m

rest

60m

rest

80m

rest

100m

rest

120m

rest

140m

rest

160m

rest

180m

rest

200m

rest

180m

rest

160m

rest

140m

rest

120m

rest

100m

rest

80m

rest

60m

rest

40m

rest

20m

M5W2D2

2010-09-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

Met-Con
1min. on, 1 min. off repeat five times (total of 5 mins work, 5 mins rest)
During minute on cycles, perform max reps of burpee kettlebell snatches. See video of combine for example.
Score using the least amount of reps completed in any of the 1 min work sessions.

M5W2D1

2010-09-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

Heavy Lift Day

Front Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/4)x4

Clean 60%/5, 65%/4, 75%/4, (85%/4)x2

Snatch 75%/4, (85%4)x2

Rack Jerk 60%/3, 70%/3, (85%/3)x6

Clean Pull 95%/4, 105%/4

Rugby Combine

2010-08-31T15:46:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I was in town before heading to SF for a Crossfit Football clinic and I did a "Combine" for rugby players. It's a work in progress at the moment but I think we got some good results.

We ran through 7 tests: Vertical Leap, Broad Jump, 40yd dash, 5-10-5 shuttle, "L" shuttle, 60yd shuttle and a new "Work Capacity" test which was 1 minute of max reps burpee to KB snatch w/1.5 pood.

The first 6 tests are the same as you will see in the NFL combine. I think some of them have merit for rugby players and some do not, a fast 40 time is great but even among football coaches it's efficacy in determining true "game" speed is questionable. Athletes don't run in straight lines with nothing in their hands. Having a good vertical leap is nice too but there really isn't a whole lot of solo jumping in rugby and even if you do, absolute height is more important than vertical leaping abilities. I feel that the various shuttle runs do the best job at displaying athletic ability relative to the rugby athlete. The other major difference between rugby players and football players is the time domain we work in. Football plays virtually never last more than 15 or 20 seconds. This requires a tremendous amount of repeatable explosive power. A sequence in rugby can last for 3 to 4 minutes of sustained work. For our test I went with 1 minute as the time domain to simulate something on the longer side of one player constantly working using a complex movement, the burpee/snatch. I think it's a pretty good start and we're going to keep messing with this thing until we get it right.

M5W1D5

2010-08-31T09:26:00.000-07:00

Met-Con
7 rounds for time
7 Power Snatches 115lb
2 70m runs

M5W1D4

2010-08-31T09:22:00.001-07:00

Heavy Day

Back Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/4)x4

Power Snatch 60%/5, 65%/4, 75%/4, (85%/4)x2

Clean 75%/4, (85%4)x2

Push Jerk 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Clean Pull 95%/3, 105%/3

M5W1D3

2010-08-31T09:20:00.001-07:00

Light Met-Con

20-14-8

95lb thruster

30m run (cones 15m apart, run out and back for 1 rep)

M5W1D2

2010-08-31T09:17:00.000-07:00

Medium Day

Front Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/3)x4

Clean 60%/3, 70%/3, 75%/3, (80%/3)x2

Clean Pull 95%/3, 105%/3

Bench Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Endurance:

40m sprint on the minute for 15 min. Stop early if you fail to maintain a true sprint.

M5W1D1

2010-08-31T09:15:00.000-07:00

You should have tested new maxes last week. We will be going to 5 workouts a week for the next 4 weeks. I recommend going 3 on 1 off 2on 1 off. this would look like Mon, tue, wed work, thur, rest fri, sat, work, sun rest.

Heavy Day - Remember to recalculate your percentages off your new 1RMs

Back Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/4)x4

Snatch 60%/5, 65%/4, 75%/4, (85%/4)x2

Power Clean 75%/4, (85%4)x2

Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Snatch Pull 95%/3, 105%/3

M2W4D4

2010-08-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

Heavy Lift/ 1RM Retest Day

Back Squat: Find New 1RM

Snatch: Find New 1RM

Power Clean: Find New 1RM

Press: Find New 1RM

Become a savage like Ma'a Nonu

Reminder! We will be conducting a Rugby Combine Test this Friday at Toomey Field, UC Davis at 10am

M2W4D3

2010-08-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

Medium Lift Day

Front Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/3)x4

Clean 60%/3, 70%/3, 75%/3, (80%/3)x2

Clean Pull 95%/3, 105%/3

Bench Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Endurance: Tempo

2K run

1st 400m 85%

2nd 400m 80%

3rd 400m 90%

4th 400m 80%

5th 400m 95%

If possible, try to get split times for every 400m. Times should not necessarily be faster, percentages are based on perceived exertion, not actual speed increase although you may find that to be the case.

M2W4D2

2010-08-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

Light Met-Con

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes:

Max Rep Pull Ups

Run 200 m

Max Rep. Push Ups

Run 200m

*Goal…total pull ups+push ups

Endurance: Interval Day

1:3 Work to rest ratio

40 sec. max effort sprint

2min. rest

M2W4D1

2010-08-25T09:01:00.000-07:00

Heavy Lift Day

Back Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/4)x4

Power Snatch 60%/5, 65%/4, 75%/4, (85%/4)x2

Power Clean 75%/4, (85%4)x2

Push Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Snatch Pull 95%/3, 105%/3

Kelly Starrett's Mobility WOD

2010-08-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

Listen up you bunch of inflexible, stiff jointed, injury prone messes! Kelly Starrett A.K.A. K-Starr is a jjoint mobility rockstar. Normally, he costs lots of money to go see or you can pay even more to go to one of his certs and in the end, you will move pain free and be a more flexible/better athlete. Well, now, you can get some K-Starr for free. He just launched a new blog where he gives out a bunch of free mobility exercises. These are all really good to do, especially if you play a sport like rugby. Check it out and incorporate what he says into your daily routine. This stuff will keep you on point and in the game longer.

http://www.mobilitywod.blogspot.com/

Here's a taste. Go to the site, subscribe to it, do what he says.

M2W3D4

2010-08-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

Medium Day

Back Squat 60%/4, 70%/3, (80%/3)x3

Muscle Snatch 60%/3, 70%/3, 75%/3, (80%/3)x2

Bench Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Pendlay Rows (85%/5)x3 Pendlay rows are similar to bent over rows except the weight should touch the ground between each rep) For weight, use the same as you would for bench press.

Endurance: Interval day

1:1 work to rest ratio, perform sequence 3 times

200m run

rest

400m

rest

800m

rest

M2W3D3

2010-08-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

Light Met-Con

21-15-9
Dead Lift 100kg
Knee to Elbows (hang from pull up bar, touch knees to elbows)

Endurance: 5K tempo run. Run first 1600m @75% Run 2nd 1600m @90% run next 1200m @80% run final 600m at max effort.

M2W3D2

2010-08-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

Heavy Day

Front Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/4)x4

Clean 60%/5, 65%/4, 75%/4, (85%/4)x2

Snatch 75%/4, (85%4)x2

Rack Jerk 60%/3, 70%/3, (85%/3)x6

Clean Pull 95%/4, 105%/4

M2W3D1

2010-08-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

Medium Metcon Day

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps of:

Overhead Squat 60kg

Handstand Push Ups - If you can't do handstand push ups, scale this work out by either putting some rolled up towels/a pillow under your head or do an inverted push up with your knees on a box above your head.

Endurance: Tabata Run Increase speed 5% from last tabata run, incline remains the same.

M2W2D4

2010-08-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

Back Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/4)x4

Power Snatch 60%/5, 65%/4, 75%/4, (85%/4)x2

Clean 75%/4, (85%4)x2

Push Jerk 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Clean Pull 95%/3, 105%/3

Endurance: Swim, 20 min. for max distance, all out effort.

M2W2D3

2010-08-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

Front Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/3)x4

Clean 60%/3, 70%/3, 75%/3, (80%/3)x2

Clean Pull 95%/3, 105%/3

Bench Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Endurance: Set up cones or markers every 20m over a 100m field (goal line to goal line). Every time you get to a cone, preform 2 burpees. Work to rest ratio is 1:1 (rest same time as you work.

100m

rest

60m

rest

200m

rest

40m

rest

200m

rest

60m

rest

100m

rest

400m

rest

40m

rest

40m

rest

40m

rest

40m

M2W2D2

2010-08-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

15, 9, 6 reps of:

DB Thrusters 50lb

KB Swings 2pood (72lbs)

Ring Pull Ups (chest to hands)

Endurance:

2k run @ 90%

M2W2D1

2010-08-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

All lift percentages based off 1 rep max

Back Squat 60%/5, 70%/4, (80%/4)x4

Snatch 60%/5, 65%/4, 75%/4, (85%/4)x2

Power Clean 75%/4, (85%4)x2

Press 60%/5, 70%/5, (85%/5)x3

Snatch Pull 95%/3, 105%/3

Endurance: 20X 20 sec sprint followed by 20 sec rest. Go for max distance.

Paleo Brands New Site Launches Today

2010-08-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

The best internet food company in the known universe is Paleo Brands. Granted, there isn't a whole lot of competition but on the whole they do a great job of offering super healthy, prepackaged food for the power/performance minded athlete in addition to general nutrition information. Guys, I can't emphasize this enough, NUTRITION IS CRITICAL!!! It can literally make or break your athletic career. I'm not saying you guys need to go out and spend all your money on prepackaged cave man fodder but you do need to educate yourselves and you probably should reevaluate how you spend your food budget. People always complain that they can't afford to eat healthy, that grass fed beef costs an extra buck or two at the market and yada, yada, yada. I see those same people drop $50 a night at the bar three nights a week. I promise you that if you spend one less night a week at the bar and instead invest that money into buying high quality, fresh, local foods you will see an improvement in your fitness. This is not rocket science. For those of you who are too lazy, incompetent or just not good with fire, try getting some pre-made paleo food from Paleo Brands.

M2W1D4

2010-08-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

Warm Up:
Run 200m forward, 200m backward
10X OH Squat
   push ups
   Bulldog Pointers (Bulldog position - hands and knees. Extend right hand/left leg and vice versa)
   Bulldog Fire hydrants (raise leg like peeing on fire hydrant)
   Bulldog Hip Circles (rotate bent leg 360)
   Bulldog Straight leg hip circles (same as before but with straight leg)
   Mountain Climbers (lay on belly, alternate bringing knees up to elbows)
5X Clapping push ups

Core training
25X Med Ball Crunch/extend
20X Partner Straight leg Throwdowns (lay on back with legs straight up in air. Partner pushes lags to ground)
20X Bicycle crunches (ea. leg)
25X med ball side throw/catch (ea. side)

Lift: Press 8-8-8-8

Met-Con: 12 min AMRAP 3 Press (60% 1RM), 6 Pull ups, 9 Box Jumps (24")

Endurance: (note once again, endurance is always done with significant rest time before or after main workout) 1 mile tempo run, first 800m at 85%, second 800m at 95%

M2W1D3

2010-08-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

Warm Up:
Run 100m, run 100m Backwards X 2
10 squats
10 lunges
10 back lunges
10 lateral lunges
10 high leg kicks
20m high knees (focus on fast touches, pump arms)
20m butt kicks (same focus)
10 push ups
hold planche for 1 min.
10 push ups
L.W.T.Y X 10 w/5lb plates/dumbbells

Lift: Spend 20 mins working up to a 1 rep max back squat

Met-Con: Death By Back Squat
Using 50% of the 1RM Back Squat you just established, perform 1 back squat on the minute, adding 1 rep every minute. i.e. time = 0sec-1min, 1 squat. 1:01-2:00 = 2 squats. 2:01-3:00 = 3 squats... etc until you are unable to complete the required number of reps in the minute. If you fail before the 10th minute, continue on at what ever rep you failed at until 10 minutes is reached.

M2W1D2

2010-08-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

One more note, at this point you should be moving to 4 work outs per week.

Warm Up: Your choice of about 2-3 mins of light aerobic activity.
Spend about 10-15 mins on dynamic warm up, make sure to cover hip and shoulder mobility as well as core areas.

Lift: Bench Press, 8-8-8-8

Met Con: 21-15-9 reps of 95lb bench press, Chest to bar chin ups

Endurance: 1:1 work to rest ratio, run 100m, rest, run 200m, rest, run 400m, rest repeat sequence three times straight through.

M2W1D1

2010-08-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in between workouts guys, Friday was my 30th birthday and things got a bit out of hand. I am mostly recovered now and I'm pretty sure every thing can either be replaced or will grow back...

Anyways, we're now on to mesocycle 2 where we will be going a bit heavier with the weights and doing crossfit style metcons more often.

For the warm ups, use the old warm ups, mix and match what works for you but don't ignore any of the movements. Try and incorporate the muscle groups you will be using in the work out into your warm up.

Lift: over the course of 15 minutes, work up to a 5 rep max dead lift.

Metcon: On the minute for 15 minutes: 3 DL, 3 Hand Stand Push Ups. For DL, use 80% of 5RM established earlier.

Endurance (to be done 3+ hours before or after rest of workout): Tabata run on treadmill, use 7 min mile pace and at least 10% grade.

Crossfit Football Clinic August 28th & 29th In San Francisco

2010-08-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

Hey ruggers, if you're interested in taking your training to the next level in terms of fitness and nutrition, I would highly recommend you attend this clininc. It is a two day event run by John Welbourn, creator of Crossfit Football and it contains everry thing you need to know about programming your workouts, lifting technique and guest nutrition lecturers. It will also feature me, as a guest coach. This is great for players but it potentially has the biggest impact for coaches so let all your old highschool or college coaches know about this. The title is Crossfit Football but it definitely applies to Rugby.

Crossfit Football Clininc

What Would Chuck Norris Eat?

2010-08-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

I get two basic questions via email over and over again; A) Are you interested in great deals on Viagra and Cialis! and B) What should I eat? Well, the answer to A) is YES! and the answer to B) is a bit more complicated. Every person is different both in body composition and in regards to what your fitness goals are. For the majority of readers on this blog the answer is to become jacked and powerful so you can dominate on the rugby pitch and as Thomas Jefferson famously said "slam mad hoes". Recently on John Welbourn's blog, "Talk to me Johnny", there was a great article titled "Just Tell Me What To Eat", in which Chuck Norris tells you what to eat and then roundhouse kicks you in the face.

"It seems that I needed some counseling, so I did what any intelligent individual would do, I contacted Chuck Norris for his views on nutrition. I asked for an accurate prescription for what I should be eating. Chuck responded and delivered the information via a mechanical winged messenger given as a gift by the Gods of Olympus..."

Read up and educate yourselves!

M1W3D3

2010-08-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

Warm Up:
3 Mins. jump rope
10 squats
10 push ups
10 sit ups
10 pull ups
30 sec. samson stretch

10 squats

10 push ups

10 sit ups

10 pull ups

30 sec. samson stretch

Work Out today is from CFFB; "Lizzie"

12, 9, 6, 3 reps of:

Power Cleans 185 lbs ( scale down to 155 or 135 is necessary)
Ring Dips (use regular dips if necessary)

Record time, this should be done as fast as possible.

Endurance:

60 yd. shuttle started every other minute X 10

60 yard shuttle - set up a cone at starting line, 5 yds, 10 yd and 15yds. Sprint to 5 and back, 10 and back 15 and run straight through the finish.

For this drill you will run the shuttle 10 times starting ever 120 seconds.

Time yourselves, if your effort falls below 90% of your first time you incur a 5 burpee penalty for every slow shuttle run.

Finally, if you want to learn more about nutrition for the power athlete, check out the site "Talk To Me Johnny", it has lots of great info and quick replies if you post in the comments.

M1W3D2

2010-08-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

Warm Up:
Run 100m
skip 100m
run 100m
skip 100m

10 walk outs to arches
10 cobras
10 mountain climbers
10 bird dogs (bull dog position, point left arm/right leg and switch)
10 Hip circles (from bulldog pos.)
10 squats
10 lunges
10 back wards lunges
10 lateral lunges
10X through ITWY
hold dead bug position for 2 mins

Core work
30 bicycles, full extension
25 v-ups w/25lb plate
30 berry pickers w/25lb plate
cycle through twice

3A Back Squat 10-10-10
3B Bench Press 10-10-10

4A Weighted step ups 5ea leg X 3 (hold 50lb dumbbells in each hand, step up to a 20-24" box)
4B Man Makers 5ea. side X 3 (hold 50lb dumbbells in hands in push up position, do push up then pull up one db to chest)

5A 1 min hand stand hold X 3
5B 1 min L sit hold X 3

Endurance:
It's pretty hot out there, lets do some swim intervals!
1:2 work to rest ratio 50m all out sprints X 10

Also, I'm doing a lot of work for Crossfit Football these days and we have some cool new features coming out that you should like including some rugby stuff and a new look website so be sure to check the site often and let me know what you think.

M1W3D1

2010-08-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

Warm Up:
Bear Crawl 50m
Bear Crawl Backwards 50m
10 Planche Push Ups
10 Cobras (lay on stomach with arms stretched out to side. Arch back and go from thumbs down to thumbs up)
10 Mountain climbers (lay on stomach, touch knees to elbows)
Flip over onto back
3X30 sec. dead bugs. First do same leg/arm, then alt. leg/arm and then both legs and arms
10 squats
10 scap pull ups
10 pull ups
30 sec. hand stand hold

Core Training:
Hold L-sit from hanging position. Use a stopwatch and hold until failure. Rest 1:1 ratio, repeat 4 times

3A Romanian Dead Lift 8-8-8-8
3B Dumbbell Push Press 8-8-8-8

4A Weighted Reverse Lunges (barbell on shoulders, step backwards to knee and then back up) 10-10-10 (5 on ea. leg)
4B Weighted wide grip pull ups - grip should be 4-6" wider than shoulders. 3 sets, work up to max weight you can pull for 5 unbroken pull ups

5A Weighted Dips 5-5-5
5B I.T.W.Y. 3X10 for each w/5lb plate in each hand

Endurance:
1K time trial w/35lb sand bag or plate

M1W2D3

2010-07-31T14:05:00.000-07:00

Warm Up:
Run 100m, run 100m Backwards X 2
10 squats
10 lunges
10 back lunges
10 lateral lunges
10 high leg kicks
20m high knees (focus on fast touches, pump arms)
20m butt kicks (same focus)
10 push ups
hold planche for 1 min.
10 push ups
L.W.T.Y X 10 w/ no weights

Core training:
25 sit ups
25 v-ups
25 berry pickers (feet off ground, move med ball side to side)
25 full extension bicycle crunches

3A Power Snatch 5-5-5
3B Lateral Box Jumps 5-5-5

4A Dead Lift 10-10-10
4B Inverted push ups (feet on box at least 20" high) 3X max reps

5A Weighted Chins (hold dumbbells between feet if you don't have a dip belt) 5-5-5
5B Swiss Ball leg curls - single leg 10-10-10

Endurance:
AFAP (as fast as possible)
8 rounds of
25 squats
200m run

M1W2D2

2010-07-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

Warm up:
3 min jump rope
10X Hip Thrust
   Alternate arm/leg dead bugs (lay on back, raise alternate arm/leg straight up while other arm and leg ar 4" off ground)
   Push Ups
   Forward Lunge
   Backward Lunge
   Lateral Lunge
   Clap Push ups
Alternate 3X 30 sec handstand hold/L sit hold

Core training
A15X Knee to elbows (hang on pull up bar, touch knees to elbows)
B20 sec. Hold "L" position while hanging from bar
Repeat complex twice

3A Hang Clean/Jerk 5-5-5
3B Dumbbell incline 10-10-10

4A Hang Whip Snatch (use between 45-65lb) do as many reps as possible in 00:10 - 2 sets
4B Pull ups 2 sets of max reps

5A Standing dumbbell shoulder press 10-10
5B Leg Curl Complex (using swiss ball, lay on back w/heels on top of ball. Pull ball back to butt w/both feet then extend ball back out with only one leg/other leg extended up into air) 6ea.-6ea.

Endurance:
12 min. Tempo run. Maintain 85% run effort for 12 mins. Pace should not change at all during run. Record distance.

M1W2D1

2010-07-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

First off, some clarification on the scheduling of the workouts. At the moment there are only 3 workouts per week (ex. Mon, Wed, Fri). The title post, today's is "M1W2D1" means M = meso cycle 1, W = week 2 and D = day 1. I'm only doing the three per week because I know you're busy but you should be able to commit fully to at least three per week. Additionally, get out there and play some touch, go swimming, chase loose women, etc. Stay active!

Warm Up:
Run 200m forward, 200m backward
10X OH Squat
   push ups
   Bulldog Pointers (Bulldog position - hands and knees. Extend right hand/left leg and vice versa)
   Bulldog Fire hydrants (raise leg like peeing on fire hydrant)
   Bulldog Hip Circles (rotate bent leg 360)
   Bulldog Straight leg hip circles (same as before but with straight leg)
   Mountain Climbers (lay on belly, alternate bringing knees up to elbows)
5X Clapping push ups

Core training
25X Med Ball Crunch/extend
20X Partner Straight leg Throwdowns (lay on back with legs straight up in air. Partner pushes lags to ground)
20X Bicycle crunches (ea. leg)
25X med ball side throw/catch (ea. side)

3A Power Snatch 5-5-5
3B Lateral Box Jumps 5-5-5 (w/ box to your side, jump side ways onto and then off box then back on other side)

4A Weighted Push ups (put weight plate on back or weighted vest, 45lbs) 2 sets of max reps
4B Dumbbell snatch 5-5 (each set is 5 with each arm)

5A Good Mornings 8-8
5B Bench Press 8-8

Endurance:

2 mins max rep burpees
1 min rest
1 min max rep 40 yd shuttle (run back and forth a distance of 40 yds as many times as possible)
1 min rest
2 mins max rep jumping squats (squat then explode off the ground at least 6")
1 min rest
1 min max rep 40yd shuttle
1 min rest
2 mins max rep squats
1 min rest
1 min max rep 40 yd shuttle
1 min rest
2 mins max rep lunges

M1W1D3

2010-07-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

(1) Warm up -
1. Hip Thrust X 12
2. Scorpions X 10 ea.
3. Supine Scorpions X 10 ea.
4. Rollover/V-sit X 10
5. Air Squat X 10
6. Push ups X 10
7. Forward Lunge X 5 ea.
8. Backward Lunge X 5 ea.
9. Lateral Lunge X 5 ea.
10. Clap push ups X 5

(2) Core Training -
1. Med Ball Sit up toss X 25
2. Med Ball Partner twists X 15 ea. Lock feet
3. J-knife X 25 ea.
4. Alt. Heel touches

3A/B, 4A/B and 5 A/B are super sets. Alternate exercises between sets.

(3A) Hang Clean & Jerk 5-5-5
(3B) Plyo Box Push Up 5-5-5 (set up 2 boxes outside hands. Dynamic push up, land hands on top of boxes. See how high you can go)

(4A) Incline Bench 8-8-8-8
(4B) Swiss Ball Leg Curl 6-6-6-6 (lay on back, place back of leg on swiss ball, contract hamstring to pull ball toward butt)

(5A) Y.T.W.L X 10 (use 3-8lb dumbbells) X 2
(5B) Bar Curls 12-12

Y.T.W.L. Explained

6 - Endurance workout. Do 3+ hours before or after main workout

2K time trial (5 laps around track)

Pre Season M1W1D2

2010-07-22T16:55:00.000-07:00

A
10 X Walkouts
   Planche Push ups
   Samson Stretch (5 ea. leg)
   Air Squats
   Scap pull ups
   Chin ups

B
2X20 RDL @ 45% 1RM
   20 Bent Over Row @ 45% 1RM

C
2X 1 min. Dead Bugs (lay flat on back, hold legs straight up w/ toes pointed back at chin. Lower alternate leg and hand-left&right- to 4" off ground and raise back slowly. Switch off for entire minute. don not bend knee ever)
   1 min. Plank hold (like a push up position but rest on forearms)
   30 sec oblique plank hold each side (Side version of plank, rest on one arm only and side of foot)

D
Endurance Work:
Run 800m, do 5 burpees. Rest the same amount of time it took to complete - this is a 1:1 work to rest interval
Run 400m, do 10 burpees. Rest 1:1
Run 200m, do 20 burpees. Rest 1:1
Run 100m, do 40 burpees. Rest 1:1
Run 200m, do 20 burpees. Rest 1:1
Run 400m, do 10 burpees. Rest 1:1
Run 800m, do 5 burpees.
Record total time and time of each interval for future reference.

Off Season Training

2010-07-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

Off Season Training

Beginning today, I will be posting a program for off season training. We will initially be focusing on injury rehab/prehab work and conditioning before moving into strength and then power programs. These phases will follow 4 week cycles to get you ready for the season.

Rehab/Prehab Workout 1:
For all sets, do sets in order and then repeat however many times are prescribed.

3X10 Front raises
   10 Lat raises
   10 Bent over Row
   10 Scapula pull-ups

3X20 Weighted V-ups (hold med ball/weights, try to touch toes while laying on back, keep feet elevated)
   20 Berry pickers (with med ball/weights, move load from grond on left side of body to right & vice versa. keep legs elevated)
   20 Full extension crunches (extend legs fully at every crunch)

3X15 Lateral dumbbell pick up (set a 40-50lb dumbbell a foot to the left of you. Step laterally to your left while remaing forward facing. Lateral squat down, pick up DB and return to original stance. Perfomr 15 on each side of body)
   15 Forward Dumbbell pick up (same as before but place the dumbbell in front of you and pick up from lunge position)
   15 Reverse DB pick up (place DB behind you and reverse lunge to pick up)

4X10 Cobras (lay on belly with arms stretched out to the sides, thumbs pointing down. Arch up and rotate arms to a thumbs up position)
   10 Archers (Maintain a tight back, arms stretched above head, legs held up off ground. Maintain this position and rock back and forth from arms to legs)

Endurance Workout:

Tabata Run, 8 intervals of 20sec on, 10 sec rest.
Set a treadmill to an 8 min mile pace (7.5mph) and grade to 8%

Using a stopwatch or the timer on the treadmill, run for 20sec and then step off the treadmill to rest for 10 sec. Let the tredmill run while you rest so you can hop back on again. Repeat 8 times. For faster runners/better conditioned players start out at 8-8.5 mph pace but do not go so fast you fail or have to grab the rail on any round.

Stanford Collegiate 7's

2010-05-17T00:02:00.000-07:00

UCD, 2010 Stanford Collegiate 7's Champs!

With only about two weeks introduction to the 7's game, the boys came together and put forth a tremendous effort to beat out many of the best collegiate teams in California to take home the cup. The Ags went 2-1 in pool play, losing only to a strong St. Mary's "Blue" team (St. Mary's fielded two teams in the tourney) after only a 15 minute rest from the previous game. In the semi-final, the boys came back to beat the St. Mary's "Red" team which looked suspiciously similar to the "Blue" team and in the final they played St. Mary's "Blue" team once again. The keys to victory seemed to be a better understanding of the 7's game, thanks largely to the coaching of Steve Gray, former Eagle, USA 7's rep and USA 7's coach and Jon Schafer, All American at UCSB and Olympic Club standout. The other key was conditioning; playing 5 games in one day including a final with 10 minute halves was a test of endurance. As the day wore on the teams lacking fitness were exposed. In the final game with the 10 minute halves St. Mary's nearly mounted a comeback but clearly lost their legs in the extra time.

Well done boys! Skill + Fitness = Victory

Rugby Data

2010-05-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

How Hard Do Rugby Players Work?

One of the hardest parts of training effectively for rugby is the variable nature of the sport. In American Football, you have a fairly good idea of how long a play will last and how many plays you will have in a game. In a game of rugby on the other hand you may have 5 seconds of high intensity play or you may have 5 minutes of high to moderate intensity.
The best way to figure out how to train is to replicate game situations as much as possible and we now have some new data to help us with this. Recently, Ross Tucker, an Exercise Physiologist from South Africa who writes for my all time favorite blog, Science of Sport, used GPS hardware on players in Super 14 games to find out just what's going on out there. His full article can be found here and you should absolutely read it! In case you don't, I'm going to repost a few of his findings and offer some insight on what they mean to you and how we can incorporate the data into our training.

From Ross Tucker's "Physiological demands of rugby"

These studies have shown the following:

- A backline player will experience about 120 ‘impacts’ per match – an impact is any involvement in a tackle, ruck/maul, or collision with the ground. Not surprisingly, forwards are involved in more impacts than backline players, with about 300 per match. Of these, 70 have a g-force greater than 8g, and the majority of impacts, somewhat surprisingly, come in the second half (65% compared to 35%).

- In terms of running, backline players can expect to cover between 7km and 7.5km a match, while forwards cover between 5km and 7km, depending on their playing position (loose forwards covering the most distance). About 70% of the match is spent standing or walking, 25% is spent jogging, and 5% running at sprinting speeds. This means that for every second spent running, players will rest or move slowly for about five seconds.
- However, the real challenge lies in the number of times players have to change speeds, either accelerating or decelerating for short periods. The average ‘sprint’ is 20 metres long, and it happens 30 times a match, while fast jogging for 20m happens 90 times a match. In total, there are shifts in speed approximately 750 times per player per match, or once every three to four seconds. The challenge in terms of conditioning is to prepare players for this constant shifting of pace and direction.
- Forwards spend more time doing very high intensity exercise, and less time walking or standing than backline players (65% of the match for forwards, compared to 75% for backs). This is explained by the forwards having more ‘static exertion’ periods – scrums, rucking and mauling. The result is that overall, even though backs do more running during a match; they actually do less total work than forwards. For example, in an 80-minute match, a loose forward can expect to burn about 2000 kCal, compared to 1 700 kCal for backline players. This is 25% higher than what has been measured for professional soccer players. By way of comparison, a 90kg man running a half-marathon (21km) burns about the same amount of energy as a Super 14 player every weekend!
- Finally, the physiological load is actually greater in the second half of matches. Players run further in the second half, with more accelerations and short sprints, and there are twice as many impacts in the second half. More time is also spent doing high-intensity running and less time walking in the second half of matches, especially for forwards, which says that play is more continuous in the second half. It’s perhaps not surprising then that scorelines often remain tight for 50 minutes before opening up – the last 30 minutes is where the physiology begins to tell!

OK, good stuff, this data tells us a lot about how to train for our matches. It tells us how many tackles or hits we will make in a game, how far we will run, what kind of running we will do, how often we change direction and the difference between forwards and backs (also proves that soccer players are pussies).

One of the first things to take away from this is the type of running rugby players require. We see that 70% of the time we're standing around, 30% of the time we're jogging and 5% of the time we're at a full out sprint. On average, we see that 30 times a match we are sprinting for 20m and 90 times a match we are "fast jogging" for 20m. We can then look at the changes of speed or direction, roughly 750 times per match.

Based just on these numbers, lets look at what a 10 minute section of a match would include on average in terms of just running: 3.74 sprints of 20m, 11.25 fast jogs of 20m, 93.75 changes of speed or direction and about 7 minutes of staying in one place. Of course, this varies by position with the forwards running more and probably sprinting a bit less and the backs running less overall but probably with a greater number and length of sprints.

Next, lets take a look at "Impacts" per match; about 120 for backs and nearly 300 amongst the forwards. Again, the discrepancy between the positions is no surprise but it does give us a pretty good idea of how to block out a training program for each. In our 10 minute training block we'll have 15 "impacts" or high intensity bursts for the backs and about 37.5 for the forwards. Using this data, lets make up a backs and a forwards work out.

Backs: We're going to have these guys focus mainly on sprints, change of direction and some max intensity efforts. I'm going to go with a series of 1 -1 work to rest periods of 90 seconds, that is 90 seconds of work followed by 90 seconds of rest. During the work period we're going to have a measurable amount of work so we know when to stop the workout, I want my guys to maintain at least 90% of their fresh work capacity so they'll do as many sets as they can while maintaining that intensity.
The 90 sec work period will be done on the pitch. Starting on the goal line, the player will fast jog to the 22m line, do three bupees, fast jog back to the goal line, perform 2 power snatches at 60kg (more or less depending on strength but around 75% 1RM) then sprint as hard as possible through the 22m into a slow jog out to the 50m. Turn around at the 50, on the way back, have cones set up in a random zig-zag pattern, cones should be spaced every 10-20m. At each cone alternate between a sprint and fast jog. When you get back to the goal line repeat the whole sequence as many times as possible in the 90 sec period. If it's only one time, that's ok as long as it was a max effort. Rest 90 seconds and repeat until you fall more than 10% off your first effort.

Now, this workout seems a bit convoluted and it is because I tried to fit every element into one. You don't need to do this, focus on just one or two elements per workout and on occasion get crazy like the one above. Don't just stick to one time domain, mix it up but try to keep it somewhat applicable to the sport you're playing.

Lets do a forwards workout now. For the forwards I want more of a grinding workout so we'll do a 10 minute AMRAP session (AMRAP means As Many Rounds/Reps As Possible). Again, starting on the goal line we'll use our 60kg barbell (about 135#). Start with a barbell complex, power clean-front squat-thruster then bear crawl out to the 22m, then fast jog back to the goal line. Repeat this 4 times and the 5th time when your bear crawl reaches the 22m, get up and sprint to the 50m line and then fast jog back and restart then entire sequence.

Parasympathetic Recovery

2010-05-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

Parasympathetic Recovery

The website Elite FTS is one of the best strength and conditioning sites on the web because they have a great store where they sell things like the Prowler and they post cool articles pretty much every day. Every once in a while, they have a really good article that can benefit anyone. Today, Charlie Cates submitted a fantastic article on parasympathetic recovery. You may be wondering "what is parasympathetic recovery and why should I care?" Well, the article explains the finer points but generally, it has to do with a specific part of your nervous system which regulates body functions. When you get your nervous system out of whack you can have a hard time recovering from exercise (physical or mental btw although the article only goes into training recovery, it's true for over worked individuals as well). Being able to recognize the signs of an imbalance between your sympathetic nervous system and your parasympathetic nervous system is important; it allows you to address the problem and get back to performing at 100%.

The Parasympathetic Secret

Charlie Cates

Published: May 10, 2010

You wake up after a restful night’s sleep to hit up the gym before the sun comes up. The last few training days have been pretty taxing on you, but surprisingly, you were able to hop out of bed with very little soreness. But that was gone three minutes into your warm up. Today is your deadlift day, and even though your legs, back, and arms feel strong, the weight feel heavy. Way too heavy. Why is this? Why do you feel so weak and unmotivated to lift heavy and strong? Because while your muscular system may have recovered from your previous workouts, your nervous system hasn’t.

If you’ve ever felt this way in the gym, odds are that it can be attributed to your nervous system being in a sympathetic state. To understand how to fix the problem, you must first understand the problem, so a brief physiology lesson is due. The nervous system is broken down into two main components—the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The CNS is made up of the brain and spinal cord while the PNS is broken down into subdivisions—the sensory-somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS controls much of what goes on internally in the human body to make sure that it functions normally, such as breathing when we aren’t thinking about it, stimulating the release of bile from the gallbladder, and controlling our heart rate.

The ANS is once again divided into two categories—the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system. These two systems serve opposite roles in the body, with the parasympathetic nervous system signaling for the body to be in a more relaxed state while the sympathetic nervous system signals the body to be in a more aggressive or alert state. This is important to know because when you spend prolonged periods of time in a sympathetic state (i.e. when you work out), metabolites begin to build up in the bloodstream. As these metabolites continue to collect, your average heart rate will begin to rise with everything you do. And there, my friends, lies one of the best indicators as to whether or not you have truly recovered from your workout.

One of the best ways to go about monitoring the state of your nervous system is to check your resting heart rate (RHR) upon waking every morning. This is a habit that I’ve gotten into and it has paid off tremendously. I know that when I’m fresh, my RHR is around 44 beats per minute (bpm). However, by the end of every week, my RHR starts to creep up around 60 bpm. That’s when I know it’s time to head to the gym for a recovery session, which always brings me back down into the 40s by the next morning. Not only will someone’s RHR increase, but their heart rate during other activities will be higher than normal as well. This is why many professional and collegiate athletes are being required to wear heart rate monitors during their workouts, so coaches can watch their heart rate that day during specific drills and compare that to what it has been on other days. This is also to make sure that their heart rate doesn’t get too high or too low during their training session, so they can get the most out of the athletes both on that day and in future training sessions.

Many people think that it’s best to take a day off from the gym when they start to feel groggy and unmotivated. While not seeing the gym for a day may be good for their mindset, what their body more than likely needs is a light training session, working basic movement patterns, easy cardio, or a brief skill session, depending on whether or not this person is a competitive athlete. Regardless of which activity the subject chooses, the most important thing is that his or her heart rate is kept between 120 and 130 bpm. I can’t stress this enough. When doing recovery work, you must monitor your heart rate and make sure that it stays between 120 and 130 beats per minute. If you own a heart rate monitor that gives you constant feedback, your possibilities for recovery work are endless. If not, you will be confined to using some sort of cardio equipment that has a heart rate monitor on it. These activities should be performed for 20 to 45 minutes on a day when no other training is scheduled. For athletes, I recommend doing something that is low impact on the joints, such as biking, using the elliptical, or wearing a heart rate monitor in the pool.

So what is so special about the 120 to 130 bpm range? The secret is that within this range is where the body makes a switch from the parasympathetic to the sympathetic nervous system. Below 120 bpm, the parasympathetic nervous system still sends signals to the body while above 130 bpm the sympathetic nervous system is completely in charge. Within this heart rate range, the body is best able to flush out the metabolites of previous workouts. Therefore, it allows your body to optimally recover and sends your nervous system from a sympathetic state back to a parasympathetic state.

So the next time your legs are fresh but your head is in a fog, try some nervous system recovery work to get back to “beast mode.” Get big or die trying.

Charlie Cates is the owner and operator of Self Made and selfmadefitness.com. He is CPT- and PES-certified through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. He has worked with athletes of all ages and ability levels, from nine-year old kids to NFL MVPs.

7's Rugby

2010-04-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

Stanford 7's Rugby Prep

Welcome back UCD Ruggers, you've had a few weeks off but now we need to get ready to play some 7's. For those of you without much experience in the 7's game, it is a very different animal. A well played game of 7's rugby will push you physically harder than anything I can think of. The two reasons for this are A) the time domain. A game of 7's is made up of two 7 1/2 minute halves. With a game this short, you don't get to take a break and walk around behind the ruck. The 7 1/2 minute time domain is brutal, think about running a mile as fast as you can while having to tackle someone every 30 seconds, then rest for a minute and do it again.
B) 7's is hard because guess what? You only have 7 players on your team and you're covering a full size rugby pitch. there are no off plays in 7's, you have to be moving, on offense and defense the entire time. It is very possible you will run the length of the field up to 10 times in a half... and then do it again the next half.

Ok, 7's is miserable but here's the good thing, 7 1/2 minutes is a time domain we can really focus on and train to.

7's Workout #1

8 Mins AMRAP
Buy in, 100m sprint on the minute
10 burpees
20m shuttle

What's a buy in? A buy in means you must complete this movement at the beginning of each minute before doing any other work
What is a 20m shuttle?

What does AMRAP mean?
As Many Reps/Rounds As Possible

So, the best way to do this work out is; go to a rugby field with a stop watch. Starting on one goal line, start your timer and sprint to the other goal line. Start doing as many sets of 10 burpees and 20m shuttle runs as you can (use the goal line as you center cone for the shuttle). As soon as your timer hits 1 minute, sprint back to the other goal line and repeat. Continue for 8 minutes. Rest a couple minutes and do it again if you want to simulate a whole game.

Mega-Race Follow Up

2010-04-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

First, the Mega-Race was a big success last weekend. Thanks a bunch to everyone who volunteered, the staff at the CSUS Aquatic Center and of course, all the Mega-Racers. The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time. I have a bunch of pictures from the race and I'll post a couple here, hopefully I'll get around to throwing the rest up on flickr in a day or two.

The Start - 400m Partner Carry

Mega-Racers enter Phase II - Kayak Attack!

Working on getting pics from the hill run

After the race, Mega-Barbecue!

MEGA-RACE!!!

2010-04-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

Just a heads up, this coming Sunday, the 25th, I am putting on an event for one of my Rec classes at Sac State. My event is the Mega-Race. It will be awesome. So here's the deal; we have the CSUS aquatic center reserved from 12-3. Show up, ready to go by 12. At 12 we will have a brief recap of the course and boating safety. At 12:30, the race starts. To race, you must be in a team of two (2). the cost is $20 general public or $10 with student I.D. Cash or check, paid at the event/day of race. So, what do you get for your $20/10?
The race begins with a 400m Partner carry. One person can carry all the way or you can switch at your will, makes no difference to me. the only rule is that you may not advance if more than one person is touching the ground. At the end of the partner carry, you will arrive at the dock where you will get in to your tandem kayaks (that's right, two person kayaks, awesome!). There will be a 1.5k course marked with buoys that will take you to the other side of Lake Natomas. Once there, you will carry you kayak (no dragging!) across a bike trail to a boat check area. After dropping off your kayak, you will either begin your trail run or, if you are in the Crossfit division, pick up your 35lb sandbag and start your run. For the Crossfit people, you get one (1) 35lb bag to carry per team. You may carry it however you like between the two of you, switch off, one person carries the whole way, you each hold a corner the whole way, I don't care. You just need to arrive back at the kayaks with your sandbag at the end of the run. The run is challenging; it begins with an ascent of Rattle Snake hill, a 300m section with 15-30% grade before leveling off into rolling hills of single track style trail running. The run course is approximately 2.6 miles long loop. At the end of the loop, you will arrive back at the kayaks and paddle for the finish line, a straight shot back across the lake. As soon as the tip of your kayak crosses into the boat slip area, you are done. We will have some food and an awards ceremony on the beach by the barbecue pits once everyone is back.

Thursday 4/1

2010-04-01T22:27:00.000-07:00

Playoffs
Sorry for the lack of workouts over the last week, the regular season for rugby is over, I was competing in the Nor-Cal Sectionals of the Crossfit Games and life got busy in general. Speaking of the regular season being over, that brings us to everyone's favorite time of the year, playoffs. Playoffs, particularly for collegiate rugby require a different approach than the regular season. With playoffs you are in a tournament format, this means you will get much less recovery time. With less time to recover, you need to focus more on nutrition, sleep and active recovery techniques.
Nutrition: Eat clean, nothing processed. This is a good time to be strict with your paleo diet and for those of you drinking milk, it's time to stop. You're not going to be making any more strength gains but you will increase inflammation and bloating so cut the dairy. Additionally, make sure you're eating enough. Playing multiple games this weekend takes a lot of energy, make sure you eat enough to compensate for that. On game days you will want to wake up early and eat immediately. About 3-31/2 hours before your first game eat again. As soon as your first game is done, eat again, preferably something high in protein and carbohydrates. An hour or so after that eat a regular meal.

Sleep: Sleep is often overlooked by athletes as a recovery tool. It can be particularly hard to sleep if you're excited about something. Alcohol is a bad ways to get sleep, good ways are sleeping masks, anti-histamines, herbal stuff like Valerian root and not eating right before bed. The more sleep the better, if you can get 10+ hours of sleep, go for it.

Active recovery: ICE, ICE, ICE I can't stress enough how critical icing is. In your hotel room, you should fill your bathtub with ice and water and sit in it for at least 5 mins after your game. Once you've warmed back up, do it again. Beyond icing, after your game, do a proper cool down, light jogging and plenty of stretching. Post game stretching is much more valuable than pre-game stretching.
Myofacial massage is the other key, it will hurt if you do it right but will get any knots/stiffness out before it becomes a factor in your performance. If you have to, you can just bring a tennis ball with you. Put the ball on the floor, put your body weight on top of it wherever it's sore and roll around until you tear up.

That's pretty much it, good luck guys.

Regarding programming for the off season; Everyone should take a couple weeks off after the season and recover. Two weeks after the playoffs end I will begin posting off season work outs.

Thursday 3/25

2010-03-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

"May your hammer be mighty."

Lift - Playoffs are in a week and a half so in anticipation of tournament play we'll be tapering off lifting until the off season. Met-con only from here on out.

Met-Con: 3 rounds for time, rest 2 mins after each round. 7 Power Cleans @75% 1RM, 14 inverted push ups (feet above head), 21 30" box jumps, 200m run

Wednesday 3/24

2010-03-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

Rest Day

Check out Crossfit Canterbury, the new Crossfit gym opened up by Owen and Ben Franks, the props for the Canterbury Crusaders and the New Zealand All Blacks. These guys know what it takes to be top flight rugby players, hard work and incredible, god given ugliness. You may never be as ugly as the Franks brothers but you can work out like them!

Monday 3/22

2010-03-23T01:00:00.000-07:00

Back From the Southland

Sorry about the lack of post recently, I have been away to southern California for business the last week or so. Anyways, I'm back and it's time for some more work.

Lift - B.S. 3X3

Met-Con: 4 min AMRAP 7 DL, 5 HPC, 3 PP w/95lbs 2 min rest X 3

Tuesday 3/16

2010-03-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

Power Tuesday

Lift - Power Cleans 5X2

Met-Con: 12 mins AMRAP: 10 Burpees, run 50m, 15 Push-Ups, run 50m, 20 squats, run 50m.

Monday 3/15

2010-03-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

Monday...

Lift - B.S. 10X2 @ 60% 1RM

10 Rounds
Run 40m
5 Push-Ups

Mouth Talk

The mouth may be more important to our overall health than you may realize. Recent studies show that oral hygiene may be directly linked to cardiovascular health and inflammation. Read this article for more info.

Article from the New York Times
A Device to De-Stress Your Workout By SARAH BOWEN SHEA
AFTER a night that included several beers and not enough sleep, Keith Gillis, a 31-year-old cyclist in Truro, Nova Scotia, set out on a 74-mile road ride with the caveat that he was feeling fatigued. Yet two-thirds of the way through the ride, Mr. Gillis said, he was setting the pace, riding ahead of his cycling partner. “Even though I’d felt tired at the start, I had the energy to lead, and I wasn’t out of breath,” he said.
To what did he attribute his stamina? A flexible mouth guard by a Canadian company called Makkar that he has been biting on while riding since April. When fellow cyclists ask him why he isn’t winded when they are, Mr. Gillis tells them, “because I have my Superman guard in.”
Mr. Gillis is among a small but growing number of athletes wearing what manufacturers like to call “performance mouthpieces” while cycling, running or weight training. One of the newest tools in a performance-enhancement arsenal, these mouthpieces are light, flexible pieces of molded plastic that fit over the teeth — and are only vaguely reminiscent of that retainer from junior high school or the bulky mouth guards worn by football players.
Dentists say these high-end mouth guards can open up the airways, prevent teeth-clenching and align the jaw. Being able to take in more air while exercising has obvious benefits — more oxygen for working muscles — while a relaxed jaw can decrease stress and help an athlete’s body function more efficiently.
“There is research to support improved breathing mechanics and reduced jaw fatigue,” said Fabio Comana, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise. “Depending on how you look at it, there is some truth to the claims.”
Unlike regular mouth guards, which are available off the shelf and at modest prices, performance mouthpieces cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars and must be custom-fitted by a dentist. Ordinary mouth guards are usually dropped in boiling water and fitted to the wearer’s teeth to protect against injury. With performance mouth guards, the idea is to reposition the jaw, anywhere from a few millimeters to, in the case of Mr. Gillis, a quarter of an inch sideways.
Two main brands are on the market — Makkar and Under Armour — and each makes the claim that it can increase an athlete’s strength, reduce stress and improve overall performance. Professional athletes have taken note: during the World Series this year, television viewers could see Derek Jeter wearing a mouthpiece made by Bite Tech, the company that developed the technology that Under Armour uses. In early November, Jon Gruden of ESPN said on “Monday Night Football” that many of the New Orleans Saints wore Makkar mouth guards.
The Makkar Pure Power Mouthguard (or PPM, as the company calls it) was introduced in 2006 and costs from $595 to $2,250, not counting the dentist’s fee. Makkar’s Web site touts the mouth guard’s use in diverse sports, including golf, soccer, swimming and tennis, and includes endorsements by the basketball player Shaquille O’Neal and the football player Terrell Owens.
Under Armour’s line of Performance Mouthwear was introduced in September with a basic price of $495. Among the professionals who wear them are Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings and Marian Gaborik of New York Rangers.
There is a big difference between the two brands: While the Makkar product must be gripped between the upper and lower teeth, the Under Armour one sits only on the lower teeth. But both are meant to set the jaw at ease.
“When you have the jaw in relaxed position, the rest of the body can be more relaxed — it’s a domino effect,” said Kathrina Agatep, a dentist in San Diego who sells both brands.
Repositioning the jaw is not the same as keeping the jaw slack while exercising. “Even if you have your mouth open when you run, that doesn’t necessarily mean the joint and rest of your body is in the maximal alignment,” Dr. Agatep said.
While the products’ potential benefits may sound good, it isn’t clear how much of an edge they actually confer. A study sponsored by Makkar in 2008 at Rutgers University found that athletes wearing Pure Power Mouthguards could jump higher and perform better at their peak, but it did not find that their endurance was any better.
“There wasn’t a huge difference,” said Shawn Arent, an assistant professor in the department of exercise science at Rutgers who led the study. “It’s not the greatest thing since sliced bread. It’s not magic. But for an elite athlete who has been training for a long time, even a 3, 4 or 5 percent increase in performance is a hard thing to come by.”
Similar research by Under Armour and Bite Tech with athletes at the Citadel, a military college, showed that using the mouth guards helped improve endurance and air flow.
Dena Garner, an assistant professor at the Citadel who has studied athletes using Bite Tech devices since 2005, said she thought some of her original findings were “a fluke.” But “every time I’ve done lactate studies with this mouthpiece, I’m finding there is a difference,” she said.
This year Captain Garner used an Under Armour mouthpiece while training for a marathon. Previously she “had been happy with running 10-minute miles,” she said, but wearing the mouthpiece, she consistently ran a mile in as little as 8 minutes. “It was pretty astounding to me,” she said. “I didn’t feel as tired as when I ran the 10-minute-per-mile pace.”
Clenching the teeth can lead to the release of the stress hormone cortisol, which, at excessive levels, can impede athletic performance. Having the Under Armour product in place “interrupts that flight-or-fight response,” said Bob Molhoek, chief executive of Bite Tech.

Sunday 3/14

2010-03-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

Sunday Runday

Lift -
Jerk 3X4-6, Weighted Chin Ups 3X4-6 Alternate
Push Press 3X4-6, Chest to Bar Chin Ups 3X12
Press 3X4-6, Kipping Chin Ups 3X20

Run, 2k TT

Saturday 3/13

2010-03-13T19:02:00.000-08:00

Game Day

The difference between victory and defeat can come down to the smallest of margins. In the recent winter Olympics, this was easy to see, sometimes the difference between gold and silver was measured in hundredths of a second. On the rugby pitch it may not always be so clear even when it is. One missed tackle because you weren't quite strong enough or fast enough at the right part of a game is all it takes to tilt momentum toward or away from you. During the last 30 seconds of your met-con workout do you go easy or push as hard as you can? On the fifth rep of your fifth set of five squats do you go for it knowing you might have to dump or do you just call it a day and rack your weight after the fourth?

sometimes, little things don't make a difference and sometimes they do. Add enough little things up and you can reach what scientists call a "tipping point". A tipping point is defined as "the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable." All the work you do or don't do, contributes in one way or another to a tipping point in your performance. The question you need to ask yourself is "which tipping point am I headed to?" Are you on the verge of success or failure?

Check out this cool interactive success/failure "musical" by the New York Times.

Friday 3/12

2010-03-11T23:00:00.000-08:00

Fast Friday

Lift - Close Grip Bench Press - 3X5

Speed Work:
20m Sprints X20 start every 30 sec. If you begin slowing down significantly before the full 20 sprints have been completed stop. The focus is on explosiveness, running a slow 20m won't do anything for you.

Thursday 3/11

2010-03-09T20:45:00.000-08:00

"Ruck Gone Bad"

Lift - Box Squat 3-3-3-3-3

"Ruck Gone Bad"
3 Rounds, score is total number of reps

1 min. Thrusters 75lbs
1 min. Sumo Deadlift High Pull 75lbs
1 min. Box Jump 24"
1 min. Push Press 75lbs
1 min. Power Snatch 75lbs
1 min. rest

Wednesday 3/10

2010-03-09T20:39:00.001-08:00

Rest Day

Tuesday 3/9

2010-03-09T20:38:00.000-08:00

Power Snatch!

Lift - Power Snatch + 2 OHS 1-1-1 @ 85% 1RM Power Snatch

Met-Con: 3 rounds of 5 mins AMRAP Hang Power Snatch @95lbs. 2 mins rest. Bar must go below knees at the bottom of every hang and be locked out overhead at the top. If the bar touches the ground or rests anywhere other than in the hang or locked out overhead you must run 200m.

Monday 3/8

2010-03-08T01:01:00.000-08:00

Rugby Total

Press 1RM
Back Squat 1RM
Bench Press 1RM
Power Clean 1RM
Deadlift 1RM

Add all weights together to get your Rugby Total.

Saturday 3/6

2010-03-06T08:09:00.000-08:00

Game Day Saturday

Friday 3/5

2010-03-05T08:01:00.000-08:00

OHS

Lift - OHS - 5X3

Met-Con: 100 Burpees for time, then 3 cone drill 5X repeats on full rest

Thursday 3/4

2010-03-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

Cars!

Lift - B.S. 3X3

You will need, 1 car and 1 parking lot/deserted road.

Put the car in neutral, push the car 50m as quickly as possible. Rest 1 minute. Repeat 12X

Wednesday 3/3

2010-03-03T15:15:00.001-08:00

Rest Day

Tuesday 3/2

2010-03-02T05:57:00.000-08:00

Queensland Sectional

Lift - Power Clean 2-2-2-2-2

Today's Met-Con comes from the first event at the Queensland Australia Sectional Competition.

10 Minutes AMRAP using a 40kg (88lbs) bar.
7 Deadlift
7 Hang Power Clean
7 Front Squat
7 Shoulders to Overhead Anyway

Monday 3/1

2010-02-28T21:20:00.000-08:00

Hill Run

Lift - B.S. 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1
Use 65% 1RM, focus on speed, pause at bottom of squat for 2 seconds before exploding up.

Find a short but steep hill, these are pretty common, even flat places have the side of an overpass you can use. Ideally, you want about a 20m incline with a flat area at the top.

Perform 10 Repeats of the hill run complex.

Hill Run Complex:
1. Start in a 3 point stance at the bottom of your hill
2. Sprint as hard as you can to the top (about 20m)
3. 5 Burpees
4. Bear Crawl head first down the hill at a safe speed.

Rest 1 minute in between runs.

Saturday 2/27

2010-02-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

Game Day

Check out this new report, turns out interval training is good for you! Who woulda thought?

Friday 2/26

2010-02-25T09:28:00.000-08:00

Speed Day

After warm up, we are going to work on sprint acceleration before lifting.

Speed Drills -
Run these as hard as you can with total recovery in between sprints
5X10m
4X20m
6X30m
Jumping
6X6 High hurdle broad jumps

Lift -
Weighted lunges, 50m w/45lb dumbells in each hand
Front Squat 2-2-2-2-2 Using lighter weights, focus on being explosive.

Also, check out Crossfit Newcastle. They are an Australian Crossfit facility that has been working on a Rugby training protocol. Their approach is a bit different than mine, they go 4 days on, rest day, game day, rest day for one thing. Check it out, see what works best for you. I advise you to always question what you are doing, see if there's another way to do it better. Just because something is working for you now doesn't mean it can't be improved on. So stay tuned, I may be stealing some info from them in the future!

Thursday 2/25

2010-02-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

"Rugby Angie"

Lift - Back Squat - 3-3-3-3-3

"Rugby Angie" This one is a bit of a grind so take it easy, I may or may not have given myself Rhabdo trying this out for you guys.

For time,

100 Pull-ups

100 Push-ups

100 Sit-ups

100 Squats

Conditions: Every time you come off the pull-up bar, you must run 50m, every time you rest on a push-up i.e. knee/chest touches ground, you must run 50m, every time you pause on the ground in a sit-up, you must run 50m and every time you stop squatting, you must run 50m. On squats, you may rest in the squatting position.

Wednesday 2/24

2010-02-23T19:24:00.000-08:00

Rest Day: Nutrition for Reovery

Today's rest day subject is post workout recovery nutrition. Today I'm posting an article from the Elite FTS site by Charlie Cates on the basics of post workout recover nutrition. The numbers and ratios are exactly what you want to get the most out of your workout. Take what Charlie says and figure out how to apply your paleo foods + milk to fill your nutrition needs.
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/recovery_101.htm

This is the first part of a two-part article series on basic recovery techniques. Part one will examine the nutritional aspect of recovery while part two will focus on training techniques to speed up recovery.

Every day I go to the gym and I see people sweating it out to get the results they desire. I also see these same people distraught when their desires never actually materialize. Now I could write many articles about why this is, ripping apart their ridiculous training schemes and what not. But I’m going to dedicate these next couple of articles to one of the most overlooked aspects of training—the time you spend out of the gym. I’ll specifically examine nutrition and choice of post-workout activity.

When it comes to post-workout nutrition, it’s essential that you eat at the correct time and in the right proportions. You need to know what type of workout you just completed. Was it a strength training session, a movement/aerobic training session, or a hybrid of the two? Knowing how you just trained will dictate the amount of one macronutrient you eat relative to another, specifically your carbohydrate to protein ratio.
If you just completed a strength training session, you should intake a 2:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. If you just completed a movement training or aerobic session, you’re looking for a 4:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. If you just completed a hybrid workout, you need to judge based on the workout. For example, if you just completed a power based plyometric training session, which is technically a strength session based on the distance traveled by your center of mass on every movement, you’ll be looking at more of a 2:1 ratio. This also goes for circuit training sessions in the weight room where you’re lifting the entire time, but because your heart rate stays elevated, it may feel like a cardio session. However, let’s just say you finished running hill sprints, which due to the incline, definitely has a strength component to it. However, due to the metabolic demand of this workout, you’ll be looking at more of a 4:1 ratio.

You need to know exactly what types of foods to put into your body. As I stated earlier and will expand upon later, timing is crucial for post-workout nutrition. You want to take in foods that are easily digestible and will be delivered to your muscle cells quickly, meaning that when looking at carbohydrate choices, simple, fast digesting sugars are better. Glucose would be your number one choice because glucose is already in a form that is usable by the body. On the other hand, fructose, which is a sugar found in fruits, takes longer to be absorbed by the muscle cells because it has to first travel to the liver where the liver will convert it to glucose. This also makes up the majority of Americans’ diets in the form of high fructose corn syrup, so that’s another reason to avoid that substance. The reason you want such fast digesting carbohydrates is because the faster your carbs are digested, the faster your insulin levels will spike. This will allow the glucose to enter the muscle cell, replenishing glycogen stores and allowing you to recover faster from your workout. A faster recovery from previous workouts enables you to work out harder the next time you hit the gym.

These same rules apply for protein as well. The fastest digesting protein is whey protein with casein protein on the other end of the spectrum as the slowest digesting protein. What is different about post-workout protein consumption is that you don’t want purely fast digesting protein. You want a mix of whey and casein protein. Once again, the ratio of the two will depend on the workout you just completed. For strength training workouts, you want a 50/50 mix of the two proteins post-workout. This is for two reasons. First, the whey protein will be digested and absorbed by the muscles quickly to start the rebuilding process. The sooner your muscles can start rebuilding, the sooner they can be put to work again. Second, the casein protein will take up to seven hours to digest. This will give your muscles a slow drip of amino acids throughout the day and will aid in the recovery and rebuilding of the muscle tissue.
After a movement training or aerobic session, you want a 75/25 mix of whey to casein. This can be accomplished quite simply by mixing your whey protein shake in 8–12 ounces of milk because casein protein makes up approximately 80 percent of the protein found in milk. However, it would be worth investing in a separate casein powder or a mix of casein and whey protein for after strength training sessions because adding enough milk to get a 50/50 ratio would more than likely water down the powder so much that the shake wouldn’t taste very good.

Now that you know what to eat, the question becomes when do you eat it? Essentially, the sooner you can eat your post-workout nutrition, the more effective it will be. However, there are a couple of time windows you should keep in mind. The first window is 30 minutes post-workout. Once 30 minutes has elapsed since the end of your workout, the effectiveness of your post-workout nutrition in aiding recovery drops off dramatically. The second window is two hours post-workout. After a two-hour period from the end of your workout, any advantage that nutrition could have given you in terms of recovering for your next workout is basically gone. It is because of these two time windows that having the fastest digesting macronutrients available to your body is so crucial. It’s also why I recommend taking your post-workout nutrition with you to the gym instead of waiting until you get home to eat.

A third macronutrient that I haven’t talked about at all is fat, specifically polyunsaturated fats. Polyunsaturated fats contain omega-3 fatty acids, which act as a natural anti-inflammatory. Polyunsaturated fats can be found in high quantities in foods such as fish and walnuts among others. What you have to be careful about when dealing with fats is that fat will slow down the digestion of everything else. So although the omega-3 content found in these foods will allow you to recover from your workout quicker by reducing inflammation, I don’t recommend taking in fats along with your carbohydrates and proteins. In fact, I recommend waiting at least 30 minutes after you’ve already had your post-workout carbs and proteins to take in some form of omega-3. While this would put your fat intake outside of the 30-minute window given earlier, replenishing glycogen stores and providing amino acids for the muscle takes precedence over the anti-inflammatory effect of omega-3 fatty acids.
Two of the most effective ways of ingesting omega-3 fatty acids are fish oil tablets and whole ground flaxseed. The tablets can be taken right out of the container and the flaxseed can be mixed in with yogurt, cereal, oatmeal, shakes, and smoothies. While there are recommended daily values for omega-3 fatty acids, recommended post-workout dosages have yet to be established.

Another aspect of post-workout nutrition to consider is water. You need to make sure that you rehydrate after every workout so that your body continues to function properly between workouts, which will allow you to work out harder the next time you hit the gym. A simple way to figure out how much water you need post-workout is to weigh yourself before you begin your training and then again after your training session has concluded. For every pound that you lose during your workout, you should drink 16 ounces (two cups) of water after your workout. You should definitely still be hydrating during your workout as well, but most of us are unable to keep up with our fluid losses during training, so we must take extra care to make sure we rehydrate well post-workout.
Many people like to drink Gatorade post-workout as a way to rehydrate, but there is a problem with that. Unless you’ve been training outside under the blazing sun for more than 90 minutes, you really don’t need to be drinking Gatorade. While Gatorade can be seen as a good source of those simple sugars that you want post-workout, it also has a very high fructose content, which, as was mentioned before, takes longer to digest. Therefore, I’m assuming that you’re drinking Gatorade in addition to your post-workout carbs. In fact, the best time to drink Gatorade would be during your workout when it lasts more than 90 minutes. This would be to replenish the glycogen stores, sodium, and potassium that you burn through and lose while you workout so that you can continue to train at a high level.
If you’re looking to replace electrolytes, Pedialyte is a better option than Gatorade. The Pedialyte Freeze Pops are portable solutions to the electrolyte deficiencies you may encounter during or after a workout. The freeze pops contain a gram and a half of sugar, six calories, 211 mg of sodium, and 94 mg of potassium per 2.1 oz freeze pop. Compare this to Gatorade’s 34 grams of sugar, 125 calories, 275 mg of sodium, and 75 mg of potassium per 20 oz bottle, and you realize that with Pedialyte Freeze Pops, you get a significantly more potent electrolyte replacement with only four percent of the sugar content.

So when thinking about post-workout nutrition, remember that timing is everything. Not only do you need to eat foods that are fast digesting, but you also have to eat them as soon as possible after your workout. Eating the right amounts of these foods, as well as drinking proper amounts of fluids to rehydrate will not only allow you to recover more quickly so you can work out harder the next time you’re in the gym, but it will also ensure that you’re getting everything out of your training that you’re putting into it.

Get big or die tryin’.

Charlie Cates is the owner and operator of Self Made and selfmadefitness.com. He is CPT- and PES-certified through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. He has worked with athletes of all ages and ability levels, from nine-year old kids to NFL MVPs.
Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit us at www.EliteFTS.com.

Tuesday 2/23

2010-02-23T19:18:00.000-08:00

Sorry for lateness, the author has Rhabdo!

In the future, if a daily workout is not posted, use the same day of the week from the previous week as a substitution.

Monday 2/22

2010-02-22T08:21:00.000-08:00

B.S./R.I.

Lift - Back Squat speed day. Box Squat 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2 using 60% of 1RM Focus on maintaining speed and explosiveness throughout squat. If you have resistance bands/chains this would be a good exercise to use them on. If you find yourself slowing down before you get through all the sets go ahead and stop. Lifting light weights slowly isn't going to do much for you.

Met Con -
6 Hurdle broad Jumps X 5, recover as needed for maximum explosiveness. Place regular track hurdles a few feet apart and broad jump over them one at a time without taking any steps in between hurdles. Always jump with both feet at the same time.
Then
200m X 10 w/45 sec rest between intervals

Sunday 2/21

2010-02-21T00:01:00.000-08:00

"Nancy"

Lift - 2-2-2 Press, 4-4-4 Push Press, 6-6-6 Push Jerk, 6-4-2 D.L.

"Nancy"

5 Rounds

Run 400m

15 OHS 95lbs

UCD vs. Cal

2010-02-19T15:53:00.000-08:00

"Sisu"

Sisu is a Finnish term loosely translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. Sisu has been described as being integral to understanding Finnish culture. The literal meaning is equivalent in English to "having guts", and the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. However sisu is defined by a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain an action against the odds. Deciding on a course of action and the sticking to that decision against repeated failures is sisu.

In the animal world, a sure sign of submission is rolling over, belly up. What kind of dog are you? When things get tough, frustrating, ugly; will you roll over on your belly or will you be the dog with a little sisu inside of him? When a Pitbull has your throat in its jaws will you quit and roll over on your belly or will you keep fighting until you die on your feet? If you quit, you're already dead, so how do you want to die, on your back like a coward or on your feet swinging?

This weekend you will need a little sisu. Stay calm, cool and focused. Take emotion out of the game, it will not serve you in the long run. Out work your opponent, out tackle your opponent, regardless of how much it hurts you. Don't focus on your pain but take pleasure in the pain you inflict. Good luck.

Friday 2/19

2010-02-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

"Run & Ruck"

Lift - Close Grip Bench Press - 3X5

"Run & Ruck"
5 Rounds for max reps
Each round consists of 2 min on followed by 1 min rest.
During the 2 min on, complete AMRAP of 1 full squat clean+2 front squats @ 155lbs then run 50 yards.

Don't forget, this Saturday ABC will be airing the IRB 7's from Las Vegas at 5pm EST/2pm PST

Thursday 2/18

2010-02-18T08:10:00.000-08:00

KB Day

Lift Back Squat - 3X3

Met-Con:
21-15-9
Kettle bell swings and Kettle Bell Front Squats

Use a 2 pood KB, Every time you set the KB down, you incur 5 penalty burpess to be done at the end of the workout.

Wednesday 2/17

2010-02-17T08:04:00.000-08:00

Rest Day

Guys, it's getting towards the middle of the season or, for you non-rugby players who read this, the resolutions you made over New Years are getting a little fuzzy. Today is as good a day as any to refocus on at least one thing. For most of us, working to really dial in our diet is a great idea. As we work through the season, we get banged up, sore and just a bit burnt out. If you're eating a big portion of gluten at every meal (wheat, cereal grains are likely sources), you're not doing your body any favors in the recovery department. Even though you may not feel any discomfort, your immune system is working to process that stuff which takes away from its ability to fix other parts of your broken down body. Get your butt over to Robb Wolf's site or buy a copy of Dr. Loren Cordain's book on the Paleo diet and set yourself up for success nutritionally.

Hey, it's Ash Wednesday right? Pretend to be a Catholic and make a commitment to 40 days of no shitty foods.

Here's a fun project to build on your off day courtesy of Dr. Ahmik Jones of Crossfit SoCal

Tuesday 2/16

2010-02-16T06:45:00.000-08:00

P.S./D.U.

Lift - Power Snatch 5-5-5

Met-Con
Run 200m
50 Double Unders
25 Power Snatch - 75#
Run 200m
40 D.U.
20 P.S.
Run 200m
30 D.U.
15 P.S.
Run 200m
20 D.U.
10 P.S.
Run 200m

Monday 2/15

2010-02-14T21:12:00.000-08:00

Back(squat) to Basics

Lift - Box Squats 3X3

Why Should You Do Box Squats?

Met Con - 60 Yard Shuttle on the minute X 20

In case you forgot what the 60 yard shuttle is, see below. On the minute means, you run the shuttle once every minute, X 20 means you do it 20 times.

Sunday 2/14

2010-02-14T00:43:00.000-08:00

"Deathlift!"

Lift - D.L. 2-2-2-2-2, Press 2-2-2-2-2 Rest no more than 60 sec. between lifts, use 60% of 1RM on lifts, focus on lifting speed.

"Deathlift"

Using 225#, begin with 1 D.L. and add 1 D.L. on the minute until failure.

Example,
0:00 = 1 rep DL
1:00 = 2 reps DL
2:00 = 3 reps DL

Etc. until you cannot complete the required number of reps before the next minute starts.

More Paleo Diet Stuff

Classic example of poor mid line stabilization seen below. Don't let this happen to you.

Saturday 2/13

2010-02-13T15:01:00.001-08:00

Game Day Saturday

Friday 2/12

2010-02-12T09:14:00.000-08:00

"Rugby Girls"

Lift - Rack Pull Deadlift. 1-1-1-1-1

"Rugby Girls" This is an adapted version of the Crossfit workout known as "Nasty Girls"

3 Rounds for Time:
50 Squats
15 Strict Pull-Ups
25 Push-Ups
10 Power Cleans 185#

Thursday 2/11

2010-02-09T23:22:00.000-08:00

"Steve"

Lift B.S. 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2 use 50% of 1 RM and wait no more than 60 sec. between lifts

"Steve"
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 reps of
Press, Sumo Deadlift High Pull, Overhead Squat all with 95lb.

Wednesday 2/10

2010-02-09T23:17:00.000-08:00

Rest Day

Today's rest day topic is guerrilla exercise; how to exercise on a budget by using common objects and building stuff on the cheap.

1. Stuff you can find in your local park/school. If you live in America or any other part of the world that has been raped/improved (matter of opinion) by white, western civilization, you probably live near either a park or a school featuring a park. Most parks feature open areas with grass, concrete, asphalt or sand; sometimes all of them. This is the most basic form of recreational space. You can use this for running, jumping, etc. Moving on from mere open spaces, many parks feature semipermanent improvements to the land such as picnic tables. Tables or as I call them, "Multi-level Jumping Boxes" are great for doing box jumps on, elevated push-ups, scaled push-ups, back extensions and any other exercise in which you need some form of elevated platform. The next level up from a picnic table is a play structure or, more often than not, a dedicated circuit of exercise equipment. This is actually more common than you'd think. Many parks have a series of pull-up bars, slanted sit-up things and other community exercises relics left over from idealistic city planners of the 70's. These are fantastic for doing all kinds of body weight exercises on. Many parks also feature organic pull-up structures also known as "trees". Climb them, it puts the fun in functional.

2. Cheap things that are heavy. Despite what many exercise equipment companies would like you to know, the world is full of cheap and free things that are heavy. A good example of a heavy free thing is a rock. If you pick up a rock that weighs 50 lbs, you will get as good if not a better workout than picking up a 50 lb dumbbell. You will also look way tougher. Other heavy free things include; logs, tires, bricks, potted plants (make sure they're really free), books, your girlfriend, anything made of cast iron, old furniture, etc. the list goes on. Basically, if you think it might be hard to pick up, try it. If it is, great! Now, try putting the old brain to work and make some free heavy things. If you have access to plastic bags, duct tape and sand you can make sand bags or really ghetto medicine balls. This is getting a bit more sophisticated which brings us to...

3. Stuff you can make for cheap. a) Medicine balls can be made by filling up old balls (basketballs, rugby balls, footballs, soccer balls, you get the picture) with sand. Just make a hole in the old ball, use a funnel to fill it with sand and then use shoe goo to seal the hole. There you have it, sport specific medicine balls for about the same price as a six pack. b) Parallettes. Parallettes can be used for all kinds of gymnastic movements and can easily be made from PVC pipe. Do a google search to find instructions on DIY plans. c) Rings, these are a great strength builder and can be made from PVC pipe and webbing, again, use the google. d) Woven rope, this stuff can be used for gym class style rope climbing, two handed rope drills, tug of war, etc. Make these using an 8 strand weave of 5/8" nylon rope. e) Fancy sandbags, using a trash bag, your old gym style duffel bag and sand you can make a pretty nice sandbag that will last.
These are just a few commonly made items, use you noggins or search the internet, people post plans for tons of stuff they figured out how to make.

4. Find other uses for equipment you already have. Be inventive, if this was a lame management seminar I would be telling you to proactively think outside the box while being proactive. A great example of getting more use out of an item than was intended is the plate sled. Just pushing a 45lb steel plate on the ground is about as good an exercise as buying a $400 predator sled from EFS (although I really want one of their sleds!).

Tuesday 2/9

2010-02-09T08:58:00.000-08:00

Power Cleans/DBTM

Lift - Power Cleans - 10 -10 -10

Met Con: Death By 10 Meters.

Starting with 10m at minute 0:00, add 10m every minute until you fail.

Ex.
Set up two cones 10m apart and get out a stopwatch. Start the watch and run from one cone to the other (run a total of 10m). Rest. When the clock reaches 1 minute, run to the first cone and back (run a total of 20m). Rest. When the clock hits 2 minutes, run to the far cone, come back and then run to the far cone again (run a total of 30m). Continue to add 10m to your run on the minute until you are unable to complete the required distance in the one minute time period.

0min = 10m (1Xshuttle)
1min = 20m (2Xshuttle)
2min = 30m (3Xshuttle)
etc.

Sleep

2010-02-08T13:26:00.000-08:00

Sleep Now!

I've talked in the past about the importance of quality sleep for optimal performance. Well, here's a link to NPR's Science Friday as they discuss a study on the circadian rhythms of MLB players.

Listen and discuss, how can you optimize your sleep patterns? Try keeping track of your sleep patterns along with your daily workout and food logs. You may be surprised at how much sleep has to do with how you perform.

Monday 2/8

2010-02-08T08:25:00.000-08:00

Monday Met-Con

Lift B.S. 3X3

6 Rounds for time: 25 Burpee Wallballs*/500M Run

A burpee wall ball is performed by placing your medicine ball on the ground, lower your chest down to touch it, getting to your feet and then hitting a 10' high target with the ball.

Sunday 2/7

2010-02-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

Super Bowl Sunday!

5 Rounds for time: 5 Deadlift 275lbs/15 Knee to Elbows

Then, eat one bacon explosion, drink many Nor-Cal margaritas and watch football!
I'm in the process of making mine right now!