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Thursday, 25th November

Are you keeping variety in your programme? You still need to keep to your core programme, but you need some extra activities to add to the spice of your life. If you just go to the gym, do you run outside too?

 Have you been cycling outside? Have you ever tried canoeing (its much harder than you think!)? Have you ever tried a trampoline? A lot of people i know find it fun! Have you ever wanted to learn how to swim? Whats wrong with signing up for a course for 10 weeks?

We talked about exercise being an every day habit for you, have you got to that stage yet or are you still fighting that concept? Good news is that if you stop fighting it, it WILL become an every day event that you actually enjoy as long as you have enough variation!

Have you had the goal of becoming a good runner? If this is true, start out walking every day and see how you feel after a couple of weeks.

Then you may be able to run ten yards in different intervals when you get your breath back. The worst thing you can do is start off running.

 I know people who bought the “run a marathon in 26 weeks” book and ended up with nasty blisters, bad feet, knees and back because they didnt listen to good advice. They followed the advice of running 5 times a week and it ended up in disaster! These books often don’t take into account everyday people and the problems they may run into.

You MUST try to find something you like, otherwise you are very unlikely to keep it up.

Another great tactic would be to team up with a friend in your fitness, as long as you have similar goals and are of similar fitness levels. The social aspect alone will motivate you along very well and take you to levels of training you may not have thought possible.

Bottom line is simply to DO instead of talking about it so lets give it your best shot!

Twitt
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Thursday, 17th November

So we have talked about how to feed your body to maximise muscle gains for the young rugby player, we have talked about how to employ the most successful training strategies from beginner to a more developed athlete.

We talked about why we do all of these things.

Then it comes to a big factor that we haven’t mentioned yet-WATER.

Most people don’t realise that water is far more important than food.

For example, you can usually last 5-8 days before you die without water.

You can lost without food for approximately 7-8 weeks as hunger strikers have proven, with often fatal results.

Another huge fact for you is that if you DON’T drink enough water throughout the day, your performance is likely to be down 33% or even as low as 40%!!

Not only your training and game day performance but your concentration too. They have done numerous studies on schoolkids when they supplied one lots of kids in a school environment water for 3 months and im talking regularly every day. The most startling part was that their educational tests result success went up an incredible 100%, and their concentration levels were proven to be 40% up!!!

So the bottom line is that you eat well all day, you can sleep well and you can train hard, but if you’re NOT drinking enough water, your performance levels and ultimately your results are likely to be down between 33% and 40%, which is an incredible figure.

If you drink water regularly too, you will burn off more body fat than if you don’t, this has been scientifically proven too.

So if you are looking to become a better athlete, as well as a better student, water should be a big part of your every day life!!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 15th November

Going back to last week and the 14 year old’s question about how to get bigger and stronger for rugby, we talked about the necesssary weight training programme and the big do’s and don’ts of the programme.

Now we move on to eating and to explode the myths on why kids don’t seem to be able to put on the muscle and weight they need for rugby. Eating is at least 50% of the equation and if you ignore this side of things, then there’s absolutely NO WAY you can hope to reach your goals!

The important start is to make sure you and your family shop for good foods. For years, rugby players thought they could eat almost anything as long as it was long in calories, and “any weight” was “good weight”!! This right there is probably the biggest mistake most rugby players used to do and still do.

You have to consume good foods such as white meats, fish, red meat once a week, cottage cheese, milk for protein, you need wholegrain pasta, brown rice, jacket new and sweet potatoes for good carbs, plenty of fruit and vegetables as you need your internal functions working smoothly and properly and you still need to keep your energy levels very high of course.

You need good fats for your body such as oily fish including salmon, trout, mackerel etc, a handful of nuts would be good each day and these essential fatty acids will support everything you try and do in your physique building programme for rugby.

The difference between a rugby player looking for size and the average healthy person in the street is that the rugby player needs bigger portion sizes in his training, not too much for starters but building up over time. This way the quality of muscle built will be long lasting and all the extra food won’t deposit as fat, so slowly increasing portion size and meal frequency is the shape of things to come.

More of proper nutrition for rugby and sport in general tomorrow!!

Twitt
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Friday, 11th November

Another follow on from yesterday, its important to give this programme some time and not expect results overnight!!

The results WILL come but you have to take into account a lot of factors.

Some kids at 14 are more physically developed than others, and therefore likely to respond quicker than others to this programme and may become outstanding athletes by 15-16.

Some kids take until 17 0r even 18 to really fill out like they hoped due to their physical maturity. This is down to nature but as long as the individual works hard, they will develop into an outstanding physical specimen soon enough. Thats not to say that the person who develops later will be any less strong, their tendons and ligaments will develop amazingly well through weight training, even if their bodyweight lags behind, you just have to give it time and give the programme a chance to work.

The temptation is that the young rugby player/football player panics and gives up on this programme after a few weeks if he doesn’t look like the incredible hulk instantly! I personally guarantee amazing progress in this programmme as long as a proper eating programme is also employed too. 50% of the equation to be in great shape and carrying the kind of muscle mass for modern day rugby is down to good nutrition, and can make the difference from average results to outstanding results. We will touch on that next week.

So now we have got the right guidelines out of the way, and this IS the right way to do things, patience is all you need.

When you train hard, you break down muscle tissue and that needs replacing by eating lots of good quality food high in protein and carbs. People are scared of carbs these days but you wont  grow inless you pack them in, and you wont have energy unless you keep packing them in, this is a fact.

The third element is always sleep, unless you sleep well, you can train until the end of time and you wont grow. Getting to be most nights allows the rugby player to grow and recover from the weight training and sets up perfect conditions to progress quickly.

Nutrition strategies next week………….

Twitt
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Thursday, 10th November

To follow on as promised from yesterday, its time to talk about what happens after the first 4-6 weeks.

The first month or so is seen as your perfect opportunity to get used to the various exercises, get used to weight training in general, and get your ligaments and tends to a much greater force than normal, and this DOES take time.

Okay, assuming you get through this period with no problem and you have mastered proper technique, its time to move on to newer more challenging exercises.

Rugby is a tough game, but if you train in the right way, you can make the game a whole lot easier and set yourself up for future success and hopefully avoid injury to a better degree.

So the first week after week 6, assuming you are doing 3 sets per exercise, I would change your programme to the following.

Bench press-still in there as a great power movement

Chins-this is a new one for you, it’s the one where there a bar usually hanging high on the wall or even better from the ceiling. You usually have to jump up on a bench to get to it if you’re not that tall, and all you do is hang on it, and then pull yourself up.

This is a tremendously hard exercise so I would start off doing half movements if you find the full movement too hard. Persevere and you will get better, it may well take 6 months to get to 10 full reps.

Next is one arm dumbbell rowing, look for a demonstration of this on a google search again and is a great back builder, which will be of enormous help if you are mauling in rugby or simply fighting for the ball. Do 3 sets of 8 with a dumbbell that tests you-great exercise!

Then on to legs with squats or leg press. Two great choices there, do which ever suits. I would also put in a leg extension and its important not to lock out on this exercise, and will develop the muscles above the knee very well.

Leg curls are an underrated exercise too. Anyone who has ever pulled their hamstring will wish they would have done this one. A great hamstring developer and important to keep the balance of leg training so everything get worked.

You can add calf raises to the list too, another neglected exercise for the calf of course.

Upright rows is a great mass builder for your shoulders, and will add some serious strength. Shoulder presses can be good especially seated in your younger years, but as you get into your 30’s, try to avoid them as lots of people run into overhead movements with their shoulders as time marches on, so I would pick upright rows.

Bench dips or arm dips are great for triceps as discussed yesterday but I would move on to parallel bars dips from now on. This is much harder exercise than arm dips and when done with a wider grip, will also work your chest, shoulders, arms and back indirectly. Dips is one you ought to get used to and fast, its one of my key exercises but like chins, will take you a while to get used to depending on your current bodyweight.

Then to finish you have dumbbell curls, you arms can still take some work by this stage and strong arms are vital for all sorts of reasons in rugby, and in life in general.

So these are examples of very good weight training exercises after week 6 and these will form the foundation of your training for the next few months.

They will constantly challenge you and push you on to new levels of development and progress.

Please email me on fitness@kerimckibbin.co.uk for further info. Keep it simple and don’t over-complicate.

Even more tomorrow!!

Twitt