Off Season Physical Preparation for the Advanced Athlete

[ashley]

Off Season Physical Preparation for the Advanced Athlete

Ashley Jones

Monday

AM – Repeated Speed/Interval session

(see end of document)

PM – Full Body Weights

1 x Olympic,

Week 1: 4 x 6 @ 80%
Week 2: 4 x 3/3 cluster with 15 secs between each cluster of 3 @ 85%
Week 3: 4 x 2/2/2 cluster with 15 seconds between each cluster of 2 @ 90%
Week 4: 4 x 1/1/1/1/1/1 with 15 seconds between each rep @ 95%

1 x Squat

Week 1 – 4x６

Week ２ – 6,5,4

Week ３ – 5,4,3

Week 4　- 4,3,2

2 x Horizontal Push/Pull Upper

Week 1 – 4x６(first exercise)　& 3 x 8 (second exercise)

Week ２ – 5 x 5 & 2 x 12

Week ３ – 6 x 4 & 4 x 6

Week 4　– 2 x 12 & 5 x 5

Tuesday

Cross Training option select one from the booklet

Boxing/Wrestling/Martial Art

Yoga/Stretch

Wednesday

AM – Speed/Weights combo session or just speed first and strength/power after the session if you can not combine the two areas

10 minutes of general movement drills as warm up; then

Fast Feet Footwork Ladders

(use a variety of options with a run out)

Mini Hurdles

(forward & lateral series – march, skip & run)

Harness work

(forward & lateral series – march, skip & run)

Gym – Power Snatch 6 x 3 @ 60 – 80% super set with 3 knees to feet jumps with DBs held in hands

Accelerations

10 x 15 metres from 5 different start positions

Parachute & Release

22 or 28 metres with parachute then 28 or 22 metres without it, walk back recoveries x 8

Gym – Hang Clean 4 x 4 super set with 4 Rebound Depth Jumps

Bounds 4 x 50 metres with walk through to far end recovery

Sled Sprints

6 x 22 metres with a sled 20kg, full recovery between reps

Gym – 1/4 Explosive Squat or Jump Squats or Band Box Squats 5 x 5 super set with 5 repeat long jumps

PM – Upper Body Weights

1 x Barbell Upper Body Push/Pull super set week 1 – 6,5,4 week 2 – 5,4,3 week 3 – 4,3,2
1 x DB Upper Body Push/Pull super set week 1 – 12,10,8 week 2 – 10,8,6 week 3 – 8,6,4
1 x BW Upper Body Push/Pull super set (3 x max reps non stop 6 sets)
week 1 – Hindu Push ups/Fat Mans Chins week 2 – Dips/Chins week 3 – Handstand Push ups/Rope in each hand chin ups
Thursday

Cross Training option select one from the booklet

Boxing/Wrestling/Martial Art

Yoga/Stretch

Friday

AM – Hill Repeats（See booklet for further options）

Week 1:　1 x 5 min, 5 x 3 min, 5 x 1min (1:0.5 walk back recovery)

Week 2:　15 x 60secs/30secs (1:0.5 walk back recovery)

Week 3:　10 x 60secs/45secs/30secs/15secs (1:1 walk back recovery)

Week 4:　15 x 30secs/15secs/45secs (1:1 walk back recovery)

PM – Full Body Weights

1 x DeadLift

Week 1: 4 x 6 @ 80%
Week 2: 4 x 3/3 cluster with 15 secs between each cluster of 3 @ 85%
Week 3: 4 x 2/2/2 cluster with 15 seconds between each cluster of 2 @ 90%
Week 4: 4 x 1/1/1/1/1/1 with 15 seconds between each rep @ 95%

1 x Single Leg Option

Week 1 – 4x６

Week ２ – 6,5,4

Week ３ – 5,4,3

Week 4　- 4,3,2

2 x Vertical Push/Pull Upper

Week 1 – 4x６（first exercise）　& 3 x 8 (second exercise)

Week ２ – 5 x 5 & 2 x 12

Week ３ – 6 x 4 & 4 x 6

Week 4　– 2 x 12 & 5 x 5

Conditioning Options

Bike

60 minutes

1 minute spin with high leg speed

1 minute out of the seat climb with a heavy resistance on the bike

45 minute steady state ride with a burst of speed every 2 minutes for 20 to 45 seconds

Mountain bike ride for 60 – 90 minutes your choice of terrain and location, challenge yourself.

Row

30 x 45 seconds on try and row greater than 220 metres then 15 second rest then 15 minutes continuous how far can you row?

Interval ladder

1 minute hard @ <1:30

2 minutes hard @ < 1:40 3 minutes hard @ <1:50 4 minutes hard @ < 1:55 5 minutes hard @ < 2:00 rest 30 seconds between efforts and 2 minutes between sets, do 4 sets Swim
Hypoxic 200’s – first 50 breathe every 2 strokes, next 50 breathe every 4 strokes, next 50 breathe every 6 strokes, last 50 breath every 8 strokes. Rest half the time it took you to swim the 200. Do 10 reps

50 metre repeats: swim a hard 50m then using your arms only drive up and out of the pool then walk back and go again x 30

45 minute steady state swim

Repeated Speed/Interval Run options

Session 1

5 minute run warm up steady pace

20 x 40 secs with 20 secs rest must run between 175 – 200m each repetition

5 minute run steady pace

STRETCH

Session 2

5 minute run warm up steady pace

6 sets x (40m, 80m, 120m) jog back recoveries with 3 minute walk between sets

5 minute run steady pace

STRETCH

Session 3

5 minute run warm up steady pace

10 x 400m sprint the bends and jog the straights, continuous

5 minute run steady pace

STRETCH

Session 4

5 minute run warm up steady pace

15 x 200m in 40 seconds with 20 seconds rest then 100m in 20 seconds with 40 seconds

rest

5 minute run steady pace

Session 5

5 minute run warm up steady pace

30 x 100 in < 17 seconds going every 45 seconds 5 minute run steady pace STRETCH Session 6 5 minute run warm up steady pace 18 Holes of Fartlek Gold Course running, ¾ pace the Par 5’s, fast pace the Par 4’s and sprint the Par 3’s, walk from green to next tee 5 minute run steady pace STRETCH Session 7 5 minute run warm up steady pace 20 x 1/2 Gasser – start lying face down with chin on sideline get up sprint to the other side of the field, go down get up and sprint back to other side, recover, go every 60 seconds and try and keep the work time under 27 seconds 5 minute run steady pace STRETCH Session 8 Beep Test; then 20 x 50 metres sprints with walk through to other end of field, immediate turn and go; then Beep Test again but starting at level 8 STRETCH

[dpoettcker]

Hey Ash

I am taking a season off after a season loaded with injuries to focus on strength, power and speed. I am 5’7, 160 lb. I have a very hard time putting on weight but my srength is decent. 1RM squat is 315, 1RM hang clean is 235, 1RM bench is weak at 265. My work has taken me away from the primary rugby area in the country but I will be returning next year. I am hoping to reenter the national sevens player fold at that time and I am trying to tailor a program appropriate for sevens.
I work full time but I am confident that I can commit the time to do all but maybe one or two morning sessions (that I will move to the weekend).
I was about to start a traditional hypertrophy, max strength, power periodization program but your training methods make much more sense. I was only made aware that traditional periodization was obsolete after reading your article.
Should I modify this program at all to fit my needs or is it fairly universal? What is the appropriate rest time?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks Ash

[ashley]

Sorry to hear of the injury plagued season, but I am sure you will be able to get back to full fitness, I think you can fairly well follow the program as written for the first few months and see how your body responds to the training stimuli, then I can tailor something a wee bit more specific with your feedback on how you went over the first 3 months, since we have quite a bit of time to develop all your physical attributes, some of the material I have written on hypertrophy programs over the last few weeks would be good to incorporate as well but we can address them in time, please do not hesitate to post regulalry so we can keep an update on your progress, as for rest times in the gym I try and keep my guys to a farily strict 1 minute between sets, cheers, ash

[dpoettcker]

Hey Ash

Thanks for the info! I am happy I stumbled across this site because your programs are more advanced and far more comprehensive than anything I had been receiving from the national team strength and conditioning coaches!

I spent the last week getting familiar with the program and I am looking forward to getting in to it full swing this upcoming week. I would like adding some hypertrophy in to the mix right away as my size is an issue. Given this program’s schedule what would be the best way to add hypertrophy to maximize size gains.

With the weight exercises in this program that dont have %s should I be going heavy and going to failure or lightening the load a bit to concentrate on speed of movement?

Last question – I would like to add a Saturday session. Normally I get into a lactate threshold session but would this day be better served as a hypertrophy day? If so should it be Upp body, low body, full body?

Thanks again for the help – your input is greatly appreciated

Cheers,

Dave

[ashley]

Hi Dave and thanks for your words glad to be of assistance, the exercises listed without %’s are basically close to failure but should be able to be achieved, for example a 6,5,4 rep pattern, is around 80 – 90%, progressing from that each week, as to the hypertrophy work have a read of my Rule of 24 progressions and you could do an upper body push/pull super set on the Saturday, I encourage my guys to have minimal rest between the super sets and a 1 minute break after the super set, cheers, ashley

[dpoettcker]

Sounds great!

Thanks for the input.

[tmccoy09]

Hey Ash,

I am a female american rugby player trying to work my way into the senior side player pool after having played 9 for both the U19’s and U23’s over the past few years. I have been following this program for the past few weeks since my season was over, and have seen great improvements – thank you so much for putting it out there!

I have modified it a bit to suit my needs, basically performing only one workout per day and skipping the tuesday/thursday conditioning, and then adding a skill session as the evening workout Mon-Frid, and a speed session on saturday. I am hoping to come out of the off-season as the fittest 9 in the country, and a wicked pass to go along with it! If you have any suggestions on things I could add that would be specifically tailored to the halfback position, I would be grateful.

I do have a couple of questions about the current program:

1) on the hill sprints, you have the sessions broken up into time frames. so…1 x 5min, 5 x 3min, etc. And then you have 1:.5 ratio walk back recovery as the rest…

Does this mean, I sprint up a hill, then walk back, and repeat for 5 minutes, and then rest before my next set? If so, what is the rest time between sets?

2) I read above that you suggest a 1min rest time for the weight training portions for your players. I had previously been taught that in looking to gain strength sometimes rest times could be stretched for up to 3 minutes. Do you ever adjust the rest for your players? I’m curious why the strict 1min.

Thanks again for providing such a great resource. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Tiffany

[ashley]

Hi there Tiffany, glad to know that what we are putting on line is of use to people, I will think of any specific work for 9’s but we have found that the 9 is evolving into an extra loose forward with great acceleration and the ability to go all day getting to every break down, so anything that is applicable to the open side flanker is in your bag as well, as to your questions:

1) on the hill sprints, you have the sessions broken up into time frames. so…1 x 5min, 5 x 3min, etc. And then you have 1:.5 ratio walk back recovery as the rest…

Does this mean, I sprint up a hill, then walk back, and repeat for 5 minutes, and then rest before my next set? If so, what is the rest time between sets?

With the times I have put on the Hill Repeats session, this is the time you run up the hill for, and then the half time recovery is walking slowly back down the hill to start the next repeat, we have a great long road here in Christchurch, Mt. PLeasant Rd, or as someone termed it last year, Mt. Unpleasant Rd, this goes for around 4 kilometres from the estuary onto the Port Hills so is a demanding stretch where we can run for extended times

2) I read above that you suggest a 1min rest time for the weight training portions for your players. I had previously been taught that in looking to gain strength sometimes rest times could be stretched for up to 3 minutes. Do you ever adjust the rest for your players? I’m curious why the strict 1min.

I like to keep players pon a fairly strict 60 seconds rest to add an elementof anaerobic conditioning to the weight room, possibly they would be able to lift more on the next set if they had a full 3 minute rest as the text books tell us but then I feel that this does not necessarily hold true and player’s can still make great gains in strength with shorter rests and also not be in the gym as long which is great for there heads as well. cheers and all the best in getting that Number 9 jersey for your country, ash

[tmccoy09]

Thanks for the explanation on the hill sprints – makes more sense now!

Also I have been trying the strict 60 second rest periods, and that has gone well for me.

I did have another question though – there doesn’t seem to be any specific core training in this program. I have been adding in my own a couple of days a week, but I was wondering if you could suggest any core circuits or otherwise that might be available on this site, or something else that has worked well for your players?

Thanks again,

-Tiffany

[ashley]

Hey Tiffany, as for core the below workouts maybe an option for you, persoanlly I believe that athletes get most of there core training by performing the heavy and basic compound movements, we will have our players do a 10 minute core circuit or follow the lead of Pavel, who advocates the following:

3 – 5 days per week
3 – 5 exercises per session
3 – 5 sets per exercise
3 – 5 reps per set

Here is a list of what I use, for explanation go to You Tube or google where you find very detailed descriptions or maybe Steve from Get Strength can put some of these on video and share them on this site, cheers, ash

https://www.getstrength.com/members/showthread.php?t=253

[si987]

Hey ash, would this be okay for the weights side of things?

Mon Full body:

Power clean

Barbell squat

DB Bench press s/s bent over row
incline db press s/s seated row

Wed Upper body weights:

Bench press s/s weighted chins
db shoulder press s/s db one arm row
chins s/s clap push ups?

Fri Full body:

Deadlift

Sprinters Squat

Military press s/s barbell shrugs
Bradford press s/s lat pulldowns

is there anything that could be changed there? any thoughts would be much appreciated

cheers simon

[ashley]

NO it all looks very good to me, since you have done weighted chins you may want to go horizontal chins and hindu push ups as an alternative to what you have listed there as chins and clap push ups, cheers, ashley

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