Yes. What's going on everybody? Welcome back to the Rugby Muscle Podcast. I'm Jose tj, and today I wanna get into a topic that is kind of near and dear to me because I've been there, I've been overwhelmed, and I think this video in particular is gonna be important for you to understand why the mindset that most people. And have when it comes to rugby strength, conditioning, performance nutrition and fitness in general. getting in shape even. The mindset that most people have is probably doing them no good whatsoever. How can I explain this? I guess it's easy, right? If you come at training with the question, what can I do, what do I need to do, or what should I do? Should I say the answers are gonna be close to infinite? And to prove it, I wanna get into some of them now, right? Some answers that I could give you to the question of. What can I do or what should I do? let's just rattle off a few. So like, to get started, you could lift heavy, you could start with a five by five system, right? And progressively add weight to that week. On week on week. You could also do the one times 20 system where you do one set of 20 on a particular movement, and that actually works amazingly for most beginners and most people that haven't even tried it. So even if. Oh no, you're not a beginner because you've been lifting for three or four years. A lot of people that try this have a lot of success. But on top of that, you could also do basic jump training where you focus basically on the movement of real simple jumps and you can find just doing, incorporating some of that on top of your normal weight regime can have huge benefits. You could do the same thing with throws and upper body power movements to create, you know, the same. Power sort of base for your upper body and you can see that transfer onto the pitch. You also wanna do this power work extensively, not just for short reps, but you could also do it in the 10 to 20 rep range so that you can get a real good solid movement base with these explosive, with these powerful movements going so that you can. Kind of prepare for your body so that you don't get injured from doing lots of explosive movement, but also just get into a groove of performing these movements with solid technique, right? You're not jumping laly, you're not jumping with, uh, bad mechanics where your knees extend like a couple. Milliseconds, which is quite a lot in jump in terms before your hips, right? You're trying to sync up the rest of your body. You're trying to work it so that your body moves as efficiently as possible, and that's really best done in the 10 to 20 RET range. You should also be doing this with both jumps, like where you're taken off of both legs and you're landing on both legs to, you know, bounds and single leg hops where you are taken off of one leg or you're landing on one leg. Or you are landing on the opposite leg or you jump and you land on the the same leg. You can also work on controlling and sticking the landings where. You are going to stick the landing as fast, fast as possible to absorb the force and then go back up. So maybe you're kind of controlling the landing or you're stiff as you as possible so you can bounce back up and you can use that force that's going down to rebound and work what is actually like the definition of plyometric training. You eventually want to build this, all this power stuff up to a point where you're working three to five reps explosively as possible so that you're. All out power. This is gonna be one of the biggest things that can transfer to the rugby pitches, how fast and explosive you can move within that three to five RET range, cuz that is really working the power, but the stuff before it is also super necessary. You can also add in like a recoil method, so you would explode and rebound as fast as possible, similar to the plyometrics, where you've got a minimal turnaround time, but this time you're allowing for a little bit of flexion in the knees or in the body part that's that's hitting the ground. And then you're going to. Bounce back up. You could also fully absorb the force and maybe even carry your weight so that you are increasing the force that's hitting the ground so that you rebound and project even more explosively than you would naturally. You could also not just do this, all this stuff that I've just spoken about. You don't just have to do this right up and down because that's probably what you've been thinking about as I've been saying this. But you'd also go forward and backwards and side aside laterally, and you would also go rotationally. All the stuff that I've spoken about so far, right? It's very in depth and all we've covered is power. Now, at this stage, this isn't another point. This is just to say that if you're enjoying these podcasts and you'd like to see more of them, we're hoping to get more stuff going up on the YouTube channel, at least one new podcast every single week. If you're enjoying them, please share it with a friend. Leave a five star review because it really does. Spread this vital information, help us reach more people, and is a great way to just say thank you to, to me and to us at Rugby Muscle if you've been enjoying this stuff. Also, make sure that if you're not already, make sure you subscribe because you don't wanna miss out on the new episodes and the new information that we're given out each and every week. All right. Back to the stuff that you could do. You can add weight to the, all of the movements that we've discussed so far to add a little bit of extra resistance. That resistance will slow down the movement, but it might increase power since power is speed times strength. So you're not just looking to move as fast as possible. Use to move, uh, to move explosively and, and to move powerfully. You need to be using force. You need to be. Um, projecting out your strength as well over a short, short, short period of time. Now, obviously with the weight, we're slowing down that movement, but that can actually also be beneficial if you're looking to increase your efficiency, right? So if you're trying to jump with a little extra weight, slowing that movement down might allow you to control it even more. This has fantastic work when we're talking about sprints, definitely a good idea and why people use sled sprints. Now, you can also take off the weight and actually. X-ray. So you can go in the opposite directions by using bands around the hips or by holding onto a tx, um, different ways that you can do that. And that, again, it is going to lo lower the, the strength need, but up the speed that you are capable of doing and thus potentially increasing power. You can also isolate different parts of the body with this stuff. So if you are working on, you know, lower body power, you might be able to use crossed arms or hands on your head and you know, if you are going with the upper body, you could go start on your knees or you could start on one knee or you could even start seated. And that way you are working just the upper body in isolation. Now obviously you can use the whole body. Swinging your arms to, to jump higher or to jump further or to rotate more or driving with your legs to use the upper body movement. Now you wanna make sure you get a bit of a mix of bow foot times, right? It is all encompassing when it comes to this stuff. On top of that, you must consider when you're going to do the power work, so you can do the power work. I, I, Matt, mostly I'd recommend doing the power work at your beginning of your training so that you're nice and fresh and you're ready. But you could also pair it with strength work so that you are using it as like a contrast super set in potentially potentiate the movements, potentially potentiate the movements by doing a, a strength movement first, such as, uh, let's say you can do a heavy dead. Paired with a box jump. Those two work really well together to potentiate each other. The jump facilitates potentially getting stronger and and being able to lift more with the deadlift. The deadlift potentially potentiates you being able to jump higher. You could theoretically do this type of power work, believe it or not, on game day. Maybe not the deadlifts, but a lot of this power work can be done on game day and might even help you, uh, perform better, not. Getting an extra power, but actually help you perform better on game day. And if you're not prepared to do it on game day, you could absolutely do it the day before a game and experience mostly the same benefits, potentially with a little bit of higher volume with the power up because you've got now got a day to recover, which means, yeah, now you are directly working and increasing your power. You could also potentially do heavy strength work on the day before a game day. Um, the volume would need to be pretty low, but again, it can be done. I've seen people do it. I've coached people that have done heavy strength work the day before a game, and they've played their socks off. They've played really well. Some people. Cannot do that. Um, again, these are things that you can or cannot add to your training. When you ask me the question, what should I be doing? High volume strength work can be done in season, not necessarily. Um, absolutely not the day before it came, but it can absolutely be done. But it would be best done early in the week. It would be separated out from speed work. Since, you know, heavy, high volume strength work will be massively fat fatigue. Therefore, if you're already in a fatigue state, you're not gonna be improving your speed. There is also, when we talk about strength work, there is no particular specific movement that this has to be. You don't have to back squat, you don't have to deadlift, you don't even have to double leg squat. You would need to stick with any general movement for a minimum, I would say, of six to 12 weeks to ensure that you're progressing, uh, and getting stronger rather than just constantly switching stuff out and spinning your. And you would also need a longer time so that you be, you don't just experience the first three to four weeks where you are learning the movement and getting stronger as neuromuscularly, you are just understanding the movement and being more efficient at it. You know, the next few weeks after that are actually where you're really gonna increase your strength, the movement patterns that you would need to be included. Sal, this isn't actually the specific movements that you need to do. It's the patterns you need to be squatting, but not necessarily back squatting, as I've already said, you could front squat, you could zombie front squat, you could split squat. You could rear elevated split squat. You could front foot elevate and split squat. You could even just do step ups or lunges, which. They're not quite squatting patterns, but they're similar enough that that would transfer and tick that box just fine for a period of time. You should also hinge when we're talking about, uh, movement types that you should be doing hinging at the hips, meaning, you know, bending over at the hips and standing up nice and straight. People say that the hex bar. Um, is the best way to do this, but really it ends up being too much for me of a squat rather than a him. So when that happens, or if that's an issue for you, there isn't necessarily that much wrong with using a straight bar, but I don't necessarily like using heavy deadlifts. Most of the time I like using R dls. I like using split stance deadlifts or split stance R dls or even wide or semi wide stance when we're doing R dls or just sumo style deadlifts. you could also add in Zs. Zs are where you hold the bar in the crook of your elbow, ideally with some sort of foam padding or a hoodie wedged in there so that you're not just smashing your elbows if you really wanna prove how tough you are. I mean, you can raw dog and and shove that barbell straight in those elbows just so that everyone knows how much of a man you are. But I just think that wear and tear probably is gonna be unnecessary if you're that tough and you can deal. Fine by me, have at it. But adding in searches in general to all, uh, lower body movements can give you like an upper body core element that's gonna help you, uh, with your contact work because it's really gonna, um, force the core to contract strongly, use your upper body in sync and really hold, uh, your upper body integrity just like you would when you're going into a tackle. Either us either side of the ball. That just can really help you transfer some of that weight room strength into, uh, onto the pitch. But in saying that, if you just get really strong at all the movements, Are they Absolutely 100% necessary. I'm gonna say not, but with strength work it, you know, it's all about what, what is right for you at the time now, or about just cycling through these different movements so that you're making sure that you're ticking all your boxes over the course of months and months and months of time. Speaking of which, when it comes to strength work, I like to use, uh, a. Uh, weekly waves where each week you get progressively heavier in weight and lower in reps, um, and volume. So you're getting lower in reps and volume, so it's reps and sets basically volume. You're getting heavier in weight until you reach your peak, in which, in, at which time you then drop the weight and you repeat that and you can repeat that, you know, kind of infinitely thrown in D loads here and there, but that way you are able to continue to develop and then express your strength. I also like to do triassic programming where you do a period of focus on slow eccentric movements, uh, a period of focus on isometric contractions within the strength movements, and then finish up with a period of like traditional concentric focus with just, uh, with those movements potentially looking at even, um, an explosive concentric contract. Uh, in that third phase Triassic program is a fantastic way to go about sport specific rugby training developed by Cal Deets. Um, if you've never seen it, potentially give that a view. Again, this is all things that you can do to develop your rugby specific strength and conditioning. If you're susceptible to lower body injuries by the. There may be a case for just getting really, really strong at hinging and quinine through double leg variance. I, I've found that that could be a, a real good case to, um, get people nice and strong and actually have them stop over a long period of time in season. Um, Falling victim to these lower body injuries, just because they've just got that much stronger, they're able to withstand that many more impacts. They're actually able to dominate the collisions as opposed to full victim to someone else, or even gravity when they're playing games. There might also be a case though, where you avoid bilateral work, you avoid squatting and heavy squatting and heavy dead. with both your, you know, both your feet together in that power stance, that might be too fatiguing. It might actually be beneficial for you to do unilateral work or is lateral work where you could still go heavy but the sheer amount of weight that goes through your, your body is gonna be lowered. Therefore, the overall fatigue might be lowered. Therefore, you. Be able to address certain weaknesses that are on one leg or the other. You probably should do more isolated exercises in general, not I later, but isolation exercises for muscle groups for hypertrophy work. Um, just because higher up sets of bilateral squats can have something other than your legs other than your quads and your glutes that are gonna give out before your muscles do when you're doing higher reps of 15 to 20 squats more often than. It's gonna be your lungs or your lower back that gives out, or even potentially your traps way before your legs. And obviously you are doing high, uh, you're doing those bilateral squats to develop the lower body, not to develop your traps or your lower back or your lungs. So think about that when you're doing hypertrophy work is the more isolated stuff is going to be better. Another thing when we're talking about heavy squats, it would actually be a good idea for a lot of you to do your heavy lower body work in bare feet. I'm sure some of you have seen this. You get a good feel of the ground, you'd be able to strengthen your ankles and your feet muscles, and you're able to move while you can get a real good grip of the ground and work on the arches in your feet, which is important for the whole of the lower body to avoid long-term injur. Uh, squatting in barefoot can absolutely have a, a real good effect on your injury prevention, but also your strength gain. But in saying that, it actually might be better for you to elevate your hill when you're lifting, using weightlifting shoes so that you can get into a better, stronger position and therefore take some strain off your lower back or off your hips and really isolate, not necessarily to isolate. But favor the quads where you can get into a low squat by just elevating your ankle sun or your, the, your heel somewhat by using weightlifting shoes. All right. I'll tell you what, I'm gonna stop there because I think by now my point is clear. There are so many things that you can think about when it comes to your rugby physical preparation, and I've basically, I've gone on here almost nonstop, and I don't know, let me know in the comments below, was that kind of hard to listen to? I, you know, I could talk indefinitely about this stuff, and, and most people can, and that's how they can produce so much content about this stuff. I haven't spoken about core work. I haven't spoken about speed work. I haven't even scratched the surface or even touched conditioning, which is a whole deep rabbit hole in itself in season versus off season. Position specific stuff, like this whole thing is gonna be as complicated as you make it, and that's just the reality. Um, the, the problem for you here is that the battle for your attention from social media is. Everyone is after your attention, right? And because you rugby players have a le, you know, I know rugby players, you guys have a level of urgency When it's, you know, comes to your training and wanting to be your best, you are always gonna look for more and more work, to do more squat variations, more conditioning protocols, more things to consider the, to make sure that your training is specific to you. And it's not that this. Doesn't have to be considered or should not be considered. It's just that you don't have the the time to consider it. You don't have the mental capacity because it never ends. All right? There always will be more that you can do and there will always be other options that potentially you should and could do. But what you need to do as an athlete is make this stuff as simple as possible So that then you can stick with this process and see those simple things improve and therefore know that you are getting better on the rugby pitch. In reality, this looks like something, uh, like two wait sessions a week, potentially three to four. With weights, um, aimed at improving your rugby, they would look at explosive movements. They would look at squats, hinges, pushes, and pulls. You would look at one, potentially I later movement for the upper body and for the lower body each week. Maybe one lateral movement each week, maybe one rotational movement each week, two sessions a week of conditioning. Ideally, one of those sessions being lower intensity, developing your aerobic system over a long period of. And then the other conditioning session could be high intensity. It also could be another low intensity. Again, developing that aerobic system, but it could also be like speed or power development. That's kind of how I see all this stuff tying in together. If you have less time, I would take out the stuff that is already currently your strength if you have more. I would add in extra stuff that, um, make sure that you are working on your weaker points. So if you're someone that's unfit, maybe you add in a third conditioning session, et cetera, that's it you get the point, right? That's how you should have your approach to rubber. You should make it simple. Two sessions a week with weights, two sessions of conditioning, and you alter those throughout the different variations that you need to do. You continually improve those for six or 12 weeks. You don't just change them ad hoc, you change 'em with a purpose. You d you add in and take out movements because of a new purpose or because of a new specific thing that you are trying to work on and develop. And if you want to take charge of your own training and implement this yourself, that's it. Two weight sessions, two conditioning sessions. Take that as a template. All the stuff I've spoken about. And as long as you don't commit one of the seven sins of rub shrinking editioning link in the bio. Uh, no, it's not in the bio. I'm on YouTube. It's in the description below. You're gonna be fine if you'd like more in depth. With this rugby muscle method, I'll be launching, actually, I've already launched it. Why am I saying that? I will be launching, it's launched, it's live. It's a two week rugby muscle launch pad, which you can access for free. Again, Using a different link in a description below Launchpad is basically a 14 day challenge where you are going to train and understand exactly what is needed to continue to get results for life. You could also just skip all of that. Join Team Rugby Muscle. Again, I'll put that link in the description below, and you can train with the Robbie Muscle Method without ever having to stress about what you should be doing in the gym or whether you are improving. With that all said and done, Thank you guys so much for listening to this podcast. I'd really like to find out, like when I was going super in depth on that stuff, was that confusing to listen to? Were any of those pieces of advice really meaningful to you? Did anything, is there anything that you are going to take and apply to your training? I'd love to hear from you if you have any questions. Also, Drop all of that stuff in the comments below. If you haven't already, hit that thumbs up button, hit that like button. Or if you're listening on the podcast, give us a five star review. It really does make the world of difference. Thank you guys so much for listening. I'll see you guys in the next one.