We started rugby season and inaugurated new life!
This summer has been a summer of changes: new work, very high temperatures, I have not been able to use the FreeStyleLibre because of the high temperatures and the work done … and we ended it with a move to Ireland (rain country, but, above all, Rugby paradise).
As is natural due to my work and the high summer temperatures of Mallorca I have not had time to train. And It has been noticed at the time of getting in shape to start the new rugby season.
Let’s start with a short introduction of how Rugby lives in Ireland. In this country children grew up playing rugby, the schools have rugby teams and in the parks the goals are Hs of rugby. That means, the atmosphere of rugby is breathed as in Spain football.
Due to all this, I could not pretend to present myself to the first training session with a bad physical tone, since the level here is high and they would have been preparing for the preseason since August. So, with a margin of a month and a half for the first training, I decided to put my batteries and perform my own preseason training plan.
- Volume training
The first thing is to start giving volume to our workouts. That means, more exercise time instead of intensity. We started running about 40min at a gentle pace (6min / km). Our goal is to be running at 5min/km at the end of the first month. It must be said that running has never been my greatest virtue neither my favorite sport. My 80kg of weight and 1.68m high indicate that I am not the fastest in the world.So, 2 days a week of continuous running is fine. But we should include some HIIT to strengthen the muscles. For this I joined forces with a rugby partner, to ensure the motivation factor.
- HIIT training
We structure the training with 20 minutes of warm-up + 20 minutes of routine HIIT + 10 minutes of stretching.
HIIT routines consist of 5 self-loading exercises of 40sec with 20sec of rest. Doing 4 repetitions gives us a total of 20 minutes of work and we design the routines according to the muscle group we want to work on that day. Our goal was to increase the working time by decreasing the rest time.
So, we tackled the third week and the running sessions went well. With some help we could go down to 5min / km during 40min of running session. Now, the goal is to lower this time and to be able to run for an hour. In addition, we decided to incorporate some slopes to the route to avoid monotony and to increase the intensity of the training.
Since we progressed in the training plan we decided to incorporate some runs on the sand in the HIIT routines. This gives us the proper physical background to increase the continuous running time.
All this does not mean that our physical form is going to give a spectacular change and lie in only a month and a half of work. But yes, it will allow us to reach the start of the season with a good physical tone and to reach adequate bases to withstand 1h training without difficulties.
In addition, we must remember that, although at the end of the summer our physical preparation is affected by changes in routine, lack of training, etc. (which is normal); The body of a regularly trained person has “muscle memory”. Therefore, we will notice how the progress will be remarkable and in a matter of a short time we will feel prepared and eager to tackle, run and fight to win over our rival!
I shared with you the pre-season training plan that I have followed, since this year I had to do it on my own. If you are in a club, it is best to follow the instructions of your coach or physical trainer. But, if you have any questions or need help in this regard, do not hesitate to write us. We will be happy to help you make your own training plan. Either to improve physical condition, in general, gain strength or work a muscle group.
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