Strength Routines

I’m a rugby player #7 or 8. 6’2" 185lbs. fast but I’ve lost my strength and explosiveness while losing 50lbs. over the past year. (just started playing rugby after an 8 year layoff after college hockey and lifelong football. I intend to train this entire year as though it was an off-season while I’m learning the game. Next year I WILL be a stud. General goals are to increase bodyweight to 200-210 and decrease fat from 12%? to single digits. Want to drastically improve all areas of performance/fitness with an emphasis on strength/power.

The general plan is to spend the month of Jan improving overall fitness with whole body vertical supersets 3 days/wk. overdistance 3 days and of course rugby practice on weds. and sat.
Then I want to work primarily on strength for the next 6 mo. I will be continuing endurance and speed training to maintain basic conditioning and I want to include at least some explosive work. As the year progresses I’ll gradually shift to more power/speed. I can get more specific but this post is long enough as it is.

My question to all of you is this-What are some good strength routines for the 6 mo. period? I’m familiar with Pavel’s methods and have an elementary grasp of high sets/low reps but I grew up on the weider principles and they just don’t apply to my goals. Every ounce of muscle I add must justify itself, mass is not my goal, strength/power/speed/endurance/strength endurance/flexibility are what I’m after.

Any help at all will be greatly appreciated. I’ve tried to hire Poliquin to write a program but haven’t received a response and am unsure whether he does any “training” of the long-distance type.

Thanks again!

Look up Westside for skinny bastards.

thanks, i’ve looked at some of Dave Tate’s stuff about Westside. it seems a little advanced for a beginner. You reccomend it? Remember, no real strength training in almost a decade.

I heard good things about WSFSB, but remember you may have to lift differently than you would if it were off-season.

for the next year Jan thru Jan I’m treating it as though it IS an off-season. I’m sure I’ll play quite a bit this Matrix but mostly as a sub. Since our games are on Sat. I’ll probably have Fri. as an off-day just in case. Thursday is up in the air. Depends on how much whatever Thurs. workout is affects me two days later.