Using Westside for Rugby Training

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

I have recently started my offseason training for rugby with a modified westside plan with the running workouts needed for rugby. I am doing the following split:
Mon: ME Upper, Interval training
Tues: ME Lower,
Wed: Back/Bis extra workout, plyo training
Thurs: DE Lower
Fri: DE Upper, interval training
Sat: Plyo, resistance running
Sun: long cardio

I also added cleans and push press on the DE days. I am trying to gain strength and speed, while staying in top shape. I have also cleaned up my diet now for awhile in the hopes of only putting on clean weight instead of just fat because i dont want to add fat.

I was just wondering if anyone had any advice as to if there are any mistakes in this plan? Especially from people who also use westside in their rugby training. thanks for the help

2

[quote]brianwalsh65 wrote:
I have recently started training for rugby with a modified westside plan with the running workouts needed for rugby. I am doing the following split:
Mon: ME Upper, Interval training
Tues: ME Lower,
Wed: Back/Bis extra workout, plyo training
Thurs: DE Lower
Fri: DE Upper, interval training
Sat: Plyo, resistance running
Sun: long cardio

I also added cleans and push press on the DE days. I am trying to gain strength and speed, while staying in top shape. I have also cleaned up my diet now for awhile in the hopes of only putting on clean weight instead of just fat because i dont want to add fat.

I was just wondering if anyone had any advice as to if there are any mistakes in this plan? Especially from people who also use westside in their rugby training. thanks for the help [/quote]

Is this in season or out?

If you can handle all of that, more power to you, but it looks like too much high intensity stuff. Two sprint sessions and two plyo session is rough enough, but with two ME sessions and power cleans another day?

I think with something that demanding you need at least one day off a week, and you need to think hard about the extra workout, the distance sessions, and two plyo sessions.

3

I would think that the WSFSB developed by Coach Defranco would be a better fit. It’s designed to be used by football players so it allows for additional skill work, cardio, etc. Westside is great for strength but it will kick your ass if your in season.

4

im out of season right now. i use the extra back and bi’s workout because i dont lift back or bi’s on the ME upper day. I have been doing the intervals and plyos in the morning and lfiting in the afternoon, and it seems to work pretty well because i am fresh for both sessions. i will most likely cut out the long cardio on sunday and make that a complete off day. the cleans i do in place of the single leg lift on the DE lower days. thanks for the input though guys.

5

Be really careful with your volume. I’ve been training westside style for 3 years now. My 1st year I tried to add biceps, calves, etc. I ended up being extremely overtrained and made no progress for almost a year. I almost gave up on westside until I got some help from some very experienced lifters. They had me cut the program down to 3 lifts a day for the 1st 6 months then I added exercises slowly over the year. Until I was doing the full program. I also included a lot of recovery work. Since then I’ve made tremendous progress (SQ 605, DL 550, Bench 506 @ 220lbs). So be sure to keep track of your lifts, etc. It took me over a month to move into an overtrained state.

6

have a look at rugbystrength.com there is training articles relating to westside. its a NZ site pretty decent

7

gettinbigger, what did your workouts look like when you initally started over again? What was your progression like (as far as adding exercises go)?

8

Mon: ME Upper, Interval training
Tues: ME Lower,
Wed: Back/Bis extra workout, plyo training
Thurs: DE Lower
Fri: DE Upper, interval training
Sat: Plyo, resistance running
Sun: long cardio

personally i think it look pretty bad you will be fried wihtin a month if you last that long. i play uni rugby 1st in the top diviosn in the uk.

like has been said look at the westside for skinny bastards it is very good even for rugby players a decent wack of my team use it. Plus there is no agility work too much dynamic work. who cares about biceps- do a few sets after something else. lats/ traps should be easy to squeeze in what more do you need a week than some chins and bent rows and shrugs.

Mon: Interval training ME Upper

  • this is fine do the intervals a good few hours before the upper body stuff.

Tues: ME Lower,

  • ye fine. your doing ws so you know to roate your exercises

just scrap your wednesday session completely. no point take as a rest day or active recovery. if active recovery long slow jog.

Thurs: DE Lower speed quats, speed deads, unilateral work etc. Could easil scrap for 8-10 weeks before seson and have sprint session here. Do any pylos you want to do on this day alos do any cleans you want here. e.g. 3x3 box jumps, 3x3 cleans, 6 x 3 speed squats, 3 x 8 lunges then abs. will see you good variety is key not volume.

Fri: do the interval work with more of an agility theme. so that you will be doing agility work but with reduced rests etc. DE Upper here do the bicep work and back work. 6-8 of 2-3 reps of speed bench/ variety. there will be very little soreness or fatigue from this. then do chins, rows and curls.

Sat: take as rest day do stretching, get massage etc just recover for next week.

Sun: long cardio on wednesday is optional this sort of fitness should be second nature i dont know any decent s&c rugby coach making there players do long slow runs absolutely pointless. do a slow short run for active reovery at best. optional workous here would be a sprint session.

perosanlly i would follow ws4sb. do yourself a favour a take at least 2 days a week off. also get yourself some mesocycles in workout what your aiming for can get fit, get storng get agile and quick at same time target similar concepts and do them propely for 4-8 weeks. i.e. first 4 speed and strength, secong 4 aerobic fitness next 4 anearobic fitness or power endurance.

9

You shouldn’t do two ME days in a row. Your CNS won’t be sufficiently recovered to make the second ME day a true max effort day.

10

thanks for the advice guys. i have been really tired lately which is weird because i have been getting 9 hours of sleep every night. i decided sunday to start ws4sb. im think of a split like this:
Mon- Interval, ME Upper
Tues- ME Lower
Wed- Plyo
Thurs- Rep Upper
Fri- Interval, Rep Lower
Sat- Plyo
Sun- OFF

For the Rep Lower day i was thinking of doing:
Clean Var. 3x3
Front Squat- 3xFail
Rack Holds- 4 sets
GHR- 5x15
I figuredf the clean, front squats and rack holds would work the same muscles as the strongman workout would since i d not have any strongman equipment. Does this look about right to everyone for the ws4sb programs?

11

[quote]Yargrev. wrote:
have a look at rugbystrength.com there is training articles relating to westside. its a NZ site pretty decent[/quote]

I would highly reccomend this site. If your in season you dont want to be doing ME twice a week, even once in addition to the HIIT conditioning thats needed. HIIT is also hard on the CNS. Your going to be knackered trying to adapt a westside plan in my opinion. You rugby is most important here - not your lifting. You want to come in Fresh and fit. Not fucked from ME squat day.

12

im not in season current. i season does not start until Feb 24th so i have some time until season. earlier i posted my adjusted workout using ws4sb, and my main question is with the Rep Lower day. i am not sure whether or not to have front squat on there to imitate tire flip or just DE box squat for speed.

i figure i will keep 2 days per week interval and 2 days per week plyo until about A month before season starts and then focus a little more on conditioning. the interval workout is pretty good for conditioning too though.

13

you clearly dont know what your doing with pylos. it aint goignt to anything throwing in pylos willy nilly read this.
http://www.defrancotraining.com/ask_joe/archives/ask_joe_04-01-16.htm#question01

change wednesday pylos to a sprint day and incorportae pylos into warm up. bin your second pylo workout altogether.

as per 2 ME day sin a row as per ws4sb it is 2 ME days in row so there is evidence that it is ok. but clearly a controversial area i do sometimes dont other times either waytis your call.

your reo upper keep that is fine

your rep lower seems not that well designned. if looking to replace the stongman stuff as defranco says do kettlebells they work great here is an exmaple of one using bd’s is ok ish

otherwise boxing is decent conditioning. or just have anther day off. or do somefort of interval work in here. could do for example sled pulls with minimal rest chage up how your pull fornt facing, backward. holding a med ball, with a ruck suck on. can use bd or even bb for the farmers if you are at a friendly gym they may let you take the stuff outside. make your own sled it is easy. there are articles on here. tire flipping aint that great need good technique i never bother. can do work with med balls/ bd to simulate keg or even get one i did fromt he pub they ahev loads out back.

14

[quote]buckeye75 wrote:
gettinbigger, what did your workouts look like when you initally started over again? What was your progression like (as far as adding exercises go)? [/quote]

M: ME Bench
T: Recovery (light recovery workout, epsom salt bath, foam roller work)
W: ME SQ/DL
H: Recovery (“)
F: DE Bench
S: Recovery (”)
Su: DE SQ/DL

ME Bench:

  1. ME Lift (floor press (with or without chains), band press, reverse band press, 2or 3 Board press)
  2. Lockout Work (Heavy Tri’s)
  3. High Volume Rows/Back

ME SQ/DL:

  1. ME Lift (Alternated SQ and DL lifts every week. ie. Wk 1: low box sq, wk 2: rack pulls, wk 3: high box sq, etc.)
  2. Assistance work (if I did SQ’s then I would hit RDL’s or Dimmell DL’s, etc. If I hit DL’s then I would do olympic sq’s, front squats or maybe leg press)
  3. GHR or Rev. Hyper by feel

DE Bench:

  1. DE Bench or RE Bench. I would do DE bench for 3 weeks then RE bench for 3 weeks. On DE I ALWAYS used chains or bands, but I didn’t use %'s. I just made sure I was moving the bar fast! Every week I tried to add 5-10 lbs and keep the bar speed high. RE Bench I ususally used DB’s or Blast strap push ups for 3 sets of max reps.
  2. Upper back
  3. Volume Triceps

DE SQ/DL:

  1. If I SQ for ME, then I do band DL’s for DE, and vice versa. I did the bands DL’s for a heavy 3 and the SQ’s like I do my ME Bench…keep adding weight until I slow down.
  2. GHR
  3. Heavy Abs

I ran everything in 6 week waves and tried to listen to my body in terms of rest. If I was mentaly drained I might just do some heavy rep work like 5x5 instead of a 1-3RM.

This was what I needed to do to fix my weaknesses. After 3 months like this I started dragging the sled on my recovery days and working up my GPP. Then after another 2 or 3 months I held back on the sled work and added a 4th exercise. Then started adding sled work again after a few more months. I don’t know why, but for westside training you need to build your body up to it. True ME work takes so much out of you. But agian this was just me, everyone is different.