g.a.a player needs help!

BlueIsland

Hope somebody can help! I am a gaa dual player. training two nights a week hurling and two night a week football. ( along with mathces or training at weekend. Cardio therefore, speed work etc is taken care of. Also i have a clean diet minus alcohol. I have lost couple of stone I put on from a six mponth spell out . still have stone to go and hope to do so in next month or so. I want to do a two day a week weights programme for about 8 weeks. ( championship wont start till July realistically). If somebody has time could they recommend considering the sports I play what I should concentrate on during the two days. I have full access to a well equipped gym. I play in the full forward line so off the mark pace something id like to improve on, along with upper body strength.

Thanks in advance!!!

BlueIsland

Obviously nobody had time. This is what I have settled on. 2-3 sessions a week full body workout. I will increase weights on a weekly basis.

Bench press 3x8
Incline bench press 3x8
Dumbell fly 3x8
Dumbell pullover 3x8
Dumbell bent over rows 3x8 (on each arm)
One machine in gym (upper body) 3x10

Squats OR deadlift 3x7
Heavy weights box step 3x10
One machine in gym (lower body) 3x10

Is that even half way decent?????

Brian?

Thats an awful lot of work on the chest compared to the back.

Might be better to do:

Squats 5x5 alternated with Deadlifts 5x5
Bench press 3x8
Cable Row 3x8
Military Press 3x8
Pullups 3x8-10
Lunges on deadlift day
Stiff leg deadlifts on squat day.

I think thats pretty balanced.

Roper

Who do ya play for? Current stats?

AlphaMale 3OO

briankeating wrote: »

Thats an awful lot of work on the chest compared to the back.

Might be better to do:

Squats 5x5 alternated with Deadlifts 5x5
Bench press 3x8
Cable Row 3x8
Military Press 3x8
Pullups 3x8-10
Lunges on deadlift day
Stiff leg deadlifts on squat day.

I think thats pretty balanced.

This looks ok but is devoid of core work which will be important. Also it may be a lot for a guy playing both sports as you will be training a ridiculous amount. Ideally you will have built a base of strength in pre season (prob too late for that now) and worked at maintenance levels as the season progressed. Incorporate some of the above and watch yourself for fatigue.

BlueIsland

Thanks for the replies!!!!
I presume by stats ya mean height and weight? I am 6 foot one, just under16 stone at moment!! My actual fitness is very good! One of the better lads at endurance stuff and interval runs. I always get really fit but fail to go to the next level.

Roper

Do you guys do any fitness testing? Bleep/spider/strength? Any stats you had on those would be good to know as you'll know where you're starting from and where you can go to next.

BlueIsland

did numerous fitness tests and going to do the follow up in 2 weeks time.
Aerobic wise we did a two mile run on field. I ran 16.30. I have that down comfortably to 14.20 now. I am happy with my cardio improvement.

My seat ups and press ups within a minute were dismal. I got 27 sits ups and 31 press ups. I now have that up to 50 and 55 !!!

My body fat came in at 24.1 which was poor but considering I was 111kg it was to be expected.

Roper

Okay so your fitness test is laps? And your strength tests are sit ups and push ups? I would say given those things that bodyfat is the least of your worries.

Laps are utterly pointless and it's with great dismay that I still see people running their teams around the park. Someone did a time analysis of hurling a year or so back and on average a player was in action for something like 20 minutes of an entire game (defending/attacking). All of these instances were sprints or fast runs. So why prepare for a 5k race when you're just going to be running the 100m time and again?

There's not much you can do about your coaching staff's opinion on fitness but you can prepare yourself well enough. Short sprints, shuttle runs etc. coupled with intervals for cardio. Tests should be on the same basis. Heavy, balanced weighted work for strength along the lines of what was posted above. Test regularly.

BlueIsland

you have picked me up wrong I think. This run was merely to test our aerobic fitness level. Our training does not involve endless laps or anything like that. In fact we have one of the most recognised fitness trainers in Leinster football who has worked with numerous county teams. I will be ready for action in terms of my fitness levels.

i want to increase my stength levels and off the mark pace in the gym over next couple of months. Will the above program that the other guys have recommended help this goal????? thank again

Roper

BlueIsland wrote: »

you have picked me up wrong I think. This run was merely to test our aerobic fitness level. Our training does not involve endless laps or anything like that. In fact we have one of the most recognised fitness trainers in Leinster football who has worked with numerous county teams. I will be ready for action in terms of my fitness levels.

Okay probably picked you up wrong. If he's as good as you say and has worked with county teams, then you should ask him to write you a programme. It'll be tailored off your test results and suit you better than what someone on here will give you.

BlueIsland

You see we have started matches already> hard for a player to go up and says heh listen I genuinely dont care about ****ty non- event cups at the start of the year or league games etc. Ill push myself more ouside training than he or manager would prob like. So dont wanna get a programme off him. I dont actually mind viewing the next couple of months as pre season!!

Brian?

AlphaMale 3OO wrote: »

This looks ok but is devoid of core work which will be important. Also it may be a lot for a guy playing both sports as you will be training a ridiculous amount. Ideally you will have built a base of strength in pre season (prob too late for that now) and worked at maintenance levels as the season progressed. Incorporate some of the above and watch yourself for fatigue.

Devoid of core work? Squats and deadlifts take care of that. Even standing military press engage the core quite well. In fact I would go so far as to say every excercise I listed requires a you to engage your core in order to maintain correct form.

OP, listen to Roper. On reflection the program I threw up was just a general strength training 2 day split program, I haven't a clue how it would work while training as much as you do for your sports, which is probably why you shouldn't listen to me .

AlphaMale 3OO

Sorry, I should have said specialist core work. Theres a place in there for Woodchoppers, Russian Twists etc.

Anzer123

BlueIsland wrote: »

Hope somebody can help! I am a gaa dual player. training two nights a week hurling and two night a week football. ( along with mathces or training at weekend. Cardio therefore, speed work etc is taken care of. Also i have a clean diet minus alcohol. I have lost couple of stone I put on from a six mponth spell out . still have stone to go and hope to do so in next month or so. I want to do a two day a week weights programme for about 8 weeks. ( championship wont start till July realistically). If somebody has time could they recommend considering the sports I play what I should concentrate on during the two days. I have full access to a well equipped gym. I play in the full forward line so off the mark pace something id like to improve on, along with upper body strength.

Thanks in advance!!!

Hey BlueIsland,

I am keeping a blog of my own training day by day. You might find it useful or interesting, here is the link http://ancamandraiochta.blogspot.com/

Cheers,

A

cardio,shoot me

i hate to say but i fear the dreaded troll word is in order for the poster above me.....

Arctic89

cardio,shoot me wrote: »

i hate to say but i fear the dreaded troll word is in order for the poster above me.....

Did you even read the link? The guy that posted above you is keeping a detailed blog of his training for GAA. Very interesting reading for anyone who takes their GAA training seriously.

How in the name of jeebus did you think it was a troll?

cardio,shoot me

sorry but hes revived two really old threads with the exact same answer, i thought he was advertising something

edit: my mistake didnt check the dates on this one, i apologize to the poster,

Anzer123

No worries. I only recently thought of starting up the blog due to a lack of same around. Came accross the old threads when having a look around for anything similar

AlphaMale 3OO

Anzer123 wrote: »

No worries. I only recently thought of starting up the blog due to a lack of same around. Came accross the old threads when having a look around for anything similar

It looks very good. How do you find it affects your general play around the field. Also do you do any other movements like back squats and deadlifts and do your team mates shun weights because they think it will "slow them down"? I find this mindset typical among gaa guys.

Anzer123

Well the benifits in terms of flexibility alone are extremly valuable. The correlations between sprinting ability, jumping ability and strength and power exercises is very strong in much of the research. I find that i benifit a lot from the oly lifts for the hurling. However, obviously there is a time and a place for training heavy with weights. Coming up to games freshness and skills are of higher importance than tiring your legs by training heavy. I reckon its also important to realize that if you want to get good at a sports, then you must concentrate on learning the skills of that sport inside out. You would not have a fiddle player playing the piano for much of his or her practice time and expect to get better at the fiddle.

The whole idea of weights slowing you down is indeed around but i think (i hope) is being dismissed my most people these days. All in all proper planning and preparation should allow you to use the olympic lifts, their variations, and strength exercises to facilitate your performance on the field. But again, I think the importance of learning the skills should be of highest importance. You often will see a player who is not the fittest on the field but often comes out on top in terms of scores, assisits, catching etc, but you would not so often see a very fit player with no skill coming out on top. Especially in a skillful a game as hurling.....of course a combination of the two is going to give the best results.

AlphaMale 3OO

Anzer123 wrote: »

Well the benifits in terms of flexibility alone are extremly valuable. The correlations between sprinting ability, jumping ability and strength and power exercises is very strong in much of the research. I find that i benifit a lot from the oly lifts for the hurling. However, obviously there is a time and a place for training heavy with weights. Coming up to games freshness and skills are of higher importance than tiring your legs by training heavy. I reckon its also important to realize that if you want to get good at a sports, then you must concentrate on learning the skills of that sport inside out. You would not have a fiddle player playing the piano for much of his or her practice time and expect to get better at the fiddle.

The whole idea of weights slowing you down is indeed around but i think (i hope) is being dismissed my most people these days. All in all proper planning and preparation should allow you to use the olympic lifts, their variations, and strength exercises to facilitate your performance on the field. But again, I think the importance of learning the skills should be of highest importance. You often will see a player who is not the fittest on the field but often comes out on top in terms of scores, assisits, catching etc, but you would not so often see a very fit player with no skill coming out on top. Especially in a skillful a game as hurling.....of course a combination of the two is going to give the best results.

I completely agree regarding the skills but I feel that at a higher level of hurling where the skill sets are already in place, many players are undermining future progress by being adverse to performing heavy weights. A player like John Mullane would not be slowed down, he would be effectively 'powered up', and would bring a physicality to his already ellusive skills.

Why did you decide to perform Oly lifts instead of squats/deadlifts (not wrong just curious). Was it part of a wider team training programme?