does anybody have experience with circuit or rugby training ?

weeman2

I was asked by a rugby club who i have made equipment for in the past my opinion on a circuit they are going to use during the summer. they have most of the equipment already and the coach wants to use this circuit which uses 90 sec on 30sec off then next station and it can be repeated 2-3 times.

The question is it looks fairly good but im not quite sure as i dont know much about circuit training like this so any feedback would be good. I thought it was interesting

1. Log lift – max reps from the ground (build shoulder and upper body)
2. Tyre flip – max reps per set (builds overall power, speed, conditioning)
3. Farmers walk – 30 meters per set (builds all over power especially core, lower back and legs)
4. Boxing bag –speed and heavy punches ( conditioning and endurance)
5. Plyometric box jumps – increase explosive power

2 minute break

6. Prowler push – 30 meters per set (builds leg power and speed)
7. Keg Toss – 6 kegs per set with maximum force(explosive power)
8. Hex bar deadlift – reps(lower back, grip and hamstrings)
9. Sand bag loading medley – 5 sand bags per set in the fastest time (power, speed and endurance)
10. Blast strap push ups – max reps (increases upper body power)

2 minute break

11. Kettle bell circuit – standing over head press, 1 arm clean and jerk.
12. Harness Pull – 30 meters maximum force (builds explosive power)
13. Olympic lifting – reps (builds overall power)
14. Sledge hammer swings – reps (builds stamina, conditioning)
15. Power runner – max force (increase power)
Any ideas ?

Frogdog

I don't have much experience with circuit training, and absolutely no rugby training, but that looks a decent circuit compared to some of the things I've seen out there.

There's a lot of full body exercises which I presume can only be good.

Hanley

Move 5 and 15 to start of those rounds. No point trying to do RFD stuff in a fatigued state.

It looks like the total volume per block is too high as well. More =/= better.

Have some plan to work off so you can sub exercises in and out and get continual progression. I dunno, something like;

1) explosive work/jumping
2) a sled/prowler pull or push
3) something over head like log press or whatever

And then have that repeated 3 times with different exercises and breaks inbetween.

Barry.Oglesby

weeman2 wrote: »

I was asked by a rugby club who i have made equipment for in the past my opinion on a circuit they are going to use during the summer. they have most of the equipment already and the coach wants to use this circuit which uses 90 sec on 30sec off then next station and it can be repeated 2-3 times.

The question is it looks fairly good but im not quite sure as i dont know much about circuit training like this so any feedback would be good. I thought it was interesting

1. Log lift – max reps from the ground (build shoulder and upper body)
2. Tyre flip – max reps per set (builds overall power, speed, conditioning)
3. Farmers walk – 30 meters per set (builds all over power especially core, lower back and legs)
4. Boxing bag –speed and heavy punches ( conditioning and endurance)
5. Plyometric box jumps – increase explosive power

2 minute break

6. Prowler push – 30 meters per set (builds leg power and speed)
7. Keg Toss – 6 kegs per set with maximum force(explosive power)
8. Hex bar deadlift – reps(lower back, grip and hamstrings)
9. Sand bag loading medley – 5 sand bags per set in the fastest time (power, speed and endurance)
10. Blast strap push ups – max reps (increases upper body power)

2 minute break

11. Kettle bell circuit – standing over head press, 1 arm clean and jerk.
12. Harness Pull – 30 meters maximum force (builds explosive power)
13. Olympic lifting – reps (builds overall power)
14. Sledge hammer swings – reps (builds stamina, conditioning)
15. Power runner – max force (increase power)
Any ideas ?

It's directionless and fairly aimless.

There seems to be a point to every exercise but no point to the session. A session hasn't been created yet that can build all of the facets this session is trying to do.

Whoever is running this session needs to think back "in the box". Pick 1 quality that they want to improve, now pick 3 exercises to improve that quality. Work from there.

weeman2

Thanks Hanley i can see what you are sayin.

Im not sure why you think the session is pointless oglesbe, its obviousley a team trying to get/keep there players fit but still improve aspects like stregth, power ect. they prob are trying to do alot in a session.

Any rugby players/athletes do circuits like this ? It looks like high level stuff to me

bungaro79

going to do a couple of circuits with the u18 gaa team i train, don't really have access to any equipment so will be using mainly body weight exercises for each station of the circuit. thinking exercises like:
burpees
squats
pressups
plank
situps
superman

anyone recommend any others you could do??
thanks

discus

weeman2 wrote: »

Thanks Hanley i can see what you are sayin.

Im not sure why you think the session is pointless oglesbe, its obviousley a team trying to get/keep there players fit but still improve aspects like stregth, power ect. they prob are trying to do alot in a session.

Any rugby players/athletes do circuits like this ? It looks like high level stuff to me

I'm a nobody who knows nothing.

Now that I've got that out of the way, would it not be better to use a conditioning session to improve conditiong, strength session to improve strength, power session to improve power... and so on?

Brian?

discus wrote: »

I'm a nobody who knows nothing.

Now that I've got that out of the way, would it not be better to use a conditioning session to improve conditiong, strength session to improve strength, power session to improve power... and so on?

That's exactly what I was thinking. My knowledge base is exactly the same as yours, in other words zero.

It doesn't seem to make any sense the order the excercises are placed in either.

Shouldn't the most technically difficult lifts be at the start of each round? Eg. Deadlifts should come before prowler pushes and keg tosses. Similarly I'd do Oly lifts first, before anything too as they are the most technically difficult of them all.

Barry.Oglesby

weeman2 wrote: »

Thanks Hanley i can see what you are sayin.

Im not sure why you think the session is pointless oglesbe, its obviousley a team trying to get/keep there players fit but still improve aspects like stregth, power ect. they prob are trying to do alot in a session.

I didn't say it was pointless, I said it was directionless and aimless.

I thought you were looking for feedback. If it's not wanted then just ignore what I said.

Chet Zar

weeman2 wrote: »

Im not sure why you think the session is pointless oglesbe, its obviousley a team trying to get/keep there players fit but still improve aspects like stregth, power ect. they prob are trying to do alot in a session.

Would you not ask him then what he'd recommend instead?

To me it just looks like a mish-mash of great exercises lumped together trying to achieve conflicting goals. There also seem to be too many exercises within each block - highly likely the players would be fatigued towards the second last and last exercises, especially with max reps (why max reps??). If you look at the first two blocks they're trying to build power and endurance within the same block...going from lifting logs and tyres to a boxing bag is not the way I'd structure it - I'd be separating those out, e.g. so that circuit/block 1 looks like this:

1. boxing bag
2. sledge swings
3. skipping

Maybe (maybe) what Barry was suggesting is that a clear goal for the session would help immeasurably. Its probably a lot to ask that a single circuit would increase strength, power, endurance, speed et al. The sheer volume of different techniques to master might make a circuit such as the previous inefficient.

So if you were looking to do a (say) 15 minute circuit you could do the old classic of 3 rounds of 5x1 minute exercises each as simple as possible. The purpose of this circuit would be conditioning.

Then strength training could be effectively covered elsewhere in a dedicated strength session. Similarly speed, power and any other requirements.

I could be way off.