Former World's Strongest Man to Play Rugby

Deano7788 · 17-01-2013 4:14pm

penzo wrote: »

out of interest, anyone know who can bench the most on the irish squad? i'd reckon healy or ferris, but that's only a guess.

ROG

RoundBox11 · 17-01-2013 4:41pm

I remember seeing an interview in the gym with one of the Irish players and they were asked who could bench the most. They weren't sure but they reckoned it might be Tom Court! Wouldn't be surprised. Bench press is all chest and triceps

.ak · 17-01-2013 4:43pm

IIRC Wally and Fez can (could) bench and deadlift silly weights.

CIARAN_BOYLE · 17-01-2013 4:47pm

.ak wrote: »

IIRC Wally and Fez can (could) bench and deadlift silly weights.

It used to be David Wallace. Before RWC2011 which Wallace unfortunately missed out (does anyone else still regret not seeing what Kidney would have done with the back row with Ferris/O'Brien/Heaslip/Wallace all fit and available) it was mentioned during an interview that Wallace had won a benching competition with the squad.

Fishooks13 · 17-01-2013 4:48pm

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

It used to be David Wallace. Before RWC2011 which Wallace unfortunately missed out (does anyone else still regret not seeing what Kidney would have done with the back row with Ferris/O'Brien/Heaslip/Wallace all fit and available) it was mentioned during an interview that Wallace had won a benching competition with the squad.

Wouldn't surprise me. Wallace still uses the gym in UL and the weights he lifts are sick. Same with Flannery who I saw benching 130kg for 2 reps in there one night

Deano7788 · 17-01-2013 4:54pm

Fishooks13 wrote: »

Wouldn't surprise me. Wallace still uses the gym in UL and the weights he lifts are sick. Same with Flannery who I saw benching 130kg for 2 reps in there one night

Wallace is the only person I've ever seen using the heaviest dumbbells there. I hate training when he's there, makes you feel weak

.

RoundBox11 · 17-01-2013 5:35pm

Fishooks13 wrote: »

Wouldn't surprise me. Wallace still uses the gym in UL and the weights he lifts are sick. Same with Flannery who I saw benching 130kg for 2 reps in there one night

Surely he'd max at higher than that???
I mean it's a lot but not for a professional front row forward. I'm surprised it's Wallace tbh.
Here's a video of Ferris in the gym and he's doing 120 pretty easily. http://youtu.be/7LntmtseiaA

Here's Castro doing one rep on 170 http://youtu.be/oy-QtQIMUkE

Banbridgeman2 · 17-01-2013 6:26pm

Fishooks13 wrote: »

Wouldn't surprise me. Wallace still uses the gym in UL and the weights he lifts are sick. Same with Flannery who I saw benching 130kg for 2 reps in there one night

130kg for 2 reps isn't ridiculous. I know schools players who have got 1rep of 145kg!! In fact I never do max but I reckon I could get 130kg myself

ANXIOUS · 17-01-2013 6:31pm

Pretty sure I read that Ferris has all the records.

GerM · 17-01-2013 6:41pm

Aiden7 wrote: »

i would say that Sheridan with Strongman training would have be a good strongman

Sheridan wanted to be a powerlifter originally but wasn't good enough at which point he moved his focus back to rugby.

Blut2 · 17-01-2013 6:42pm

Banbridgeman2 wrote: »

130kg for 2 reps isn't ridiculous. I know schools players who have got 1rep of 145kg!! In fact I never do max but I reckon I could get 130kg myself

A Saffer friend of mine gave me the below a while ago:

Super 14 Standards -

Backs
. Beep Test Level 13
. 3,000m (1.8 Miles) 11.40 min
. Standing 10m 1.68 sec
. Standing 40m 5.10 sec
. Rolling 40m 4.50 sec
. Bench Press 120 kg (265lb)
. Prone Row 100 kg (220lb)
. Squat 180 kg (400lb)
. Chin Ups 12 times

Forwards
. Beep Test Level 12
. 3,000m (1.8 Miles) 12.30 min
. Standing 10m 1.9 sec
. Standing 40m 5.50 sec
. Rolling 40m 5.00 sec
. Bench Press 150 kg (330lb)
. Prone Row 125 kg (275lb)
. Squat 225 kg (500lb)
. Chin Ups 12 times

Given Flannerys relative bulk I'd say he'd probably be hitting the 150kg bench mark at least, or would have been while still playing anyway.

Banbridgeman2 · 17-01-2013 7:07pm

Blut2 wrote: »

A Saffer friend of mine gave me the below a while ago:

Super 14 Standards -

Backs
. Beep Test Level 13
. 3,000m (1.8 Miles) 11.40 min
. Standing 10m 1.68 sec
. Standing 40m 5.10 sec
. Rolling 40m 4.50 sec
. Bench Press 120 kg (265lb)
. Prone Row 100 kg (220lb)
. Squat 180 kg (400lb)
. Chin Ups 12 times

Forwards
. Beep Test Level 12
. 3,000m (1.8 Miles) 12.30 min
. Standing 10m 1.9 sec
. Standing 40m 5.50 sec
. Rolling 40m 5.00 sec
. Bench Press 150 kg (330lb)
. Prone Row 125 kg (275lb)
. Squat 225 kg (500lb)
. Chin Ups 12 times

Given Flannerys relative bulk I'd say he'd probably be hitting the 150kg bench mark at least, or would have been while still playing anyway.

Yeah I am shocked flannery only gets 130kg for 2 reps, very weak for a professional athlete of his size. I think even my 2 rep max would he higher and I'm only 92kg at 6'1 so lighter and longer arms!!

GerM · 17-01-2013 7:30pm

I think people are overestimating how much these guys lift. Of course there are guys that lift phenomenal weights but a lot of them don't lift anything eye opening. Jamie Noon, known for his physicality and hard running, had a max bench of 120kg. Trevor Brennan (weighing 110kg) had a max of 140kg. Josh Lewsey didn't bench for the most part, he generally focused on core weights and working off a swiss ball.

The likes of Ferris, Healy etc. are the exception as opposed to the rule for professional rugby players. I'm not surprised in the slightest to read Flannery's maximum reps were at 130kg.

mfceiling · 17-01-2013 8:10pm

Fishooks13 wrote: »

Wouldn't surprise me. Wallace still uses the gym in UL and the weights he lifts are sick. Same with Flannery who I saw benching 130kg for 2 reps in there one night

Pfffffft....I was in the gym last night and I says to the trainer.."throw on more weights". He says "there are no more"!!

Has anyone checked has this polish lad any Irish grandparents!! If he did get a spot on an Irish team it would be gas listening to Joe duffy...I'm telling you Joe, they're taking all the jobs Joe, Tony Buckley can't get a place because of this foreigner Joe!!

Blut2 · 17-01-2013 8:40pm

GerM wrote: »

I think people are overestimating how much these guys lift. Of course there are guys that lift phenomenal weights but a lot of them don't lift anything eye opening. Jamie Noon, known for his physicality and hard running, had a max bench of 120kg. Trevor Brennan (weighing 110kg) had a max of 140kg. Josh Lewsey didn't bench for the most part, he generally focused on core weights and working off a swiss ball.

The likes of Ferris, Healy etc. are the exception as opposed to the rule for professional rugby players. I'm not surprised in the slightest to read Flannery's maximum reps were at 130kg.

The stats I posted above were only the minimum requirements expected by a SA Super Rugby team. I think 15 years ago you may have been correct, these days every player has to have serious strength across the board though.

Fishooks13 · 17-01-2013 8:46pm

Jaysus! Maybe he was just warming up with the 130 so! And I can barely do 90!

Deano7788 · 17-01-2013 8:50pm

Fishooks13 wrote: »

Jaysus! Maybe he was just warming up with the 130 so! And I can barely do 90!

In fairness, he's probably lost some strength since he retired, and I think he's lost a bit of size as well.

It's also not like the players keep this level of strength year round. It does decline a bit during the season, where the goal in the gym is purely to maintain as much strength as possible. It's only at the end of preseason that they would really be at their peak.

davegrohl48 · 17-01-2013 9:28pm

Those Saffer stats are interesting but I'm unsure on some of them being really used as minimum standards.
The list of international sprinters in link below shows they run around 4.7 out of blocks at 40 metres.

http://myweb.lmu.edu/jmureika/track/splits/splits.html

Saffer Rugby back standing start - 5.1 seonds and this is a minimum standard. Someone like Bryan Habana could probably do it but not too many others.

Clareman · 17-01-2013 9:35pm

You mean a former professional player is "only" benching 130, ffs lads the man is retired now and is only interested in maintaining rather than bulking up.

Higher · 17-01-2013 9:36pm

Fishooks13 wrote: »

Jaysus! Maybe he was just warming up with the 130 so! And I can barely do 90!

Doubt he'd warm up with a 2 rep bench press. Nice to know I can bench more than an international front rower

Clareman · 17-01-2013 9:40pm

Higher wrote: »

Doubt he'd warm up with a 2 rep bench press. Nice to know I can bench more than an international front rower

Former front rower, I'm sure my mother can bench more than Keith Wood now

Deano7788 · 17-01-2013 9:40pm

Higher wrote: »

Doubt he'd warm up with a 2 rep bench press. Nice to know I can bench more than an international front rower

That's actually quite a common way to warm up, decreasing the reps as you get closer to your work sets weight.

Higher · 17-01-2013 9:41pm

Deano7788 wrote: »

That's actually quite a common way to warm up, decreasing the reps as you get closer to your work sets weight.

So the next set he does 1 rep. And then thats it?

2 sets for a grand total of 3 reps?

Or have I misunderstood you?

.ak · 17-01-2013 9:42pm

Clareman wrote: »

You mean a former professional player is "only" benching 130, ffs lads the man is retired now and is only interested in maintaining rather than bulking up.

Not good enough, should be dropped imo.

Higher · 17-01-2013 9:44pm

Clareman wrote: »

You mean a former professional player is "only" benching 130, ffs lads the man is retired now and is only interested in maintaining rather than bulking up.

My response was more about Fishooks being in awe at Flannery doing 130kg for 2 reps. Its not that heavy at all especially for someone who weighs and has trained as much as Flannery has.

Clareman · 17-01-2013 9:45pm

.ak wrote: »

Not good enough, should be dropped imo.

I played intercounty hurling, senior club football and AIL Rugby, I would not like to tackle my mother in any of those events, in fact I wouldn't like to tell her she's dropped either :pac::pac::pac:

ChesneyHawkes · 17-01-2013 9:45pm

I'd think squats would be of more importance in rugby than bench press, surely most of the power comes from the glutes area? Like driving in tackles, scrums, rucks, that kinda stuff..

Deano7788 · 17-01-2013 9:45pm

Higher wrote: »

So the next set he does 1 rep. And then thats it?

2 sets for a grand total of 3 reps?

I don't think you know what you're talking about if you think thats how people warm up.

No, just say he's going for 3 sets of 3 or whatever, he might do:
60x5
80x5
100x4
120x3
130x2
Work weight x 3x3

That's just an example. He might have also been working up to a max, or maybe that is what he's able to bench. We don't know.

P.S. I'm pretty confident I do know what I'm talking about here.

Higher · 17-01-2013 9:46pm

Deano7788 wrote: »

That's actually quite a common way to warm up, decreasing the reps as you get closer to your work sets weight.

Oh I think I get you now but I would disagree its common. In fact I've never seen it and I am a bit of a gym-rat.

It would defeat the purpose of warming up to try lift heavy right away and then lowering it until you reach the weight that you do sets with.

Higher · 17-01-2013 9:48pm

ChesneyHawkes wrote: »

I'd think squats would be of more importance in rugby than bench press, surely most of the power comes from the glutes area? Like driving in tackles, scrums, rucks, that kinda stuff..

Correct. Squats are king for rugby players

Former World's Strongest Man to Play Rugby

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