Still stumped on planning my conditioning routine

5/3/1 is progressing me well, have no complaints on the strength front. Pulled 150 for 9 reps yesterday and benched 80 for 6 recently, reps I've never seen before with those weights. I'm slightly on the fat side (strong fat), but what concerns me most is my conditioning at the moment.

Play rugby as I have mentioned a lot before, and looking to get back to training thai 2x a week in the not too distant future. I'm just looking to improve both aerobic and anaerobic capacities, but I'm having trouble trying to program it so as I'm not burning myself out for lifting.

Current schedule is as follows:

Monday:
Squat and bench 5/3/1 followed by treadmill pushes and bag work

Wednesday:
Press 5/3/1 with assistance followed by treadmill pushes and bag work

Thursday:
Deadlift 5/3/1 with assistance followed by bag work


Question is when should I include LISS? 2x a week on top of that? I was thinking maybe 2 45 minute jogs at 60% HR on Tuesday and Sunday - This would be fine??

Or should I ditch the treadmill pushes and include LISS whilst I'm in the gym?

Sorry if you feel I'm moaning, I don't often do conditioning work and have recently realized its about time I do but I suck at programming my stuff around my college and work life etc.

Appreciate any help

 

Maybe you could combine your deadlift and press days so you have more days to do conditioning?

 

Ideally, you would do only LISS in your conditioning slots, 2-4 times a week, 40 minutes plus. Whenever you can do it. If doing it after weights is most convenient, do it then.

After a few months, or when you have reached your target HR, switch to doing mainly intervals and sprints. Since you are training for rugby, you ought to be doing sports-specific anaerobic work, and so it would be better to do incline treadmill sprints than bag work. When you are in this phase, you should still do some LISS, e.g. once every 7-10 days, to maintain your aerobic capacity.

You should probably also go back to doing mainly/all LISS every now and then. You don't just want a basic level of aerobic capacity, if possible you want to continually improve it.

 

Try eating better? Repeat

 

He wants to improve his conditioning for rugby, not just lose weight. So it's not purely a diet thing.

 

Do what Jaunty said, adjust your training intensity so that you're improving.

 

I am not concerned with losing weight, only being able to last longer on the rugby pitch at a higher intensity.

 

So what your advising is whenever I can fit it in,or after each lifting session, a 40 minute row/treadmill/bike session ? Also what intensity should I be at in terms of percentage? 60% max HR ? more, less?

 

Why do you guys cup your hands and swing them back and forth before you kick?

 

I don't quite understand?

 

I, when lifting, find the same problem you do. If i go running, my legs are beat and I don't squat as well the next day. If I row, my lower back feels weak and I'm weary of squatting and deadlifting. The best solution I can find is using the elliptical with the "ski poles" that move with your steps. That way your arms can push and pull them and share some of the burden. They don't beat the crap out of your knees and ankles and don't stress only one portion of your body when bringing yourself into the higher heart rates.

 

it's not the exercise itself, I never feel heavy legs before squats if I warm up properly, I just feel fatigued overall and that's what prevents me from hitting them numbers.

I'm just going to perform LISS 3x a week until I can progress. What else can I do really lol.

 

Yes. 40 minutes plus. LISS work should be 65%-75% max HR- preferably your actual max, not one calculated with a formula. It's also better to have a proper HR monitor than to use the built-in ones.

In terms of exercise selection, since you are building up your conditioning for rugby it would be better to do more running/treadmill than other types of LISS, because the specific adaptations for running that you go through when you do lots of long/slow work will be beneficial later on. But running might be a bit more taxing, in which case start off doing a mix of the exercises and gradually do more running sessions.

 

I think it's just a question of getting used to it. I built up my ability to run very slowly, starting off with incline treadmill walks, then short-ish runs, gradually building up my mileage until I could handle three runs a week of 8km+. As a result of building it up slowly, I've rarely felt fatigued when it came to lifting.

 

My big hangup is sparring performance. I need at least 90% of my sparring ability. If I'm doing HIITs in intense enough of a fashion or lifting heavy enough to produce strength/hypertrophy/conditioning, I'm not going to be on timing or able to spar to my fullest ability. Also repeatedly using one body part again and again, like legs for running kills them in that regard. If I just had to show up and complete the workouts I'd be sailing smooth... but dudes are trying to punch me in the head.

I guess, Big Jack, if you don't feel as though the conditionings affect your rugby practices enough to reel back on them... my advice would be just do some LISS post-lifting.
My real advice would be to do more HIITs instead of LISS because your sport requires a lot of GO-HARD,jog,GO-HARD,jog. The purpose of Dr. Izumi Tabata's research was to show that you could improve facets of your aerobic fitness while doing anaerobic conditionings.

 

I saw one team (In the states we don't watch a lot of rugby, not in my area anyway) that every player we saw kick would get his distance from the penalty kick then swing his arms back and forth like he was cupping water before he'd kick.

 

Oh I see, the johnny wilkinson thing. Yeah, nobody really knows why when the fly-half goes to kick a penalty they tend to do that. I think it's just ritual - for example a lot of professional table tennis players like to touch a certain area of the table between points. It's not to aid performance as such, it's more of a superstitious or comfort issue.

If it works though, why not?