JC On Road To Recovery

James Campbell is one of the athletes that I work with at Esher Rugby Club-since the end of last season he had been suffering from chronic back pain. The pain effected him in his personal life but in particular his training and rugby suffered. After finally getting in front of a surgeon, JC went under the knife. On the 12th of November he had a discectomy at Parkside Hospital in Wimbledon.

Since the surgery JC has been a different man, the effects were immediate-in fact apart from the scar on his back, JC was completely pain free. Since receiving an amber light to start back on the rehab I have been working with him 3-4 times a week, the aim being getting him back to playing for the play offs (12th March).

The early part of JC’s workout consisted of alot of floor work making sure his spine was strong and mobile and then getting him on his feet to facilitate his postural muscles to fire and support him in functional movement. The next phase has seen JC weight lifting again in the gym-high reps with low load ensuring good strong posture and correct patterns of movement.

In the last week JC’s surgeon has also given him the green light to start contact-this has to be a carefull process with constant monitoring of his reaction to each stimulis to ensure we dont over do it. It’s really a case of suck it and see, pushing the barrier daily untill he can go full contact.

In the video below JC uses a ViPR to do some conditioning before doing some controlled contact against stability balls. The idea behind this was to get him to brace for contact and for him to try and remain on the white line as best he could while being ‘bounced’. It must be noted that the athlete under went a thorough warm up before the session and had progressed up from controlled contact using a much more stable  target in previous sessions.

I’ll keep you up to date on JC’s fight to be fit!!!

Enjoy

Tip#001 Growth Hormone Release

If you are looking to get your athletes bigger through a Hypertrophy phase this will hopefully help you in your planning.



Rowly lifting under the instruction of Elko

Increased lactate concentrations are highly correlated to Growth Hormone (GH) release.  GH  causes hypertrophy.

How to create high lactate concentrations and manipulate the Endocrine System:

• 3 sets of 10 reps @ 10 Rep Max loads with 1 min rest Kraemer et al.
• 10 sets of 10 reps @ 70% of 1 Rep Max Hakkinen and Pakarinen
• 7 sets of 7 reps @ 80% of 1 Rep Max (squat) Vanhelder et al.
• 8-12 reps to failure Linnamo et al.
• Muscle group focus (body part splits) in order to accumulate and maintain localised concentrations of lactate Turner.
• Stay away from programmes that alternate between body parts (chest exercise superseted with a back exercise) as it allows the dissipation of lactate and therefore reduces GH response Turner.
• A slow tempo or slow continuous approach (4 secs concentric-4 sec eccentric) would increase time under tension  helping with the accumulation of lactate Turner

What’s Your Opinion???

Esher Back To Work After Week Off

Monday night saw the return of the Esher squad after a week off to rest up for the next stage of training and it was a tough one for the forwards who went straight into a circuit combining exercises like sledge-hammer hits, grappling and tyre flips.

The backs worked on acceleration drills and had a couple of races to sort out the pecking order.

Monday also saw the 1st contact sessions of the season, it is safe to say that who ever gets the starting jerseys against Moseley on the 28th of August they will have had to fight tooth and nail for it. This squad is the best I have worked with and in every position there is a fight.

Hip Thrusts

Here we see Esher’s new signing, Prop, Chris Rowland performing Hip Thrusts.

Esher’s Head of S & C Simon Elkinson

” I am always looking for challenging ways to work the glutes in our athletes and this is a great way of doing that. You can also see that Chris gets great hip extension. The next exercise in his regime is a Clean Grip High Pull so the Hip Thrust will potentiate  this by ensuring the central nervous system is excited about firing the glutes and getting true hip extension, 2 vital requirements of putting power on the bar in an Olympic lift. You can also see that Chris is having to support his weight on his head and neck in an isometric manner, this is an awesome added benefit as he plays Prop and needs to condition his neck in this way”

Esher Preseason Clips: Week 3

Esher 1st team put through their conditioning. ”Tyres are a great modality to use for outdoor training and can create massive lactic build up!! The boys love to hate them, put your athletes in teams and have relays, superb team building!!”