Rugby and Weight training

[eric123]

I will play rugby this year from november to march.
The practices are tuesday, wednesday and thursday with games on weekends(sometimes both friday and saturday). I will skip my wednesday training in order to lift weights and I will also lift on mondays and fridays (or saturday if there is a game).

Do you guys think that 2 hour practices twice a week + games (some hard some not so hard) would impact my progress in the gym? Right now I am in a fat loss phase so it would be convenient to play a sport in order to replace the cardio I do in the mornings. I am eating around 1600-1700 kcals a day and this is my third week of fat loss. Fat is coming out slowly.

What do you think?

ps. sorry this thread was already made in the cardio section but i feel like it belongs here.

[LiftingAddict]

Right now I'm doing crew which is even more intense practice wise than your rugby schedule. It impacts your gym performance but you can still make gains.

However, in my opinion your not eating anywhere near enough!

[Joe]

Yes it will impede on gym gains

[ruckover]

Speaking from experience (4 years rugby, 2 years lifting), you're going to need a lot more calories to play rugby, lift, and not run yourself into the ground. It's very easy to overtrain yourself in season, especially if you're a forward and trying to hit new PRs in the gym (because it happened to me a month ago). I just finished up a season, and my schedule looked like:

M- gym day (unless I was still too beat up)
T- heavy practice
W- gym day
Th- light practice/gym (prehab and pregame prep such as shoulder/trap work and plyometrics)
F- medium practice (afterwards eat like a horse)
S- game day
Su- MUCH MUCH NEEDED RECOVERY

And while you're in season you'll find your routine might need some changes, most notably:
-heavy flat BB bench = no shoulders to tackle with
-too many "accessory" lifts = good luck recovering
-legs too close to game day = good luck rucking and scrumming with any power

Also, it is possible to lose weight, but for someone my size (200 lbs, 5'9", low double digits fat) the most I would suggest is ~1lb per week (less for smaller guys), you'll find trying to lose faster can seriously hamper your recovery. Most often in season ends up being more of a maintenance phase, where lifting is used to retain muscle mass. Keep in mind these are just my experiences, and you should listen to what your body wants when in season.

[Shawn Bellon]

Most in season is just to maintain what you did offseason. Its virtually impossible to gain while do so many other things.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by ruckover

Speaking from experience (4 years rugby, 2 years lifting), you're going to need a lot more calories to play rugby, lift, and not run yourself into the ground. It's very easy to overtrain yourself in season, especially if you're a forward and trying to hit new PRs in the gym (because it happened to me a month ago). I just finished up a season, and my schedule looked like:

M- gym day (unless I was still too beat up)
T- heavy practice
W- gym day
Th- light practice/gym (prehab and pregame prep such as shoulder/trap work and plyometrics)
F- medium practice (afterwards eat like a horse)
S- game day
Su- MUCH MUCH NEEDED RECOVERY

And while you're in season you'll find your routine might need some changes, most notably:
-heavy flat BB bench = no shoulders to tackle with
-too many "accessory" lifts = good luck recovering
-legs too close to game day = good luck rucking and scrumming with any power

Also, it is possible to lose weight, but for someone my size (200 lbs, 5'9", low double digits fat) the most I would suggest is ~1lb per week (less for smaller guys), you'll find trying to lose faster can seriously hamper your recovery. Most often in season ends up being more of a maintenance phase, where lifting is used to retain muscle mass. Keep in mind these are just my experiences, and you should listen to what your body wants when in season.

You can hit PRs mostly because your #s are in the intermediate range.

[eric123]

I have had 5 weeks on the SPBR and working out 3 times a week.
I have hit PRs every single day by at least 5 lbs (note that I have been in a quite big deficit all along).

Fat loss has been slow so far even though I am at a great deficit. I am blaming it on artificial sweeteners, saturated fats and some dairy allergies??) I am afraid to eat more since I think fat will just not come off all together. After all I did put on 28 lbs of bodyweight in 3-4 months. Is it possible that I am putting on muscle even at this big of a caloric deficit? I feel like I am getting bigger.. and will carbs be needed to sustain rugby or will upping the calories be enough?

I was hoping the rugby would speed up my fat loss while not killing my gym performance. I will find a way to addapt though. I lifted through an intense schedule of 23 hours of tennis a week (15 hours on week days and 8 hours tournament playing in weekends )

I could never quit lifting... I only recently understood the sport and I can t let go of the feeling of improving my strength through so many variables. Hitting a PR is just tooooo great!