Welcome

The Stronger For Rugby program is designed for you to make huge gains in strength in the Squat, Deadlift and Bench Press. This is your foundation for overall athletic performance that will help you become a better rugby player.

Before we dive into the program we’ve just got a bit of admin for you to be able to get the most out of it.

Firstly join a VIP FaceBook group Here: VIP FaceBook Group This is the best place for you to ask us questions and give feedback on the program moving forward.

Next in order to measure progress in your Squat, Deadlift and Bench Press we need to figure out where you are now. We need to work out your 1RM for each lift.

There’s a few ways to do this and the first is to look back at your training logs (please say you have training logs!!) and find your heaviest lift for each exercise and then use this equation to calculate your 1RM:

1 Rep Maximum = (Weight Lifted x Reps x 0.0333) + Weight Lifted

The accuracy of this way will depend on how recent the heavy lift was and how close to maximum effort it was but it will give a good estimate to move forward.

There are also heaps of apps that can do the calculation for you too!

The next option if you don’t have records of previous lifts is to test for a rep max in each lift. We recommend not testing a true 1RM but using a lighter load setting a rep maximum with that and using the above equation (but we can’t stop you doing a 1RM!). Makes sure you warm up properly; here’s a suggested warm up strategy:

Set 1 @ 50% 1RM x 5 reps

Set 2 @ 60% 1RM x 4 reps

Set 3 @ 70% 1RM x 3 reps

Set 4 @ 80% 1RM x 2 reps

Set 5 @ 85-90% 1RM x MAX reps

Ensure full recovery 2-3 mins between sets

One thing you should NOT do is use your all time best ever lift to predict your 1RM especially if it’s form a long time ago! The more recent the better.

Now you have your 1RM for each lift you can set some goals of what you’d like to achieve over the next 12 weeks. We’ve seen upwards of 20-30kg increases in Squat and Deadlift and 10-15kg in Bench Press! A Baller move is to let us know what your goal is in the FaceBook Group!

Once you’ve got your 1RMs Click Complete and move onto the next section which explains the training program in more detail…