Ashley,
My name is Lachlan Chubb and I am hooker for New South Wales Country in Australia. I am looking at getting bigger as I am 97kg and 186cm. I am told I need to improve my speed/power/strength. My fitness is ok I get 12.1 in the beep test.

I am wondering if you would have any ideas which could help me improve those facets.

Cheers
Lachlan Chubb

Hi Lachlan, I would think that you would need to gain around 10 kg's for your position and with your height advantage that you have, I group my hookers with the flankers and inside backs as they need to work as link players, the strength size and power of the props with speed and agility, since you have a good aerobic score via the beep test I would think that you can maintain most of that through anaerobic training and concentrate mostly on the development of size and strength and power. This is quite difficult whilst playing as recovery from a game and ensuring you are ready to play the next one is of paramount importance, here are some ideas:
 
I use a 3 week plan for my players who need to focus more on size, this progression is as follows:
 
week 1 - 10,8,6
week 2 - 8,6,4
week 3 - 7,5,3
 
this is for upper body only as I do not like to use high reps on lower body since I do not want to have heavy legs going into trainings so to cover lower body I would use:
 
either; 5,4,3,2,1 x 4 sets so choose a weight of around 80% of maximum perform 5 reps with it rest 15 seconds then perform 4 and continue this sequence until all reps are performed rest 2 minutes and repeat for 4 total sets or I would wave load and do 5,3,1 x 2, that is a set of 5 reps increase the weight rest 60 - 90 seconds then a set of 3, increase the weight and do a heavy single rest 2 minutes and return to a set of 5 with about 2.5% increase on the first set of 5 and continue or a third method would be to perform 4 couplets of 5,1 reps, a set of 5 rest 90 seconds then a single rep, increasing the load each time.
 
Off season I would have you do an upper/lower 4 day split program consisting of something like this:
 
Monday: lower body emphasis - Power Cleans/Back Squats/Good Morning
 
Tuesday: upper body emphasis - Bench Press super set with Bent Over Row, Incline DB Bench Press super set with Upright Row, Standing Shoulder Press super set with Weighted Chins
 
Wednesday: OFF
 
Thursday: lower body emphasis - Power Snatch/Front Squat/Dead Lift
 
Friday: upper body emphasis - DB Bench Press s/s DB One Arm Row, Incline Barbell Bench Press s/s Seated Row, Seated DB Shoulder Press s/s Pull downs to Chest
 
In season would of course be player health dependant but would look something like this:
 
Monday: Upper Body 2 x push and pull supersets
 
Tuesday: Lower body as per off season with slightly reduced volume
 
Wednesday or Thursday: Upper Body 2 x push and pull super sets (different exercises to Monday) or a power emphasis on Thursday leading into a Saturday game
 
And there you have it, all the best, ash

 

Ashley,
My name is Lachlan Chubb and I am hooker for New South Wales Country in Australia. I am looking at getting bigger as I am 97kg and 186cm. I am told I need to improve my speed/power/strength. My fitness is ok I get 12.1 in the beep test.

I am wondering if you would have any ideas which could help me improve those facets.

Cheers
Lachlan Chubb

Hi Lachlan, I would think that you would need to gain around 10 kg's for your position and with your height advantage that you have, I group my hookers with the flankers and inside backs as they need to work as link players, the strength size and power of the props with speed and agility, since you have a good aerobic score via the beep test I would think that you can maintain most of that through anaerobic training and concentrate mostly on the development of size and strength and power. This is quite difficult whilst playing as recovery from a game and ensuring you are ready to play the next one is of paramount importance, here are some ideas:
 
I use a 3 week plan for my players who need to focus more on size, this progression is as follows:
 
week 1 - 10,8,6
week 2 - 8,6,4
week 3 - 7,5,3
 
this is for upper body only as I do not like to use high reps on lower body since I do not want to have heavy legs going into trainings so to cover lower body I would use:
 
either; 5,4,3,2,1 x 4 sets so choose a weight of around 80% of maximum perform 5 reps with it rest 15 seconds then perform 4 and continue this sequence until all reps are performed rest 2 minutes and repeat for 4 total sets or I would wave load and do 5,3,1 x 2, that is a set of 5 reps increase the weight rest 60 - 90 seconds then a set of 3, increase the weight and do a heavy single rest 2 minutes and return to a set of 5 with about 2.5% increase on the first set of 5 and continue or a third method would be to perform 4 couplets of 5,1 reps, a set of 5 rest 90 seconds then a single rep, increasing the load each time.
 
Off season I would have you do an upper/lower 4 day split program consisting of something like this:
 
Monday: lower body emphasis - Power Cleans/Back Squats/Good Morning
 
Tuesday: upper body emphasis - Bench Press super set with Bent Over Row, Incline DB Bench Press super set with Upright Row, Standing Shoulder Press super set with Weighted Chins
 
Wednesday: OFF
 
Thursday: lower body emphasis - Power Snatch/Front Squat/Dead Lift
 
Friday: upper body emphasis - DB Bench Press s/s DB One Arm Row, Incline Barbell Bench Press s/s Seated Row, Seated DB Shoulder Press s/s Pull downs to Chest
 
In season would of course be player health dependant but would look something like this:
 
Monday: Upper Body 2 x push and pull supersets
 
Tuesday: Lower body as per off season with slightly reduced volume
 
Wednesday or Thursday: Upper Body 2 x push and pull super sets (different exercises to Monday) or a power emphasis on Thursday leading into a Saturday game
 
And there you have it, all the best, ash