The perfect workout

SHBoss1673

This isn't a thread promoting any one particular style of working out. Everyone has their own needs/style/likes/wants/strengths/weaknesses...etc.
But I was thinking about it. I've been a part time (ugly term I know) Personal Trainer for about 5 years now, and I've focused my certifications on Athletes and advanced functional training. I was thinking about it and I came to the realization (kinda, I always kinda knew), that no matter how much "learnin" I did as a trainer, how many certifications I took, how devious I got with my training program, it will never EVER match the mid-week college rugby practices.
Just a taste of what I mean:
Practice started with a 1 mile run (and I mean run, you went at best possible speed) as a warm up, then we did about 15 minutes of ball drills which were basically short sprints combined with changes of direction and hand-eye coordination. Then split to pack and backs and we went to about 15 minutes of tackling drills or for the pack, scrum drills. Then we did about 15 minutes of play run through starting at half speed and progressing to full speed so for the last five minutes you were doing them at full speed sprints, Then recombined and did full squad plays, then we did line-out practice (5 minutes of rest basically), ruck and maul practice for 15 minutes (15 minutes of intense wrestling moves). Then we did a full 20 minute A side vs B side Scrimmage.
and after that hour and a half of intensity we would usually do 4 50 yard 4 corners to finish (which is about 500 yards of sprinting and 500 yards of jogging each one) so essentially about 1.3 miles of sprints and 1.3 miles of jogging. After which, no matter what shape you are in, you will be dead on your feet.

Essentially it was 2 hours of Intervals (give or take 10 minutes) with a couple of 10 minute HIIT intervals thrown in.

Yep, thinking back, that was and probably will always be, the most intense workouts I've ever done. And you know what? They were by far the most fun and easiest to get through (except when it was 35 Degrees and raining, that sucks no matter how warm you are). Those 2 hours always flew by.
So in my mind, this is the Perfect workout because it was fun, hit just about every muscle group, and really got results quick.

Anyway, just curious if anyone else has this type of workout in their past? If we keep it under 500 words I bet we could get some cool ideas that people have never thought of before.

JoRocka

I did a lot of soccer practice like that in college.

But the problem is- you're never going to get a middle age man to go through a 3 hour long D1 training curcuit in 30 minutes.

I personally really enjoy doing 7 min long circuits with clients when I trained- you have 30 min with them- sometimes they are warm- sometimes they aren't.
You have to take 5-10 min to explain what you're doing- then you have to do the work. If you do set intervals of time- they can push for that time frame- take a break- OR run stairs- then run another 7 min cirucuit.
puts you right about 40 minutes with enough time to walk them off/reschedule.

But yeah- nothing like old school workouts with a team. There is nothing that replaces that.

SHBoss1673

I get that JoRocka, and I agree, duplicating the kind of workout I did in rugby probably won't happen, even the mens club workouts I used to do in my late 20's were less intense. But that doesn't mean we can't post em, even if we can't still do them (without drastically reducing the rate of intensity), I don't expect everyone to have a story like mine, but if we get enough interesting concepts, it may give people ideas about how to mix their workouts up. I am always looking for new and fun things to put into my own workouts (ones I do for myself), it's easy to get in a rut.

dbmata

JoRocka wrote: »

I did a lot of soccer practice like that in college.

But the problem is- you're never going to get a middle age man to go through a 3 hour long D1 training curcuit in 30 minutes.

I personally really enjoy doing 7 min long circuits with clients when I trained- you have 30 min with them- sometimes they are warm- sometimes they aren't.
You have to take 5-10 min to explain what you're doing- then you have to do the work. If you do set intervals of time- they can push for that time frame- take a break- OR run stairs- then run another 7 min cirucuit.
puts you right about 40 minutes with enough time to walk them off/reschedule.

But yeah- nothing like old school workouts with a team. There is nothing that replaces that.

Isn't crossfit trying to do precisely that?

PwrLftr82

In high school I ran track. I remember my coach making us do a workout that was a "piece of cake," and by that, he meant a layer cake that sucked @$$.

200m sprint
400m sprint
800m sprint
1600m sprint
800m sprint
400m sprint
200m sprint

2 min. recovery between each sprint.

ETA that was before an hour of long/triple jump practice. Ugh.

JoRocka

dbmata wrote: »

JoRocka wrote: »

I did a lot of soccer practice like that in college.

But the problem is- you're never going to get a middle age man to go through a 3 hour long D1 training curcuit in 30 minutes.

I personally really enjoy doing 7 min long circuits with clients when I trained- you have 30 min with them- sometimes they are warm- sometimes they aren't.
You have to take 5-10 min to explain what you're doing- then you have to do the work. If you do set intervals of time- they can push for that time frame- take a break- OR run stairs- then run another 7 min cirucuit.
puts you right about 40 minutes with enough time to walk them off/reschedule.

But yeah- nothing like old school workouts with a team. There is nothing that replaces that.

Isn't crossfit trying to do precisely that?

perhaps- but with no end game other than to just get better at it.

At least with soccer it was GO VMI!! BEAT CITADEL!!!!!!

and at the very least- we were fit enough to run them down- even if we couldn't handle the ball. LMAO



OP- I can't post specific workouts- b/c honestly I've forgotten them after almost 10 years out- and 4 years of workouts.

There are two I remember for sprints
well three- but everyone knows what full field suicides are.

1.) box sprints- so- imagine a foot ball or soccer field. And it's got for legs to create the box.
The first side/leg- you sprint
then you jog/yog slowly the other 3.
When you reach your start- you sprint the side + the top of the box- yog the other 2 sides
start
sprting the side- the top- the other side- then yog the bottom back to start...

then sprint all 4 sides.


that's one.

we usually had to do 5-10 of them depending on how much we pissed her off that day.

2nd-
Foot ball field
Big X across it- sprint from the far end zone corner (the outside corner) to the opposite end zone)
Jog the end zone to the other side
Sprint the other diagonal \ across to the endzone.
walk to start.

That's 1. we never did less than 10 of those. FML

3rd
stair sprints-
Sprint all the stairs (stairs were labelled every other step alphabetically A-Z then AA- ZZ then to DDD)
Then get around the track- sometimes there were body weight things- or not.... sometimes just the track.
Back to the stairs.

We rolled around on the ground a lot playing sliding games and burpee frog jump things.

*kitten* sucked.

We did do a lot of oly training in the off season- which was great- I owe her quiet a lot for that. Made me a big part of who I am today.

dbmata

Only workouts I really remember from baseball were my contact drills. I played catcher, I loved hitting people. So I loved the contact drills. Essentially, I catch the ball and drill the baserunner. Best part was when they weren't my teammates and I could really try to lay them out.

MissHolidayGolightly

I did sports in high school and I now realize I took the workouts for granted. Every day, I worked out for 2 hours and had fun while doing it. I was thinking it would be great if there were competitive sports for adults (where you have practice and a coach, not just meet every Thursday, play a little, then get hammered after). In reality, though, adults who are not professional athletes generally don't have the free time of students.

MissHolidayGolightly

PwrLftr82 wrote: »

In high school I ran track. I remember my coach making us do a workout that was a "piece of cake," and by that, he meant a layer cake that sucked @$$.

200m sprint
400m sprint
800m sprint
1600m sprint
800m sprint
400m sprint
200m sprint

2 min. recovery between each sprint.

ETA that was before an hour of long/triple jump practice. Ugh.

We called those suicides for a reason!

cwolfman13

I was a gymnast for about 5 years until I hit my growth spurt and got too tall...killer workouts.

SHBoss1673

JoRocka wrote: »

dbmata wrote: »

JoRocka wrote: »

I did a lot of soccer practice like that in college.

But the problem is- you're never going to get a middle age man to go through a 3 hour long D1 training curcuit in 30 minutes.

I personally really enjoy doing 7 min long circuits with clients when I trained- you have 30 min with them- sometimes they are warm- sometimes they aren't.
You have to take 5-10 min to explain what you're doing- then you have to do the work. If you do set intervals of time- they can push for that time frame- take a break- OR run stairs- then run another 7 min cirucuit.
puts you right about 40 minutes with enough time to walk them off/reschedule.

But yeah- nothing like old school workouts with a team. There is nothing that replaces that.

Isn't crossfit trying to do precisely that?

perhaps- but with no end game other than to just get better at it.

At least with soccer it was GO VMI!! BEAT CITADEL!!!!!!

and at the very least- we were fit enough to run them down- even if we couldn't handle the ball. LMAO



OP- I can't post specific workouts- b/c honestly I've forgotten them after almost 10 years out- and 4 years of workouts.

There are two I remember for sprints
well three- but everyone knows what full field suicides are.

1.) box sprints- so- imagine a foot ball or soccer field. And it's got for legs to create the box.
The first side/leg- you sprint
then you jog/yog slowly the other 3.
When you reach your start- you sprint the side + the top of the box- yog the other 2 sides
start
sprting the side- the top- the other side- then yog the bottom back to start...

then sprint all 4 sides.


that's one.

we usually had to do 5-10 of them depending on how much we pissed her off that day.

2nd-
Foot ball field
Big X across it- sprint from the far end zone corner (the outside corner) to the opposite end zone)
Jog the end zone to the other side
Sprint the other diagonal \ across to the endzone.
walk to start.

That's 1. we never did less than 10 of those. FML

3rd
stair sprints-
Sprint all the stairs (stairs were labelled every other step alphabetically A-Z then AA- ZZ then to DDD)
Then get around the track- sometimes there were body weight things- or not.... sometimes just the track.
Back to the stairs.

We rolled around on the ground a lot playing sliding games and burpee frog jump things.

*kitten* sucked.

We did do a lot of oly training in the off season- which was great- I owe her quiet a lot for that. Made me a big part of who I am today.

That first one was what we called 4 corners (see my original). Not surprising. It's a very good way to increase your endurance quickly.

SHBoss1673

PwrLftr82 wrote: »

In high school I ran track. I remember my coach making us do a workout that was a "piece of cake," and by that, he meant a layer cake that sucked @$$.

200m sprint
400m sprint
800m sprint
1600m sprint
800m sprint
400m sprint
200m sprint

2 min. recovery between each sprint.

ETA that was before an hour of long/triple jump practice. Ugh.

yep, I did these also in high school. I ran the 600 and 1000 in winter track (indoor). Although "sprinting" 1600 meters is kind of a misnomer since you can't really sprint a mile, more like ALMOST sprint for the 1600 (and probably the 800).

SHBoss1673

Now that I think about it. I played 1 year of college Football before switching to Rugby, and there was 1 exercise we did that was probably worse than anything else I ever did, just because it completely and utterly drained you after doing only ten, 1 minute sets. They were monkey rolls, brutal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA18uYGt5H0
they don't look that hard, but after about 1 minute, you're gassed. Unfortunately you need a 3 person team to do them. I mean, you could do it without anyone else, but you would just look like a crazy person doing it by yourself :

SHBoss1673

herrspoons wrote: »

Bear crawls 50m then 20 burpees. Repeat 10 times. Then find a corner to die in... before doing ladder sprints.

God I loved preseason.

I'm tired just thinking about that.