Legs Hypertrophy Program for Rugby

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
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Hi all, I am a second year sports science student @ university. I am currently on a rehab programme from shoulder surgery so won’t be able to train for upper body 3 months.
However I want to get in the gym and have been doing cycling to help stay fit.

I want to go on a hypertrophy programme for my legs aimed at rugby for pre-season in late August. In the past I have struggled to put mass and size on my legs.

I am 83kg, 19% body fat and I eat healthy (now!) and play scrum half.

However I can’t do squats and free weights, only on machines: leg press, leg extension, leg curl etc.

What would you recommend my programme to be like?
How many times a week?
What supplements and when?
And anything else you think is relevant.
Cheers.

2

[quote]pools wrote:
Hi all, I am a second year sports science student @ university. I am currently on a rehab programme from shoulder surgery so won’t be able to train for upper body 3 months.
However I want to get in the gym and have been doing cycling to help stay fit.

I want to go on a hypertrophy programme for my legs aimed at rugby for pre-season in late August. In the past I have struggled to put mass and size on my legs.

I am 83kg, 19% body fat and I eat healthy (now!) and play scrum half.

However I can’t do squats and free weights, only on machines: leg press, leg extension, leg curl etc.

What would you recommend my programme to be like?
How many times a week?
What supplements and when?
And anything else you think is relevant.
Cheers.[/quote]

Why is your goal leg hypertrophy?

and Why can you only do machine work (I’m assuming because of your shoulder)?

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Smolov on the leg machine

www.joeskopec.com/smolov.html

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Yea it’s because of my shoulder, I can’t lift anything with my arms for 3 months.

I want to do a hypertrophy programme for a while so that I can get the size to then move onto strength training and then power/plyometric training.

At the moment I have pretty ‘skinny’ legs in proportion to my upper body. I’d like to change this.

Cheers.

5

The title should say… “Leg STRENGTH for rugby”. The size will come around as a by product :wink:

I know the pain of shoulder surgery… I remember about 4 weeks after mine with my are still in a sling i was in the gym doing leg extenstions and curls.

A couple of suggestions…

-Leg Press (one leg, two leg, different foor positions)
-Body weight lunges
-Bulgarian squats
-Leg extenstions
-Leg curls
-Belt squats ( http://www.onlinesports.com/images/gia-we321.jpg attach plates instead of the bar)

Can you hold dumbbells in your hands?? I’m guessing you porbably can’t. But if you can I see no reason you couldn’t do lunges and Bulgarians with added weight.

My shoulder still bothers me from time to time with lower bar squats even 2 years post-op.

I know you probably know this but please, please, PLEASE take the shoulder recovery slow and steady. Don’t be afraid to get aggresive on the mobility and isolation side of things, just be ultra carfeul with the compound movemnts when you get back into them.

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[quote]Hanley wrote:
Don’t be afraid to get aggresive on the mobility and isolation side of things, just be ultra carfeul with the compound movemnts when you get back into them.[/quote]

Good advice!

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One legged squats and deadlifts
Step ups
Bodyweight squat jumps in sand

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Oh and you could also try some plyos. Not sure if they’ll give you and hypertrophy but they should make you that big quicker on the pitch. Which is after all, the only thing that matters!

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Yea cheers guys, I’m not gonna risk lifting anything until I feel confident to do so, therefore sauats and lunges aren’t apropriate for a while yet!
So leg extension, curls and presses. how many, how often, when, etc??? Really wanna focus on a hypertrophy programme.

10

[quote]Hanley wrote:
The title should say… “Leg STRENGTH for rugby”. The size will come around as a by product :wink:

I know the pain of shoulder surgery… I remember about 4 weeks after mine with my are still in a sling i was in the gym doing leg extenstions and curls.

A couple of suggestions…

-Leg Press (one leg, two leg, different foor positions)
-Body weight lunges
-Bulgarian squats
-Leg extenstions
-Leg curls
-Belt squats ( http://www.onlinesports.com/images/gia-we321.jpg attach plates instead of the bar)

Can you hold dumbbells in your hands?? I’m guessing you porbably can’t. But if you can I see no reason you couldn’t do lunges and Bulgarians with added weight.

My shoulder still bothers me from time to time with lower bar squats even 2 years post-op.

I know you probably know this but please, please, PLEASE take the shoulder recovery slow and steady. Don’t be afraid to get aggresive on the mobility and isolation side of things, just be ultra carfeul with the compound movemnts when you get back into them.[/quote]

I agree Hanley. Gaining size just for the sake of size is pretty stupid for most people in a performance aspect. You want to gain STRENGTH and size only if it makes you stronger.

Anyway any DB work, mostly unilateral will probably be beneficial. If you have a GHR by all means go at it. If not you can start by using a “natural” GHR movement using eccentrics and work until you can do the concentric as well.

Also, does the shoulder hurt when you are doing deadlift variations? If not, I would DEFINETLY put these in as well. It just depends on what causes you pain.

Hanley, one thing I disagree with you on is the being aggressive with mobility. Let it heal and don’t push the shoulder into a position where it hurts. And what do you mean by isolation? For the lower body or the shoulder?

One last tip, and perhaps the most valuable I can give having had shoulder surgery and not being able to get my arm behind the bar. Get one of Dave Draper’s Top Squat Devices.

http://topsquat.com/

It’s like 150 bucks and allows you to keep your arms in front of the bar…essentially a ghetto Safety Squat Bar.

-Matt

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[quote]pools wrote:
Yea cheers guys, I’m not gonna risk lifting anything until I feel confident to do so, therefore sauats and lunges aren’t apropriate for a while yet!
So leg extension, curls and presses. how many, how often, when, etc??? Really wanna focus on a hypertrophy programme.
[/quote]

What’s more important to you, being most explosive, hitting harder, and being stronger (being better at your sport) OR having big thighs?

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Bigger thighs to start with, this will help when it comes to do strength + power training as the bigger muscles wil produce a larger force and improve my balance and core stability.

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[quote]Matt McGorry wrote:

Hanley, one thing I disagree with you on is the being aggressive with mobility. Let it heal and don’t push the shoulder into a position where it hurts. And what do you mean by isolation? For the lower body or the shoulder?[/quote]

Obviously not where it “hurts” but an uncofortable stretch was ok in my own personal experience. My mobility only started to improve when I got aggresive on it.

I mean isolation as a general term… Like for example curls, raises rows etc, I’ve found you’re better able to concetrate on NOT hurting yourselves with these movements because they’re relatively simple compared to say a bench or military press where there’s alot going on. Catch my drift?

14

[quote]pools wrote:
Hi all, I am a second year sports science student @ university. I am currently on a rehab programme from shoulder surgery so won’t be able to train for upper body 3 months.
However I want to get in the gym and have been doing cycling to help stay fit.

I want to go on a hypertrophy programme for my legs aimed at rugby for pre-season in late August. In the past I have struggled to put mass and size on my legs.

I am 83kg, 19% body fat and I eat healthy (now!) and play scrum half.

However I can’t do squats and free weights, only on machines: leg press, leg extension, leg curl etc.

What would you recommend my programme to be like?
How many times a week?
What supplements and when?
And anything else you think is relevant.
Cheers.[/quote]

You are 2 years through a sports science course and you can’t make up your own leg program?

Well I now know what I WONT be doing after my personal trainer course this year.

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Gotcha.

[quote]Hanley wrote:
Matt McGorry wrote:

Hanley, one thing I disagree with you on is the being aggressive with mobility. Let it heal and don’t push the shoulder into a position where it hurts. And what do you mean by isolation? For the lower body or the shoulder?

Obviously not where it “hurts” but an uncofortable stretch was ok in my own personal experience. My mobility only started to improve when I got aggresive on it.

I mean isolation as a general term… Like for example curls, raises rows etc, I’ve found you’re better able to concetrate on NOT hurting yourselves with these movements because they’re relatively simple compared to say a bench or military press where there’s alot going on. Catch my drift?[/quote]

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[quote]Goodfellow wrote:
pools wrote:
Hi all, I am a second year sports science student @ university. I am currently on a rehab programme from shoulder surgery so won’t be able to train for upper body 3 months.
However I want to get in the gym and have been doing cycling to help stay fit.

I want to go on a hypertrophy programme for my legs aimed at rugby for pre-season in late August. In the past I have struggled to put mass and size on my legs.

I am 83kg, 19% body fat and I eat healthy (now!) and play scrum half.

However I can’t do squats and free weights, only on machines: leg press, leg extension, leg curl etc.

What would you recommend my programme to be like?
How many times a week?
What supplements and when?
And anything else you think is relevant.
Cheers.

You are 2 years through a sports science course and you can’t make up your own leg program?

Well I now know what I WONT be doing after my personal trainer course this year.[/quote]

I was going back and reading over the first post again and I saw the fact that he is a second year sports sciences major.

That’s terrible, man. What a waste of money.

-Matt

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I had shoulder surgery 7 weeks ago to repair a torn supraspinatus tendon.

I was back in the gym the next week dragging the sled, doing ghrs, back attack machine, abs, 1-leg squats, 45 hypers, and band GMs.

I woulda done leg presses but I lift in a PL gym, and we don’t have the space or need for one. If we had a belt squat machine i woulda used that. I then moved on to squatting with the SSB after 5-6 weeks, but I won’t be able to pull, bench, row, etc. for a little longer.

So I definitely know what you are going through. It sucks not being able to lift “normally” and heavy, but there are plenty of exercises you can do.

As far as your plan for a hypertrophy phase, followed by strength, then power or however the fuck it goes, that is stupid. Take ideas from conjugate training, and you will be able to train all aspects at the same time.

I don’t give a fuck how big my legs are, but by lifting heavy and all the volume from busting ass on accessory moves to strengthen my legs, i have plenty of size. This doesn’t mean shit to you, but the point is that getting stronger and training smart for your sport will give you whatever size you want.

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I have got my own program which I’m doing at the moment. I just thought that I might as well ask to see if I could get some more help, advice and exercises on here.
‘Every little counts’ as they say!

Noone is perfect and knows everything guys! In my experience the guys that think they know everything and don’t ask usually cock up, compared to those guys who do ask!

Thanks for your comments anyway!

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just focus on getting strong and you will see some size along with it. the stronger u are the more muscles you can recruit. You will look like you squat 400 pounds if you can squat 400 pounds