"The way to build muscle mass is to put your muscle under a certain amount of load over a period of time.” Images: Stefan Postles

Season Iron

“Once the season begins we really start looking at building strength. During the pre-season we’re building bulk as well as strength, but come the season our

main focus is building strength; decreasing the reps, increasing the weight, really building our max figures. So we’ll often drop as low as a two or three-rep set – all to increase our max strength. “On top of that, we’re also looking at incorporating a few power exercises. With that we’re looking at doing explosive movements, like a power clean, a hang power snatch, a power shrug or a squat with bands on the end of the bar so we’re getting max load at the top of the exercise and easing off as we sink into the squat. “Essentially we have these three elements to our programs in-season – hypertrophy, max strength and power – and it all goes in cycles. For example, if you keep doing power weights for an extended period of time, you’re going to lose a lot of your muscle bulk. It’s about balancing the three elements. So during the season we’ll mix a couple of power exercises – likea power clean and a power snatch – and then bring in, say, a back squat, loading your legs, and a bench press, loading your chest. That’s the normal set-up that runs throughout the season. But in saying that, we still have the option to increase or decrease any one of those elements. So, }for example, if you think you’re not getting enough power, you can substitute an exercise – say, do power band squats instead of normal free weight squats. You can change your program to suit what you need.“Damian Marsh, our trainer at the Brumbies, has written some great programs, and with these programs we’ve always got a couple of options on any given day. It’s always our choice. If we feel that we’re losing weight, then there’re always options to do hypertrophy exercises. If we feel we’re blowing-out our upper body and back, then he’s got programs where we can focus on our lower body. At the moment, I think, all the boys are pretty well covered in all areas.”

The Stats

“My max bench at the moment is 155kg for one rep, and my max squat is 200kg for three reps. If, say, I was on a hypertrophy program, I’d back that weight off to around 130-140kg for eight to ten on the squats, and on the bench I’d probably push out 125kg for eight and work back from there.“I’d like to think I’m one of the strongest boys in the squad, but there are certainly a number of boys who push and pull more than I do. Clyde Rathbone (Brumbies winger) always dominates the power stuff, and ‘Hendo’ (Brumbies prop Nic Henderson) is a great all-rounder with a big 160kg bench and a massive squat as well. Then you’ve got a bloke like Alfie Mafi (Brumbies winger) who’s quite short so he can bench about 160kg when he only weighs about 85kg. All the boys have got areas of strength and areas of weakness – it’s just a matter of building up those weaknesses until they level out. You don’t want a bloke benching 150 and only squatting 110.”

Supplementary Stuff

“Diet’s a very personal and individual thing. A lot of blokes, for example, can’t eat too many carbs or they’ll blow out. But my diet’s pretty normal: a big breakfast of cereal, two sandwiches at lunch, meat and veg for dinner. But, of course, during the pre-season I’m taking a lot of supplements like protein powder, creatine [an organic acid that supplies energy to muscles, particularly for explosive movements] and beta-alanine [a naturally occurring amino

acid that increases both aerobic and anaerobic endurance] just to make my body accept the workload I’m putting into it.“I usually take supplements all year round, but I’ve found it helps to have back-off periods: so I build up the supplements, then back them off, build up, back off. It’s just so my body doesn’t get used to the amount of supplements I’m putting into it. The beta-alanine I take every day. The protein powder is a muscle builder and a recovery agent, so I mainly take that after sessions to build muscle fibre, although sometimes I’ll also take a bit of protein powder on board before I work out, just to get my muscles aware that they’re going to be worked hard.”