FREE S&C Session – 13th Mar 2013 – **ONLY 6 PLACES**

Are you an athlete looking to improve your performance?

On the 13th March 2013 @ 8.30pm – we are giving away 6 free spaces* available to athletes from any sports who are keen to improve their performance.

If you are interested in getting one of the spots and joining us for an hour of high quality training fill in the form below.

There’s only 6 places so when they are gone, they’re gone!

*Offer only available to non-members, and you will be required to complete a PAR-Q form to assess your suitability to the session.

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Upcoming event: Easter Proformance Rugby Camp

Earlier in the week we announced the date for the Easter Proformance Rugby Camp – Thursday 4th April – which sees the camps extended in to a full day format following lots of feedback from the February Half Term Camp requesting it.

The move to a full day programme gives us scope to cover a lot more which we are really excited about.

We will be covering new areas in the rugby skills components and the strength and conditioning components. Over the next few weeks we’ll be putting some posts up about what to expect from the camp.

Here are a couple of the new sessions that will be appearing:

RUGBY SKILLS

TACKLING 

The most requested element since we started the camps has arrived!

Jack will be delivering the session focused on improving your tackling technique and contact management, bringing his experiences from the Rugby 7s circuit and Premiership and National League rugby to help you improve this crucial area of your game.

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

SPEED TRAINING

As well as building on the strength training technique, James will be delivering a speed training session focusing on improving your sprint technique.

Attendees will learn simple and effective drills you can continue to apply in your own training to improve your speed.

James will also cover multi-directional movements that are crucial to evading opponents and breaking the gain line.

Once again there are a limited number of places available in order to keep a maximum of 8 players per coach to ensure all attendees get plenty of time with the coaches.

Also included in the full day package is a FREE Proformance Training T-Shirt!

TO BOOK NOW CLICK HERE

So you don’t have time to train?

OK…this is something I’ve heard many times over during my time as a PT and S&C coach – I don’t have time to train.

I’m currently reading Dan John’s Never Let Go – he’s a man that has an incredibly busy schedule between work, coaching, training & of course his family.

I can definitely identify with him as I have a similar level of commitments to maintain each week!

Bottom line is, if you want to achieve something with your training you’ve got to put some time in.

BUT you don’t have to grind out hours and hours in the gym to get results, IF you train at a high intensity (with planned recovery of course) and you are on point with your nutrition you can get great results.

One of the things I love about the book is Dan’s simple approach to training. Some times just hitting a single lift for 20-40 minutes is all he’ll do if that’s all the time permits, an approach I’ve used in my own training with some decent results.

However, in the book he outlines one session that I think could be the ultimate high intensity short duration work out, for the person who claims they don’t have time to exercise.

The 4 minute Front Squat Tabata

I tried it out today and my thighs and glutes are still aching 6 hours later, and at the time I was absolutely gassed flat on my back on the platform immediately after.

Here it is if you want to give it a try:

Do make sure you have warmed up – I use this sequence every time

Load a bar with 50-60% of your Front Squat RM (you may want to air on the side of caution first time out) – I’d definitely stick with the Front Squat as when you fatigue it’s easy to drop it back in the rack.

Here’s the programme:

20 sec Front Squats

10 sec Rest (put the bar back in the rack every time)

20 sec Front Squats

10 sec Rest

20 sec Front Squats

10 sec Rest

20 sec Front Squats

10 sec Rest

20 sec Front Squats

10 sec Rest

20 sec Front Squats

10 sec Rest

20 sec Front Squats

10 sec Rest

20 sec Front Squats

10 sec Rest

That’s it.

4 minutes of high intensity quad burning and lung busting work – I’d recommend using a HIIT timer available on most android / iPhones and keep it strict on the rest.

Aim to get 8 reps per 20 seconds

Now you can never claim you don’t have enough time for a good work out!

Enjoy! 🙂

If you want to check out Dan John’s Never Let Go – Here it is on Amazon – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Never-Let-Go-Philosophy-Learning/dp/1931046387/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361140598&sr=8-2

A Big Thanks to All Camp Attendees & Parents!

Wednesday saw the first Proformance Rugby Camps of 2013 and they were a great success!

We would like to thank all the parents and players for deciding to come and join us for training on the day.

The two groups that joined us showed a superb work ethic and desire to improve their rugby skills and physical fitness and were a pleasure to work with.

We will be announcing the next camp later this week which is to run in the Easter school holidays.

The camp will run over a FULL day with the extra time available used to cover other key areas including:

• Speed & agility technique
• Evading opponents & breaking the gain line
• Performance testing – to monitor progress and development
• Tackling & contact management

Keep an eye on the site or follow us on Twitter @proformanceteam or ‘Like’ us on Facebook to catch the camp details as soon as they go live.

 

 

 

A wheat-free option for Pancake Day

COCONUT PANCAKES

 

Enjoy these Pancakes made with coconut flour are just as delicious with a pat of butter and fresh berries as pancakes made with wheat flour.

 

Inspired by a recipe from Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint Cookbook, with a few of my own optional extras added in!

 

The ingredients:

 

3 eggs

3 tablespoons melted butter or coconut oil

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut milk

½ teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup coconut flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ cup or so water

 

 

Optional extras: fruits, berries, flakes of coconut, cinnamon, almond butter, sweet freedom

 

This mixture will make approx 10 small pancakes, with this recipe it’s better to go with smaller diameter pancakes e.g. 3-4 inches as they break up when you go to flip them!

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

 

1) Whisk together eggs, oil, coconut milk, honey and vanilla.

 

2) In another bowl, stir together dry ingredients then add the wet ingredients, stirring until smooth.

 

3) Add the water to thin the batter out until it reaches your desired consistency.

 

4) In a well-oiled or buttered frying pan, cook pancakes until browned on both sides (approx 3 minutes per side).

 

Enjoy!

 

Check out the other great recipes in the Primal Blueprint Cookbook – a solid investment if you are looking for healthy recipes to get leaner

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Primal-Blueprint-Cookbook-Grain-Free-Gluten-Free/dp/0982207727/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360626332&sr=1-3

 

Athlete Monitoring…a work in progress

Following the article I posted on The Importance of Recovery I’ve been working on a monitoring system to use with athletes to track their wellness, nutrition and training load for various components of their training/playing schedule (calculated using Athlete’s session RPE x duration).

I’m sure there are mobile apps out there to monitor all of these variables but sometimes you can’t beat the simple pen & paper option!

I’ve seen & used a number of different diaries and templates in my time as an strength & conditioning coach but I thought it might be useful to plot everything on to a single chart to make it easier to identify patterns and links between the different areas.

In particular I wanted to be able to clearly highlight to athletes links between poor nutrition and inappropriately loaded training and their wellness scoring.

The wellness and training impulse (TRIMP) is a system I learnt whilst interning at Bristol Rugby under Tom McLaughlin (now Head of Physical Preparation at Connacht Rugby) it was a system he employed with great effect monitoring planned vs actual TRIMP scores.

I’ve adapted this system to include nutrition as some for some of the athletes I have worked with this is a problem area. I think it’s use could be combined with a regular jump test (e.g. drop jump, standing broad jump or vertical jump) that could be monitored over time to get an objective measure of their physical preparedness to undertake a specific training session when compared to their previous best jump recorded.

Below is the chart template  – this particular template was put together for a group of young tennis players – but I’d be interested to get feedback from anyone else. If anyone would like a copy of the excel/PDF files to try this out, drop me an email on james@proformance.pro

Proformance Rugby Camp – Early Bird Discount Extended!

The spaces have been filling up super quick on the Proformance Rugby Camp for the 13th February.

We’ve decided to extend our Early Bird Discount until Friday 8th February so everyone has got an extra week to take advantage of this great deal!

There are a limited number of places left for the day so ensure you book now so you don’t miss out! Click the link below for more info & bookings:

PROFORMANCE RUGBY CAMP FEB 13TH