Sonny Bill Williams
If you had the chance to train the highest-profile Rugby / Rugby League athlete in the world who's just signed a record deal at 34, what would you do?
No Rugby / League player has ever prepared with these methods.
It's a risk but it's also a great opportunity.
Time will tell the story about the work we do.
Background
While everything you learn on this site is in the spirit of what Sonny is doing over the 4-week camp. There are a few details specific to Sonny.
History
Sonny's knee, shoulder, broken shin, and Achilles injuries are well documented. He's had many knee operations.
Future
The body is designed to adapt and perform.
This program is to stimulate that adaptation and facilitate new levels of performance.
This program was put together with Ben Patrick, the top athletic strength coach in the world today. Ben is a partner of RMVT.
SBW Strength
Split
We train 6 days per week.
A quad-dominant day, a hamstrings dominant day, and an upper-body day.
We repeat this cycle twice each week with 1 day of rest.
Quad Day.
As you know Sonny has had knee challenges.
Challenges are to be overcome and we were constantly tweaking and adjusting range, load, reps, etc. to get the most out of each session and see what the response would be like.
This was our big money day. If the knee is great the door is open for a great season and beyond.
We put all the knee loading into this day which was repeated twice a week to respect the cycle of healing. This was the day for running and jumping as well as the heavy lifting.
1. Reverse Sleds / Reverse Deadmill + Skills (Rugby / Juggling)
5-10 minutes of sleds
The goal here is to get massive blood flow into the quad muscles and create a growth and repair stimulus to the knee. Getting a build-up of lactic acid in the area is part of the goal here before we get into the heavy lifting.
It burns.
That's what we want.
We used sleds and the treadmill turned off throughout the camp.
The reverse sleds also burn a bunch of fat and prepare the specific strength we need to be able to slow down (decelerate) on the field.
We had some tough starts to sessions with these on the driveway of BMF (Body Mind Factory) Burleigh.
2. Patrick Step-Ups (60kg - 120kg)
Build to a top set over around 5 sets.
The Patrick step-up was invented by Ben Patrick to simplify the "Reverse Step-Up" game so that anyone can get super strong knees.
We started off around 5 inches getting up to 120kg over the first 2 sessions for 10 reps. Since then we've been increasing the height to get more range out of the ankles.
This movement is great for improving ankle range of motion and knee function.
Athletes need strong dorsiflexion. That is the ability to produce force with the knee way over the toe.
Sonny is progressing well on these. They have a decent skill element to them that is important for all running athletes.
Getting crazy strong in this movement opens up better athleticism as well as knee protection and the ability to stop.
3. ATG Split Squats
Build to a heavy 3-5 over 6-8 sets
Again we're working to get the knee way over the toe. This time we're also going to get the calf to touch the hamstring.
It's important you post your technique on this one and watch the video a few times. It's not common to see it executed well initially.
This movement is key for internal knee remodeling and regeneration.
4. Romanian Rhythm Squats
3x50
These ones came in after a couple of weeks.
We're going heavy now and working the whole chain of force production similar to a jump but you're GLUED to the ground.
Drive-up onto the toes and find the elastic energy in your body to make it work.
5. Sissy Squats (KOT Style)
25-50 reps
Get deep, use assistance if you need to.
You don't need weight for these you just need to keep fighting for more range and getting those knees all the way forward.
Increase range of motion and consecutive repetitions.
PRO-TIP > Think about the movement like a glute bridge or hip thrust especially as you come up out of the bottom of the movement.
Keep focussing on quality ahead of just forcing sloppy reps since bending at the hips and shifting the weight forward completely change the movement.
These will recalibrate the length of your patella and quad tendons and make a huge impact on you knee health and athleticism!
BONUS'
> 5-10m sprints
> Non-motorised treadmill sprints (top speed or 30 seconds for distance)
> Vertical or horizontal jump testing
Hamstring / Glutes / Back Day
1. Sled work
Weighted walking, bent-over glute, and hamstring dead-mill.
2A. Seated Good-Mornings (Top set of 3-10 with or without a pause)
Building in weight. Abs to bench is the goal. Focus on loading into mobility.
This movement trains outer range glutes. The same qualities that you need to accelerate hard and fast.
Mastering this movement is one of the key movements for athletic performance with durability.
You want to arch hard into this movement, stretch the glutes and hamstrings and keep the back tight. ANTI-flexion must be strong.
- Expect these to feel somewhere between horrible and horrendous on day one if your background is standard weightlifting. Keep at them. Add a little more weight. Stay tight and get them pumping!
2B. Cable Hip Flexor Pull-Ins ( 3-20 reps per set, one tough set as a drop-set or rest-pause alternating left to right legs)
What goes DOWN must come UP!
You want to be world-class at recovering your leg just as much as you are with putting force into the floor!
The bilateral version here targets the lower abs while the unilateral version hits more into psoas. Both are great and work well with the seated good mornings.
Get crazy strong in these just as you would get crazy strong in your squats.
TARGETS - 50% bodyweight x20 double leg, 25% bodyweight x10 single leg.
- Coaches Tip - We generally did fairly easy sets on these while building up the seated good mornings and then burned out on them after.
3. Nordic Curls
Top Speed, single foot take-offs, ACL prevention, and hamstring injury prevention.
This is a key movement to improve.
How strong can you get?
This is the question worth answering.
Get CRAZY strong on this movement.
Form > Pause in the bottom for 2 seconds and come out hard with everything you've got. While strict reps also make sense in some situations the super aggressive repetitions are what we want.
Key Concept >> IMPULSE >> sports performance is about what you can do in a given instant. It's FRACTIONS of seconds of force production and stiffness that make all the difference even more so than
TARGET > 10 reps on the flat bench
- Coaches Tip - Actually we did these before seated good mornings some days and after others. They are a neurally demanding movement which makes them good to go first but it's also great to do them after the seated good mornings when you're nice and warm. If you've had issues with the hamstring insertions then doing them later in the session could be a bit safer.
4a. Jefferson Curls
Potentially the most controversial of all the movements in the program.
Loaded spinal flexion. Yes or no?
The question is:
> Does life require loaded spinal flexion?
> Does athletic performance require loaded spinal flexion?
In reality, we MUST be strong with a round back. If we train it in the gym or even within wrestling/stone lifting etc the back will be healthier.
The great thing about the Jefferson curl is that you can progressively load under TRACTION rather than COMPRESSION.
Like the Seated Goodmorning, this movement will progress quickly when carefully executed with focus.
Form >
Work on flexing vertebrae by vertebrae and the same on the way back up. Take your time and feel the whole movement from top to bottom. Lock the knees hard.
Keep your weight on the ball of the foot.
Increase range of movement over time.
Setup with a box height that challenges you to be able to touch the floor.
Key Concept >> Nature dictates. We've been lifting round back through all history. Work progressively to exercise your evolutionary right.
TARGETS > Bodyweight for 10 reps.
4b. Strict Toes To Bar
Use stall bars or a barbell at lower back height to keep the movement strict.
This movement is brutally effective for bringing up ab and hip-flexor strength.
Form >
The finish position is with the feet above the head or as close to it as possible.
Bend the legs if required to get to the feet overhead.
Straighten the legs and lower under control.
Key Concept >>
Where is this movement hardest?
Why is that important here?
- Coaches Tips - Some days this movement had more emphasis.
Others are the cable pull-ins. These ones are tough so we adjusted the intensity to fit in with the session and the week.
MOBILITY
SKILL
Upper Body Day
Sonny has had pec tear surgery and a serious AC injury in recent years.
Our goal has been to increase range and strength around the shoulders. Sonny's arms and lats are well developed compared to his chest.
We also wanted to gain pressing strength and behind the neck range of motion.
Sled Work
Yes, we still did sled work for circulation and to support the healing process without eccentric loading.
1. RMVT Curls
Laying on your back on a flat bench or low incline curl from the hips, side, and above the head to a snatch-type position. Load decreases as you go higher.
Key Concept > Muscles that are tight and weak rip. We want LONG & STRONG muscles to increase resilience. These movements will impact the chest and biceps like you may never have felt before.
TARGET > 20% body weight for 10 is a good weight for the front and side repetitions. 10% for the snatch position although this estimation might go up once people have been doing it for a significant period of time.
2. Behind The Neck Press
3. Chin-ups / Pull-ups
4. Extended Push-Ups
5. French Press
6i. Seated External Rotations
6ii. Trap 3 Raises
6iii. Seated Snatch
6iv. Powell Raises
The week
We trained 6-days a week.
Testing but staying fairly fresh.
We made great gains week to week with less gains towards the end of the block on some movements as you would expect.
Sonny could feel a big difference in his legs and was feeling overall more confident in his body through the camp.
With sport, there is only so much that we can control but we know that much of what we can control we worked hard on and improved over these 4 weeks.
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