Rugby = Catabolic?

Sup guys, i recently joined my college’s rugby club/team. We practice only 2x’s a week. But, the practices lasts ~3 hrs and I usually will eat 1-2 hr before practice. I’m thinking about taking BCAA’s or protein shakes (pretty much pills and liquids) whenever coach gives us a break. Any other alternatives or ideas?

Surge Workout Fuel.

It’s made a much bigger difference than I ever expected.

It’s okay man, you can go 5 hours in between meals. You won’t melt.

just have a moderate carb high protein meal after training…

x2 on the SWF, I usually finish sipping as I’m stretching, about 10 min. before we get into it.

And eat a big meal straight after practice, preferably in your rugby shorts at the dining hall while yelling obscenities.

bring a gatorade (or any other water/sugar/salt product) mixed with bcaa’s and throw it back during water breaks. I would avoid the protein during practice because it will just dehydrate you, but throw down a shake immediately after.

You’ll be fine, my mates play and train far more than that, are pro, get paid huge amounts of $$, and i don’t know any single one of them that uses either surge workout fuel, BCAA’s during, or whatever else.

Not that they aren’t good ideas or anything, i’m just saying nothing bad will happen if you don’t.

h2o.
I totally agree with stevo…suck it up. the water that is.

At the level I play at I’m usually training between 2 and 4.5 hours every day of the week between weights,skills,speed,fitness and field sessions.It’ll take your body a few weeks to adjust to the rigours of training if it’s intense and you haven’t done it before,but once you keep on top of your nutrition you’ll actually find it quite easy to gain weight.

Usually when I come back for preseason I gain 2 or 3 kilos in the first 3 or 4 weeks because your body’s being put under such stress that it has to respond.

To say that rugby is a catabolic activity is ridiculous.

[quote]pasteee wrote:
Sup guys, i recently joined my college’s rugby club/team. We practice only 2x’s a week. But, the practices lasts ~3 hrs and I usually will eat 1-2 hr before practice. I’m thinking about taking BCAA’s or protein shakes (pretty much pills and liquids) whenever coach gives us a break. Any other alternatives or ideas?[/quote]
Just hook up some cheap protein/carb drink when you can during training. There was a strongman competitor on here (Brad Cardoza) that would train a few hours a day sometimes, and he was practically living off Prolab’s gainer. Search “Stones and Tires” for his thread.

Of course, if your practices are more like games in intensity levels, might want to stick to a just carbohydrate drink. I know running backline plays in practice for 40 minutes in practice is a lot different than playing half of a game! So, I’m sure you can figure that out.

[quote]wigsa wrote:
To say that rugby is a catabolic activity is ridiculous.[/quote]

Dude, unless you have an IV drip of protein while practicing lifts for lineouts for a couple hours at a time, almost all (if not all) physical activity is catabolic for the duration.

I have complete trouble maintaining weight during season. Normally during breaks and stuff, I’ll shoot up 10-15 pounds in a week.