Rugby Conditioning

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
21

to make rugby conditioning real simple you need to fart lek either on arunning track a rower or in a pool. if you then incoportate burppees/ mountain climbers/ box jumps into the rtest periods you will be there. as well as a single 40min run per week.

so fitness should be 3x week. i as above is a single run and two are fart lek sessions mix them up

e.g. weeks 1-4
session 1
500meter row x 15 with 30second rest this will work out at the start to just under 40 mins (the length of a half).

aim at start for less than 2 mins then once you have done 15 allowing initially for a 30second rest period and then gradually knockin this down 5 seconds each time till rests are 15 seconds long start to aim to knock 5 seconds off of each ‘sprint’.

then once you are at 15 seconds breaks and doing the sprints in sub 1.40secs. addin some extra conditioning depending on which muscles are not sore from your lifting schedule.

e.g. if legs are not sore do 10-15 box jumps straight after the row. then take your rest and repeat. if legs are sore but chest isnt do push ups. if back isnt sore do chin ups. if nothing is sore clean and jerks or snatches are good.

then sessions 2

will be starting at 400 meter runs aim to get sub 1min with 30seconds rest doing 25 of them before you start to decrease your rests.

this is tuff mentally more than anything. when starting you need to see what you average 400meter time is an adjust the amount accordingly. so if you are averaging 1min 30secs (still take the 30 second break) but aim for 20.

i.e. never go for longer than 40mins and never have longer than 30min rests. it will come belive me.

once you are at this level then as above add in other exercises after the sprint and before the rest or before the sprint.

for an alternationt o this dya and belive me one that will make you puke is to do this up and down hills. if you are then make enough piggy back some one of your weight up and down hills. it is what we had to do in the off season at the end of every other training session.

session 3- swim 50meter sprints and 20 sec rests. and continue. tbh this is always my weakest i am a pretty poor swimmer in comparision to running and rowing so time so i aways did very poorly in this. but i liked to incorporate it. push yourself set your times and distances and breaks and then add in the extra work before or after the sprints. put press ups are clearly the safest option as the pool is wet so you dont want to be jumping about the place. if you get me.

well that was my off season conditon programme it beasted me reguarly i can rmember main row/ sprint sessions i didnt puke but hell i was never ever out of breathe on the field.

In terms of strength i dont know how you going but clealry you should be building core strength in bench, deads and squats for the 2-3 months after the season then for the 2-3 months before the next season pressuming that the off deaon in america is 4-6months use your strnegth to imporve the clean/ jerk and snatch/ nox jump aspect of your training. with low to medium repage and shortening the rest periods closing in on the season

hope this helps. i played in a top rugby academy in the uk but quit to do pre-med (i think that what americans call it) and then only played college rugby form then until now.

hope it all goes well and tbh it is the best hgame youw ill ever play.

22

In college I bought an audiocassette called “Speedplay” that’s lying around my storage unit…it has a couple different speeds (walk, jog, 3/4, max) and gives you times to run at those speeds, and mixes it up just like a game. Also tells you to change directions if you’re using a field and not just going around a track.

Doing that 2x a week for 40 minutes made up for the tremendous lack of conditioning work my team did.

23


I agree nothing can be gained in two weeks - except fatigue - so whatever you do needs the greatest transfer! At least that way you get something back - in terms of learning skills - you can teach a kid to ride a bike in a lot less time than 2 weeks - so I suspect you can improve your passing and catching ability greatly in this time.

The less time you have available (both longditudinaly - and within a microcyle) - the more you need to do specific work?

24

when i was at school we used to do a killer version of pyramid shuttle sprints that i thought was really effective so thought id share.

you need quite a few tackle bags, ones that are rougly human height and not wieghted at one end so that they can be easily picked up.

the work is done in teams of 3, between the try line and the 22. one person carries the tackle bag and 2 people run the shuttles. the two people doing the drill will run two pyramid shuttles between the try line and 22, stopping and returning at the 5m line, the mid point between the 5m and 22 and the 22. so tryline to 5m, back to tryline, to midpoint, back to tryline, to 22, back to tryline, then back down the pyramid.

however each player on half of the pyramid tackles the bag at each point so the first person tackling will tackle at the 5, midpoint and 22, then finish the 2nd half of the pyramid normally. whereas the 2nd person running the drill will tackle the bag on the 2nd half of his pyramid, so at the 22, then midpoint then 5m line. obviously the tackle bag carrier also gets a pretty active ‘rest’ period whilst doing this as he has to make sure that the tackle bag is in the right place. the 2nd person tackling will need to stagger his start, probably going when the 1st runner is leaving the tryline after his first tackle will be a sufficient stagger.

a rest period of 1 min would probably be sufficient with the 2 people in each team alternating on who was carrying the tackle bag.

i found this to be an excellent drill as picking yourself off the floor always seemed to make it that much harder and exploding into the tackle bag requires extra effort compared to a normal shuttle.

all the best for your season

ps i think a mate of mine who i went to school with has just graduated from your school and played rugby, seb gibbs, u know him?

25

one really and i mean really tough drill for stanima is this one:

sprint 4 lengths of the pitch in 88secs with a 88 sec break followed by 1 lenght in 15 secs with a 15sec break followed by 3 lengths in 66secs with a 66sec break followed by 1 length in 15 sec with a 15 sec break followed by 2 lengths in 45 secs with a 45 sec break followed by 1 length in 15 secs with a 15sec break repeat the last one 3 more times.

thats one set, start off with 2 and increase the sets weekly. my team would work up to six by the end of the season which roughly calculates to 9km.