Ok, so due to a whole bunch of crap (mainly poor excuses and a nagging back injury) my fitness levels aren’t where I’d like them to be for the upcoming rugby season. Strength levels are ok, and I lost a bit of fat in the off season, but my speed and endurance are currently god awful (more like non-existent).
I play mostly prop and second row, so I’m not really looking to burn by anyone while dancing and spinning and doing whatever it is the backs do before losing the ball in a tackle, but I rather would like to be able to play a full half (or maybe even a full match) without the necessity of oxygen and an ambulance (I’d feel bad making the poor medics lift my fat ass up into the ambo).
So here’s my question, if you had to pick your top three favorite conditioning exercises for building up endurance, both muscular and cardiovascular, for a sport like rugby, what would they be? Please, feel free to be specific and elaborate. i.e. “sprinting” doesn’t really help much, whereas “5x5 sprints with a set each at 10, 15, 22, 50, and 100 metres four times a week” is a bit more useful.
Are you returning to the same club you were previously with? Or is this a new level for you?
If it’s the same club, what style does your team play? For example, my old university club had a small pack so we used to move the ball laterally throughout the first half and wear out the props on the other team.
Overall as I see it you can structure your preparation in one of two ways:
If there are concerns about making the team (or it’s a really short season), train for try-outs. For this I’d try to figure out what you will be doing at the try-outs and mimic those activities (ie. does the coach train using long jogs or interval sprint work. Is he concerned with set pieces or the flow of the match).
You know you’re on the team. In this situation train for the mid/end of the season. You mentioned a bad back, work on fixing it. Think of other weaknesses you have and fix them.
Probably not what you were looking for more details would help. If we all said to go do X sprint intervals, but then your coach is concerned with endurance work and moving the game slowly it won’t really help.
thanks guys, I’ve read the articles mentioned before and read getstrength.com pretty regularly, but thanks anyway. Regarding ruggerlife’s response, I have roughly 7 hours now before practice starts. I’m playing in a tens tourney on the 18th and then we have two preseason matches before the regular season starts on September 8th.
I guess maybe I wasn’t clear in what I was asking for. I already know my fitness is going to suck for the first few weeks of the season (I’ll probably play B-side/second XV for a few matches), so I’ll be aiming for mid/end of season to really shine. I was really just curious as to what methods other people found worked best for building up endurance and speed quickly.
Regarding our style of play, I’m not sure yet. Our old coach retired after last season, so I’m not sure what our system will be like this year. Our pack is usually pretty big (750 or 800 lbs in the front row alone most the time). In the past we’ve generally stuck to a very straightforward game.
Crash ball 2 or 3 times up the middle, clean the rucks out quickly, and eventually spin it wide hoping to catch the overlap on the wings (or, in reality, spin it out wide so we can break up the tedium of rucking with a scrum down after the inevitable knock on).
Well with 5 hours left, my best advise is don’t eat anything you don’t want to taste (again) in 5 1/2 hours!
That said, I’ll assume you guys have at least 2 practices a week plus a game.
This is what I’d do:
Overall key will likely be diet, not specifically dropping fat, but just make sure your getting adequate protein, re-hydrating and eating some complex carbs (rice/pasta/whole grains) after practice times and for breakfast.
The adequate nutrition will aid in recovery and dictate what progress you can make. Be sure to eat a good breakfast and a good meal before bed.
Run intervals (and/or hills for variety). Assuming practice is knocking you out, fit in 2 interval sessions a week for about 20 minutes each. Something like 20 sec sprint/ 40 sec rest. 20 sprints may be too much at first so either change the intervals (15/45) or make the session 30 minutes with a 10 minute rest (walking) in the middle.
If you ever have an easy practice (such as all game strategy) do your session on the field after practice, it’ll show dedication to the coach.
Lifting. I always ended up lifting 3 times/week during season. I’d train legs the day after game day. I was tired and they hurt but it ensured my legs were always fresh for the match. Then I’d split up my upper body into any two groups. Lifting is mainly to maintain during season, but it could also help your back.
If this is too much with the sprint work and the practice schedule go to a 2 days/week upper/lower split.
Get sleep. Just don’t let sleep interfere with the post-match social - you need priorities.
[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
Well with 5 hours left, my best advise is don’t eat anything you don’t want to taste (again) in 5 1/2 hours!
[/quote]
hehe, good point, especially considering it’s 90 degrees out right now. Rather wishing I’d forgone the tuna for lunch. Nothing worse than half digested fish taste.
Heh, more likely I let the Saturday post match social interfere with the sunday lifting (or on rare occasions, the tuesday practice). I tried doing a 3 day lifting schedule like that last season, but I think it was too much and may have actually been part of the reason behind some injuries. I’m thinking I might just forgo any heavy direct leg work in the gym during the season.
Between 2 practices, a match, and usually one or two other days of running/sprinting (or sometimes forwards scrum practice) my legs get pretty beat up. I know I need to keep doing work on my back, as it’s been neglected with the injury, so maybe I’ll just work low back, core strength, and upper body in the gym and see what happens with my legs just from rugby specific work.
