The Student Room Group

Rugby Fitness

Ok I have decided that I am going to play rugby next year for the uni I have the skills required as I played when I was slightly younger its just the fitness side of things now! Does anyone have any tips on how to be match fit I have around 8 months so plenty of time to accomplish this in!!!

But please people who know nothing about rugby the as Austin Healey put it being able to bench more doesn't make you a better player it just makes you bigger and slows you down but does nothing for your ability in the game!
Reply 1
Where do you play? A scrum half has different needs to a prop. At the end of the day though: speed, agility, strength, power and stamina are what you're looking for.

Get your endurance training in (in whatever form rocks your boat), run (practicing sprinting, jogging etc), agility training (which you can mix up a little), and strength training at the gym. You'll need to work out a routine that suits you, and how serious you're looking to be. Tbh, nothing's going to replace team training; if little else, get a friend to do it with you - throw and knock the ball about while running around the park etc.
what position are you looking to play?

i would prioritize endurance, agility and ball control as has been said. Will be easier to get higher gains in these areas that will impact on game performance than with strength training in 8 months.

whats your height/weight now?
If you're a forward, concentrate on strength training, especially the legs as that's where most of the body's power comes from. Well developed shoulder- and back- muscles are also a must I think. Rowing's always good for both.

Dunno what to suggest if you're a back though, I've played flanker most of my life so I suppose I'd suggest flexibility and speed...
i found quite short but intense sessions really helped me, i did about a minutes worth of stop start 100m sprints intially increasing that time 2 fold. this gave me quite a lot of explosive power towards the end where from sheer practise my muscle memory allowed me to sprint even though the lactic acid was pumping, its no substitute for endurance work but does give you quite a big advantage over others. with endurance it all depends on how fit you are right now. i would recommend you start off with walks (about 1-2k), once a day or half that but twice a day, do not jog or run until you've mastered walking becasue it will be biochemically less efficient than good walking, aka you'll burn less calories, tear less muscle (to create more) and run the risk of doing an ankle in. increase the pace and intensity of your walking before moving onto running, do not walk more than about 3k max as it will get boring and if you can walk >2k briskly you might as well get running. once running start small, you should be looking at doing about 1.5 miles in 8-12 minutes depending on how big you are, if you can't look towards walking longer distance to get some weight off. i really wouldn't recomend doing much weight training initially as you'll probably have to get rid of some fat if you've not trained recently, but once you feel confident get some presses done, as with the sprints keep them short and intense, the aim is to tear muscle to create more muscle, so don't think its an endurance thing where you try to get double figure reps, depending on how much you press you should be looking at about 3 sets of 10 presses. becasue you're actually tearing muscle you have to give the body time to create muscle so rest, don't weight train more than 3 times a week and even when doing weights try to keep up some running or walking at least, it'll help keep your stamina up, remember fail to prepare and you're preparing to fail, if you can't run the whole match you're done for so keep the running/walking up and move on to the weights only when you feel confident with your endurance training. good luck.
logical_zombie - paragraphs!

OP - sprints are great, and represent the arrangement of cardio exertion in an actual game; sprinting, walking/jogging/standing, sprinting, w/j/s, sprinting.. and so on.

At the gym, your squat and deadlift will have good carryover to game situations, and will make you much faster if you do it right. Don't piss around doing curls and side raises etc. Get strong.
Other **** like overhead pressing, pullups, benching, would likely be useful in gaining general resilience, injury resistence, etc.
Reply 6
You certainly have time on your side. What these guys have said about fitness being position specific is very true in some respects but not so in others I think. For instance, as a forward, I have to have stronger leg drive and shoulders than a back. But the general fitness principles are the same, you have to think of being a player first and your position second. So, it doesn't matter if you train with someone of the same position or someone who is in a completely different position as every player on the park needs to be able to last the 80 minutes with some still left in the tank. I find that for endurance small runs frequently building up to longer ones help, and when you feel ready suicides. By this I mean from half way to the 10 and back then to the 22 and back to half way, then to the 5 back to half way, to the try line back to half way and if you feel like it, to the dead ball line and back. Good luck!!
Teenie
from half way to the 10 and back then to the 22 and back to half way, then to the 5 back to half way, to the try line back to half way and if you feel like it, to the dead ball line and back. Good luck!!


presumably something like sprinting to the first line, then jogging back, then sprinting out to the next line, and jogging back, etc?
Reply 8
Thanks very much guys help is much appreciated!
Reply 9
Don't know where you play so can't really help you there.

My boyfriend has to train like 4/5 times a week for rugby,pretty rubbish and he's been at it for about 5 years! Hit the gym as much as possible.
focus on big compound movements such as squats and deadlifts
Original post by commandant
focus on big compound movements such as squats and deadlifts



Original post by Rinsed
You want some dedicated strength sessions, certainly. These should be full body sessions using big compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, overhead press, bench press, chip ups, et cetera. You also want to increase fitness (obviously) and this can be done by various forms of cardio, of which interval training and circuits (whether outdoors or in the gym) are far preferred to low intensity steady state. When do you ever run in the same direction for ages in a rugby match? Hill sprints are also excellent for both fitness and speed.


This thread is over 7 years old lol