I have just watched some rugby players work out in my local gym and feel forced to write this series of articles on strength training for rugby.
What should be obvious to anyone with the brain capacity higher than that of demented house fly is that in order to get strong you actually have to lift heavy weights and exert a level of effort in the process.
When I observe rugby players doing smith machine bench press super setted while talking with his mate, I start to twitch like an epileptic with turrets.
Let me make it perfectly clear. When you are trying to gain strength for rugby or, for that matter, any sport. You have to train with enormous intensity and purpose, otherwise you are completely wasting your time.
If at any time you arrive for a workout and you know that you can’t give it 100%, then you are better off leaving it. Always remember this quote
“If you can’t GAIN don’t TRAIN.”
There are three things of huge importance in determining a very productive workout : what you have eaten that day, your level of hydration and how much stress you have in your life. I will go into these subjects more in later articles.
I see many mistakes in countless programs, but I will focus on one of these in each article. For this article it will be
DON’T DO TOO MANY EXERCISES IF YOU WANT TO DEVELOP ATHLETIC TYPE STRENGTH. If you want a bodybuilder’s physique, do as many as you like but you will get SMASHED on the rugby field. I guarantee you that.
To best explain the way I train rugby players and develop their physicality very quickly, I will give you two example all over weights programs. You can then see the SIMPLICITY of my program Trust me though. It took me 20 years to come to this conclusion.
Allover Program 1
A = 10 X 1 – 5 Snatch Pulls Off The Floor
B1 = 4 X 20 Reverse Hypers
B2 = 4 X 20 Hanging Leg Raises
Allover Program 2
A = 10 X 1 – 5 Front Squats (arse to the grass)
B1 = 4 X 6 – 8 Incline Bench Press
B2 = 4 X 6 – 8 Towel Chin Ups
That’s it. Doesn’t look much on paper, but trust me. If you train like an animal, the progress you will make will be phenomenal if you get you nutrition, hydration, pre – during and post workout nutrition right.
