Elitefts™ Sunday Edition

“No one has the right to be amateur in the area of physical preparation.”

-Author Unknown

Forget the complicated split training programs. Forget the long workouts. If you want to be a successful amateur player, you need a program that will get you stronger and will probably get you faster as a by-product. You are not a professional, so you only want to train two or three times a week. You can even do this in a home/garage gym if you set it up correctly and organize a few of your mates to help out. Proper conditioning can take you from a guy taking up space on the bench to a leader on the team. just because it is a hobby does not mean you shouldn't want to kick some ass in the time you have available.

Quite simply, you use the exercises that deliver the most effect for your time, these are all compound large muscle group exercises. The program can be used year-round to good effect, both off-season (three sessions per week) and in-season (two sessions per week). If you are not familiar with these movements, find someone to teach/coach you initially. Get the technique correct from the very first session and always maintain the technique before loading. If you have to alter the technique to lift the load, the load is currently too heavy for you.

The program is just three exercises each training day plus a core movement at completion (or start, it is up to you). The movements fall into one of three categories, Pull, Push and Squat.

Training Options Pull Push Squat
1 Power Clean Split Jerk Front Squat
2 Power Snatch Push Press Back Squat
3 Deadlift Bench Press Sprinters Squat
4 Clean Pulls Incline Bench Overhead Squat
5 Snatch Pulls Military Press Split Squat

You can rotate through this list of training options so that it takes five workouts to complete the list, so on a three-day a week program, you would do the following:

Week 1: Monday – Option 1, Wednesday – Option 2, Friday – Option 3 then the following week;

Week 2: Monday – Option 4, Wednesday – Option 5, Friday – Option 1.

Continuing through for the duration of your off-season plan then, when your season commences, select a different workout and perform on a Monday and a Thursday throughout the season. As for the core training, I prefer to work full body as well and like the approach of Pavel Tsatsouline when he advises to select three to five exercises and perform three to five sets of three to five reps for three to five sessions per week. Follow this and you can not go wrong.

As for sets and reps, I would advise the following structure for you to follow for off-season and in-season, initially though, for the first month, do four sets of six reps, adding weight when you have completed all sets and reps in good technique. Do not add weight if you lose your technique. A good rule to follow is that if you can complete the same workout twice with the same load and have no technique breakdowns, then add 5% to the bar for the next workout. After the first month, I would have you follow the plan outlined below.

Off-Season (First Three Weeks)

Weeks Sets x Reps
1 4 x 6
2 2 x 5 then 3 x 3
3 5,4,3,2,1

Then calculate 75% of your weight for the one rep you achieved on the last set of week three and use this as your start weight for the first set of six for the re-start of the program in week one.

Off-Season (Second Three Weeks)

Weeks Sets x Reps
1 6,5,4,4
2 5,4,3,3
3 4,3,2,2

As for core strength program, these are the movements I recommend:

  • Barbell Sit Ups
  • Full Body Twist
  • Barbell Roll-outs
  • Side Deadlift with Olympic Bar
  • Turkish Get-Ups

Metabolic Conditioning

Since most club rugby players have limited time to commit to physical preparation it is important for any program to maximize the gains from the time available. The best method for achieving this goal is the use of modified anaerobic games. Modified games not only train the metabolic systems, both aerobic and anaerobic, but also speed and acceleration, all the time while developing vision, spatial awareness and decision-making with the ball in hand. Two or three sessions per week of around 45-60 minutes would be an ideal way to maximize your fitness for rugby. My top five modified games for rugby fitness are:

Goal Line “D”

Attackers have two extra players than defenders.

Attack starts five meters away from goal line place another cone two meters out from goal line the defenders can not move out past this cone, attackers just have to run across the line to score they do not have to ground the ball, if an attacker is tagged (two-handed) the ball is passed back to the five meter line to start the next attack, attackers have two minutes to score as many points as possible, any time the ball is dropped, knocked on, passed forward that attacking raid is finished and the ball has to go back to the five meter line to go again.

Offside Touch

First pass must always go back then attack to furthest try line, attacking team gets two touches,  after secondtouch turnover, ball can be passed after the restart pass in any direction, to ensure everyone is working all the time all the attacking team must be inside the 22 meter area before the try can be scored, the team that scores retains possession and defending team must push inside the attacking half way line otherwise the try is worth two points, another version is man on man where you can only tag your partner and vice versa, plus you can add a sweeper that can tag anyone as well, can be played as a kicking game grubber kicks only and no running with the ball post reception of the grubber kick.

Speed Ball

Played with a soccer ball, normal soccer rules apply but if you can catch the ball on the full you then play on for three touches with normal touch football rules applying after the thirdtouch the ball is dropped and neither the defender or attacker involved in that last play are allowed to touch the ball. The same rule applies for forward pass or knocked on ball. Play on full field.

One Touch

Best played across the field 50 meter line to try line being sidelines, both teams start on the sidelines (now try lines) one in possession the other being defenders, normal touch rules apply attackers only get one play when touched they all have to sprint back to their respective try line before they can push up in D, the new attacking team must pass once from the breakdown and then play continues in same fashion. Upon a try being scored the scoring team stays in possession and both teams swap side and restart from the try lines.

Drop Off Touch

Normal touch rules apply, other than when a person makes a touch he has to sprint around his own goal posts before being eligible to be on D again, attacking team gets six touches, no kicking is allowed.

If you can not get enough mates together to play the games listed above then I would recommend field intervals, if you can find a rugby field that is correctly marked then you will not need cones as the lines on the field will give you over 25 different length running options from five meters to 500 meters. When developing your plan just apply a few simple rules:

  1. The shorter the distance the harder you run and the longer you rest (3-5 times the length of the run time)
  2. The longer you run the less hard you run and the shorter you rest (equal to or half the length of run time)
  3. Always warm up and stretch dynamically and cool down and stretch statically.

My top five field intervals are:

200m/100m Drill

Start on the try line and run to the far try line turn around and sprint back in 40 seconds, rest 20 seconds, then sprint to the far try line in 20 seconds and rest 40 seconds, this is one repetition. The toughest version of this is to add another interval of 300m first, so it looks like this 300m in 45 seconds/rest 15 seconds, 200m in 30 seconds/30 seconds and finally 100m in 15 seconds/rest 45 seconds, to date I have only ever had one player who could handle that.

Coat Hangers

Begin at junction of the half-way line and side line, sprint to goal post around then straight down field to goal post around and back to starting position, can be competitive with another player running the same from the other side of the field or in the opposite direction on the same side, the distance is 222 meters.

Malcolm Drill

Named after former Great Britain and Newcastle Knights rugby league coach Mal Reilly, start on middle of the halfway line on chest, get up and back pedal to 10 meter line down on chest, get up and sprint to far 10 meter line down on chest, get up back pedal to the halfway line get on chest this is one repetition repeat for a total of six reps. Standard for NRL players is less than eighty seconds for a complete set of six reps.

Jog/Sprints

Start on try line jog to far 22m line then sprint to try line, turn around and jog to half way line then sprint to try line, turn around and jog to 22m line then sprint to far try line turn around and brisk walk to far try line, this is one repetition.

Half Gassers

A favorite in the American football, start on one side line down on your chest with chin on the sideline get up and sprint to far side line go down on the ground get up and sprint back to start, this is one repetition.

When developing your plan start out conservatively so you can complete the session and use the 10% rule to increase your distances, the total volume (distance) of a session should not be increased by more than 10% to allow for adaptation and minimize the risk of injuries due to a too rapid increase in volume. I would start at around 1500 to 2400 metres initially for the total volume of the session and limit the volume over time to no more than 4000 metres.

 

Once you have mastered these interval sessions you are ready for a blast of professional conditioning such as this:

Fitness A Menu

AB Shuttle

3 x 22m in <15 seconds, jog to far try line in <30 seconds

(new rep starts every 45 seconds) x 10

Rest 2.5 minutes

Rugby Suicide

Start at half way line, sprint 10 meters, back pedal 10 meters, sprint to 22m line back pedal to 10 meter line, sprint to try line in < 30 seconds jog back to halfway line in <15 seconds, rest 15 seconds (new rep every minute) x 10

Rest 2.5 minutes

Out & Back Shuttle

Try line to far 22 meter line and back  in < 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds

(new rep every minute) x 10

Fitness B Menu

VO2 Grids

Set 1: 87 meters long x 52 meters wide each  side in 20 seconds x 5 minutes

Rest 2.5 minutes

Set 2: 72 meters x 39 meters each side in 15 seconds x 5 minutes

Rest 2.5 minutes

Set 3: 50 meters x 22 meters each side in 10 seconds x 5 minutes

Rest 2.5 minutes

Set 4: Repeat the VO2 Grid of your choice for 5 minutes

Give these techniques a try. There is plenty of variety here to turn you into a stronger and faster player. Train hard and enjoy the results of a fitter start to next season.