Fitness for Rugby, Updates and Training Ideas for Pre-Season

Rugby Pre-season Fitness is kicking in and here is my new best friend.

We have been kicking along putting in the hard yards.

A sample session at this stage of the season is as follows:

Intense warm up and then knock the shite out of one another.

We are a small enough side so each fitness for rugby drill is blocked into around 15 minutes with a 3-4 minute break in-between.

We could move from a full 10 on 10 drill with 4-5 stations colour coded with one team always attacking and one team defending for up to 2 minutes at a time. This is a great drill. We can then move into some more small sided games before finishing with a non-contact game with modified rules. That is Tuesday nights for you.

I think at this stage of the season with 6 weeks to go to the league campaing we are progressing really well. There is a fine line between conditioning and actually leanring the fundamentals of the game.

I think if you have your team up every Tuesday and thursday for rugby fitness then every 3-4 weeks a hand grenade should be thrown in to the session – one that will leave your team crying for their mothers (and then you push them some more). Leopard crawls (a favourite of Phil Richards – what a head f**k of a drill) a length fo the pitch. Tyre flips, fire man carries, wheel barrow races are ok. Just remember that every night isn’t going to work. There is too much stress.

In the gym, I have been sticking to three to four weight sessions a week.

Monday is squat day. Tuesday – Upper body and club traininig. Weds is recovery day and Thursday is lower body – usually a deadlift. I ma moving into all over sessions that emphasis power this week – so this week was my unload or down week.

Here was today’s session:
Single Leg Step Up warm up sets then 2 x 5-7 – left leg only, right leg is dead
Bench Press warm up sets then 2 x 5
Reverse Hypers 2 x 10
Chins 2 x 10

Loads of mobility and pre-hab work for the neck. This session keeps me fresh and next week it is back into it.
At the moment there is 6 weeks before the Championship (AIL) season kicks. Our focus therefore is power and explosive development. I wish I had a tendo unit. But I Don’t and most of you probably don’t even have one or have even heard of one. It would make developing power a lot easier.

In the meantime here is the training week

Monday – All Over  Power (thanks to Ash over at Get Strength and reinforced by some of Zatsiorsky’s / Simmon’s work)

Clean Pull 3 x 5 @60% Superset with Knee Tuck Jumps x 10

Push Press 3 x 5@60% s/s with Clap Press Ups x 10

Remedial Work – Upper Back and Neck Work

Tuesday – Squat and Bench aim here is really to keep strength levels high and developed without too much CNS fatigue so I am using Wendler’s 5/3/1 template for the Squat and Bench Press

Weds – Recovery or some sled, assitance workouts usually 20 minutes in length

Thursday – All Over Power  2

¼ Squat 3 x 5 @60% superset with box jumps x 8

Explosive Chins 3 x 5 s/s with Med Ball Throws against the wall x 10 each arm

Friday – Deadlift and Military Press using 5/3/1

Saturday – Usually a game – not too bothered at this stage of the season about fatigue or with this type of training. I actually look after my nutrition and recovery pretty well so I actually feel sharper if I throw in some lifting the morning of the workout or the day before.

If you want to give this a go then keep to know more than 10 sets and work up to your 3 rep max on a power lift with a good warm up.

I am shooting this one for 6 weeks and reviewing at the end of the cycle.

There have been times when I have been so concerned about being right for training. To be honest – this year is all about busting my balls in the gym in the right direction. We will see when it comes to seeing what the scoreboard says at the match whether I was right or not.

John Lark is author of Get Fit for Rugby - have you got your rugby fitness course available for download?

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