“What you don’t train, you lose”
There is a huge focus this year on getting big and strong. I know, I used to be the man. Just like you all, I would look at every angle to get bigger including demolishing chicken breasts by the tonne. It worked. But here’s the thing. How about focus on what you are useless at? What about ’staying injury free’? Are you any good at that? This is where mobility kicks in.
Watch this:
Then watch this:
Now do you think it would be a good idea to work on his hip mobility? After all he graces the front row and needs the hip mobility otherwise our scrum will be the height of an aircraft wing.
So work on your mobility alongside, if not before, you grace the ‘hit the heavy shit’ school of thinking. You don’t need much, just some good directed work.
Feel free to leave a comment and I will do my best to answer your questions….
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi John
Too true.
What would you suggest? Lots of foam roller work and some decent sports massage (even physio)?
Cheers
Scott
Hi John.
Yeah Good point.
What would you suggest for increase hip mobility?
And also what are some good exercises for strengthening lower abs and essential core strength to stabalise the hip and back area?
Hurdle drills are great for hip mobility- especially as they are dynamic, which is what rugby players need to be.
Some really good points.
A mix of dynamic and static work. You can’t ignore static stretching altogether. As part of the warm up I would definitely use Hurdle Drills, Crucifix, Hip Mobility and Glute Activation drills. That way I know that the guy is actually doing something. Afterall what is 5 minutes in the grand scheme of things? If he needs it, then some decent soft tissue work too and we generally finish with a bit of foam rolling. they guy in the video wont be doing too much deadlifting untill this is sorted. he will be box-squatting though.
completely agree flexibility just important as size ,
any suggestions??
Really interested in this. I have been doing yoga for a couple of years now as well as playing and training for rugby. Do you have any thoughts on this? The yoga is mainly static stretches rather than dynamic mobility do you think this is an issue?
Hi John
I’m a scrumhalf, i’m 1.77m tall and weigh 83kg. I’ve been out of action this year, due to injury. I use to weigh 75kg in the beginning of the year. The coaching staff together with the biokinetic put me on a strengh program to bulk up, It’s been wotking well. But after reading this I’m worried that I might have been losing some of my mobility, that was always one of my strong points. I can feel that my hamstings and thighs are really stiff. And have been strugling with my lower back. I do a bit of running and play touch every sunday. Do I need to start running more or can I wait till October to start on mobility and flexibility when I’ve reached my goal wheight of 90kg? Or do you think gaining that much wheight will effect me in anyway?
Thanks Nolan
yoga is a great regenerative tool - it has no place in and or around the training session though. That should be dynamic as much as poss.
all in all….you lose what you don’t train…is 5-10 minutes at the start of each training session with some mobility drills to much to ask?
I guess it’s not to much to ask, but what kind of mobility drills would you recomend, considering my goal of picking up alot of weight and the position(scrumhalf) I play. Thanks for all your help so far
and where can I look for the examples of some of the drills, to see the correct way to perform each drill.?
http://fitnessforrugbyblog.com/get-rugby-fit/mobility-human-pencils-and-fitness-4-rugby/
Check out the way Mark is performing the hurdle drill. I don’t put up ‘perfect’ examples. They don’t exist. You can see if the trainee is performing it with ease or not. This is a good drill.