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Guinness Premiership Playoffs Showcase Rugby Power And Rugby Speed From Forwards

May 17th, 2010 · Power, Speed

After some awesome displays of forward rugby speed and rugby power over the weekend, here’s my top 3 demonstrations of power and pace from forwards in the Guinness Premiership Playoffs.

In reverse order,

At No. 3….Roger Wilson’s bullocking run from a snaffled line-out take against Saracens. He showed both power and pace to get away from the scrabbling hands of the Sarries back row.

At No. 2….Luke Watson of Bath, his dancing feet and then acceleration and power that left the Leicester defenders on the back foot for most of the match was wondrous.

Finally….At No 1…Tonga’huia’s 40 yard dash for the line (plus the irony of the situation, regarding his change of heart over moving to Sarries) could be the all time best try from a prop forward.

It really did have it all: Acceleration, to beat the covering defence; specific rugby agility and speed to weave and fix the last defender; a dummy and then a powerful hand-off to leave Alex Goode clutching at thin air.

Just awesome…watched it 3 times!

All three examples, whilst slightly different, demanded high levels of power.

I’ll be posting a new section with some Power programs soon, so make sure you come back to see how you can become a power player…the game is headed more and more that way…how much further can the elite game go…who knows!

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Rugby Fitness – Anaerobic Endurance

March 17th, 2010 · Endurance

Rugby fitness demands a high anerobic endurance capacity due to the games stop start and explosive nature.

*Ok stay with me on this one.

The following is a little bit of geeky science but before I take your anaerobic endurance to the next level I thought it was important to give you the chance to understand a little more of the process.*

This is probably the most important part for a rugby player’s fitness.  Your anaerobic capacity is your ability to perform repeatedly at fast and high speed and do it all match long.

When you run fast or sprint you have to re-synthesise energy very quickly and this can only be done in a small number of ways.  You supply this energy quickly via the little amount stored in the muscles (only about 10 seconds worth of effort) and then via two other main sources  – Phosphocreatine (it’s why people take creatine) and fast glycolysis.

Creatine will run out in about 40 seconds and the lactate produced in the fast glycolysis cycle will accumulate very quickly.

The lactate will end up fatiguing the muscle and it’s then that you are unable to maintain that intensity.  However, when you slow down or get some rest the body can quickly get rid of the bad lactate and re-constitute some Phosphocreatine, or at least enough to enable a short return to higher intensity.

It’s why you may have heard the term lactate threshold training.  By causing the body to accumulate lactate you force it to then learn how to deal with it better.  It’s like any training, once you stimulate it enough times it then gets better at it and you can do more before the lactate becomes a problem i.e. you can run faster for a long period of time as you are able to keep the lactate levels low even though you are churning out more lactate.

I’ll be putting some anaerobic programs up here soon so make sure you check back!

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French Rugby Speed Merchant – Marc Andreu

March 15th, 2010 · General Debates

For anyone who watched the RBS six nations match between France and Italy at the weekend would have seen another example of what I was talking about in this post – http://www.fit4rugby.com/the-athlete-debate/

Now at only 5ft 5in and only 12st Marc Andreu would probably be considered by most rugby enthusiasts to be too diminutive for the modern game.

But his performance in just his second test was an eye opener for what is possible.

His acceleration speed looked impressive but what struck me was the one time he ducked under and through the tackles of two much larger men. Just shows he still has specific rugby power even at that weight.

Later on in the match he made a great break by ducking under a tackle (helps when you’re only 5′5″) before off loading to another player, eventually leading to another try for France.

I’ll be putting a post up soon about speed and the importance of this one characteristic of rugby fitness.

If you’re a small person wondering if you can make it in what appears to be a big man’s sport then don’t worry there could well be a place for you yet.

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Top 5 Things Your Sports Injury Practitioner Should Be Doing

March 3rd, 2010 · General Debates

Rugby injuries either on the pitch or during rugby fitness sessions are inevitable. If you play rugby then you should expect to spend some time on the sports therapy couch.

Here’s my Top 5 Things Your Sports Injury Practitioner Should Be Doing


  1. Do they do a full body screening examination? The first thing they should do after talking to you. Lots of injuries have nothing to do with the actual site of pain and can be referred from other ‘weak’ areas of the body.
  2. Did they give you a full diagnosis? Don’t accept poor answers like “hamstring strain”, get more details, which muscle particularly? Grade of damage? Healing time? etc
  3. Do they lay their hands on you? If your sports injury person only uses machines and doesn’t use manual therapy (actually using their hands to, manipulate, stretch, trigger point etc.) then they are not treating you properly.
  4. Have they given you a rehabilitation program? Are they giving you exercises to make things better and strengthen the weak parts or are you just turning up, getting treated and then that’s it until next time…if this is the case quite frankly you are not being looked after properly.
  5. Do they have an idea of how to help you return to sport? When you’ve been injured it is quite common to come back and reinjure yourself in a different but related area i.e. you have just recovered from a knee operation and then promptly go out and tear a hamstring or turn an ankle over.

It’s not really important what type of practitioner you see; it could be a physiotherapist, a sports therapist, a chiropractor or an osteopath. All these ‘medical’ people have different ways of treating the same problem, but they must be doing the 5 things I listed above or you should think very hard about changing who you see.

I’ve been treated by all of these different types of therapist and have experienced good and bad in all types, if you don’t already see someone and need to then do some research, it could end up saving you a fortune!

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Weight Training For Rugby Fitness – Front Squat

February 28th, 2010 · Weight Training

Rugby weight training exercises are essential in the development of specfic rugby strength. The front squat is one of these and has become an important aspect of the modern game.

Front Squat for rugby fitness

When performing the front squat you must learn to ‘rack’ the bar on the front of the shoulders and hold the bar in the ‘Olympic’ position.

This is a key technique and an essential building block of rugby fitness, especially as it is a foundation exercise needed before to transition into the full Olympic lifts such as the clean.

The exercise starts by sitting down into your heels by pushing your hips back. Maintain a tight core by engaging your abs and keep your elbows high as you go down.

Now the depth to which you go will depend upon a number of factors that you may or may not be able to change (but that’s for further discussion at another point).fit for rugby front squat

The important thing is that you do not go so deep that your ‘tail’ bone starts to rotate under you, the risks to your lower back are just too large to any benefits you could gain.

The picture to the left is the lowest I am willing to go before I start to compromise my spinal position.

Everyone is different and you need to keep with in the safe zone to be safe…some people will undoubtedly tell you that you are not squatting deep enough but until you address the causes of your lack of range the most prudent thing to do is be cautious…you’ll still get some great gains from doing it any way.fitness for rugby front squat

Especially as as a player you are trying to be fit for rugby not fit for weight lifting competitions.

It’s important in the bottom posistion of the front squat to keep your weight back into the heels and the elbows as high as you can.

You initiate the up movement by driving the hips forward keeping you weight into the heels and generating as much power from the glutes and hamstrings as possible.

The beauty of the front squat is that recent research suggests the loading on the hips and the thighs is similar as to that of the back squat. Also the lumbar spine forces are also of fairly equal loads.

The major advantage the literature reports is the reduced knee compression forces in the front squat compared with the back squat.

This can be incredibly important in reducing the amount of wear and tear in the knee joint and is especially pertinent to the heavier players who’s knees are forced to bear increasingly larger loads as the players themselves get bigger and bigger.

Of course don’t forget the main reason for lifting this way is to learn one of the key components of the Olympic clean.

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Prop Rugby Fitness & The RBS Six Nations

February 27th, 2010 · General Debates

Rugby fitness displayed by the props in the RBS 6 nations has been far and above any level of fitness I’ve ever seen before

I’ve been avidly watching all the games this season and there has been a definite shift in what we now expect the props to be able to do in the game.

Here’s the top 2 things a prop has to be able to do:

1. Scrummage powerfully, not only being ’solid’ on their ball but also having the ability to dominate the opposition and put the No 8 and scrum half under immense pressure at the base.

2. Line-out lifting strength. The Irish prop John Hayes is reportedly the first on the team sheet due to not only his scrummaging power but also his line-out lifting ability. He has large enough hands and is strong enough to be able to lift one of the line-out jumpers all on his own. This is an amazing display of pure strength and allows Ireland to get 3 jumpers in the air at a defensive line-out.

But in the international world of propping these two basics are not the only things that a prop needs to be able to do. I think that there are two other facets of ay that a prop needs to be able to excel in at least one of if they are to be considered a world class prop. If they can do both then that really does put them in an even stronger position.

1. Tackles – watching the game between Wales and France at the weekend there was one occasion where the French prop Nicolas Mas put in a covering tackle on the winger Shane Williams when there was no one else for the winger to beat. That defensive work rate that he showed is exactly what a modern international standard prop needs to show.

Other props who distinctly show a huge tackling work rate in the International world are Gethin Jenkins of Wales and Carl Hayman of New Zealand. These props are making in excess of 10 tackles a match, figures once associated with the back row forwards tackle figures. One of the first props to start to show this characteristic and level of tackling was the legendary Jason Lennard of England. His tackle rate in the World Cup Final of 2003 was over the 10 mark.

2. Ball carrying – some props are better ball carriers than others and have that demonstrative power aspect to their game which allows them to burst through tackles and off load the ball successfully to trail runners.

Although now banned for his cocaine abuse, Matt Stevens of England was at the time one of the best exponents of a prop who had great running ability and a rugby brain that allowed him to cause havoc in the defensive systems of opposition sides.

Other props with this sort of running ability include Castro Giovanni of Italy (although not as demonstrative lately as he once was) and ‘The Beast’ of South Africa (Tendai Mtawarira).

Checkout out this video of him I found on YouTube.

A Tribute to Tendai Mtawarira – The Beast

As ‘The Beast’ demonstrates in this video he has all the running and tackling attributes needed to be a great prop. However it is important to remember that unless he continues to be a good on the first two points listed above then the tackling and running ability are less important.

The shift in skills needed by a prop has changed in my mind since professionalism because props need to be defensive and attacking players not just set piece players. However, I think the biggest change may well have come about through the sheer number of junior level back row players who convert to prop when they realise their chances of progressing in the back row are limited.

More on the conversion of back row to front row another time.

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The Athlete Debate

February 19th, 2010 · General Debates

The first 2 games of the RBS 6 Nations have come and gone and England have been far from impressive.

One of the arguments about the England team at the moment is that it is full of ‘athletes’ rather than having individually gifted rugby players.

I think this is really an important point that has been brought up. The best athletes do not always make the best rugby players. Just because someone is big and strong does not mean that they have all the attributes needed to play rugby at a high level.

The most important thing to remember is that this is still a skill based game. It’s why there is still a place in the game for the smaller less powerful player.

Look at players like Paul Hodgson the England scrum half and David Lemi of Wasps. They both have a number of things going for them.

1. They are pretty fearless

2. The have serious pace

3. They have good ‘rugby brains’

The last one I’d probably the most overlooked element of a truly outstanding rugby player. Regardless of how big, how strong or how powerful you are if you know what’s going on around you and react to what happens before most people realise it’s happening, then you can be one step ahead of even the most powerful and quickest players.

As I said above don’t forget rugby is a skill based game…… more on the effects of fitness on skill level another time.

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Foundation Aerobic Endurance For Rugby Fitness

February 5th, 2010 · Endurance

Aerobic capacity is one of the key rugby fitness components.

Your aerobic endurance capacity is the ability to supply oxygen and nutrients to the muscles and remove the by product of this energy source i.e. Carbon Dioxide. Remember in the endurance overview I said that energy is never destroyed, well when you convert it from one form to another , ‘stuff’ that is not ideal for the muscle environment is released.

When you are trying to get fit for rugby you breathe in air as you play or train, that air is taken into the lungs where the oxygen transfers into the blood, returning to the heart before it is dispatched to the muscles, the blood delivers oxygen and nutrients need to re-synthesise the energy for muscle contraction. The blood then takes the carbon dioxide back to the lungs so that you can breathe it out.

Foundation aerobic endurance for rugby fitness is essential if you are just starting out and trying to increase your rugby fitness levels. As you do this type of training you will increase a number of key components that enable you to do more work. Such as increasing lung capacity, increasing heart strength, growing more blood vessels to the deepest parts of the muscle, and lots of other local more complex changes.

Here’s the downside to aerobic training;

It makes you slow

It makes you weak

It makes you lose muscle size

All three things are not desirable for a rugby player, that’s why you only need to have a foundation and then a maintenance program….it would be different if you were a marathon runner!


How much time should you spend building a foundation?

It’s difficult as all will have individual requirements but I would suggest that the first thing you do is workout how aerobically fit you are now?

A simple running test to get an estimate of your fitness for rugby is to run 1.5 miles as quickly as you can.

Now there is a little bit of maths to do here but I’ll take you through it.

First take your time i.e. 9:46 and do this.

The number of minutes it took you 9 x 60 = 540 + 46 (the number of seconds you took) = 586

586/60 = 9.77 (this is your time as decimal)

Now the final equation –

2400 / 9.77 x 0.2 + 3.5 = 52.62

The only figure you need to exchange each fitness testing session is the time it took you decimal, in this case 9.77

If you took 11 minutes 35 seconds then your score would be 44.95

2400 / 11.58 x 0.2 + 3.5 = 44.95

Don’t worry about the actual value of these figures for now it is a measure of your maximal oxygen utilisation capacity and is measured in millilitres of oxygen used per kilogram of bodyweight per minute.

In the table below I have summarised some levels to attain to and given some recommendations on training time afterwards.

< 45 – Low foundation, needs to be addressed with a 8-10 week program and then addressed on more specific phases of the yearly training plan.

45-49.9 – Moderate foundation, needs a few weeks to build to an acceptable level, 4-8 weeks program.

50-54.9 – Acceptable Foundation, 2 - 4 week program to induce a quick boost.

>55 – Good Foundation, 0-2 weeks depending on time of year. Maintenance and short programs in the off season.

The top rugby players now have aerobic capacities in the mid to high 60’s so there is always room for improvement at the right time of the year if you need it.

Once you have a foundation base of aerobic conditioning under your belt, you will only need to do minimal maintenance sessions. The majority of your endurance training will be spent in the area of anaerobic capacity.

If you were in the low or moderate band then you should probably worry more about that than the possible down sides I mentioned above of getting, slower, weaker or smaller. The chances are you’re carrying a little of extra weight any way and shifting some initially before you put it back on may be the best course of action.

So why have a foundation at all? Well having a really good base of aerobic capacity you are able to deal with a lot of the by products of re-synthesising energy fast. The long boring runs meant that you got a bigger heart and can send more blood around with less effort, also you grew new blood vessels into the deepest parts of your muscles, meaning that the blood can mop up the bad stuff better.

Basically it helps you recover quicker. Imagine chasing an aerial ping pong battle during a game and then suddenly getting a 30 second breather before the lineout or scrum. Well you’ll recover quicker the fitter you are.

FREE FOUNDATION PROGRAMS WILL BE UPLOADED VERY SOON.

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Currently Under Construction

February 4th, 2010 · Uncategorized

This website is currently under construction, I am letting pages go live as they are done, so please come back soon and check out the new and updated ones.

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Welcome to Fit 4 Rugby

January 13th, 2010 · Uncategorized

Welcome to Fit 4 Rugby.

Rugby has changed far and beyond any ones imagining in the years since it went professional.

Rugby fitness has now moved in to new realms of power and strength, meaning that to compete at the highest level you need to spend a fair amount of your training time working out in the gym.

The purpose of this site is to give you all the tools and training programs in order to be a successful rugby player.

Regardless of your playing level having the right physical attributed to play rugby will enable you to enjoy the sport to the best of your ability.

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