Hypertrophy is the process through which the body gains muscle mass. Being fit for rugby has changed since the dawn of the professional era and putting on bulk and having a large mass has become more and more important.

Hypertrophy is actually the thickening of muscles so that they become larger – not necessarily in length but in volume.

Basically put when you train your muscles to get larger you increase each individual fibre’s cross sectional area.  Imagine looking down a pencil so that the point is facing your eye, you will see that it is only a few millimetres thick.  Now imagine that as you train that muscle fibre it gets thicker, so instead of being as thin as a pencil it’s now the size of a magic marker!

It’s not quite that big a change but you get the idea.

Having more muscle does not necessarily mean that you will be stronger although more muscle generally means more strength, you will need to follow other training principles laid out on this site to convert that larger muscle mass into a stronger unit, and a further more to convert that muscle into functionally useful muscle for rugby players.

Hypertrophy or muscle bulking follows a very simple and yet very much overlooked principle.

Lift more total volume of weight in your next session than you did in your current session.

So let’s put this into a practical setting.  Looking at just one exercise.

Let’s say you are trying to add some bulk to your chest (not the place I recommend most rugby players as needing it but a good place to put my point across).

In your first session of hypertrophy training you decide to complete the bench press and manage three sets of 10 reps with 60kg at a speed of 2 seconds down, with a 1 second hold and 1 sec to raise it.

So the total weight lifted is 1800kg – 60kg x 10 = 600kg x 3 sets = 1800kg lifted

Next time you need to lift more than the 1800kg.

For rugby players looking to increase bulk this can be achieved in a number of different ways:

1.  Increase the weight

i.e. You lift 60kg for 10 reps in your first two sets but then up the weight to 62.5kg for your last set and manage to squeeze out 10  reps.  Therefore your total lifted weight would be 1825kg.

2.  Increase the number of reps / Increase the time under tension

i.e. You lift the 60kg for 3 sets, 10 reps in the first two and manage 11 reps in the third.  Total weight lifted 1860kg.

Now it’s not possible to keep on lifting more and more weight in order to use this overload principle and is why it is important to mix up your training emphasis between strength, power, hypertrophy and endurance in a manner that slowly and consistently keeps you moving forward in your rugby fitness gains.

COMING SOON – FREE HYPERTROPHY PROGRAM