Rugby Professionals Training Programme

[Bigun]

Below is a training programme I designed for a Professional player in one of the Welsh regions.

The programme was for the Off-Season and the goals were:

1. The maximising of strength to impact power
2. Lean body mass increases whilst maintaining agility and flexibility
3. Prehabilitation – minimising the risk of potential injury
4. Less spinal loading of the forwards (leg press not squat prescribed)
5. Core control maintenance
6. Anaerobic conditioning via H.I.I.T – High Intensity Interval Training

Warm-Up Protocol

 5 minute dynamic warm up – (skipping, ladders, rower, not plodding!)
 No static stretching
 Lunges on Swiss-ball / wobble board / agility disc

Monday (am)

 Dead-lift (5 sets of 6) 3 minutes rest
 Swiss ball – ramp with ball pulled towards you (4 sets of 6)
 Leg Press (5sets of 8) 2 minutes rest (feet placed low on plate)
 Glute-Ham (Roman Chair/Hamstring curl (4 sets of 12) 2 minutes rest
 Cable-wood chops – high pulley (4 sets of 10, no rest between each side of body)
 Dumbbell / Barbell (behind body) shrugs (5 sets of 12) 2 minutes rest

Tuesday (am)

 Bench-press (flat) barbell (4 sets of 5-6) 3 minutes rest
 Pull-ups (wide overhand grip) (4 sets to failure) 3 minutes rest
 Bench-press (incline) dumbbell (4 sets of 10-12) 2 minutes rest
 Bent-over row (barbell) (4 sets of 10) 2 minutes rest
 Calf-raises (8 sets of 10-15) 1 minute rest
 Postural holds (Swiss Ball)
 Hanging Leg raises (6 sets to failure) 1 minute rest

Wednesday (am)

Concept II Rower

 1:1 work/rest ratio
 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off
 150 metre row (Level 10)
 1 set of 8, 1set of 8 (or 2nd set to failure)
 Set up the rower for 150m & 30 secs rest period.

Only using 30secs rest between repetitions

Wednesday (pm)

 Swiss-ball bridges (4 sets of 10, 20second holds)
 Lunges (dumbbell) (4 sets of 10 each leg) 2 minutes rest
 Uni-lateral Leg-press (4 sets of 8 each leg) 2-3 minutes rest (feet placed high on plate)
 Stiff-legged dead-lift (4 sets of 8) 2-3 minutes rest
 Calf-raises (8 sets of 6-8) 1-2 minutes rest

Thursday (am) - Active Recovery

Recovery session – non-joint bearing exercise:

 Swim (30-45 minutes)
 Jacuzzi
 Deep Tissue Sports Massage
 Rotator-cuff ‘Thera-band’ exercises to stabilise shoulder joint – Rehabilitation / Prehabilitation
 Swiss-ball elbow crunches (3 sets of 8) 1 minutes rest

Friday (am)

 Hang-pulls (power shrug) bar starting just below knee (5 sets of 8)
 Swiss-ball press-ups (4 sets of 10)
 Pull ups (hands on Smith machine, feet up on Swiss-Ball, chest to bar, hold for 5 seconds (4 sets of 8)

Rest interval for each exercise – 2minutes

Saturday (complete rest)

Sunday (am)

Running Session

 Treadmill inclines
 1minute on / 1 minute off
 Incline 6%
 Speed 12-14 mph
 10+ repetitions (aim to reach 15)

Rest no longer than 60 seconds between intervals, (1 minutes rest does not mean 65 seconds!)