The ‘gentleman’s game’ known as rugby has come to be a well-known (and competitive) sport since its inception, offering contracts, domestic teams, and tournaments at both the high school and university ranks. With individuals becoming stronger, larger, and faster due to improved strength and conditioning practices, the standard of competition continues to increase. In order to obtain a competitive advantage, physical training has become a complex part of the game. In the majority of these kinds of sports, when two teams with alike skill sets face one another, the more physically equipped, better trained team usually wins. Certainly, the demands of this sport require the utmost output of all of the body’s energy structures. The exercises listed below can benefit the rugby player and ensure that optimal performance is possible.

Strength Training Exercise: Standing Military Press

Shoulder injuries are quite widespread in rugby. Therefore, to prevent said injury, shoulder strength and structural stability needs to be optimal. This exercise not only fortifies the shoulders (and triceps), but also entails low back and core steadiness to perform successfully. Strong, structurally sound shoulders can deliver a sense of security to those participating in this sport, thereby preventing mental inhibition when tackling as the risk of shoulder injury is minimal.

Conditioning Exercise: Prowler Pushes

Accepting that rugby is a game that comprises intensive forward horizontal drive, what better way to train this drive than with prowler pushes? The tool allows for multiple hand positions, giving its use even more potential for training variation. Resistance modifications are also possible, enabling an easy, straightforward approach to tracking development.

Power Training Exercise: Hang Power Clean

This particular variant of the clean is one of the most effective exercises for developing pure power. Besides, it requires the least amount of coaching to master technique. In this particular sport, the faster you can speed up, the better your odds of breaking into the backfield and shattering the opposition’s tackles. Ultimately, the sportspersons that can accelerate the quickest are habitually the most prosperous at their given positions!

Bibliography

Baechle, Thomas R., and Roger W. Earle. NSCA Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. 2nd Edition. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 2008.

Bompa, Tudor O., and Frederick Claro. Periodization in Rugby. Aachen: Meyer & Meyer, 2008.