Fitness in rugby.

[TrueSlawter]

Ive recently started playing again after 6 years out of rugby.. most of which was doing no real sport or exercise if im honest.. So i went to the gym for a year to increase fitness and muscle mass etc. now officially in the team and played a few games i feel my fitness is still lacking, well more stamina. in training to start we lap the pitch at slow pace once or twice then move on to more sprint based stuff, im not that fast so my speed aint bad i guess for a second row but if we do lines as the coach calls em i fail miserably.. everyone is in a line apart from me, for those who dont use the term its running from try line to 5m and back, then 22 and back then 50 then back then 1/2 way then back then other 10 and back etc.

So really is there any huge way to be able to increase stamina and fitness?
every time i goto the gym i do 10-15 mins on a treadmill at the start and end but times i go are rare now only having 2 days off a week to go, with monday night being training the other evenings college work.. so i can only really go once a week as sunday is day off after games on sat.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

HIIT/Fartlek training - jogging then sprinting then jogging then sprinting over a set distance or time (so 10metres running 10 sprinting etc.). if you google them you'll find loads of programmes online
Improves your fitness immensely, but you have to put in the effort to get anywhere. You'll feel like your lungs/heart are about to explode, but it'll be worth it in the end

 

[cyRil]

SUICIDES! Aww I love doing that... NOT!
My fitness has always been pretty rubbish, I remember a game last season where, as a team, we went out and totally annihilated the opposition and went 21-0 up in the first 10 minutes... But we were all bollocksed for the rest of the match and just decided to defend and kick everything, cuz we couldn't do anything else! Effective though - we won 21-0!
I'm making a conscious effort to improve my own fitness recently - doing atleast 20mins on the treadmill each day, and increasing time and incline, etc. as I go on.
But I'm probably not the most qualified person to advise you, so reading this has effectively been a complete waste of your time!!

 

[TrueSlawter]

haha Ive been trying the speed on treadmill to 7 for 1 min then drop to 4 for a min increasing top speed by .5 till i feel ill fall off a few times its helped but progress seems to die as soon as we do the lines after running around the pitch a few times then doing small sprints like sprint to 50m line and jog back.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I'd advise not doing it on a treadmill, tbh.
Especially for intervals. You'll want to be pushing yourself as hard as you can in the sprints, which is very hard to do on a treadmill.

 

[TrueSlawter]

ah, ill just keep pushing harder at training then so when doing lines or general fitness training, I've been debating giving up the gym as i just dont have the money.. could always just run down the prom or something when im free.. would be a hell of alot cheaper xD

 

[Fajardo]

Here's a fitness training thing I do which helps quite a lot. It keeps your heart going at a high rate for half a game's worth of time which is really important IMO.

1 minute - Suicides
1 minute - Squats
1 minute - Rest
1 minute - Suicides
1 minute - Lunges
1 minute - Rest
1 minute - Suicides
1 minute - Push-ups/Sit-ups
1 minute - Rest

Do this a couple of times with 2 minutes rest between each round or 1 minute if you're up to it. After that you can do interval training such as walk 50 meters, run 50 meters, sprint 50 meters as many times as you can. If you can't do that much, just make the distance shorter.

This is what I do most of the time when trying to increase fitness but before I do it I usually run 3-4km to warm-up. Without the warm-up, this whole thing should take you about 30-40 minutes.

 

[Native]

Specific fitness is probably what you are thinking about, you want to analyse the kind of fitness you need for your position, so lock, you need to be able to get around the park well, but not be one paced and hit rucks hard each time, lifting and packing down in the scrum, so you will need a high aerobic base (the way you get that is by running a long distance very slowly) which can affect your top end speed, but is good because when you get to those rucks you wont be exhausted and will be able to hit them hard.
To increase your aerobic base (im not a trainer so probably do more research) its long slow runs
you want to not me one paced, so you want to hit a ruck, get up, get to the next, and increase your pace as you go so you hit the ruck hard.
Cheers

 

[lance2010]

Go do some Hennie Mullers,running hard out to each corner of the rugby field in a diamond shape,starting at the goal posts and resting for 1min intervals between reps.Go to you can't do anymore,or sets of 10.This **** is hard 'trust me'.Or go for a long run and sprint on every 3rd lampost to the next,continue this pattern.

 

[munstermuffin]

Can give you a technique all pro teams in Ireland use it a good 1. Start in middle of pitch and just running around posts up and down middle it like this.
5 mins nonstop 40-50% running
2 mins break
2mins Push yourself as much as possible
1 min break

Then repeat 6-7 times. It takes up to an hour or hour 10 mins but excellent

 

[Scrumit2]

if you have an iphone try miCoach from Adidas. I have asthma and my 3 years of rugby I have struggled with fitness. I have two kids so getting extra training sessions was not an option. You can run the treadmill every day and twice on Sunday and you will never get match fit. You need someone to push you and miCoach does this. They have Fartlek days and relaxed days. Its the best because it constantly keeps you informed at where you are running at i.e. heart rate or pace depending on your choice of program and what equipment you have. Now I just turned 37 so I have issues with being pushed like I was when I was 19 but thats the beauty of miCoach because it also gives you a % of acheievement for each session. Now I am competative and thats what has got me going. My 1st level I was only pulling 30% and today I ran the fartlek program and got 80% and it might have been higher had the gps on my iPhone not dropped out. I have made more gains this month than the previous 3 too bad training started already and I'm still out of rugby shape but if I keep up this program with my regular training by April I should be in the best shape since I started rugby 4 years ago. If you don't have an iPhone you can get micoach gear that will do the job. Its like having a fitness trainer come home with you.

 

[Kenneth]

These tips are good in for the rugby fitness, which also
help in field for the best fitness.