Rugby fitness at home

By Regan Phillips. Personal Trainer, Online Coach, and Fitness Coach for the Hungarian Rugby Union Team

Last week, Regan talked us through office snack hacks to improve your diet. This week, we’re tackling the developing parts of your rugby game without the need for a gym.

Is December a yes or no for you? It depends on how you look at it.  There is a nice celebration on the 25^th (and on quite a few other days too). But, when you look at what December does to both the bank and the belly – it sucks.  You buy presents for every distant family member and you need a secret Santa gift for work colleagues. The nights get colder and wetter – meaning less motivation to get out and train. 

But, there is a way to get a handle on both your training and your spending this December – with some home workouts! 

Home workouts are underrated in my books, they’re a lot quicker and cheaper than going to the gym. They can also be better than a run as there’s no risk of you tapping out because of a little rain.  Sure, a home workout might not be as impressive as the England rugby players training. But, for busy people with normal jobs, you can achieve most fitness goals by training at home. 

Here’s a breakdown of some of the things you can work on using nothing but your body weight and some space in your front room.

Strength

You might think “I need weights to get strong.” But, what you really need is resistance.  In my opinion, there’s no difference between a 10 rep max on bench press, and a 10 rep max on weighted push ups.  The resistance on your body is the same, just one uses a barbell, and the other uses your bodyweight (plus a backpack or something to add weight).   The other option for strength training at home is doing one arm/leg exercises.  Ever tried one arm push ups?  Ever tried reverse lunges with a five second lowering phase?  They’re both damn hard and will definitely build both muscle and strength!

Fitness

Circuits are the easiest way to work on your fitness at home.  Now, this really is as simple as picking a few exercises (push ups, squats, burpees, plank), picking a work to rest ratio (45 seconds work, 15 seconds rest) and picking a total number of rounds. There you have it! A 20 minute workout that will surely leave you in a sweaty mess at the end.  You can get more technical with exercises and rest times, but all circuits are heavy calorie burners and take way less time than driving to the gym and queuing for 5 minutes for every machine.

Power

Plyometrics are the best way to develop power using just your bodyweight. Plyometric exercises include all movements that are performed with rapid contractions.  These could be jump lunges, clap push ups, jump squats, broad jumps, burpees, box jumps, hopping etc.  If you look at a rugby game, most of the movements involve rapid contractions: running, stepping, accelerating, tackling, jumping.  If you want to get faster and more powerful on the pitch, then plyometric exercises are what you want.  You can build a plyometric workout the same as a circuit, but as the exercises are more demanding than regular exercises, a longer rest period should be scheduled in.  

Mobility

Here’s a couple of typical mobility issues for rugby players.  Big guys are usually less flexible. If you aren’t mobile enough to hold your arms straight overhead, you won’t be very useful lifting in the line out or binding in a scrum.  Trunk mobility is also a player-wide issue.  If you can’t bend or twist into the right position, you are seriously limiting your ability to tackle properly.  Setting aside some time to improve mobility will not only prevent injuries from happening. But, you will start to see a change into this vital rugby skill of tackling.

Core

Core is NOT simply doing crunches every day (this can even do more harm than good in the long run). You need to strengthen your core in all angles for it to be effective for rugby.  Your core – like plyometrics, works in basically all movements on the rugby pitch. It needs to be strengthened in all areas: front, side, rear, static, dynamic, rotating, standing, kneeling, lying, reactive etc.  You can build a core workout like a circuit, just make sure you are hitting all the angles.

Injury Rehab

We are rugby players, injuries are part of the game!  For some of us, injuries stopped us from playing rugby completely *queue sad music*.  So, if you’re looking to keep on the pitch and play for longer, make sure you work on your rehabilitation! Whether it was that dodgy shoulder from a tackle a few seasons back, or that broken foot you never saw a physio about. Go and work on it.  If you want to keep playing the game you love, you have to keep yourself injury proof!

I hope this shows you that you don’t need a gym to get fitter for rugby.  You can work on your goals in December without even leaving the front room.  So now you know, the question is, what’s stopping you?

Check Regan’s podcasts out by hitting the link below!

https://regansrugby.buzzsprout.com/