Mid Season Fitness Programme

We are mid way through the season and you feel as though your fitness needs a boost. All the strength and conditioning you developed during the pre-season is starting to fade - you don't feel so strong during games and begin to struggle for energy during the last 20 minutes. What's the answer? A six week mid season fitness booster to enhance your performance and reduce the chances of injury.

Planning your Programme

Developing your fitness during the in-season is challenging, with the need to strike a balance between rugby training, fitness training and recovery. Train too hard and you're too tired for matches, train too little and your fitness and skills don't meet the demands of the game, so your performance suffers, or worse still, you sustain an injury.

The major benefit of competing on a regular basis is improved match fitness. Playing is quite literally your best fitness and skill session of the week. However, elements such as strength, speed and endurance tend to fade as you reach the mid-season point so you need to up your fitness training for 6 weeks.

At this point, it is a good idea to test your levels of fitness, allowing you to compare levels reached during the pre-season and providing a basis for goal setting and fitness programme design. If results show that your strength is good but your endurance is weak then your mid season programme must reflect your results and focus on aerobic and anaerobic fitness. If both strength and endurance require development do not fall into the trap of trying to improve both at the same time, and training so hard that it affects your performance at the weekend. Instead, split your 6 week phase of extra fitness training into two 3 week blocks.

Player Specific

Match statistics clearly illustrate that forwards work for longer and have less rest than backs, particularly outside backs. As a result, forwards require higher levels of aerobic and anaerobic fitness to fuel performance and this must be reflected in the training programme. By comparison, backs require higher levels of speed and agility to make and break tackles (although it's also great to have big forwards who are fast!) so more time is spent on speed and power training drills. However, a back with poor endurance, identified during fitness testing or early fatigue during matches, should also focus on improving aerobic and anaerobic fitness. Conversely, a forward with great endurance and strength may focus on speed and power drills. The point is - be player specific not position specific when designing your programme.

Six Week mid-season Programme

The programmes are separated between forwards and backs to reflect the positional demands of rugby. If you need all round fitness improvement then simply divide your 6 week programme into two distinct phases, focusing on strength, speed and agility during phase 1 and aerobic and anaerobic endurance during phase 2. If you want to follow a 6 week programme dedicated to aerobic and anaerobic fitness simply repeat the 3 week programme (weeks 4-6 below) but add a set to every Monday and Wednesday session.

© Fitness 4 Rugby 2005. Fitness 4 Rugby is part of the Fitness 4 Sport network of web sites. The author and Fitness 4 Sport LLP take no responsibility for injuries caused by attempting the exercises presented on this web site. Fitness 4 Sport LLP recommends that you always learn new exercises under the guidance of a professional and consult your GP before you start

TOP TIPS

• If you don't have access to weights or no experience of weight training, focus on body weight drills such as lunges, single leg squats, calf raises and single leg dead lifts plus upper body drills such as push-ups, shoulder step ups, mauling a ball off a partner and core stability drills. You can do all these drills at home.
• Promote your recovery by contrast bathing after hard sessions or games. This involves spending 30-60 seconds in a cold bath followed by a similar period in a hot bath, repeated for 4-5 sets. Hot and cold showers are also worthwhile.
• Always include a hamstring strengthening drill in your programme such as single leg dead lifts or leg curls using a Swiss ball.
• Incorporate dynamic and movement stretches in all warm-ups and cool down and static stretch after all sessions.
• Restore fluid and eat a carbohydrate snack immediately after training e.g. 2 pints of 50% water, 50% fruit juice plus a banana.
• Only include lifts such as squats, power cleans and push press if you have had advice on correct technique.
• With the extra demands of your 6 week programme you need to increase your food intake - focus on a wide variety of vegetables, fruits and protein sources including fish and lean meat. If you need to lose body fat, stick to your usual food intake while increasing your energy expenditure.

 
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