10 Fitness Tips and Myths for Rugby: Simon Worsnop

By Team | May 13, 2014 |

Top level rugby is a complex multi faceted sport.

Rugby union has more individual position specific requirements than rugby league.

At top level training will need to reflect this e.g. static strength and neck strength requirements in scrimmaging forwards that are not required to such an extent in rugby league. 

Why have I said at “top level”? This is because this specific type of training should only be a small fraction of training time once a player has achieved basic fitness across a wide range of attributes.  

Too much icing and not enough cake: players/coaches wanting the latest fancy programme/psychobabble/technology/diet etc before they have adequate rugby and fitness skills.

 The Top Ten Myths

  1. All singing all dancing circus programmes e.g. doing dumbbell curls whilst standing on a “sit fit” will NOT improve performance. Choose multi joint exercises and WORK HARD; this will make you strong. Work on your individual weaknesses using predominantly dumb bell and body weight exercises.
  2. Liberal use of the word “strong”. Field athletes are strong, weightlifters are strong; some elite rugby players are now becoming strong but many are NOT STRONG. A simple formula used by old timers for strength was 3,4,5 i.e. bench 300lb, squat 400lb, deadlift 500lb.
  3. Liberal uses of “world class” and “fit” etc see above.
  4. Lat machines are for people who are too fat to do pull ups.
  5. Excuses for poor physique e.g. “he’s young, he’s got puppy fat”- NO “he is FAT, probably caused by a combination of POOR DIET, LACK OF EXERCISE, WEAK WILLPOWER and POOR EDUCATION”
  6. There is nothing wrong with drinking lots of beer and eating Kentucky Fried Chicken, pork pies etc so long as you only want to watch sport and not participate.
  7. Moaning about being tired; players used to work for 8 hours down the pit catch a bus to training arrive back home at midnight and get up for the next shift at 6am!! 13 year old swimmers do 60 minute sessions at 5am!!  
  8. Wanting to run before we can walk, i.e. “can you do a minimum of 8 pull ups, 20 twenty press ups and 50 lunges plus 50 body weight squats and 30 crunches rest for a minute and repeat three times?” If not, why are asking for an advanced programme?
  9. Lack of general fitness; see point above plus can you overhead squat with a dowel, can you overhead lunge with a dowel, can you run at least 1300m in 5 minutes? If not you are OUT OF SHAPE in some form or another.
  10. “Off -feet conditioning”; this is often used as an excuse to avoid hard work. Players do not get fit for rugby on stationary bikes!!!

Simon Worsnop is the Fitness Coach for the England Under-20s squad (Rugby Union)

Read “How to take charge of your fitness training”

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11 Comments

  1. Anonymous on February 28, 2010 at 2:55 pm

    All of this, and the Union players still can’t pass off their left hand, and look to kick it away at every opportunity. I guess you don’t have to be that fit to play English rugby- just big enough to smother the opposition.



  2. Anonymous on February 28, 2010 at 6:34 pm

    Think athletes from many different disciplines need this dose of reality!!!

    Matt Archer



  3. James Marshall on March 1, 2010 at 10:00 am

    Hey Matt- still alive!
    Thanks Simon, very useful insight, hopefully some rugby players might read this and take it on- better yet- the coaches too.



  4. Anonymous on March 10, 2010 at 2:31 pm

    Hey ho –
    Swimmers do more than 60minutes @ 13 at 5am – it is usually 2 hours (that is why we(swimmers) start at 5) it doesn’t take us 2 hours to get changed and get to school.

    As for teh puppy fat – i am not sure I agree – there are no older FAT swimmers – if they are doing proper swim training and chubby they are just waiting to grow into their bodies – as they burn every ounce off during the week in teh 10-15 hours training. I have seen many examples.

    ALAN



  5. Anonymous on February 9, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    Hi Simon, hope your well. Great information, but we have been preaching this type of thing for years, why do you think people dont learn there is no short cuts – whatever your sport.
    Tony – Bodyactive



  6. Anonymous on December 9, 2010 at 9:22 am

    Great one! This is actually beneficial to everyone its very informative and very qualified to read. Im sure there are lots of people looking for this.

    Carren
    http://www.cairnsweb.net



  7. Anonymous on December 20, 2010 at 7:23 am

    Im getting high def in this information. Very interesting and useful information. It will be great help for me. Im glad to come across this site. Thanks!

    Tifanny



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