Rugby Help

I think I would probably just get on Youtube and start searching around. "Rugby workouts." Or something like that. There are thousands and thousands of videos on almost any topic you can think of.
Now ...
My son played rugby. He once went to a summer camp at Cal Berkeley, a very well respected program.
I expected the coaches would give the kids a highly elaborate, scientifically validated, weight training and plyometric training program.
No. The conditioning coach told them doing weights was optional, and he would not particularly recommend it. He said, 'You want to work out? I'd rather you just went for a run.' If they were determined to lift weights, they could squat, deadlift, bench. (I think that is right. Maybe cleans too?) Nothing else was worth the effort, he seemed to think. And, really, squats alone would be adequate.
Cal wins national championships so i am pretty sure this guy knows what he is talking about. But I was pretty shocked.
Course, all of this said, I believe they did many burpees, wind sprints, legs raises, etc.
Later, my son played at UC Santa Barbara. The team did some weight lifting. But not a lot. Mostly, they had pilates classes with one of the athletic conditioning coaches.

PS About the 'go for a run' suggestion. That's not totally out of left field. Most rugby games (and athletic contests in general) are won in the final minutes, or can be. That means the team that is in better physical condition, and cardiovascular shape, has an advantage.
Researchers once looked at Bobby Knight's University of Indiana basketball teams. Those teams were always very good, and perhaps even overachieved to their talent. This research measured their hearts, and compared them to players from other teams. On average, the Indiana players had bigger hearts. This was assumed to be due to all the running Knight made his players do, and the implication was that his teams succeeded because they were in better shape and they won some close games late that they would not have won otherwise.

I played club in college. I would recommend mixing in some yoga as well. It will help with strength, flexibility and endurance.

sijomial wrote: »

As second row is a primarily a strength and power position (piano shifter not piano player....) you really want to be working with far higher weights than the ones you mention. Not by a little either - by a lot!
If you are lifting in the lineout then clearly lifting a person is vastly different to lifting 4kg dumbbells.

If you can't buy much heavier weights then suggest you at least do a bodyweight routine.

Although the stationary bike will help your general cardio fitness you need to be running too.

Does your club (or other nearby clubs) run summer training and fitness sessions?

Great advice here, also just to the bolded, check out second hand listings, the New Year resolutioners will probably be starting to sell off their January purchases around now so you might pick up some weights quite cheap.

I played rugby in college, 8th man, and ran 2 miles every night. Thanks for the memory walk, it is one of the highlights of being in college.