Improving Rugby Skills and Fitness at Home
Yes we’ve been thrown into another lockdown, yippee! Here’s an article I actually wrote a few weeks ago but didn’t publish it. So I’ve made a few tweaks and here it is. Enjoy!
Can You Train At Home?
Now this is something I had almost no experience with last year – training from home. Depending on the athlete, I would usually ALWAYS advise them to get to a gym to workout. There’s more equipment, it’s easier to get in the workout mindset, it’s some “me” time. But during COVID and all the restrictions worldwide, I’ve changed my training model and 95% of the programs I’ve written have been home based plans. And let me tell you, you can get AMAZING results whilst training at home. For the sake of this article and so it can relate to everyone, I will cover what you can do with no equipment at home, ie just a ball and your bodyweight.
Improving Technical Skills
Now let’s use our brains here. Obviously you can’t practice an 8 man scrum whilst at home and on your own, but there certainly are technical skills you can practice alone, here’s a few that all players need: passing, sprinting, catching, high ball work, agility, ball presentation. All of which you can just take a ball to a field and get to work. And here’s a few position specific skills you can work on: kicking, sidestepping, lineout throwing plus many many more. All these exercises increase in difficulty when trying to perform under fatigue (which I’ll cover in the next section).
Fitness Drills
As I said, a year ago I wouldn’t be confident saying that home workouts are sufficient. But after 12 months of assigning home workouts to my clients, my team and my friends; it definitely works. Let’s list what you can and can’t do. With using pure bodyweight alone you CAN: strengthen your core, improve your fitness, improve recovery, improve mobility, improve flexibility, rehab injuries, get faster, reduce bodyfat. All of these require no equipment and can easily be improved from home. Here’s what you CAN’T achieve: increase in maximal strength or significant muscle growth. For these you would need access to strength training equipment ie a gym or some weights. But unless you’re trying to break into premiership rugby, I assume your downfall is fitness and rugby skills, which you can definitely improve from home.
So there you have it. Proof that you CAN improve both rugby skills and fitness at home. So stop being so lazy, pull your finger out, and get to work!
I hope you enjoyed the read, let me know if you have questions and what you think by dropping me an email regansrugby@gmail.com
Cheers!
Regan Phillips