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I was recently asked to design a six-week pre-season preparation plan for an amateur rugby player. The player was a utility back and was currently training with his team on Tuesday and Thursday evenings; therefore, the program had to take this schedule into consideration. Since he was able to train three days a week, the program I had in mind fit in perfectly. I frequently get asked, "How can an amateur player train professionally without being a full-time athlete?" Well, I hope this adjoining program will give you some ideas on how to achieve this goal.

Army Rugby

Photo via West Point - The U.S. Military Academy 

Monday

  1. Heavy Power in Gym
  2. Neural Conditioning
  3. Neural Conditioning

Warm Up

  • Dynamic warm up drills and ladders/hurdles: perform for 10 to 15 minutes
  • Ladders: forward and lateral series
  • Hurdles: lateral series, march, skip, run for + 10m (accelerate out)

Plyometric

Select two drills and do for 75 foot contacts:

  • Bounding x 40m
  • Power Skip x 40m
  • Single-leg hop: Left leg from goal line to 22m. Then, continue on your right leg out to the halfway line. Repeat after a two-minute rest. Start at halfway line and finishing at the goal line.

Acceleration

Accelerations from different starting positions. Start at the goal line to 22 meters. Then, slow walk back, and recover between each rep. Do this for 10 minutes:

  • Three-point stance
  • Lying on chest
  • Lying on back
  • Lying on back, roll to the left and roll to the right
  • Hurdle jump and go
  • Long jump and go
  • Kneeling, jump up to two feet, and go
  • Sprinter’s set position and go
  • One knee down, with the opposite foot flat on the ground, repeat opposite sides

Maximal Velocity

Select two drills from this list and do them for 15 minutes. Perform slow walk back recoveries between each rep:

  • Flying 28s: Build up speed from the goal line to 22m, and then sprint maximally to the halfway line.
  • In and Outs: Go hard for 20m, and then go easy for 10m. Then, go hard for 20 and easy for 10m.
  • Change of direction cut: Sprint hard for 30m, perform a hard cut diagonal for 10m. Then, do a hard cut off your other foot to straighten out for another 30m.
  • Straight sprints: 40m, 50m, 60m, 78m or 5m, 10m, 15m, 22m, 30m, 35m

Heavy Power

  • Warm up with a superset of Bosch Squat and Borzov Hops: 3 x 5 each leg (step load)
  • Clean, Snatch, or Pulls from the floor or Band Box Squats
  • Push Press, Split Jerk, or Band Bench Press

Week 1: 4 x 6 @ 60% supersetted with Tuck Jumps/MB Drops 4 x 12

Week 2: 5 x 3 @ 80% supersetted with Box Jumps/Chest Clap Push Ups 5 x 6

Week 3: 6 x 4 @ 70% supersetted with Knees to Feet/MB Chest Pass 6 x 8

Week 4: 4 x 2 @ 90% supersetted with Depth Jumps/Depth Push Ups 4 x 4

*Repeat with new exercises for the next four weeks.

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Photo via Sandy Chase 

Wednesday

  1. Full Body Strength
  2. Lactate Conditioning

Full Body Strength (four exercises)

  • 1 x Olympic or Hamstring
  • 1 x Squat or Single Leg
  • 1 x Upper Body Push supersetted with Upper Body Pull

Week 1: 4 x 6

Week 2: 2 x 5; 3 x 3

Week 3: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Week 4: 4 x 6 @ 60% of previous week's

Week 5: 2 x (6/5/4)

Week 6: 2 x (5/4/3)

Week 7: 2 x (4/3/2)

Week 8: 4 x 6 @ 75%

Gym-Based Lactate Conditioning (choose one)

  • Beastly Circuit: Dead Lift/Power Clean from Hang/Front Squat/Push Press/Bent Over Row/Romanian Dead Lift + three minutes of spin bike at 120+rpm (x 5)
  • Otago Circuit: Row 300m in at least a minute/10 Full Burpees/10 x 36kg two-arm swing with KB/4 x 15 meter shuttle run/10kg Med Ball slam to the ground—10 each side (x 5)
  • Treadmill run at 15 degrees—run to exhaustion for at least 60 seconds. Go straight to the rowing machine for three minutes. Then do Tabata 20 seconds work (>100 meters) with 10 seconds of rest (x 5)

Run-Based Lactate Conditioning

  • Half Gasser: (Start by lying face down on the sideline. Then, get up and sprint to the far sideline. Go down and put your chest on the ground, get up, and sprint back to the start in less than 30 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds. Do five times.
  • Rest two and a half minutes
  • 10 x 50 meters every 20 seconds
  • Rest one and a half minutes
  • Malcolm Drill: Start by lying face down on the halfway line. Get up and back pedal to the 10m line. Go down and put your chest on the ground, get up, sprint 20m to the far 10m line, go down on your chest, get up, back pedal to the start position, and go down on your chest to start the next rep. Complete a set of six in less than two minutes x 2 (one-minute rest between Malcolm’s)
  • Rest four minutes
  • Repeat three times

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Photo via Sue Hixson

Friday

  1. Upper Body Size
  2. Aerobic Conditioning
  3. Upper Body Size
  • Triple Drop Incline Bench Press (45/30/15 degrees) supersetted with MMA Kettle Bell or Dumbbell Renegade Row

Week 1: 4 sets x 5 at each angle/5 each arm

Week 2: 5 sets x 4 at each angle/4 each arm

Week 3: 6 sets x 3 each angle/3 each arm

    • Seated DB Arnold Shoulder Press (30s Style) supersetted with Chins (30s Style)
    • Thirty reps in as few sets as possible. Rest for 30 seconds between each set. Do this until failure (6 to 8 reps to failure on first set)
    • Three-way Shoulder Raise (3 x 10 to 15 reps; must fail somewhere in this range)
    • (DB Lateral Raises/Plate Front Raise/Cable Bent Over Raise)

Related Program: Three to the Fourth Power Program

Aerobic Conditioning

  • VO2 Grid: three minutes, 10/10 seconds, 60 x 20 rectangle, rest for one and a half minutes
  • VO2 Grid: four minutes, 15/15 seconds, 80 x 30 meters, rest for two minutes
  • VO2 Grid: five minutes, 20/20 seconds, 90 x 40 rectangle, rest two and a half minutes
  • 100m/200m/300m: 100m in 20 seconds, rest for 40 seconds, 200 in 40 seconds, rest for 20 seconds, 300 meters in 60 seconds, rest for 60 seconds. Do this twice (six minutes).
  • Rest for three minutes and then repeat in reverse order

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