0:00

Okay, yes, what is going on everybody welcome

0:02

back to the rugby muscle podcast

0:05

I'm host as always TJ and today we are going

0:07

to continue on our series where we are

0:09

taking a Full

0:12

well rounded look at exactly

0:15

what rugby strength and conditioning

0:18

Looks like in the real world what

0:20

it looks like for you as athletes

0:22

amateur Professional, semi professional,

0:26

uh, soon to be players, whatever

0:28

your situation is, we're

0:30

going to discuss exactly what it takes

0:32

to physically prepare yourself in

0:34

order to play the game of rugby. And

0:47

we've done this over the past month

0:49

or so already. We've spoken about

0:51

conditioning, we've spoken about what conditions shouldn't

0:53

be, we've spoken about all the different areas, the five

0:56

key areas, and today we are going

0:58

to look at one of those areas,

1:00

which is Movement control

1:02

slash athleticism and I like to call

1:05

it athleticism because it makes it

1:07

makes a little bit more sense than movement control

1:09

because it stops it

1:11

from being sort of, uh, Ido

1:13

portal. Touch butt in the park

1:16

type territory, and if you don't understand that reference,

1:18

don't worry. It's just gonna be lost over your head But

1:22

we must understand really

1:24

what we're trying to achieve here because a lot of the time right

1:27

people think you are either

1:29

Born as a superior athlete

1:32

or you you're not

1:34

or you're somewhere on that spectrum, right? And that's that's

1:36

it. It's just genetically Imposed

1:38

and that's that's it. Now

1:41

that would sort of in my mind

1:44

defy The purpose

1:46

of strength and condition in the first place, right? If you're just relying

1:49

solely on what your genetics have given you, um,

1:52

like what you're doing, listen to this podcast, you

1:54

know? So, athleticism

1:58

can absolutely be trained for.

2:00

It's just not done by

2:03

movements. And we'll talk about this in a second.

2:05

Um, what

2:08

athleticism actually is, is

2:11

not this general term, kind

2:13

of like marketing term, I guess, in a way, as

2:16

to, as to, Um, what

2:18

it seems to be on social media, what it is,

2:20

is basically the ability

2:22

to solve problems with

2:24

the body, right? So whatever problems

2:27

are presented with you, if you're the higher

2:29

your athleticism, the

2:31

more competent you are, and the more likely you

2:34

are. To solve all

2:36

amounts of different challenges that come

2:38

your way By using your

2:40

body right by so whether that's climbing

2:42

a gate whether that is Okay,

2:45

whether that's picking up a really heavy

2:47

tv whether that's opening a door with a really

2:50

heavy tv in your hand Or it's

2:52

running out the front door with the tv in your hand

2:54

while someone's chasing you Not advocating,

2:56

obviously, for doing these movements.

3:00

Particularly in that order. But that's,

3:02

that's what athleticism is. And for me, obviously,

3:05

it's going to be specific to the task at hand. And for

3:07

me, obviously, that means rugby. Or for you,

3:10

that obviously means rugby.

3:12

Right? So, how do we train

3:15

for athleticism in rugby? That's, that's

3:17

what we're going to look at. And I've got sort of, uh,

3:20

five different areas that we can look

3:22

into. And within those, we can look even deeper.

3:24

But as usual, I don't want this to run

3:27

much longer, if at all longer than 20

3:29

minutes. So I'm not gonna, like, go

3:31

crazy. I'm just gonna touch on these areas, give you guys

3:33

some ideas as to what you should be considering

3:36

when it comes to training to be an athlete,

3:39

not a powerlifter, not a bodybuilder. Um,

3:42

an actual athlete that performs, I mean, an

3:44

actual rugby athlete that is training

3:46

to play rugby better.

3:49

And if you, if you like the idea of that, of course,

3:51

if you're watching on the YouTube channel, Hit

3:53

that thumbs up button really does help the

3:55

show the show is growing Thanks to

3:57

this new podcast feature on youtube, which i'm really

4:00

happy about um Of

4:03

course if you are listening on apple

4:05

podcasts or spotify I

4:07

would love to earn your subscription

4:10

with this podcast Keep

4:12

you around for future episodes so that you can really

4:15

understand what you should be doing as it

4:17

goes as far as Actually

4:20

training in the gym to become a better rubber plant not

4:22

to become a bodybuilder not to Be a general

4:24

fitness person, but actually to be

4:27

better at rugby and that's that's my

4:29

goal here with the rugby muscle podcast So if that's

4:31

that's what you if that interests you, of

4:34

course hit that subscribe button And if you've been listening

4:36

for quite a while consider

4:39

giving us a review the spotify

4:41

I should read that i've had a couple come

4:43

through on spotify, which is amazing If

4:45

you're listening on apple podcast, you can also give us

4:47

a review That would really help out. I

4:49

don't know if you're watching on YouTube why this camera

4:51

keeps swiveling around. It's this new Apple,

4:54

um, continuity camera. It

4:56

annoys the crap out of me, but it stopped doing it. So,

4:59

on that note, let's move on to

5:02

the different ways that,

5:04

uh, you can

5:06

train for athleticism.

5:09

So, actually before

5:11

I get into the different ways, uh, it's

5:14

really important that you understand

5:17

that This isn't a,

5:20

do this exercise and you'll become instantly

5:22

athletic. It is not a, um,

5:26

you know, this is the one movement you need.

5:29

I'm not going to tell you to do Olympic lifts. I'm

5:31

not going to tell you to do a certain

5:33

type of plyometric movement. I'm not going to tell you to do some

5:35

sort of carriers because those are going to solve all

5:37

your athleticism problems. No. Athleticism,

5:40

as I've already explained, is

5:43

foundational. It is How

5:46

you move better. It is

5:48

how you solve problems with your body. And that means

5:50

that it's kind of a skill and

5:52

that means that it needs to be trained like

5:55

a skill. So if you don't move very

5:57

well and you don't even know

5:59

it, right? So if you've got someone that's, it's

6:02

a perfect example is you ask

6:04

a, well, a

6:06

cliched example. I'm not saying this is true,

6:09

but it would have been no, you

6:11

know, There's a saying,

6:13

I'm tip toeing around this now. There's a saying,

6:15

you throw like a girl. And I don't I'm

6:18

getting myself in trouble here. There's

6:22

a saying that you throw like a girl. And that is

6:25

What comes to your mind when you think, oh,

6:28

that person's throwing like a girl, that person

6:30

is unconsciously

6:33

incompetent at throwing. They're not using

6:35

their force through their hips. They're not driving

6:37

through their foot. They're not rotating

6:39

their whole body properly. They're kind of doing

6:42

that, right? That's someone that just doesn't know

6:44

how to throw and they never learn. And

6:46

then you get them to start to try to throw, but

6:49

then instinctively, they'll still go back to

6:51

their poor technique. Better example

6:53

and a less, um. A

6:55

less offensive example could have just been new

6:57

people to rugby. If you ever watch new people play rugby,

7:00

you watch how they pass the ball, it's, it's

7:02

kind of funny, you know, if they haven't learned

7:04

properly. Now the better athletes,

7:06

the people that are born just

7:09

slightly more athletic, are going to

7:11

pick up the skill of passing a lot quicker than other

7:13

people and that's, that's a really good example actually.

7:15

I should have, should have mentioned that way before I got myself

7:17

into trouble. You

7:21

see people that the better

7:23

your, your movement capabilities,

7:25

the better your athleticism, the better you're going

7:28

to learn these skills and all different movements

7:30

are different types of skills, but

7:32

the tire you get at moving

7:34

really well, the better you're going

7:36

to be able to combine

7:38

different movements and solve other

7:41

problems. And that's what we're going to do when we're training

7:43

athleticism. So what that means

7:45

is, um, It's

7:48

a continuous process. It's continual

7:50

improvement and potentially

7:53

that you're going to hit milestones where you

7:56

don't have to necessarily really

7:58

arduously train that movement, but

8:01

you're also, uh, yeah, and

8:04

not, you know, once you learn how to

8:06

run or once you learn how to ride a bike, right, you don't,

8:08

you don't forget that, but there's going to be

8:10

points where you will regress as you,

8:13

Lose some of that movement capabilities if

8:15

you don't train them. And that's why it's really important that

8:18

this isn't as much

8:20

a, a, you

8:22

know, training block where we're only focusing on

8:24

athleticism, where it's actually

8:27

most of the time going to be just underlying.

8:30

You must consider this stuff. Okay.

8:33

Cool. All right. Now let's get into the five things. Number

8:35

one, right? Way to train your athleticism

8:37

is going to be master the basics,

8:39

right? So we've got your fundamental

8:41

movements, your hinges, your squats, your

8:43

lunges, your upper body pushes, your upper

8:45

body pulls vertical and horizontal.

8:48

You've got your core movements. So rotation

8:51

through the trunk flexion, like,

8:53

uh, crunches and sit ups shouldn't

8:56

have done that with the camera. Um, Flexion

8:58

and extension, lateral flexion

9:01

and extension, so bending to the side

9:03

through the trunk. And then you've got dynamic

9:05

movements such as jumps, throws,

9:08

carries and sprinting. And

9:11

essentially you want to be able to train

9:14

those different movements continually.

9:17

And you want to be able to improve your

9:19

ability to perform those movements continually.

9:22

Um, if you cannot squat.

9:25

Like, if you cannot do a basic squat, that's

9:28

going to hold you back in so many other

9:30

areas that that's, that's what we're

9:32

going to tackle first. And it's useless me then

9:34

saying, ah, the way to be the

9:36

best athlete is to do this dynamic

9:39

box jump into a

9:41

split stance, uh,

9:43

power snatch, you know, because

9:46

that movement's way too complex. You're never going to be able to

9:48

do it. So what we have to do is.

9:51

Break everything down and start

9:53

with those basic movements and

9:55

really every Every

9:58

other movement is almost just a combination

10:01

of those different things you can you

10:03

can sort of pick parts where it's

10:05

part this part this part this and

10:07

The better you get at those movements

10:10

the better you're gonna be Everything else

10:12

and once you and the way to get better is just to keep

10:14

doing them and really critique

10:16

your movement As you would

10:18

do, you know, your, your,

10:21

your, the amount of weight that you put on a bar. Very,

10:23

a lot of people are concerned with the amount of weight that goes

10:26

on the bar. That then they sacrifice

10:30

their actual, uh, movement,

10:32

their movement capacity, their movement control for

10:34

that lift, right? This is one of my,

10:37

this is one of my real bugbears, actually. I'm gonna, I'm gonna let

10:39

this frustration out on the podcast before

10:41

I move on. When people

10:43

post PRs and then they say, Oh,

10:45

don't worry about the form, I'm just going for a PR.

10:47

And I'm like, well, it's

10:49

not a PR if you've had to adjust the form

10:52

in order to lift more weight.

10:54

Right? So, if you're doing a squat,

10:57

every single squat should look Kind

10:59

of identical, right? At least

11:02

hit the same type of range of motion. If

11:04

you cut your, cut your squat short

11:07

to lift more weight, it's a different squat. Actually,

11:09

I've done, I'm having flashbacks

11:11

now. I've definitely done this rant already on the podcast.

11:14

So, apologies if you've already listened to this rant. Um,

11:17

let me know in the comments if you do remember which

11:19

episode that was from. But, yeah,

11:22

anyway, just letting that little Uh,

11:24

vent out on the, on the, on the podcast. Now

11:26

we'll move on to part

11:28

two of how to train

11:30

for athleticism. It's to challenge those

11:32

movements with increased

11:34

load and control. Those are the real

11:37

two. Um, Basic

11:39

ways. Once you've got those movements down, right? Once you

11:41

squat pretty well, you lunge pretty well,

11:43

you hinge pretty well. Alright, now we can start

11:45

to add weight. We can start to increase the load. If

11:48

you don't squat well, if you don't lunge well,

11:51

there is no point in you increasing the

11:53

load because you're just, you're

11:55

challenging a harder movement.

11:58

You're making moving Even

12:01

harder before you've even got down

12:03

the process of moving, right? So, you get

12:05

some people, and I've definitely been there, uh,

12:08

in my early days, that can only squat

12:10

once they've got 60, 80,

12:12

whatever kilos on the bar. And

12:14

if they've got an empty bar, they'll fall over backwards

12:17

because that's the only way they can squat. That's not, that's

12:19

not a good thing, right? And,

12:22

really, people like that would absolutely

12:26

Benefit from spending

12:28

some time and just focus on that moving. It's a frustrating

12:30

process because you

12:33

want to add weight to the bar, right? But

12:35

what I could, what I would suggest for you is if

12:37

that's the case, then look at more control.

12:39

So look at lowering under eccentric,

12:42

uh, uh, load or

12:45

loading the, uh, controlling the eccentric

12:47

portion for longer periods of time. So maybe

12:49

you spend. a count of five

12:52

going down. Maybe you pause

12:54

halfway. Maybe you pause at the bottom. Those

12:57

are fantastic ways to improve

12:59

your ability to perform the different

13:01

movements and. down

13:04

the line or even at the time, to be fair,

13:07

that is going to increase your

13:09

overall movement capabilities and

13:11

athleticism. And of course,

13:14

from there we can start to add load. Those

13:16

two things should be continually played with. I

13:18

do like the idea of undulating, um,

13:22

which is basically a fancy way of Of

13:24

sometimes loading heavy and then lining

13:27

up and then building up to going heavy again. Uh,

13:29

I do like the idea of doing that with the amount of weight

13:31

on the bar. I do like the idea of

13:34

spending some time with controlled pauses,

13:36

spending some time, um, slowly

13:39

lowering the movement down, the, the, like

13:41

the squat down or the bench press

13:44

or an overhead press, whatever. Taking

13:46

the eccentric component of movement and putting it under

13:48

control, putting it under a strict, usually

13:51

it should be like at least, One to two

13:53

seconds still controlled. It should always be

13:55

controlled on the way down, but the

13:57

better you, uh, the, the more you want to train

14:00

that eccentric component, you can

14:02

increase it from, you know, up to three,

14:04

five, seven seconds on the way down, even

14:06

as much as 10 seconds. It's a

14:08

really good way to enhance

14:10

your ability to move well. And only

14:13

a few weeks of slowly centric

14:15

training can really. allow

14:17

you to move so much better. And then once you move better,

14:19

then we can go back to adding more and more load,

14:21

uh, you know, over the weeks. So

14:25

that's number two, challenge

14:27

that movement with increased load

14:29

and controls. I

14:31

should also mention just the different pauses

14:34

is also another fantastic way. If you get different

14:36

parts of your movement that you don't hit really well. So

14:38

say if you struggle, um, at

14:40

the bottom of a squat, or you struggle with your range of

14:42

motion at the bottom of a squat, Do

14:44

pauses at the bottom. Fantastic way

14:47

to, to solve that issue. Next,

14:49

we can, uh, actually challenge

14:52

these movements with increased ranges

14:54

of motion. So, just as

14:56

I said, um, you can add load

14:58

to the bar, you can add slower eccentrics, you

15:00

can actually just try to move deeper.

15:03

So, this is a fantastic way if

15:05

you're someone who's a, a really

15:07

shallow squatter, you, you barely get to 90

15:09

degrees, go, like,

15:11

keep the weight nice and light. Don't

15:14

continually add weight week to week, instead,

15:17

try to make that movement look better

15:19

and try to increase that range of motion, so move

15:22

further. If you're a bench presser that

15:24

doesn't touch the barbell all the way

15:26

to your chest or doesn't get the dumbbells all the way down

15:28

to your chest, you're,

15:31

you're, not only you, you know,

15:34

like really decreasing your ability

15:36

to gain muscle and

15:38

gain strength, you're also

15:40

like in, you're, you're practicing poor movement

15:42

because. When you go onto

15:44

the rugby pitch, you want to be prepared

15:47

to push, to pull, to

15:49

squat, to move yourself

15:51

in different ways. Throughout

15:53

the different, like throughout a full range of motion,

15:55

not necessarily you're going to do a full squat

15:57

from the bottom of a squat to the top, but

15:59

you will be challenged in deep knee

16:02

and deep hip flexion. You will be challenged with

16:04

your shoulder all the way back here. And

16:06

you want to be strong enough that that doesn't, well firstly,

16:09

it definitely doesn't injure you, but you want to be strong

16:11

enough that you can be confident here that

16:13

you're also still strong here, right?

16:16

With your, with your hand all the way back down

16:18

or your, your, your hips and your knees all

16:20

the way, um, completely,

16:23

uh, you know, uh, a real

16:25

tight angle so that you can be

16:28

strong in those motions and that's going to

16:30

allow you to move

16:33

a lot better, control your body in those

16:35

different positions. Next we have

16:37

specific load adjustments and

16:40

complexity. Now we've got

16:42

good at the movements right? We've got good at squatting,

16:44

we've got good at hinging, pushing, pulling,

16:47

lunging, all the different core movements

16:49

and we're not just good at One version of those

16:51

moves. We're not just good at goblet squats. We're now

16:54

able to back squat. We're able to front squat.

16:56

We're able to do split squats.

16:58

We're able to, uh, lunge

17:01

with a Zurcher hold

17:03

where it's in the crook of our elbows. We're able

17:05

to do different variations of

17:08

those movement categories. Now,

17:10

what we want to do is once we've got good at those,

17:13

well, actually. if once you're already good

17:15

at those, they're going to be like that

17:17

strength is going to be easily transferred to

17:20

the pitch as long as you're doing point

17:22

five. So stay tuned for what point five is

17:24

going to be. Um, but

17:26

now what you're going to do is

17:29

you're going to make these movements slightly

17:31

more complex. Um,

17:34

so the, and

17:36

potentially add some specificity

17:39

as far as making them

17:41

look more like rugby movements. So

17:44

this is where you go from instead of just

17:46

doing overhead pressing or even push

17:48

pressing. Now you're really getting

17:50

it into where you take a step and then you,

17:52

you drive up to make it look a lot more

17:54

like a line out lift or

17:57

you instead of, um,

18:00

Um, doing a

18:02

bent over barbell row. You're actually in a proper

18:04

position where you'd be in a rock and

18:06

maybe you're rubbing all the way back to your stomach

18:09

and you, and you're trying to hold that position. So you're

18:11

loading your whole posterior chain and

18:13

your core to keep you tight, but then also

18:15

using your back muscles to, uh,

18:17

put row the, the way up. Now

18:20

this is where it can get a little bit crazy

18:23

because you can absolutely overthink

18:25

this. Um, I.

18:28

If you do so, what you're going to do is you're

18:30

going to sacrifice the strength and

18:32

the muscle that you're going to gain

18:34

from doing these movements. And

18:37

instead, like, what

18:39

ends up happening is you

18:41

just waste your time in the gym, essentially. And

18:43

you're constantly trying to make your

18:46

gym workouts look like the

18:48

game of rugby. And that's not what you should be doing.

18:51

There's just some There's

18:55

some scope there for you

18:57

to be able to take some movements, make

18:59

them a little bit more complex, make them a little bit

19:01

more like rugby and potentially

19:04

that translates to the rugby pitch.

19:07

I'm not, as I'm, I'm actually

19:09

working this out as we go because I'm not actually

19:11

completely sold on that. I think if you

19:13

master the basics, you get really good.

19:15

That complexity can actually come from.

19:18

You know, now, instead of doing

19:20

a, a basic hinge, a basic,

19:23

uh, uh, a basic upper body

19:25

pull, we combine the two

19:27

and what we do is a clean, or a snatch, or

19:29

a jump. You know, we combine the different movements

19:31

and there's lots of different ways to do this. And,

19:35

I would just urge you to combine

19:38

those movements, add complexity, potentially

19:40

move the load into different ways. It looks a

19:42

little bit more like, um, a

19:44

game of rugby. I would do this only

19:47

During preseason and at the beginning of the season

19:50

to make make it transfer across really well

19:52

and other than that, I wouldn't, I wouldn't worry

19:54

about this too much. I wouldn't stress about this too much. I would

19:57

just really try and challenge yourself to combine

19:59

a different movements to potentially make

20:01

it more complex by making it unilateral,

20:04

right? So instead of doing, um,

20:07

a, a continued doing bilateral squats.

20:10

So back squats, front squats, whatever. Maybe

20:12

you're doing a Bulgarian split

20:14

squat or just a normal split squat or a front foot elevated

20:16

split squat, whatever you're doing to,

20:18

um, you know, challenge

20:21

that movement in a different way

20:23

from before is something that you can. Like in

20:25

a more complex way is definitely

20:27

something that you can play with once you've

20:29

mastered the basics once you've got strong in those Movements

20:31

once you've got a full range of motion in those movements

20:34

now we can start to Add

20:36

more complexity and one other way that you can have a complexity

20:38

is by adding rebound so you can again play

20:40

with the tempo Make it really fast

20:44

Because you've already demonstrated that you move well

20:46

and you can control it But those are the stages

20:48

that you must go through and then to

20:50

make it transfer onto the pitch Like,

20:53

this is something that I think

20:56

is, is so, so missed in

20:58

the world of particularly amateur

21:00

rugby strength and condition. The top level pros

21:02

do it so well, um, and

21:05

then everyone below that does it actually really poorly.

21:07

And that is do your

21:10

rugby specific movements in

21:12

your rugby training, right? So don't try

21:14

and make the gym or don't try and. Do

21:17

stuff in the gym, do your weight movements in the gym

21:19

to get better at jackling. Practice the skill

21:22

of jackling. Take some time before training, particularly

21:24

you amateurs that are listening. You're gonna, like,

21:27

have 15 minutes at the beginning of training

21:29

where you just, loads of people just stand around and they

21:31

pass the ball around in a circle. Or they play touch,

21:33

like, walk in touch. That

21:35

is a really good time for you to get a,

21:38

a teammate and say, hey, look, can we, can

21:40

we grab this, uh, grab this foam pad

21:42

here? And we're just gonna practice rucking. And you're

21:44

gonna, just gonna go at like a 40 percent

21:46

intensity to work on your movements and

21:48

you can add it and make it more and more dynamic. Maybe

21:51

you want to work on your left handed passing. Well,

21:53

working just rotation continually isn't

21:56

definitely going to directly transfer. It's going to help,

21:58

but you have to implement the specific

22:01

skill itself in games

22:03

of rugby for it to translate. So,

22:05

obviously we're not playing games of rugby four

22:08

or five times a week. Instead, you're just going to do

22:10

it in training. You're going to allow yourself some specific

22:13

time in training to work on the specific

22:15

skills and the drills that you want to improve

22:18

upon. Okay. So that

22:21

wraps up this podcast. So remember

22:23

that. Athleticism really

22:25

comes from a solid foundation and

22:28

a progressive challenge of that

22:30

foundation, whether that be through

22:32

tempo, whether that be through load,

22:35

whether that be control, range of motion, whatever

22:37

that the case may be, that is

22:39

how you build that foundation of athleticism

22:41

and movement control. And without it, you're

22:44

going to end up like. That

22:46

person that's never, I was going to say the, the girl

22:48

throwing again, get myself into trouble. I've just got

22:50

past that. You're going to look like that person

22:52

that's never played rugby and then ask

22:54

them to do a goose step or pass

22:56

a rugby ball. You don't want to do that.

22:58

You want to move better and that's

23:00

how you're going to do

23:03

that and make sure that you're adding this stuff to your training

23:05

routines, not just in the gym, but also sometime,

23:08

you know, in your, in your rugby training

23:11

as well. And give

23:13

it a go. Give it a go for a good month. Come

23:15

back and let me know how you got on with this stuff.

23:17

Um, I'm always, I always love to

23:19

hear your feedback. Of course you can leave direct

23:21

feedback right now in the comments below on

23:23

the YouTube video or in the comment section

23:26

on Spotify. Just hit that three dots. I'd love

23:28

to hear some of your feedback because it really does help

23:30

me improve the show. Uh, lets me know

23:32

what you guys want to listen to. Um,

23:35

on. Tuesday, Thursday

23:37

or Friday, we'll be doing another Q and a. So if

23:39

you have any questions, let me know in the comments below

23:41

as well. Um, hit subscribe

23:43

to make sure you don't miss those. Hit a thumbs

23:45

up button if you've made it all the way to the end. Oh,

23:48

and next week we will then continue

23:50

down this path and

23:52

we'll be talking about strength and muscle

23:54

gains, which is, I mean, that's what YouTube

23:56

is about. So thank you guys so much for tuning in. I'll catch

23:59

you in the next one.