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Rugby Muscle

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A simple basic way to gat in valuable aerobic conditioning in that will not negatively affect your other training

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Zone 2 Top-Up Beginner

Block 1

For those who have a decent base of aerobic fitness and want to add to their current aerobic capacity levels. 
Insert this anywhere within your program without the risk of too much fatigue affecting other sessions

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Zone 2 Top-Up Experienced

For those who have a decent base of aerobic fitness and want to push their current aerobic capacity levels further.
Do this on a free weekend or even any free day if you have good tolerance. If the intensity is low enough, you should be fine.

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Zone 2 Long Run (Advanced - Off-Season)

Add this before rugby training or to any lighter day if you want to add to your aerobic capacity and repeat sprint ability.

Don't feel the need to push this too hard, just take what feels good.

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Field Tempo Sprints

Add this before rugby training or to any lighter day if you want to add to your aerobic capacity and repeat multi-directional sprint ability.

Don't feel the need to push this too hard, just take what feels good.

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Agility Tempo Sprints

Add this anywhere in your schedule if you want to add to your aerobic capacity and repeat burst ability.

Doing it off-feet fits in nicely before or after a gym session, or it can be done when traveling in a hotel gym or something.

Or if the legs are feeling particularly heavy and/or running isn't an option for you.

Don't feel the need to push this too hard, just take what feels good.

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Off-Feet Tempo Intervals

The Sentinel is for those who are looking to build new levels of strength as a main focus during the season.
Ideal for those who have a decent base of conditioning already but find themselves undersized

SPECIAL NOTES - 
1. If you have time for extra zone 2 - take it. Otherwise be sure to only utilise this if you're already very happy with your speed and conditioning

in-season

full week

strength

Sentinel - In-Season Athletic Strength

Phase 1 building the full spectrum of power strength and performance

Block 2

In Season Program building a full-spectrum base.
Athletes doing this should be adequately fit, with a solid aerobic base.
In Season Program athlete development with a focus on "athletic strength"
Athletes doing this should be adequately fit, with a solid aerobic base as this program will demand that. 
Sessions are designed to be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday with games on the weekend. Adjust to your schedule as needed. 
Monday will be conditioning with some specific accessories, Tuesday will be heavy weights, Thursday will be weights with power conditioning and Friday will be a low-volume power "primer"

In-Season

Full Spectrum

In-Season Full Spectrum Comprehensive Development

Training days should be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Optional Q Work on off daysBase phase for conditioning, strength, power and movement

Base Builder

Raider is a Focus Track for those towards the end of an off-season who have built a strong aerobic base of fitness and now want to be fully-prepared to smash contact.

The speed work builds over the 6 weeks, and the strength volume tapers to have you realise huge gains in strength and power at the end.

SPECIAL NOTES - 
1. The focus is still spread across 3 different elements.

power

speed

off-season

Raider - Speed, Power and Strength

Phase 1 building the full power strength and speed components.

4 Days of strength biased hypertrophy work to be done in the off-season. 
If you are severely lacking size and strength, this is your go to, total length of both blocks combined is 12 weeks, after this you are encouraged to go to a different program to manage your other areas and make sure you don't leave yourself with too much ground to gain before the season
Off days should have Q Work at least 1-2x a week

Hypertrophy

Off-Season

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Off-Season Intense Hypertrophy Hyper Focus

4 Day Hypertrophy built around heavy base lifts

Intense Hypertrophy 1

Full-spectrum program with just 2 sessions a week of training, aiming to maximise all areas of rugby S&C as efficiently as possible

 In-Season Full Spectrum Bonsai Approach 2x Weekly

Block 3

 Full Body Power + Athleticism developed with just 2 sessions a week! 
This is a 10 week training program consisting of 2 three week block followed by one final block of 4 weeks. It takes into account all the rigors of being in a rugby season whilst allowing for improvement in all areas of rugby S&C.
If you find yourself with more time than needed to do the 2 scheduled sessions, it is advised to do low-level Q Work aerobic training. You can find more about this in the guide.
These sessions will be done whenever your schedule allows, but ideally you won't be training the day before a game

Off-Season Full Spectrum Bonsai Approach

This program is for any athlete preparing for Pre-Season. With 12 weeks of training you will be ready not just for the games to come, but also your team’s preseason as well.
The first phase is designed to bring up your strength to a peak, and bring up your running volume so that the first week of rugby preseason doesn’t smash you.

The schedule should be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday with Saturday being your long run day. Ideally this order is kept but if you need to switch the run day to Sunday, that’s fine, you can either take the rest day Saturday or Monday.

Week 1 should feel “easy” as we build into it. Place a big priority on your movement quality, and if you need to, rest longer… I don’t want you finishing sessions feeling wrecked… in fact you should feel fairly fresh after basically every session. Stick at this for the whole 12 weeks and accumulate the work and you will see big transfers to on-pitch performance.
If you have not trained for a while it wouldn't be wise to start this right away.

Pre-Season

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Pre-Season Full Spectrum Development

Full-spectrum program with just 3 sessions a week of training, aiming to maximise all areas of rugby S&C as efficiently as possible

 In-Season Full Spectrum Bonsai Approach 3x Weekly

The marauder is a Focus Track created for those who really need to bring up their conditioning, but need to be firing at 100% every week for game day.

There is sufficient speed, power and strength work that you can still progress in those areas, but it is not the focus, which is on building 80 minute relentless conditioning. Get through all 4 sessions and feel free to add more Zone 2 if (and only if) you have the time.

conditioning

Marauder In-Season Conditioning

Block 1 (copy 1)

The Marauder Essentialist is a Focus Track designed to build 80-minute aerobic capacity using only 2 sessions a week (on-field, before your rugby)

This one is unique as there is no gym work, everything can be done on a field and will progress to build a strong aerobic engine to support explosive speed and power



essentialist

field only

Marauder Essentialist 

The Blitz program is a Focus Track designed to build explosive power in-season.

It is for those who are already pretty fit and strong, but have had issues translating that directly to on-field performance.

We’ll be using French contrast methods, plyometrics and lactic power intervals to try and get the most out of your current base.

Traditional strength and fitness work is dialled back here for the whole 12 weeks. Get through the work and you will see big transfers to on-pitch performance.


Blitz- In-Season Power

This is a comprehensive rugby development program with 2 6 week blocks of 6 days a week training. 
Because of the lowering volume through the legs, it will get you perfectly prepared for a season in the future and fill in any gaps in your athletic development before transitioning to a specialist program for in-season.

The schedule should be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday with Saturday being your long run day. Ideally this order is kept but if you need to switch the run day to Sunday, that’s fine, you can either take the rest day Saturday or Monday. The leg hypertrophy day is deliberately before the long run to pre-fatigue you so that you run slower due to the fatigue you’ve already accrued in your lower body, that’s the point - don’t use the long-runs on Saturdays as a race, if you wish to run fast, save it for the sprints and MAYBE the Q work in the second block.

Off-Season Full Spectrum Comprehensive Development

This program is for any athlete preparing for Pre-Season. With 10 weeks of training just twice a week you will be ready not just for the games to come, but also your team’s preseason as well.
Because of the value of a strong aerobic system, one of your sessions will have a major conditioning focus, with the first one being more of a strength/power focus.
 
Everything is covered at a minimal volume. Keep your work intentional and push yourself each session but take your time during the rest periods as needed.
If you wish to do extra LISS aerobic work on your other days if you have time you are welcome to do it, just keep the intensity tapered.

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Pre-season Bonsai Approach

If you have 3 sessions to do a week and want to start relatively-fresh, this is THE program that is going to build the base for you

Build THE Base (3x a week off/pre-season)

Here we're going to establish some lifts and get into the grove of Rugby Muscle Training. If there's a chance for more Q work... do it

Block 1 

Now we're going to build on the power and conditioning from block 1

Now we ramp things up for 6 weeks to be ready for what's to come

This test week isn't even supposed to be make or break, the idea is just to give us solid information to use for the training block and to compare to the future. Be willing to really push yourself, make sure you're nice and well rested and above all, DON'T take it so serious 😂
These tests are going to give a real honest assessment of where you're at with your strength, aerobic capacity, power and speed. I've made this testing as simple as possible so that you don't need equipment or anything fancy. Of course if you have fancy stuff to measure.... do it! Otherwise, all the testing in this program is all you need!

Testing

Off-Season Testing Block

This test week isn't even supposed to be make or break, the idea is just to give us solid information to use for the training block and to compare to the future. Be willing to really push yourself, make sure you're nice and well rested and above all, DON'T take it so serious 😂 These tests are going to give a real honest assessment of where you're at with your strength, aerobic capacity, power and speed. I've made this testing as simple as possible so that you don't need equipment or anything fancy. Of course if you have fancy stuff to measure.... do it! Otherwise, all the testing in this program is all you need!

The Tactician is one of 2 Rugby Muscle Method flagship programs. Expect to improve across all 5 elements of Rugby S&C.
Strength/Power/Speed/Aerobic Conditioning / Basic Hypertrophy / Trunk Strength. 

Off-Season Programming for players wanting to progress across the board, with strength work focusing on a few specific lifts each time.
Each phase will use planned percentage progressions (PPP) on specific exercises for 3-8 week blocks. 


flagship

hybrid

full-week

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Tactician - Off-Season

PPP Block A - Heavy Effort, Aerobic Effort and EDT

Tactician Block A 5x

Block 2 - Heavy Effort above 95%, Aerobic Effort and Dynamic Effort

Tactician Block B 5x

Block 3 - Heavy Effort, Tempo Sprints and Repeated Effort

Tactician Block C 5x

PPP Block 4 - Heavy Effort , Aerobic Effort and Dynamic Effort

Tactician Block D 5x

Block 5 - 4 Week Block Waving Heavy and Dynamic Work

Tactician Block E 5x

Block 6 - Second 4 Week Block Waving Heavy and Dynamic Work

Tactician Block F 5x

Guidance if you've trained through to this point

Where to go next

The essentialist version of the Tactician flagship program is for those who can only train 2-3 times a week. If you can only make 2, just perform the workouts sequentially.
Expect to improve across all 5 elements of Rugby S&C.
Strength/Power/Speed/Aerobic Conditioning / Basic Hypertrophy / Trunk Strength. 

Each phase will use planned percentage progressions (PPP) on specific exercises for 3-8 week blocks. 

Tactician - Essentialist

Block A - Heavy Effort, Aerobic Effort and EDT

Tactician Block A 3x

Block 2 - Waving back over 95%, Aerobic Effort and Dynamic Effort

Tactician Block B 3x

Tactician Block C 3x

Block 4 - Heavy Effort, Tempo Sprints and Dynamic Effort

Tactician Block D 3x

Block 5 - Heavy Effort, Tempo Sprints and Dynamic Effort

Tactician Block E 3x

Tactician Block F 3x

The essentialist version of the Tactician flagship program is for those who can only train 2-3 times a week. If you can only make 2, just perform the workouts sequentially.
Expect to improve across all 5 elements of Rugby S&C.
Strength/Power/Speed/Aerobic Conditioning / Basic Hypertrophy / Trunk Strength. 

Each phase will rotate through lots of exercises and progress you across the board, focussing on the ends of the spectrum.

conjugate

Berserker - Essentialist

Block A - Max Effort 5s & 3s, Aerobic Effort and EDT

Berserker Block A 3x

Conjugate Block 2 - Max Effort 3s & 1s, Aerobic Effort and Dynamic Effort

Berserker Block B 3x

Block 3 - Max Effort, Tempo Sprints and Repeated Effort

Berserker Block C 3x

Block 4 - Max Effort, Tempo Sprints and Dynamic Effort

Berserker Block D 3x

Block 5 - Max Effort, Tempo Sprints and Dynamic Effort

Berserker Block E 3x

Berserker Block F 3x

The Berserker is one of 2 Rugby Muscle Method flagship programs. Expect to improve across all 5 elements of Rugby S&C.
Strength/Power/Speed/Aerobic Conditioning / Basic Hypertrophy / Trunk Strength.

This Off-Season Programming is for players wanting to progress across the board, with strength work focusing on a few specific lifts each time.
Each phase will rotate through lots of exercises and progress you across the board, focussing on the ends of the spectrum.

Berserker - Off-Season

Berserker Block A 5x

Block 2 - Max Effort 5s, 3s & 1s, Aerobic Effort and Dynamic Effort

Berserker Block B 5x

Berserker Block C 5x

Block 4 - Max Effort , Aerobic Effort and Dynamic Effort

Berserker Block D 5x

Berserker Block E 5x

Berserker Block F 5x

The Berserker is one of 2 Rugby Muscle Method flagship programs. Expect to improve across all 5 elements of Rugby S&C.
In-Season you should still make 4-5 sessions a week, each block guides you on how to organise it but you can still reach out if you need further help.

Strength/Power/Speed/Aerobic Conditioning / Basic Hypertrophy / Trunk Strength.

Progress across rotating through lots of exercises and progress you across the board, focussing on the ends of the spectrum.

Berserker - In-Season

Conjugate Block A - Max Effort 5s & 3s, Aerobic Effort and EDT

Block A 5x + GD

Block B 5x + GD

Block 3 - Max Effort, Tempos, Repeated Effort and Dynamic Effort

Block C 5x + GD

Block 4 - Max Effort, Tempos, Repeated Effort and Dynamic Effort

Block D 5x + GD

Block 5 - Max Effort, Sprints, EDT and Primer

Block E 5x + GD

Block 6 - Max Effort, Sprints, EDT and Primer

Block F 5x + GD

The Tactician is one of 2 Rugby Muscle Method flagship programs.
In-Season you should still make 4-5 sessions a week, each block guides you on how to organise it but you can still reach out if you need further help.

Strength/Power/Speed/Aerobic Conditioning / Basic Hypertrophy / Trunk Strength.

Each phase will use planned percentage progressions (PPP) on specific exercises for 3-8 week blocks. 

Tactician - In-Season

Block 3 - Heavy Effort, Tempos, Repeated Effort and Dynamic Effort

Block 4 - Heavy Effort, Tempos, Repeated Effort and Dynamic Effort

4 Week Block, Utilising Percentage Progressions, Sprint work and Tempo Conditioning

Block 6 - Heavy Effort, Sprints, EDT and Primer

The Capacitor is a Focus Track designed to build high intensity energy output and speed.

It is for those who have a decent base of conditioning already and need to add repeated speed to have them dominate on the pitch.

SPECIAL NOTES - 
1. Although this is a 4 day a week program, if your schedule allows you to make 5-6 sessions per week then I would really encourage you to add the zone 2 effort from the standalone sessions - some quality steady state work would really compliment this stuff nicely.

2. If you're on a time-crunch and already have the base of conditioning, start at Block 2.

Conditioning

pre-season

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The Capacitor - Rapid Energy System Development

Foundation Block A 4x +

Build Block B 4x

Spicy🌶️ Block C 4x

Fire🔥 Block D 4x

The Initiate is a special program specifically designed for those with less gym experience, or for those coming back off a fairly decent lay off.

The primary goal is to build quality foundational movement and conditioning that will help you smash future training.

The way it is set up you will also increase power, strength and speed quite quickly without building up crazy amounts of strain or fatigue.