by Michael Garrity, Head Coach of Rugby Strong
In Part 1 of this series we discussed what athletic capacities are utilized for optimizing performance within rugby and how those capacities benefit each other within the realm of a rugby match. We also discussed what concurrent training for rugby entails, the many benefits of concurrent training for rugby athletes, what the interference effect is and how to deflect the drawbacks of it.
If you haven’t read Part 1 yet be sure to take a couple of minutes to familiarize yourself with that content as all of these topics will present themselves again here in Part 2.
Furthering our discussion on how to properly train the many capacities involved in optimal rugby performance (strength, power, speed and endurance) we will now cover how to properly design and implement a program that offers the athlete a path to make continual gains in all capacities throughout a training year.
Putting together a program that yields the desired training effect without hindering or injuring the athlete depends upon:
- Constructing an objective needs analysis for the athlete to define what capacities must be emphasized and when;
- Acknowledging the differences between preseason and in-season training;
- Utilizing a recovery program that will allow the athlete to train multiple capacities in a concurrent fashion without reaching fatigue or, even worse, injury;
- And designing a training template that creates a good balance of stress and recovery which will allow for adaptation.
Using a Needs Analysis to Create Objective Programming
The first step in designing any program, concurrent or not, is always conducting a proper needs analysis.
The coach and the athlete need to sit down and have an objective look at where the athlete wants to be in context of his/her sport, where the athlete is at currently, and lastly, what it’s going to take to get to the goals set out by the athlete and demanded by the sport.
This approach of truly defining where the athlete wants to be at the end of a program and then working backwards from there helps the coach and athlete create a detailed, measurable, and progressive plan that will make both of them be accountable and objective with their progress or lack of progress. In a concurrent training program for rugby athletes, this step is paramount. An athlete and a coach must be well aware of where the athlete is, where the athlete needs to be, and what capacity needs to be developed to reach those goals without hindering the other capacities.
A solid needs analysis includes realizing and defining the following:
- Analyze the demands and needs of the sport or competition and what factors go into being superior at that sport and at the given level of competition. Within this context the athlete can then subjectively define what “success” is. The coach then combines the wishes and desires of the athlete’s success with the demands of the sport and what it means to be successful in that sport, in this case rugby.
- Assess the athlete’s physical characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, injury susceptibility, exercise or training preferences, and athletic motivation. This must be done objectively and with brutal honesty. A simple step, but probably the most complicated step.
- Define objectives and goals within the training environment. First define what objectives need to met in competition, then define what objectives need to met in training to benefit those in-competition goals. The compatibility of both competition and training goals is of the utmost importance in sports performance, as there is no sense in training for something that won’t benefit your objectives or transfer to the field.
- The coach defines what must be done to reach those training objectives (ie. increase strength, increase metabolic conditioning) and how to get it done. For example: if the athlete wishes to develop speed, what type of training program can be designed and utilized to reach a goal of increased speed? And how am I as a coach going to implement that within the greater context of their overall athletic development and progression towards their training goals and thus, their competition goals? This then leads to adding in the details of a program including training parameters such as programming periodization, balancing of intensity/load/frequency, and then lastly choosing specific training modalities that will benefit the objectives, leading to a sport-specific and individualized program.
Concurrent Training For Rugby: Preseason vs. In-Season
With a proper needs analysis out of the way, the next issue that must be considered when putting together a concurrent training program for rugby is understanding the differences that will arise between a preseason and in-season training plan.
The primary goal of any strength coach is to keep the athlete as free from injury as possible to keep them training and progressing. In regards to this, the varying ranges in volume and intensity throughout a training year must be respected. An athlete cannot maintain a constant level of high volume and high intensity without experiencing fatigue or at worst injury.
Within a concurrent training program for rugby, where varying capacities are being trained at similar intensities and levels of focus, risk of fatigue and plateauing in training is much greater. And when it comes to preseason and in-season, where the emphasis changes from preparing for competition to maintaining health and recovery between weekly competition, a program must adhere to these differences. Due to this, a properly designed concurrent program must have distinct change in volume and intensity from preseason to in-season.
Pre-Season Training
During preseason the training volume can be high, the focus can be broad, and intensity will be progressive.
A preseason’s objectives should be to increase the overall strength and conditioning of an athlete while specifically building muscle mass, developing speed, or increasing metabolic capacity, depending on the athlete’s needs defined in the needs analysis.
Without the emphasis on rugby specific skills and game-specific training that comes with in-season training, the emphasis should be on making gains in the gym and on the track. Still, however, the athlete should be undertaking daily and weekly recovery protocol to allow for adaptation and injury prevention while the training intensifies in preparation for the season.
In-Season Training
Where the emphasis lies on overall strength and conditioning during the preseason, the focus becomes much more specific during in season training. The volume of gym based training will decrease while the intensity increases.
Gym based sessions and movements become much more rugby specific or at least specific to capacities that have been prioritized by the athlete and coach.
Where strength and hypertrophy were gained during preseason, power must now be cultivated during in-season. Conditioning sessions become more rugby specific and anaerobic in nature, focusing on developing an athlete’s ability to perform intense bouts of movement but then recover and repeat. Repeated power output is vital to rugby players.
The athlete should only perform one hard conditioning session a week outside of rugby training due to the fact that a conditioning stimulus is more than evident at rugby practices, at least at the beginning of the season.
Speed work must still be prioritized but volume decreased drastically as the athlete is getting more than enough speed stimulus at rugby trainings, much like conditioning work.
As the volume and intensity of rugby specific training increases the focus must also be on athlete welfare and injury prevention. The ability to recover, train, and perform optimally week-to-week during the grind of a rugby season is key to a player’s success.
With all of this in mind, the athlete and coach will continue to train varying capacities simultaneously throughout the training year but the emphasis will shift from capacity to capacity as the program progresses, while volume and intensity within those capacities will alter to benefit the athlete and their continuous progress.
Once again, I must stress that we are aiming to increase all capacities optimally to develop a complete athlete, not training one capacity at a time and leaving the others behind. The key, then, is to find a balance between what the athlete must develop and what the athlete must maintain to become their best.
Recovery and Concurrent Training For Rugby
Another priority that must be considered is daily and weekly recovery to allow for proper adaptation to the concurrent style training. With the increased volume that comes with training multiple capacities simultaneously, recovery becomes vital to the athlete’s adaptation and performance.
On a day-to-day scale simple recovery strategies will help the athlete feel fresh and recharged for the upcoming sessions. Simple things like implementing mobility routines after each session can go a long way in helping an athlete through a tough week of training.
Proper hydration and nutrition can make or break an athlete’s efforts to recover and adapt. Make sure you are eating enough food (high quality, whole, REAL food) to keep your body fueled. Stay on top of your hydration by continuously refilling your water bottle whenever it goes empty throughout the day. Try and start and finish each day by consuming 20 ounces of water upon waking and before heading to sleep. These strategies are meticulous but the sacrifice and commitment they demand, along with their physiological benefits, will push your progress to the next level.
Outside of these daily recovery strategies we can also include active recovery sessions into our training plan. Active recovery sessions will help further the recovery process while also training capacities that are necessary to increasing our overall performance. What I’m talking about is implementing aerobic based conditioning sessions to not only help check the box of longer duration/lower intensity training necessary to a rugby athlete but also using it to advance recovery of the body throughout the week.
Looking at a weekly cycle, the addition of an aerobic focused session is commonly put towards the bottom of the priority list. Aerobic sessions aren’t as exciting as speed or strength sessions and the adaptations to such training are hard to see and feel.
This is not meant to be an article on the energy systems and how and when they are utilized. However, aerobic adaptations are trained throughout the week almost subconsciously to the athlete. A prime example is the fact that recovering between sets of strength training taps into the aerobic system. On the other hand, the first thing that comes to my mind when training the aerobic system for rugby is rugby practice itself. The time spent under constant, longer duration movement that is common at practices and then the subsequent recovery between drills trains the aerobic system extremely well.
But if the athlete is looking to program an active recovery day, then an aerobic emphasized session is always a fantastic idea. The utilization of an aerobic training session will not only help the athlete increase their cardiovascular output and their ability to recover between anaerobic bouts, but will also help flush the body of toxins and replenish fatigued muscles with nutrient-rich blood. This occurs by keeping the muscles under low intensity tension and pushing blood to that area (think of the “pump” ever sought by bodybuilders; this is very similar to that concept; we could call it the aerobic “pump “).
A few of my favorite recovery/aerobic sessions include:
- 5,000 meter row for time
- 20 minutes max calories on the Airdyne
- 20-30 minute resisted walk with sled or weighted vest.
These sessions will be intense in their own right. You shouldn’t try and push for a PR speed on the rower or bike but just aim for a constant, sustainable pace that allows for you to breathe deeply and get sweaty. This type of active recovery will do wonders for your training, your ability to recover, and also your ability to tap into that aerobic system on the field allowing you to maintain a higher intensity work rate throughout the game.
I normally program this session one or two days after a match, depending on how beat up I feel after the game. If I’m extremely sore after a match I’m going to take the whole day off and rest completely and just do my aerobic session for my conditioning work on Monday. If that’s not the case then I will implement this session on the Sunday after the match, assuming the match is on Saturday.
Implementing Concurrent Training For Rugby
The final step in the process of designing a concurrent program is to create a weekly template that fosters a balance of the appropriate amounts of stress, recovery, and adaptation. Depending on what the coach and athlete define as training objectives for that cycle, the training priorities throughout the week will vary.
The highest priority must be addressed early in the week when the athlete is relatively fresh and most recovered from the previous week or match. For many this is speed work, and speed work should be trained while the metabolic and nervous systems are in their most recovered state: before any other training session has been undertaken that may possibly undermine that capacity.
Also towards the beginning of the week, the athlete should train within a heavy resistance stimulus. Placing a maximal strength day at the beginning of the week is due to the fact that the nervous system is less fatigued and motor unit recruitment is quicker and stronger compared to later in the week after multiple sessions. Use this ideal, recovered state to hit your big, compound lifts at a high intensity.
As the week progresses, especially in season, the volume will taper off and the focus may turn to power or dynamic work. The focus turns to power work where the intensity is high and volume is low, attempting to use the strength gains from past weeks, and even that same week, and transferring that strength into power output and force production. The resistance training sessions later int he week will deal with lighter weights and the athlete attempting to move them as fast as possible.
In regards to conditioning sessions throughout the week, always try and place your most metabolically-taxing session towards the beginning of the week. Rowing or airdyne sessions that focus on anaerobic power and capacity are tough sessions. So too are any number of rugby specific cross-training circuits. Place these towards the beginning of the week when the body is more rested and the training stress has yet to truly build and start compounding on itself.
Later in the week, especially in preseason, the athlete and coach may program another taxing conditioning session to stay on top of metabolic objectives. Try to pick a day where the total volume is low and that the subsequent training session doesn’t demand too much of a power output, as the power output may be affected by the fatigue caused by a tough conditioning session. This is especially true if that conditioning session is more of a cross-training focused session with a strength/power portion within it. For example, if I hit an easier upper body weights session in the morning, that evening I may program a total body conditioning circuit that taxes not only my lungs but also the metabolic demands of my muscles. But the next day would be a very light day, if not a recovery day.
We must also keep in mind that the athlete is potentially getting a solid conditioning stimulus from rugby training. In this sense, I normally program only two conditioning sessions outside of rugby training during a week. The focus should be on sports-specific conditioning and there is no better way to increase that capacity than by training and practicing your sport, rugby.
Conclusion
To properly design and undergo a concurrent training plan the athlete must first objectively define their training goals while also defining the demands of their sport. The coach and athlete must prioritize capacities that will lead to reaching the objectives within training and thus the objectives on the field of play.
Once this has been done the coach and athlete must consider the variations between preseason and in-season training. Since training time is finite, especially for a rugby athlete, they must make the most of situation and the time that they have available by training capacities simultaneously but respecting a detailed balance between stress, recovery, and adaptation.
No capacity should be trained with a definitive bias for too long. In that instance the interference effect will begin to take place and the athlete’s physiology and psychology will begin to favor that capacity. Keep this in mind when undertaking a weekly split that allows simultaneous training of all necessary capacities.
Concurrent training can be very effective when implemented and utilized properly. But, as we have learned with the interference effect, can be detrimental to the athlete’s gains and competition objectives if a training bias is exposed. Throughout the year, but especially in-season a priority must be to recover and prevent injury.
The last step is to create a template that allows for this balance of stress-recovery-adaptation to be realized and for the athlete to begin to make continual gains in all the necessary capacities vital to performance eon the rugby pitch and throughout the season.
If you’re interested in following a proven training plan based on these principles be sure to check out our Rugby Strong program in the marketplace.
The post Strength, Speed, Power and Endurance: Concurrent Training For Rugby Part 2 appeared first on TrainHeroic.