For a lot of players the season is now over and it’s time to put your feet up and watch the NPC competition unravel.  Plus of course we will all be glued to the television for the long-awaited Rugby World Cup in October & November!

But the big question is how long do you put your feet up for?  After all if you have higher goals to achieve, the off-season is the time to make those big strength, size, power, and speed gains.  The window of opportunity to make these gains is not that long so plan your off-season and get into it.

Always take a long term approach to any planning exercise and consider the objectives & aims.  Once you have decided on these, then break down your off-season timeframe and work out the smaller, short-term goals.  There will be periods of time where you will concentrate on one aspect and others may suffer, i.e. speed may drop slightly as your strength workload increases, but given your overall objective is several months away, you will have the time and patience for everything to come together.

The initial phase of an off-season strength program often revolves around rehab exercises and aerobic level reps & sets of the basic strength exercises.  The rehab exercises tend to reflect the player’s season, e.g. shoulder problems, lower back problems, groin injuries, knees or ankle problems.  It is very important to ensure these injuries or problem areas are treated and strengthened prior to launching into a whole of body exercise regime.

The basic exercises for your off-season training will usually be back squats, power cleans and some type of pressing movement, i.e. bench press, incline bench press, overhead press, dumbbell press.  Off-season is also a great time to work on the core – get you ready for the beach too!  Lots of mid-section work including sit-ups, crunchies, and leg raises, for example are ideal here.  Pilates classes are well worth trying also and are showing their benefit to numerous athletes.

The essence of the first stage of off-season strength work is not unlike a body building program where the reps are high (12-15) with plenty of sets per exercise (6-8) and lots of variety in the program.  The program should be achieved in 45-60 minutes and done 3-4 times per week.  This should run for the first 3-4 weeks to get you into the gym routine and get the body adjusted to the exercises sufficiently to begin to load them in the next phase.

You can now begin the section of the program that will help you towards achieving your major goal for the off-season.  Whatever the objective - overall strength, size, lean muscle mass, upper body or lower body strength - now is the time to target this.  Remember also that Rome wasn’t built in a day (or two!) so build gradually and make small gains each week or two rather than tempting fate by going too heavy too early, if it is strength you are after.

Don’t forget to rest & feed your muscles – this is how they will recover, grow and benefit from the work you put them through.  Your recovery program is essential to achieving your goals so make this a key part of the planning.  Too often the gym work is wasted because the body is not refueled quickly enough nor is it supplied with the right fuel!

The off-season is also an ideal time to work out any physical imbalances so a muscle balance or postural assessment by a physio or trainer will identify any particular work required here.

I have been very fortunate in the last few months to work with several Super 12 teams and also the All Black squad.  The players at this level are really approaching their training far more professionally than they were perhaps a couple of years ago.  They realise the importance of strength & conditioning for numerous reasons including minimising the risk of injury, assisting their game recovery, and improving their physical power. 

Naturally in the back of their minds also is the fact that the longer they can stay in good shape or preferably continue to improve their strength & power, the longer the rugby career they will enjoy!

Go the All Blacks!!!

Richard Dryden

Olympic Weightlifting New Zealand Coach

Strength & Power Trainer