Strongman Training for Rugby

“Rugby is a fast-paced game that requires athletes to pass, kick, tackle, and run. All 15 players on the field need to be competent in these very different areas. It’s an 80-minute match with stoppages on average every 30–45 seconds. Each stoppage is roughly 15 seconds in length, so the athletes need a high aerobic competent. However, during open play, the athlete needs to be able to be explosive in and through the contact point (tackle contest, ruck, or maul) and be able to sustain that explosive power for the 80-minute match. They need to have the agility and evasive footwork skill to avoid the defense or to get into a quality tackling position, and they need to have the speed to take advantage of line-breaks and score.  Moreover, some athletes will then also need some position specific skills on top of these other requirements. As examples, the prop will need to be a powerful and physical presence in the scrum with quick explosive speed on the engage but with the massive frame to carry up to 50 percent of the load of the scrum (eight players from each team. The lock position will need to have exceptional leg strength to push in the scrums but will also have to have, in most cases, quick plyometric explosiveness to get in the air on the lineout jumps. The flyhalf, who at times is like a football quarterback marshaling the players and distributing the ball, also needs the kicking ability of a football punter. Rugby, therefore, requires athletes to have a diverse, multi-function athletic profile.” —A. Magleby, head coach Dartmouth College men’s rugby and USA Collegiate All-American Team

Given the description of the game of rugby above and understanding how to get athletes bigger, faster, and stronger, who in their right mind wouldn’t want to train rugby athletes? I’ve been continually experimenting using the conjugate method of periodization in my own training and that of the athletes I work with for the past five years with great success. Hand in hand with trying my best at working within a conjugate template, I’ve been integrating Strongman lifts and Strongman conditioning into my athlete’s workouts and have found it to be very helpful to their strength gains as well as to making these athletes mentally tougher.

Why Strongman training?
Strongman style training incorporates multi-joint exercises and multiple muscle groups, which trains the whole body and provides training economy or more bang for your buck. Strongman training becomes therefore true “functional” training. Now, I’m the first to admit that I don’t like to use the term “functional” with regards to strength training. The term “functional” is used way too often these days. Coaches and trainers use the term functional to describe training style, movements, and equipment. Heck, people have even written books about it.
Unfortunately, the terms have become so used and misused that it’s hard to know what to believe when you hear that something regarding strength training is “functional.” Because of the difficult nature of Strongman style training, we can train not only the muscles and tendons but also the cardiovascular system, nervous system, and more all while creating mental toughness due to the attitude required to complete some of these exercises.

The program
Dartmouth rugby had approximately 15 weeks in the 2009 off-season training program before our competitive matches. This was specifically designed to have us be the strongest and fittest at the end of April, which would feature playing in the Division I Rugby Sweet 16 and Ivy League Championships on consecutive weekends.
The training program was designed in the style of Westside for Skinny Bastards, which is Joe DeFranco’s masterpiece. Many people have altered it for the needs of themselves and the athletes they train. Lifting was done using a four-day template—max effort upper body, dynamic effort lower body, repeated effort upper body, and max effort lower body with Strongman lifts and conditioning circuits integrated throughout the training blocks. (I won’t get into depth with the sets and reps regarding our training, as this article is primarily about using the Strongman exercises within our template).

A typical week looked something like this:

ME upper
Agility training
Log press
Incline dumbbell press
Dumbbell rows ss with pull-ups (weighted)
Barbell shrugs
Fat bar curls
Tire flips

DE lower
Jump variation or Olympic variation
Step-ups
Stone load
Grip training
Weighted abs

RE upper
Fat bar bench press
Bent rows ss with chin-ups
Dumbbell curl to press
Triceps
Conditioning circuit (30–45 seconds work intervals/10–15 seconds rest, 90% heart rate intensity)

ME lower
Agility training
Box squat
Glute ham raise
SL good morning
Farmer’s walks
Strongman medley

Integration of Strongman training
As you see in the above template, actual Strongman exercises such as the log press, farmer’s walk, and stones were substituted in place of traditional lifts. I also found the Strongman “medleys” to be very challenging and useful in our training. Example medleys that we used were farmer’s walks to backward sled drags to keg carries or keg carries to sled drags to tire flips.

During the “conditioning circuits,” we used exercises such as tire flips, kettlebell drills, sled drags, keg carries, and sledge hammering on tires. At my gym in New Hampshire, I’m fortunate enough to have two, 500-lb tires, which allowed us to have tire flip races. I split the guys into two teams, and we had one guy flip followed by the next for either distance or reps, depending on what conditioning effect I was looking for.
Over the course of our training, I also acquired a 700-lb tire that nearly all of my athletes were able to flip for multiple reps. If anyone is interested in learning more about how best to integrate Strongman training with athletes, I highly suggest the programs that Elliot Hulse has available at www.hulsestrength.com. Elliot has been a great asset to me since meeting him at the Elite VIP seminar two years ago, and I even recently went and spent a weekend training Strongman and hanging out at “Strength Camp,” which is his gym in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Dartmouth Rugby Ivy League Champs

Results
I won’t list specific increases in the amount of weights lifted by individuals here. However, I will say that everyone on the team got stronger and better conditioned. Guys who couldn’t flip a 500-lb tire at the beginning of the 15-weeks could flip it multiple times by the end, and guys who could flip the 500-lb tire were flipping the 700-lb tire for reps by the end. Also, each week weight was added to the farmer’s walk handles and everyone was able to handle the new demands. Overall, it became the mental toughness and “I can do this” attitude that surfaced as teammates pushed each other to the limits in each training session.
And most importantly, the Dartmouth College rugby team played a very tough first match in the 2009 Sweet 16 (we lost 26-6) against BYU, who went on to win the national championship. Then, in the second match, we pummeled traditional powerhouses Navy 53-26 to place fifth in the country. Next up in'09 was the Ivy League Cup Championship, which we already were the odds on favorite for, but the off-season preparation and dedication to fitness shone throughout the weekend as we rolled over Cornell 101-0 and Princeton 113-0 the first day and then continued by finishing Harvard University 62-13 in the championship game.