Over the past century strength and conditioning has become
more and more predominant in contact sports and athletes have significantly
grown in terms of muscle hypertrophy. In
the professional game of rugby today, the average player is 6 foot 2 inches in
height and 16 stone, 5 pounds in weight. (Peters, S. 2014)
Strength training brings a number of benefits to rugby
players, such as:
- Prevention of injury through the
strengthening of muscles, ligaments and tendons surrounding the joints.
- Increase in muscle hypertrophy resulting
in an increase in strength, producing a more explosive, powerful athlete.
(Official
Site of the RFU, Governing Body of Rugby Union in England.)
Since
1974, the average back line rugby player has increased in height by 3 inches
and by 31 pounds in weight. As players have increased in size, the number of
injuries that occur has also drastically increased. In 1974, there was
approximately an injury every 3.4 matches. Forty years on, an injury occurs
every 59 minutes on average.
(Garraway,
W M., Lee, A J., Hutton, S., Russell, E B A W., Macleod, D A D. (2000).
So do
the benefits strength training brings to the game outweigh its detrimental
effect that sees injury rates increasing across all levels of play? Some would
argue yes commenting that it has enhanced the level of intensity the game is
played at.
Despite the risks associated with weight training, top-level
teams have various experts at hand who run injury prevention clinics with the
players. What has to be remembered is that rugby is a contact sport and injuries
will always occur. Strength training has produced more powerful, all round
athletes. Some consider that this has benefited the sport with rugby becoming
faster and every player (even twenty stone men) required to be in peak condition
to meet the demands of the physical game. For the spectator they would argue, the game
is now more enjoyable to watch.
References
Garraway, W M., Lee, A J., Hutton, S., Russell, E B A W.,
Macleod, D A D. (2000). Impact of Professionalism on Injuries in Rugby Union.
Abstract from the paper. (http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/34/5/348.abstract
Official Site of the RFU, Governing Body of Rugby Union in
England. What is Strength Training? (http://www.rfu.com/takingpart/fitness/fitnessattributes/strength)
Peters, S (2014). Rugby’s obsession with strength and power
is forcing the game to the brink of crisis. Mail Online. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-2571061/Rugbys-obsession-size-power-forcing-game-brink-crisis-concussion-campaign.html)
