Rugby union
training program
Set-piece strength, contact dominance, and the aerobic base to keep scrummaging late in the game.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
Train Smart’s rugby union program is a complete weekly strength and conditioning plan periodised to the Australian rugby union season — pre-season February – March, competition April – September. It trains set-piece and scrum strength, power through contact and aerobic-strength endurance, builds the week around your team nights and game day, prescribes a weight in kilos for every working set, and retests you every four weeks on Bench press 1RM and Back squat 1RM, plus the conditioning benchmark your running plan is built around.
Why this program exists
The set piece is the part of your game the gym actually decides, and it is the part no generic program trains. Meanwhile you are still expected to keep scrummaging in the 78th minute.
Union asks for two things most programs treat as opposites: set-piece strength and aerobic-strength endurance. The program builds them in sequence rather than fighting them against each other, and it loads the neck and shoulder first, before anything else, because those are what the contact area punishes.
A default rugby union week
This is the sport’s own template — the starting point before it is fitted to your days, your equipment and your season. Team nights and game day are protected; everything else moves to the days you are free.
What rugby union is won with
These are the qualities the program is built to develop, in priority order. They come from the sport, not from a generic template.
- Set-piece + scrum strength
- Power through contact
- Aerobic-strength endurance
- Neck + shoulder durability
| Session | Type | Duration | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strength (Total Body) | Gym | 60–70 min | Scrum + maul strength base |
| Aerobic-Strength Conditioning | Conditioning | 40–50 min | Keep working in contact when tired |
| Power & Contact | Gym | 55–65 min | Explosive drive into contact |
| Pre-Game Primer | Gym | 25–30 min | Light activation |
The season changes the program
A short, sharp pre-season and a winter competition. The off-season is the only real block you get for max strength — spend it there.
- Pre-season
- February – March — set volume ×1.2. Build the engine and the strength base.
- In-season
- April – September — set volume ×0.7, prescribed weights hold. Maintain, don’t drain.
- Off-season
- October – January — baseline volume. Rebuild general strength and fix the niggles.
- Block structure
- Four-week blocks: three weeks accumulating, one week deload. The block’s character changes across the year rather than repeating.
- Game day
- Protected. The day before gets a 20-minute explosive primer with no running, no heavy legs and no prehab block bolted on.
The rugby union testing battery
Five numbers, re-run every four weeks. Chosen to match what rugby union programs actually measure — and the results re-price your training weights and reset your conditioning paces.
| Test | Measures | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Bronco test | The repeat-effort benchmark both rugby codes are measured on. | mm:ss |
| Bench press 1RM | Upper-body pressing strength: the fend, the tackle, holding a bigger body off. | kg |
| Weighted chin-up 3RM | Pulling strength once bodyweight has stopped being a challenge. | kg added |
| Back squat 1RM | The base of every lower-body quality you have. | kg |
| Standing vertical jump | Lower-body power in its purest form, and the cheapest fatigue check you own. | cm |
What is actually in a rugby union program
Every movement below appears in the sessions above, with the coaching cues the app shows you, the sets and reps it is prescribed at, and ranked alternatives if you cannot do it. The weight is calculated from your own last top set.
| Movement | Appears in | Why it is there | Trains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bench Press | Power & Contact | Pushing strength in contests | Chest · Triceps |
| Farmer Carry | Power & Contact | Grip and a braced trunk under a load that is genuinely heavy | Traps · Back · Abs / Core |
| Goblet Cossack Squat — deep hold | Power & Contact | Adductor and hip length under load, held in the deepest position — the shape a cut or a lunge actually asks for | Groin / Adductors · Quads · Glutes |
| Heavy Sled Drive | Power & Contact | Scrum/maul leg drive | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
| Med Ball Overhead Slam | Power & Contact | Full-body extension into the ground, and it stays honest under fatigue | Abs / Core · Back · Shoulders |
| Plate Neck Iso Hold (4-way) | Power & Contact | A stronger neck reduces the head acceleration behind contact injuries, and an isometric hold is how it is safely loaded | Neck |
| Power Clean | Power & Contact | Whole-body explosive power | Quads · Glutes · Hamstrings · Traps |
| Weighted Side Plank — long hold | Power & Contact | Lateral trunk endurance under load — the side that gives way in a fast bowler's side strain and in every one-armed carry | Abs / Core |
| Deadlift | Strength (Total Body) | Maul + cleanout drive | Hamstrings · Glutes · Back |
| Deep Goblet Squat Hold | Strength (Total Body) | Loaded end-range hip, knee and ankle at once — the bottom position, held long enough to change it | Quads · Glutes |
| Front Squat | Strength (Total Body) | Quad and trunk strength in the upright posture sport actually loads | Quads · Glutes |
| Jefferson Curl (light KB) | Strength (Total Body) | Loads spinal flexion and hamstring length together, then holds there — the range you land and bend in, owned rather than avoided | Hamstrings · Glutes · Back |
| Neck Harness Eccentric Lower | Strength (Total Body) | Eccentric neck strength, which is what actually resists the head being moved for you — the collision-code version of a Nordic | Neck |
| Romanian Deadlift | Strength (Total Body) | Posterior chain for driving legs | Hamstrings · Glutes · Back |
| Standing OHP | Strength (Total Body) | Lineout lift + contact strength | Shoulders |
| Weighted Chin-Up | Strength (Total Body) | Contested marking + tackle strength | Back · Biceps |
Staying available
The prehab block is matched to the region of the session it sits in and to the tissue this sport actually punishes — not a generic mobility flow bolted to the front.
Prehab only works if it happens, and the reason it usually does not is that it has nothing to do with the session it is attached to. Rotating a pool by session number puts shoulder work before a squat day and Copenhagen planks before a bench press. Technically covered; nobody does it.
In Train Smart each movement is classified by the region it protects and matched to the session, and the pool rotates across the week so you cover all of it rather than doing the same three moves three times.
More on prehab that people actually do →
What the free month covers, and what comes after
The first month is one complete four-week block — three building weeks and a deload. The first retest comes after that block, and it is the first time the program measures what your training did.
- Week 1
- Testing session on the rugby union battery. Your starting weights and paces come from it.
- Weeks 1–3
- The first block builds. Hit your reps and the weight goes up on its own.
- Week 4
- Deload — the week the previous three become fitness.
- Week 5
- Retest. The results re-price your weights and reset your conditioning paces.
- Weeks 5–8
- Block two changes shape, priced from the top sets you just did and the numbers you just tested.
Rugby union training questions
What does the Train Smart rugby union program include?
When is rugby union pre-season?
Can I follow this program if I only train twice a week?
What tests does the rugby union program use?
Do I need a full gym?
Get your rugby union program
Pick rugby union, answer eight questions, and your week is built — around your team nights, your game and the days you can actually train.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
- Install itFree to download on iPhone and Android.
- Tell it how you playYour sport, your season, the nights you train and the kit you have. No account needed.
- See your week, then start freeYour program is built before you pay anything. Start the free month to unlock it, and cancel any time in your store settings.