Prehabilitation Exercises for Rugby

Rugby Prehabilitation excercises

Pre-Season preparation in rugby is incredibly important; players need to work extremely hard in the lead up to a new season or they simply won’t be fit enough when it starts.

However, as the volume of your training increases, so too does the risk of injury. On average, rugby players have an 88% chance of picking up an injury at some point during a season that will limit their playing time. Therefore, you also need to make sure you are allowing yourself adequate time for recovery, otherwise you may find yourself picking up an injury during training or once the season starts.

According to a recent study by the RFU , some of the most common training injuries are hamstring injuries, quadricep injuries, calf injuries and lumbar disc injuries.

To reduce the risk of injury you need to focus on three things:

1. More sleep
2. More nutrient-rich food and water
3. More mobility drills, combined with regular prehab and recovery workouts

Training injuries are predominantly down to weakness and/or tightness in your core and lower body. By working on these target areas at least twice a week, can help strengthen and improve your flexibility in these muscle groups, and you may start to feel a difference on the pitch.

These prehab and recovery exercises will help you get into a regular routine of mobility work that will help support your training goals and functional movement.

Hindu Press Up

1. Begin the movement by standing with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
2. As you lean forward, be sure to keep your head in line with your spine, and your arms and legs as straight as possible. When your hands are on the floor, your body should resemble an inverted ‘V’ shape - this is the start position.
3. Whilst still keeping your legs straight, lower your hips and bend your arms whilst moving your torso forward and down towards the floor; your chin should dip down to almost almost touch the floor.
4. From here, arch your back whilst looking towards the ceiling and keeping your hips as close to the ground as possible.
5. To complete the movement, raise your hips and push your body back to the inverted 'V' position, again with your arms and legs straight.
6. You should aim to keep the movement as naturally graceful and fluid as possible, maintaining a constant movement between start, middle and end points. Avoid jerky movements as these can lead to injury. Perform 10 reps.

Ankle Alphabet Exercises

1. Begin by sitting on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you.
2. Starting with your dominant leg, use your foot and ankle to draw the letters of the alphabet from A-Z using movements as large as possible. Repeat on your other leg.
3. Once you’ve completed the movements on both leg, repeat with lower case letters.

Psoas Quad Stretch

1. Begin by placing your weaker leg on either a chair with your thigh as close to perpendicular to the ground as possible; your foot should be as near to your glutes as possible.
2. Keeping your chest and head facing forward, place your other foot in front of you so that your knee is bent at 90 degrees.
3. Place both hands onto your front leg and lean forward slightly, driving your back knee into the ground as you do so. You should feel a stretch down the front of your other quad as you do so.
4. Hold this stretch for 20 seconds then switch legs.
5. Repeat 5 stretches on each leg.