Olympic Lifting For Rugby Performance

Rugby is a game of explosive movement within a paradigm that tests an athlete’s mental and physical stamina.

The ability to repeatedly perform explosive movements like sprinting, jumping and tackling requires a large of amount of absolute strength and the ability to quickly translate that strength into power.

If you look at any instance of acceleration, a fast clear out at a ruck, or especially a ribcage compressing tackle, you will notice one commonality between each: explosive extension of the hips and a transfer of energy away from the core/trunk of the athlete.

Why Olympic Lifting for Rugby Players is Important

For years strength and conditioning coaches have been using traditional “slow” strength movements such as the squat, bench press and deadlift in order to build a foundation of absolute strength. Quite recently however, the Olympic lifts have become more and more prominent in sport-specific strength and conditioning, for good reason.

Note: In our Rugby Strong program, Olympic weightlifting is a key component of creating a strong, powerful and fast rugby athlete.

The result of implementing Olympic lifting into a sport-specific program is an increased rate of force development and thus an ability to move your own bodyweight faster in space and also move external loads violently and with precision.

The Olympic lifts (the snatch and the clean & jerk) combine the strength needed to move heavier external loads with the speed of un-weighted dynamic efforts such as jumping, throwing and sprinting. To successfully and safely complete the Olympic lifts, the athlete is required to create significant amounts of tension in the body (strength) to keep proper position throughout the movement. The athlete must also simultaneously move at a fast enough pace so that the bar reaches a speed that is desired for power development.

The athletic trait of body awareness while moving yourself or an external load dynamically in space is invaluable in all sports but most specifically in contact sports. Being able to manipulate your opponent and move them where you wish in a fast, powerful action is a massive benefit to utilizing Olympic lifting within your program.

The increase in force production and coordination is second-to-none with Olympic lifting when it comes to training for contact sports.

Another benefit that is more specific to contact sports is the increased durability an athlete can potentially gain from an effective Olympic lifting program. The catching of the bar overhead (in the snatch or jerk) or in the front rack (in the clean) adds stimulus to shoulder stability through large volume and loads being placed on the joint through higher velocity movements.

Also, through training of the Olympic lifts, the trunk and legs of the athlete are tested to absorb external loads at very high speeds while maintaining tension throughout the body, another way to increase durability.

How to Modify Olympic Lifting for Rugby Players

When it comes to the Olympic lifts within a sport-specific training program there are a few drawbacks.

These include the fact that the lifts require a lot of technique and are not easily or quickly learned, because of this technical requirement there is also an increased risk for newer athletes or athletes with mobility or stability issues, and the requirement of specific equipment and enough of that equipment to properly train in a team setting.

To properly implement the Olympic lifts for increased performance within rugby, we must address these drawbacks and several other factors that may arise. These include the movement requirements specific to rugby, issues regarding athlete welfare and safety, modifications that can be beneficial to rugby-specific athletes, and more.

I have laid out a few helpful ideas to keep in mind when injecting the Olympic movements safely and effectively into a rugby program.

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1. Be Ready for Impact

 Throughout my training of sports specific athletes I have noticed one common problem when it comes to the squat and/or catching of the Olympic lifts: not being properly prepared for the eccentric phase (downward motion in the squat or, in this sense, the catch of the lift) of the movements. The athlete may show great ability to keep tension through the body during the initial pull off of the ground and subsequently put that tension into the bar by accelerating and extending perfectly, but may also lack in being prepared for the catch. This translates into the athlete falling into the bottom of the squat without properly tensing their body for the impact and receiving the bar into a smooth squat absorbing the weight. This is sometimes called “trap-door” squatting due to the sudden collapse of the athlete’s body. This is common in inexperienced lifters.

The ability to come from full triple extension back into a proper, and solid, squat, whether in the full movements or the power variations, is paramount to rugby athletes. This is because of the requirement to absorb external forces during a match or practice. The ability to effectively absorb hits in the open field, in rucks, and especially in the scrum, is massively important for ideal performance and athlete safety on the field, because if the athlete is injured, they cannot perform to their utmost potential. The proper catching of the bar in the lifts, as mentioned earlier, helps increase an athlete’s durability to contact-sport specific impacts. Also the ability to dynamically move the hips from an open position back into a flexed position is invaluable to sports in regards to total body coordination. So our goal as coaches and as athletes is to properly prepare the individual and/or ourselves for those impacts and change of direction in a proper manner so that they may stay injury free to continue training and continue performing. A few modifications/regressions I use to help athletes understand a proper and solid catch include:

• Depth Jump into Squat: Have the athlete start standing on a box of varying height depending on their ability. The athlete will then step off of the box and land softly in a full, proper squat, with solid spine position. They will hold the squat for several seconds to demonstrate proper tension in the legs. Try and have them go from higher boxes but still aim for the landing to be soft and controlled: landing immediately in a properly positioned squat and not having to correct it upon landing.

• Front Squat/Overhead Test: The first thing I always screen on every athlete I work with before we get into the Olympics lifts is their front-rack and overhead position to demonstrate that their mobility and stability in their shoulders allows them to begin training for the clean and/or snatch. From here, we must teach the athlete the power variations of the movements and begin to add in subsequent front squats or overhead squats from the catch position. As the athlete improves in their ability to squat to proper depth with proper position, we can then push the athlete to catch the bar in lower and lower positions until they are catching at full depth and doing it with strength. The issue then arises: what if an athlete is lacking proper mobility or stability in the catch and/or squat and is unable to do it safely? That is where the power position comes in.

2. Power Takes Priority

The Olympic lifts are extremely technical movements, and not every athlete is suited to perform the full lifts, or even the power variations. The technique of the lifts is greatly increased as the bar passes the hips and must be caught in the front rack or overhead position. Because you’re a rugby athlete and not training to be an Olympic weightlifter, we must find a way to benefit from the Olympic lifts without spending too much time perfecting technique. Training time is finite so training must focus on movements that will give the biggest reward for the least amount of cost or risk.

In this regards, implementing snatch and clean pulls or high pulls are a very effective option for teaching an athlete powerful and aggressive “triple extension”: the simultaneous extension of the ankles, knees, and hips which is key to an athlete’s ability to produce force and accelerate. Pulls and high pulls take the catch out of the equation and allow the athlete to focus on being as powerful as possible through the legs and hips, and even the shoulders and arms to some extent. These are also an effective option with an athlete who may have a solid catch but has an inflamed shoulder due to the battering of a rugby season.

Pulls and high pulls help an athlete focus on the most important phase of the lift in regards to force production: the hip-extension and acceleration of the bar vertically. By subtracting the physicality and technique of the catch from the movement, the athlete can focus more mental and physical energy on the less technical pull and/or high pull. And, when is comes to power development, the bar will not experience faster speeds than at the moment of triple extension. The aggressive triple extension and pull of either the snatch or clean is where the athlete will experience the most gains in power development.

3. Gaining Muscle With Olympic Lifting For Rugby Players

Muscle mass is imperative to a rugby player’s performance throughout the season. As a muscle’s hypertrophy increases, so too does that muscle’s relative maximal strength. At the same time, a stronger muscle helps prevent injury to joints, ligaments, and tendons; a factor that is paramount in optimal rugby performance. A stronger player is a more dominant player and, needless to say, a healthy player is more valuable than an injured one. Look at any national-level Olympic lifter and you will see the speed and power of a sprinter combined with the musculature of a middle linebacker. Olympic lifting rep and set schemes rarely enter into the paradigm of the widely accepted hypertrophic ranges developed by bodybuilders and backed up by any strength and conditioning textbook. It is commonly understood that to gain muscle mass one must include isolated movements, perform sets to fatigue or even failure, and decrease their rest intervals between sets.

However, these are all the complete opposite of how Olympic lifters train for their sport. Olympic lifting rarely, if ever, goes past 5 reps per set due to the neurological cost of the lifts. The lifts are extremely technical, placing a large emphasis on the nervous system to correctly and forcibly recruit motor units that allow the lift to be performed successfully. Secondly, with the loads and intensities that the Olympic lifts are performed at (loads and intensities that allow for proper development of power), going beyond 5 reps in a set is near impossible with such technical movements.

Trying to perform high rep sets of Olympic lifts would yield a decrease in motor unit recruitment as the set progressed and would lead to improper technique and possibly injury. At the same time, decreasing the rest intervals between sets is not a good idea either due to the mental and physical recovery needed between the neurologically and metabolically taxing Olympic lifts.

So, through the programming of the Olympic lifts and their variations, how can we, as rugby athletes, gain useful muscle mass without sacrificing power and force development?

First we must understand that hypertrophy is predominantly increased through two pathways: volume within training (total reps within a training cycle) and time under tension.

High volume training (meaning higher reps during the specific session or throughout a training week/cycle) will break down the muscle more and allow for increased muscle catabolism during the subsequent recovery phase. This allows the muscle to synthesize more protein and thus grow larger.

The second pathway is time under tension.

Time under tension refers to the duration a muscle is under load and contracting; concentrically, isometrically, or eccentrically. The longer the muscle stays under tension the more breakdown occurs. As with high volume training, elevated time under tension also leads to greater muscle catabolism and increased protein synthesis. While understanding that within Olympic lifting volume and time under tension is relatively low to allow for proper technique and force development through the working sets, there are certain ways to add more reps/volume per training cycle or session and also time under tension techniques to support muscle hypertrophy.

The first simple way to increase total volume across a cycle or a session is to increase the working sets.

It is completely normal to see upwards of 8 to even 12 working sets for the Olympic lifts. The reps in these sets will usually range from 1 to 3 to keep the technique on point and not tax the metabolic system too much. The overall volume is the goal. Think of it this way: total volume is the priority, not how we get there. If the goal is to complete 30 reps at a certain weight then lets break that down into 10 sets of 3 reps to keep the intensity and focus high.

Secondly, an athlete can decrease or even standardize (Every Minute On the Minute) their rest intervals to challenge the metabolic system of the muscle and challenge their stamina.

This style of training tests their ability to repeatedly perform a powerful movement with incomplete rest intervals, meaning that the athlete is not fully rested. Sounds a bit like a rugby match to me. This also tests the athlete to focus under fatigue, making them stick to solid technique as the sets go by and their bodies begin to fatigue. Decreasing rest intervals and making the athlete stick to strict timed rest intervals, like in an EMOM style session, aids in muscle hypertrophy by disrupting homeostasis of the muscle more and ushering in a greater hormonal response as the muscles near fatigue.

The last part of this journey to building muscle mass is using time under tension with the Olympic lifts. Now the first thing that may come to mind when I mention time under tension is seeing bodybuilders perform slow negatives of biceps curls to get the pump. That’s not what we are after, but it is quite similar.

It is extremely hard to perform slow eccentrics (commonly referred to as the negative portion of a lift) with the Olympic lifts, but weightlifters do implement them in their training and we can too. For example: When performing power cleans for multiple reps, the athlete will perform the first rep, catch on their shoulders, then disengage the bar from their shoulders and begin downward to reset for the second rep. On this downward motion, the eccentric phase of the lift, the muscles are lengthening and straining to keep the body tense and tight to not only maintain proper posture but also to then explode upwards for the next rep using the stretch-shortening cycle of the musculature.

Now if the athlete decides to go right into the next rep (commonly known as a “Tap ‘n Go” in the CrossFit world) or resets on the ground to reposition himself or reclaim some lost tension before the next rep is up to his coach and his training ability. But what is important is that the athlete maintains tension throughout all phases of the movement: the lift from the ground to the shoulders (concentric), the catch and stabilization of the bar on the shoulders (isometric) and the lowering of the bar down to ground (eccentric). Being able to create and maintain tension throughout the body during an Olympic lift will not only help reinforce proper lifting technique and posture, but also foster large gains muscle hypertrophy and thus in strength as well.

Feel The Power

Using these modifications and cues will help the rugby athlete not only perform the Olympic lifts with success and precision but will also garner massive performance gains on the field of play. Implement these techniques and watch your snatch and clean and jerk explode and then feel that power and strength in the upcoming season.

Good luck!

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