Rugby Gym Program: The Lifts, Sets and Reps

A rugby gym program is a position-specific strength plan built on four movements — a push, a pull, a hinge and a carry — lifted two to four times a week around matches. Front rows load the hinge and the push. Outside backs load speed and single-leg work. The lifts, sets, reps and weekly split are below.

What lifts should a rugby player do?

A rugby player should train four movements every week: a push, a pull, a hinge and a carry. We call them the Four Lifts That Decide a Season, because everything a forward does in a scrum and everything a back does in the first three steps is one of them under load. Add the squat, add neck and trunk, and the list is finished.

1. Push

Bench press and overhead press. The fend, the wrap, the wrestle and the lineout lift are all pressing patterns, and pressing is the half of the upper body that keeps a shoulder healthy when the pulling gets heavy.

2. Pull

Weighted chin-ups, rows, and Nordic hamstring curls as the insurance policy. Pulling is the jackal, the counter-ruck and the tackle you finish rather than bounce off. Keep it in balance with the push, week in and week out.

3. Hinge

Trap-bar deadlift, Romanian deadlift and hip thrust, with the back squat as the knee-dominant twin that loads the same drive. This is the collision block: the hips are where a scrum, a carry and a sprint all start.

4. Carry

Farmer’s carries, front-rack carries, sled and partner drags. A carry loads the trunk and the grip while you are moving, which is the only way to train the thing that actually holds a body shape together in contact.

Neck and trunk work sits underneath all four, every single week. It is not optional in a collision sport — the same argument the durability programs are built on.

The Four Lifts That Decide a Season, plus the squat and the two accessories that hold a rugby player together. The last column is where each lift matters most, not who is allowed to do it — every position trains all eight. The position groups are the six Elite Rugby App programmes. The sets and reps are this guide’s build-block template, not a claim about what the app prescribes.
Lift	Sets × reps	Why a rugby player does it	Position it matters most for
Trap-bar deadlift	4 × 5	Builds the hip and back strength every collision and every scrum starts from, in a bar position most big players can hold safely.	Front Row (1, 2, 3)
Back squat	4 × 5	Leg drive through contact, out of the first step, and in the scrum and the maul.	Locks (4, 5)
Hip thrust	4 × 5	The most direct transfer to sprint power and to driving the legs through a tackle rather than stopping in it.	Outside Backs (11, 14, 15)
Bench press	4 × 5	The fend, the wrap and the wrestle — pressing strength is what finishes a tackle instead of bouncing off one.	Inside Backs (12, 13)
Weighted chin-up	4 × 5	Pulling strength for the jackal and the counter-ruck, and the balance that keeps a shoulder healthy under a pressing load.	Flankers (6, 7) and No. 8
Overhead press	4 × 5	Lineout lifting, contact height, and shoulders that are still there in March.	Locks (4, 5)
Farmer's carry	3 × 40 m	Trunk and grip under load, which is what holds a body shape together in contact and in the tackle.	Front Row (1, 2, 3)
Nordic hamstring curl	3 × 5	The one accessory nobody who sprints should skip, because the hamstring is where a fast player's season ends.	Halfbacks (9, 10)

How many days a week should a rugby player be in the gym?

A rugby player should be in the gym two days a week in season and three to four out of season. In-season, most players get two quality sessions and a third only in a light fixture week. The split that survives contact training:

Day 1 (early week): lower-body strength + power. Trap-bar or squat focus, hip thrust, jumps. Farthest from the match, so legs recover.
Day 2 (mid-week): upper-body strength + neck/trunk. Press and pull paired, direct neck work, carries.
Optional Day 3 (48h+ before kick-off): fast and light. Low-volume power, primers, nothing that leaves soreness.

Off-season flips the emphasis: three to four sessions, more volume, and a proper progression from hypertrophy to max strength to power, laid out phase by phase in the rugby pre-season gym program.

How does a rugby gym program change by position?

A rugby gym program changes by position in emphasis, not in structure. Every position pushes, pulls, hinges and carries; what moves is how heavy, how fast, and where the extra work goes.

Front row and tight five

Maximal strength is the priority: heavy hinge and squat variations, pressing strength, heavy carries, and more direct neck volume than any other position. Repeat-effort conditioning lives on the pitch, not in the gym; the gym is where the scrum is built.

Back row and midfield

The collision positions with a running problem: they need near-tight-five strength at a body weight they can carry for 80 minutes. Priority on power output, contrast pairs (heavy lift into jump or throw), and trunk strength for the jackal and the double-hit.

Halves and outside backs

Speed is the product; the gym serves it. Force at speed (jumps, hip thrusts, lighter faster lifts), hamstring insurance work every week, and enough upper-body strength to finish tackles and fend, without chasing bench numbers a winger will never use. This is the same emphasis a pro rugby player workout runs at international level.

How do you add weight without burning out mid-season?

Progress one variable at a time: load, sets or density, not all three at once.
Deload every third or fourth week, or the season will schedule one for you as an injury.
Anchor to the calendar: the same week should never look identical in October and in March. In-season lifting maintains and sharpens; off-season lifting builds.
Fuel it: a gym program without a food plan is half a program, see our nutrition system.

Where does the gym fit in a rugby week?

The gym is one of five claims on a rugby week, alongside conditioning, skills, team sessions and recovery. How to place them so they add up instead of cancelling out is the subject of the rugby training program, which sets out an in-season, an off-season and a pre-season template.

This guide is the lifting half of the job. Which day those lifts land on, what the speed and conditioning days do around them, and how the emphasis changes for each position group are all set out in the four-week rugby workout plan, which also hands out a per-position PDF.

Or skip the assembly entirely: ERA’s gym programs are periodised across a full 365-day season cycle, built per position by the strength staff behind international and Super Rugby teams, with every session laid out, coached, and adjusted to your calendar.

Frequently asked questions

Do rugby players lift weights?

Rugby players do lift weights, and at every level above social rugby it is a fixed part of the week. Two quality gym sessions is the in-season baseline and three or four the off-season one. The lifts are few and heavy — a push, a pull, a hinge and a carry — because the pitch already supplies the variety.

Do rugby players deadlift?

Rugby players deadlift, most often from a trap bar rather than a straight bar. The trap bar puts the load beside you instead of in front of you, which lets a big player drive the hips hard without hunting for a back position, and it is far easier to coach across a whole squad at once.

How many times a week do rugby players weight train?

Rugby players weight train two to four times a week, and the number moves with the season. In season it is two quality sessions, three in a light fixture week. Out of season it climbs to three or four, because there is no Saturday to arrive fresh for and the point is to build.

How to fit weight training around rugby?

You fit weight training around rugby by putting the heaviest session furthest from the match. In a Saturday-match week that means a heavy lower-body day on Monday or Tuesday, a lighter power session mid-week, and nothing heavy inside 48 hours of kick-off. The match is the priority; the gym is what makes it survivable.

Is rugby good for weight loss?

Rugby is good for weight loss, but it is a poor way to plan for it. Training and match play burn a great deal, yet the load is dictated by the fixture list rather than by your waistline. Players who change body composition do it by changing what they eat around the same sessions.

What is the 3-3-3 rule gym?

The 3-3-3 rule in the gym is usually taken to mean three sets of three reps on three main lifts, run at a heavy load. It is a simple strength template rather than a rugby-specific one — useful inside a build block, but it does no speed, conditioning or contact work, so it cannot be a whole rugby programme.

The whole week it would sit inside is the four-week rugby workout plan.

What is the 40/20 rule in rugby?

There is no 40/20 rule in rugby union — 40/20 is a rugby league rule, where a kick from inside your own 40-metre zone that bounces into touch inside the opposition 20 wins the scrum feed. Union’s equivalent is the 50:22: kick from your own half, bounce it into touch inside their 22, and you throw in to the lineout.

How much should a 6-2 rugby player weigh?

A 6'2" rugby player's weight depends on the position they play. At international level a 6'2" outside back and a 6'2" prop can be thirty kilos apart, so the figure worth chasing is the one your own position asks for, moved deliberately in a block rather than by accident.

Measured bands per unit are in rugby positions by body type.

How many hours a day do rugby players train?

Professional rugby players commonly train around four to six hours a day across gym, pitch and recovery, split into two or three sessions. That is a full-time job. A club or school player training four times a week is doing the same shape of work at a fraction of the volume, which is the right comparison.

The day-by-day version is in how professional rugby players train.

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Every session in this guide is built, periodised and coached inside Elite Rugby App, from the strength staff behind international and Super Rugby teams.

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