9 Rugby Exercises at Home


If you’re strapped for time and need an excellent selection of rugby exercises you can do at home, try exercises that you can do with your own body weight, with little to no equipment, and as part of a fitness drill or weight training program.

Rugby is a tough sport and one where you need a combination of speed, power, agility, and endurance.

The best rugby exercises are going to strengthen your legs, arms, back and abs.

A rugby weight training plan should include squat variations, lunges, core work, and upper body fitness drills.

The power needed to produce a strong push, tackle, or sprint, are going to come from hours of training, an intense drive, and a well put together fitness routine.

Just make sure to include the following rugby exercises to maximize your results.

Rugby Exercises at Home

1. Split Squats

One of the best rubgy exercises you can do at home is the split squat.

Simply grab some dumbbells and hitch your back leg up on a chair or stair.

Squat down as low as you can and drive your body back up.

This is one of the best exercises for strengthening your glutes, quads, and inner thighs.

Do a bicep curl or shoulder press on the way up to make it a compound exercise and give you full body results.

2. Alternating Lunge Jumps

The second exercise you should be doing is the alternating lunge jump.

This is another great leg exercise you can do as a rugby player.

It will create power and strength use no equipment and with your own body weight.

Make this exercise even harder by throwing on a weight vest or holding dumbbells.

3. Renegade Row

An easy at home exercise with dumbbells is the renegade row.

This simple, yet effective exercise will challenge your chest, shoulders, abs, upper back, and hip flexors.

This is a great total body exercise and compound movement.

Superset this with a sumo squat press for a great full body workout.

4. TRX Pushups, Mountain Climbers, and Pikes

One of the best exercises you can do on TRX suspension straps is a combination of pushups, mountain climbers and pikes.


Do all of these to give yourself a grueling ab, oblique, shoulder, and chest workout.

The TRX training system and its unstable nature challenges your muscles to stabilize, balance, and produce a powerful contraction.

5. High Knees – Side to Side

An excellent exercise you can do to improve your agility and speed is the high knees.

Doing these side to side will help stabilize your hips, knees, and ankles.

Shawn T has called this the “Heisman” exercise in his training videos.

Do this every time you work your legs.

Use a metronome to help you get faster and faster.

6. Romanian Deadlifts

One of the best exercises a rugby player can do at home is the Romanian deadlift.

This exercise is going to challenge your glutes, hamstrings, and erector spinae.

All you need is a set of dumbbells and some focus and balance.

7. Hand – Stand Pushups

Rugby players need to have a strong push against opponents.

If you need a great at home exercise for this, utilize the hand-stand pushup.

This exercise will create great upper body power and strength, adding great depth to any fitness or weight training plan.

8. Wind Sprints

A rugby player with great sprinting ability is going to be an asset to any rugby team.

Head outside and start sprinting.

Add parachute for added resistance and become the fastest player on the field.

Pull a sled or run stairs with a weight vest to generate even more power.

9. Variable Grip Pullups

One exercise that may be neglected by many rugby players is the variable grip pullup.

This exercise can be done at home with a pullup bar and your bodyweight.

You could also do this at any park across the country.

Just make sure to vary your grip to work your lats and biceps in different ways.

Summary: Rugby Exercises at Home

Some of the best and most effective rugby exercises can be in the comfort of your home, without equipment and as a comprehensive fitness drill or weight training program. Train for power, strength, agility, mobility, flexibility, and endurance to make sure you are a well-rounded and competitive specimen. Utilize exercise variations that hit all angles of your muscles, require and intense contraction, and give your body the best workout it can get.

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