What can i do that would make me more muscley for rugby such as the shoulders, arms and legs before September?

Question

Help would be greatly appreciated, Also what foods should i eat, SPECIFIC DETAILS PLEASE i really need to know A.S.A.P

Answer 1

You are wise to build your muscles when you play the world's most dangerous team game.  The pros ALL do it - it's quite obvious when you see their unnatural proportions.  I'm old enough to remember the good old days when players went onto the field more or less as nature made them.  This still obtains to some extent in Argentina, where there is no pro game yet.  Good on yer, Argies : I always back you for this very reason. (Not that I don't understand the wonderful benefits professionalism has given the great game, but something important has been lost too.)

Answer 2

The basics to putting on weight is to take in more calories than you expend. The essentials to putting on lean muscle is taking in the right calories and working your muscles effectively.

Diet wise: I recommend you eat regularly - 6 smallish meals is a good number, every 2-3 hours approximately. Low GI carbs (eg. wholewheat pasta) are good in the day, with a good dose of lean protein (chicken is a firm favourite with most) and healthy amount of fats, and of course make sure you're getting all your vitamins too (so tuck into good veg). After a workout, higher GI food and protein are what you want.

Key foods you should be filling up your trolley with:

Wholewheat pasta, wholewheat cereals and oats (bread isn't ideal but if you must, opt for wholegrain)

Chicken, fish, beef, cheese (cottage cheese is a good slow-digesting protein), eggs.

Most fresh veg (not too starchy or fatty though - not all potatoes and avocados) - think about what you like in a salad and you can add it to most your meals to keep you feeling full till your next meal.

Some people use protein shakes to supplement their diet to make sure they're getting a good dose of protein (or there are carb mixtures etc.). Also there are various supplements such as creatine, CLA and testosterone supplements that people try (personally I wouldn't recommend getting into these - the effects are minimal, outweighed by their side-effects or the substance could actually be illegal based on region - always check (I know creatine is a banned substance in France, just off the top of my head)). As to the proteins - there's generally two types that may interest you: the impact (usually whey) protein for fast digestion after a workout, and the slower digesting micellar casein (milk) protein which a lot of people use before sleeping. I get my stuff from myprotein.co.uk (I recommend their whey and milk protein and rolled oats).

As for the exercise: you want to be challenging your muscles. Some key points:

Aim to complete 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps. If you can do 12 reps, you should be unable to do any more - if you can, then you need more weight/resistance.

Increase the weights, lower the reps essentially (do 12 reps, add 10% weight and do 10 reps).

Try and work every muscle in your workouts.

Don't overtrain. Your muscles need rest to heal themselves and grow. When you're building, you're actually breaking the muscle tissue which will then reform bigger and stronger so they can cope better next time. Leave 2-3 days for recovery for each muscle (3 days for larger muscles - chest, legs etc.; 2 days for smaller - eg. biceps).

For rugby though, you don't just want to be doing hypertrophic (muscle-building) exercise. As the next season comes up, start including power (high resistance, low rep) and endurance sessions into your workout.

Hope this helps. There's a handy little guide on myprotein.co.uk too - maybe even sample diets and the like. Good luck!

Answer 3

I am in the same boat you are. I need to gain weight simply because thats the only way I could play at the next level and it does prevent injuries. Keep in mind even though the previous guy nailed it, that being big and strong is not everything in rugby...you would equally if not more benefit from improving your skills and technique and cardiovascular fitness then from gaining 30lbs of muscle....A smart in shape skinny rugby player is 100 times better then a dumb mass of muscle..thats why the pros are a hybrid of both. It seems that you have an issue with confidence, your thinking that if get bigger youll be  abetter rugby player and wont be so scared to get tackled and whatnot...

hope this also helps along with what he/she said^

cheers