Spinning - Big Question

Leinsterr

I play rugby and I'm 16. I play open-side (7) and am going to take up spinning twice a week, cus I have fairly **** pace and my legs aren't toned. Just wondering if spinning bulls up your thighs, quads, calves whatever cus I seriously need big legs. Also, should I take a protein shake before and after the spinning or is that just stupid. Please answer this. Thanks

Lumen

No, spinning will not give you big legs.

I think you need a good coach.

Plastik

If you want speed, get a running coach. If you want big legs, do more weights in the gym.

Neither cycling nor spinning will give you what you're looking for I'm afraid, unless, to some extent, you train at a pro/elite level.

Jawgap

No, spinning will not help - as a rugby coach (and former crap blind-side WF) I'd advise you to go see a strength and conditioning coach in your club, or collar whoever is playing 7 for your firsts and ask them for advice.

Cycling will make you aerobically fitter, but you'll lose so much power the scrum-half will just laugh at you when you try to tackle him.

If you want to compliment your rugby with another sport, I'd recommend judo.

dave_o_brien

I was a 6 when I played, giving up due to a neck injury. Since taking up cycling, my legs have become more toned, but I've lost muscle mass everywhere, including my legs. As a 7, I presume you're looking for a quick 25-40m sprint, and then the strength to be competitive on the ground, is this right?

For the first thing, a quick sprint is something you can train for, but not by bike really. Start with things like resistance runs; ie, running with weights on your ankles or running pulling a weight on the ground strapped to your back. You'd also benefit from doing jumps from a standing start. Adding weight for fewer reps can help develop the muscles needed, but at 16, you're still probably a bit young to do big weights, so focus on light weight and high reps. Then the boring but effective 20m sprint reps and, surprisingly, running backwards. These all develop power in your legs, which will help with the kinds of short sprints an open side needs to be good at.

Being a scrapper on the ground is a more complex thing. The exercises above will help develop the strength you need to resist the kinds of knocks a 7 takes frequently. You'll also need a seriously strong core. Planks, sit ups, squats and lunges will help to develop the kind of core strength that marks out the top 7's as exceptional: for example, Cronin has unbelievable pace for a guy his size, super strong legs, but his core is less developed than Jennings or O'Brien, so who is harder to move when they've got themselves over the ball? The other thing which is hard to train is the mental capacity for 7; you'll be putting your head in places where it is likely to get hurt. On this you can trust me. I suffered muscular damage in a lot of the left side of my neck playing flanker. Having said that, I'm an extreme example, and out of all the flankers I played with, blind or open side, I'm the only unfortunate so-and-so to get injured to the extent that I had to stop playing. I played what will probably have been my last game in France 2 years ago, but the 4 day recovery needed for my neck muscles means I probably shouldn't try it again.

For either of those requirements, cycling will not help. My legs have lost muscle mass (though not as much as my upper body) and my core strength was almost completely gone, I'm working on that more now. It's a b*tch to regain once it's gone!

What cycling will give you, which is an absolute must for a 7, is a big engine. Spinning classes wouldn't be the best way to develop it, but long bike sessions will help you cardiovascularly in a big way, and a 7 needs to be able to get around the pitch!

Good luck with it either way, and enjoy your rugby! It's a great sport, one I miss playing an awful lot.

Jawgap

Everything @daveobrien said is fairly spot on, but I'd still recommend going to a strength and conditioning coach.

At 16 your body is still growing and developing and a decent coach will assess you and give you a tailormade plan. Tell him what you want to improve, where you feel weak and what your objectives are.

McCaw & Jones are / were great no. 7s for a variety of reasons including their ball handling skills and their tackling - not just their strength.

dave_o_brien

Jawgap wrote: »

Everything @daveobrien said is fairly spot on, but I'd still recommend going to a strength and conditioning coach.

At 16 your body is still growing and developing and a decent coach will assess you and give you a tailormade plan. Tell him what you want to improve, where you feel weak and what your objectives are.

McCaw & Jones are / were great no. 7s for a variety of reasons including their ball handling skills and their tackling - not just their strength.

I'd totally agree with the strength and conditioning coach, absolutely. They'll devise a programme that will be best for you rather than say "These things could all be of benefit. G'luck!!!"

Basic skills such as handling skills, tackling technique and understanding other positions is vastly underrated here. The sight of Keith Earls attempted cover tackle last week that nearly rendered him concussed stands as evidence to how technique matters in rugby. You could end up with all the physical characteristics necessary to be great, and still not have the basics to be an asset to a team. I believe that phenomenon is called the "Tony Buckley".

petethedrummer

Size of legs does not equate to speed. And it can be difficult to improve your top end speed without impacting other parts of your fitness. It may be more advisable to try and reduce your sprint recovery time. You may not be the fastest in the first few sprints but if your speed falls off more gradually than your opponents over the course of a game, you may start to get the upper hand.

For rugby training I would not advise going out and destroying yourself on a bike. You would be breaking down the wrong muscle groups.

The only thing I would suggest you use the bike for is recovery. When playing Gaelic football I was very slow to recover from training sessions. To the point where I couldn't jog (or even sometimes even walk) the next day. I found I could cycle due to its low impact. And going out for a VERY gentle cycle the day after a hard training session sped up my recovery.