As pre-season training gets into full swing, The Rugby Blog spoke to Gloucester Rugby to find out more about nutrition for rugby.
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The Rugby Blog is proud to bring you a special feature from Matt Lovell, the sports nutritionist for England Rugby. As players and supporters everywhere strive to get in shape for the summer or for the start of next season, here are a few things you can learn about your diet.
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Sci-Mentor Nutrition have produced a great site with rugby fitness and nutrition advice for rugby players, and their products are used by lots of rugby clubs.

It’s worth having a look at www.sci-mentorrugby.com and getting some of their protein shakes, omega-3 and other nutritional supplements for rugby players. They are designed specifically for rugby, and have passed all the relevant drug testing and everything else.

Sci-Mentor

Those marketing chaps at Maximuscle do a fine job. You can’t read a rugby magazine or browse a website without noticing images of a rugby-playing adonis, as lean as an Ethiopian marathon runner but as strong as an Eastern European discuss-thrower.

It all makes you wonder…could that be me? The team here at The Rugby Blog is by no means overweight, but probably not unlike many amateur rugby folk, there’s the odd layer of excess fat and endless stories of that six pack hiding beneath ten years-worth of weekend Guinness.

So when Josh Lewsey is staring back at you clenching his washboard stomach and suggesting that all you need is some protein, a fat-burner and a spot of exercise, we tend to pay attention. After all, we already do some exercise and the calendar is telling us that summer is here (even if the weather isn’t) and surely we aren’t the only ones that dream of turning heads on the beach.

Our curiosity got the better of us and we got in touch with Maximuscle, who were so confident that we’d be impressed with their products that they sent us some without charge. As a thank you, we joined their affiliate programme, (so if you want to buy any of their products, please use our links) and we set an 8-week challenge to one of our team, and this is what he found…

The first warning that comes with the products is that you need a steady exercise regime to see the benefits – I’ve always been a member of a gym, so didn’t see this as a problem, but it turns out that you also have to go quite regularly to make the supplements work.

The second important factor is that you need a sensible diet, so sinking twelve pints at the weekend will undo any hard work you’ve put in during the week and probably take you back to square minus one.

So taking all of this on board, I vowed to do it properly – after all, it’s only 8 weeks and I had always thought that I’d never fully realised my significant potential for that sculpted look. Adding to the incentive was my 10-day diving holiday in Egypt in a couple of months’ time and my mental image of my rolled-down wetsuit and glistening six pack!

In consultation with a fitness trainer, we put together an 8-week plan that I could realistically keep to, fit around my numerous existing time commitments and factoring in a course of Promax and Thermobol.

Promax is a whey protein supplement, which you could probably do without if you only ate egg whites, but is essential for building lean muscle. Thermobol is a fat-loss supplement that simply speeds up your metabolism so that you digest foods more quickly before they are stored as fat.

Broadly speaking, the exercise regime consisted of three gym sessions per week, which we felt was just about achievable. In addition, I had to go for a twenty-minute run nearly every morning, making up for the fact that I simply couldn’t get to the gym every day by doing some form of cardiovascular work. I normally get quite bored of running and gym work, but taking the supplements reminded me that I had to keep it up.

I consumed three protein shakes per day after exercise and in between meals, and took three tablets of Thermobol just before a meal. The effect of the increased metabolism was that I was often hungry just before mealtimes despite all the intake of food and protein, and as long as I avoided any temptation to snack, it meant I was encouraged by the effects of what I was doing.

After following the weights programme (the key is to do both cardio and weights, apparently), I felt my strength begin to increase and although the mirror was only suggesting a slight improvement halfway through the programme, I certainly felt physically fitter. This might have had as much to do with significantly reducing alcohol intake, but the improvement incentivised me to carry on.

There were certainly some dark times and some early mornings, but by the final couple of weeks, I was loving it. Mixing up my gym exercises, swapping the dull running for swimming and cycling and continuing to take the Promax and Thermobol, I actually started to see the results and count down to the holiday.

It took a little while to show, but my layer of fat certainly reduced a little and my pumped up muscles were starting to show and I couldn’t wait to get through to the holiday. I wasn’t quite at Josh Lewsey levels after 8 weeks (to be honest, nowhere near), but it seemed to me that the more seriously you take it and the harder you work, the greater effect the products will have.

As it happens, I was so excited about my improved look that I whipped off my shirt and then got sunburnt all over my stomach on the first day and had to wear a t-shirt for the rest of the trip – even when I was swimming, which shot down any hopes of looking remotely cool!

Nevertheless, I’ll be investing in some more of these products, not just to change the way I look, but also to improve how fit I feel, to keep those endorphins flowing and to encourage me to make the most of that unnecessarily expensive gym membership.

I can’t promise to keep off the beers, but a programme like this a couple of times a year will hopefully negate the effects, and might do wonders for my pre-season training.

As the festive season gets into full swing, it’s easy to over-indulge on mulled wine, mince pies, turkey and chocolate, but it’s vital to stay in shape for those big matches in the second half of the season.

Rugby fitness expert, Sam Tomkins, provides an overview of rugby-specific nutrition and a guide to ensuring your body gets everything it needs to succeed.

Everyone knows that good nutrition plays a vital role in all sports – none more so than the physical demands of rugby – but exactly what constitutes ‘good nutrition’ is a very vague and misunderstood subject.

Many myths include: Eat as much protein as possible to help build muscle! Stay away from fats! No Carbs after 8pm!

Exactly what you should be eating will depend on your metabolic type and what stage of the season you are in, and what you are doing on that particular day (gym, training, match, rest etc) but here is a rough guide.

As a simple rule our diets will consist of macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein and fat), and to a lesser yet still important degree, micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and trace elements).

As rugby players our bodies are under a tremendous amount of stress, with a huge demand on our energy system due to the nature of the sport. If our bodies don’t receive what is required energy-wise, then performance and training will suffer.

One of the many questions asked is, “What should I be eating prior to a game, or prior to training?” but just as important is what to eat throughout the day and immediately after training or a match. I’ll be drawing up some meal plans in the next couple of weeks which should help to solve these questions, but an understanding of the Glycaemic Index will give you a useful guideline to follow.

The Glycaemic Index compares the blood glucose response to certain foods and then ranks them against reference foods. The higher the GI rating of a food, the quicker glucose is released into our body and so the quicker it is available as an energy source.

Low GI foods provide a steady trickle of energy into your system and can sustain performance for longer, and this is what we should be trying to stick to as rugby players. Swapping high GI foods for low ones will keep your energy levels up and help to minimise fat gain. Try to make up meals using foods from the first two tables only.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates (CHO) will form the majority of your diet, as this is our body’s main source of energy. The best way of determining the different CHO content of foods is by using the Glycaemic Index (Have in a pop-up maybe).

Pre-activity – Eat between 500-600g of CHO daily > 4 hours before exercise.

During activity – CHO and electrolyte drinks help to delay the onset of fatigue, but you must ensure plenty of water is absorbed as dehydration can have a significant adverse effect on performance or training.

Post-activity – Eat 1g of CHO per kilogram of body mass every hour for up to 8 hours.

The generally agreed intake of CHO is between 60-70% of the total energy intake or 6-10g/kg of body mass per day.

Proteins

Proteins supply amino acids, which are the building blocks for all protein synthesised in the body, and for bodybuilders, it is essential. So is it important for rugby players?

Yes, protein is vital for everybody whether they be sports people or not. But especially for people who are looking to build strength and using weights. The reason for this is that protein aids in the process of rebuilding muscle once it has been broken down by weight training and has been shown to speed up recovery allowing you to visit the gym on a more regular basis.

However, there is a ceiling effect when it comes to protein intake and it is not a case of ‘more is best’. This is because there is only so much protein that your body can break down and utilise. The excess can be stored as fatty deposits and lead to an increase in body fat.

Complete proteins contain the eight essential amino acids in the right proportions, and are found in red meat, chicken, fish, dairy products and eggs. The problem is that some foods that are high in protein are also high in saturated fat (not good!) – for example lean beefsteak has approximately 22.4g of protein per 100g and 28.8g of fat.

With the exception of skinless turkey and chicken, the only unprocessed animal foods that provide a good proportion of protein without large amounts of accompanying fats are egg whites, shellfish and fish.

As rugby players we should be looking at a requirement of 2.0-2.5g/kg of protein per day – around 20-25% of our total energy intake.

Fats

Fats are just as important as the first two macronutrients, as our body needs essential fats, but we have to be very careful when it comes to the type of fat we are ingesting. The fats we should be looking to avoid are the saturated fats and the trans fatty acids. The two essential fats our body can’t produce naturally are linoleic acid (omega 6) and alpha-linoleic acid and these can be found in linseed, rapeseed, flax and olive oil as well as oily fish.

As a general rule of thumb try to avoid foods that have more than 20% of their calories coming from fat and those that do not show the fat content – that normally means it’s high. The daily intake of fat should not exceed 15% of total energy intake.

Keep the low GI foods in mind over the Christmas period and this will help to avoid wasting all that hard work done in pre-season, and allow you to pick up where you left off when the season resumes.

For more information on nutrition for rugby, please visit Sci-MentorRugby.com