Going back to last week and the 14 year old’s question about how to get bigger and stronger for rugby, we talked about the necesssary weight training programme and the big do’s and don’ts of the programme.
Now we move on to eating and to explode the myths on why kids don’t seem to be able to put on the muscle and weight they need for rugby. Eating is at least 50% of the equation and if you ignore this side of things, then there’s absolutely NO WAY you can hope to reach your goals!
The important start is to make sure you and your family shop for good foods. For years, rugby players thought they could eat almost anything as long as it was long in calories, and “any weight” was “good weight”!! This right there is probably the biggest mistake most rugby players used to do and still do.
You have to consume good foods such as white meats, fish, red meat once a week, cottage cheese, milk for protein, you need wholegrain pasta, brown rice, jacket new and sweet potatoes for good carbs, plenty of fruit and vegetables as you need your internal functions working smoothly and properly and you still need to keep your energy levels very high of course.
You need good fats for your body such as oily fish including salmon, trout, mackerel etc, a handful of nuts would be good each day and these essential fatty acids will support everything you try and do in your physique building programme for rugby.
The difference between a rugby player looking for size and the average healthy person in the street is that the rugby player needs bigger portion sizes in his training, not too much for starters but building up over time. This way the quality of muscle built will be long lasting and all the extra food won’t deposit as fat, so slowly increasing portion size and meal frequency is the shape of things to come.
More of proper nutrition for rugby and sport in general tomorrow!!
