Agonising lesson on how to forge an All Black
Lung-bursting fitness session insight into world of pro players
My head is pounding from the inside out; chest simultaneously caving in. Dizzy spells come and go, and I’m doing everything possible to keep breakfast down.
Train like an All Black for a day. Sounds fun, right? Not quite.
For two non-stop hours I enter Nic Gill’s world of hurt, always in the knowledge this is but a small sample of what the All Blacks endure on a regular basis.
Strength and conditioning coach of the All Blacks for more than a decade, Gill drives supreme fitness levels that allow this world-leading team to stage great escapes from Dublin to Sydney, Dunedin to Johannesburg. They couldn’t achieve such feats without peak fitness.
The morning we meet, Gill has already knocked off three hours on the bike, one hour in the pool. He’s an Ironman athlete. In his next event in Australia in May he wants to finish the 4km swim, 180km bike and marathon run in less than nine-and-a-half hours. He walks the talk, and expects everyone he works with to adopt the same relentless attitude.
No pressure, then.
The University of Waikato Adams Centre and surrounding Blake Park in Mount Maunganui sets the scene for our session; the premise to gain a rare insight into the All Blacks training.
Gill wasn’t about to reveal any state secrets but the focus and effort he demands from every exercise speaks volumes.
“The intensity you work at is what makes it tough,” he says. “When you work really hard, and you don’t have a long recovery, that catches up with you.”
Sure does.
We start with mobility. Using a foam roller I hit trigger points in hips, thighs and glutes to release muscle tension. This is individualised depending on the player, their age, position and injury history.
Stretching with elastic bands and a dynamic warm-up featuring hurdles follows.
Then, we’re into it, with speed progressions — acceleration plus load — in a series of weighted (80kg) sled pushes and sprints. The aim here is to use leg drive and low body position, just as you would entering a ruck or pushing the scrum.
As we move outside my legs are already heavy, sweat steadily flowing. I smile nervously as Gill says he will enjoy the field section, dubbed metabolic conditioning.
This involves sprinting 88 metres in 20-second periods. Twenty seconds rest, and repeat four times.
Follow that with the same number of sprints over the same distance in 25 second intervals, only this time hitting my chest to ground at each turn.
Gill barks as oxygen deprivation slows my pace.
These are one of 30 to 40 variations of running blocks the All Blacks do. Typically backs and loose forwards double the distance (176m) as their in-game running demands are much greater.
The 88m sprint version suits tight forwards who generally earn a crust in close combat, needing to get off the ground quickly and often.
Naturally, I have a new appreciation of the fitness levels of elite props. And I’m interested to note 70 per cent of the All Blacks training does not include weights.
At one point, Gill explains the importance of rugby specific training. I’m so fatigued I cannot calculate two sets of 88m. Imagine trying to maintain a clear head under such stress during a high-pressured test.
“The thing with rugby is we’ve learnt a lot. It’s been professional for just over 20 years now, so the staff have experimented and athletes are constantly challenging the levels they can reach. Back in the day, we probably had guys running 5km a couple of times a week and then rugby training. Now, players are running 10km in games sometimes and it is high intensity, repeated efforts with short rests, so that’s how we have to condition.
“There’s still a place for the long, slow run to build your aerobic base to allow you to recover well but most professional athletes will be training
● Mobility
● Roller, stretching bands, trigger points
● Dynamic warm-up hurdles
● Sled 80kg 6 x 15m followed by 6 x
20m sprints
● 88m in 20s with 20s rest. Two blocks of four
● 88m down up in 25s rest 20s. Two blocks of four
● Tyre flips and sprints. Flip large tyre, sprint 100m five times. Repeat
5x with 30s rest.
● 10 minute tabata — perfect form push-ups, squats, rope swings. 10s rest between exercise
● Bench press, pull ups, plank 3 sets of 4-5 reps, 180s rest
● Ice bath — 5 minutes at 13C
twice, sometimes three times per day.”
Large tyre flips and more sprints — some running backwards to replicate realigning on defence — finish this section, leaving me hunched over gasping for air and my thighs seizing.
Videographer Alan Gibson chuckles while asking what my next bright idea is.
Back inside, Gill sets up a 10-minute tabata body weight circuit comprising push-ups, squats and The typical week for a professional rugby player looks something like this:
● Ten hours of rugby training
● One hour of flexibility and/or mobility work
● Four hours of strength training
● One hour of conditioning Monday: Weights and rugby
Tuesday: Weights and field training
Wednesday: Day off
Thursday: Weights and field training
Friday: Captain’s run
Saturday: Game day
Sunday: Recovery
rope swings. Ten minutes might not sound long but when you’ve already been close to spewing and just 10s rest is allowed between exercises — effectively enough time to transition — it is hard yakka.
By the time we finish with light bench press, pull-ups and plank, I’ve reached physical exhaustion. Every inch of my frame shouts “no mas”.
Still trying to regain composure, my first ice bath experience starts recovery. As I emerge from the Arcticlike water, grasping the hand rail is the only thing between me and fainting.
The perception is All Blacks — all professional rugby players, really — live a glamorous existence. They are well paid to do what they love on the big stage.
And they do, but the reality behind the perception is they sacrifice a lot to get to the elite level, and then to stay there. It means minimal beers and a renunciation of Macca’s.
Talent only gets you so far. Discipline and commitment are nonnegotiable. Suffering a constant bedfellow.
“It is a great career but like anything it still requires a lot of hard work,” Gill reminds me. “Anything good normally requires people to get uncomfortable. Do the hard yards, and it pays off.
“Typically players that don’t do all the little things have short careers.
“We’re seeing now careers lasting longer and longer. Is it a grind? It’s hard work. And for some of these guys it’s relentless 12 months a year.”
Gill highlights five key areas to be a successful elite rugby player; technical, tactical, game understanding, physically expressing abilities, and mental. On this particular day we covered one.
All are intertwined, and the best nail everything.
“It’s a complex beast. Everything we do it needs to have a purpose and we need to help the body absorb it so that next time we do it we’re that much better. Whether that’s how you prepare to train; your mobility, activation, rehab all the way through to what you eat before and after you train. That’s small parts of it because you want to do it again this afternoon.
“How you recover; how you sleep, what you put in your mouth, how much fluid you take in all adds to the puzzle. And if you’re missing one piece you never complete the puzzle.”
I’ll leave that puzzle to the experts. For now I need a lie down.