Investigations in to the physiological and metabolic demands of elite rugby players: understanding how best to fuel the athlete
type: CreativeWork
description: Rugby is a complex, high-intensity, intermittent, collision sport with emphasis placed on players possessing high lean body-mass and low body-fat. After an 8-12 week pre-season focused on physiological adaptations, emphasis shifts towards optimizing competitive performance and recovery through periodising player’s diets and training. In Chapter 4 the physiological demands and nutritional intakes of 45 elite rugby players were assessed during a pre-season through a battery of strength and conditioning tests, quantification of training demands using global positioning system (GPS), and two 24-hour diet recalls. Mean weekly distance covered during training was 9774 ± 1404 and 11585 ± 1810 m with a total mean weekly session RPE (sRPE) of 3398 ± 335 and 2944 ± 410 arbitrary units (AU) for forwards and backs respectively. Mean daily energy intake was 14.8 ± 1.9 and 13.3 ± 1.9 MJ, carbohydrate (CHO) intake was 3.3 ± 0.7 and 4.14 ± 0.4 g·kg-1 body mass, protein intake was 2.52 ± 0.3 and 2.59 ± 0.6 g·kg-1 body mass, and fat intake was 1.0 ± 0.3 and 0.95 ± 0.3 g·kg-1 body mass for forwards and backs respectively. Markers of physical performance (1-RM strength, speed, and repeated sprint tests) and anthropometry (body fat, and estimated lean mass) significantly improved in all players, despite players’ self-selecting a ‘low’ CHO ‘high’ protein diet. It may be speculated therefore that ‘low’ CHO ‘high’ protein intakes are appropriate to fuel the pre-season, although whether these intakes are sufficient to fuel the in-season is unknown. Once the demands of the pre-season were established, the next aim of the thesis was to examine if requirements changed during the playing season, as well as quantifying energy expenditure. In Chapter 5 in-season training load using GPS and sRPE, alongside six-day assessments of energy intake (EI) and energy expenditure (EE) was measured in 44 elite Rugby Union players. Mean weekly distance covered was 7827 ± 954 m and 9572 ± 1233 m with a total m…
abstract: Rugby is a complex, high-intensity, intermittent, collision sport with emphasis placed on players possessing high lean body-mass and low body-fat. After an 8-12 week pre-season focused on physiological adaptations, emphasis shifts towards optimizing competitive performance and recovery through periodising player’s diets and training. In Chapter 4 the physiological demands and nutritional intakes of 45 elite rugby players were assessed during a pre-season through a battery of strength and conditioning tests, quantification of training demands using global positioning system (GPS), and two 24-hour diet recalls. Mean weekly distance covered during training was 9774 ± 1404 and 11585 ± 1810 m with a total mean weekly session RPE (sRPE) of 3398 ± 335 and 2944 ± 410 arbitrary units (AU) for forwards and backs respectively. Mean daily energy intake was 14.8 ± 1.9 and 13.3 ± 1.9 MJ, carbohydrate (CHO) intake was 3.3 ± 0.7 and 4.14 ± 0.4 g·kg-1 body mass, protein intake was 2.52 ± 0.3 and 2.59 ± 0.6 g·kg-1 body mass, and fat intake was 1.0 ± 0.3 and 0.95 ± 0.3 g·kg-1 body mass for forwards and backs respectively. Markers of physical performance (1-RM strength, speed, and repeated sprint tests) and anthropometry (body fat, and estimated lean mass) significantly improved in all players, despite players’ self-selecting a ‘low’ CHO ‘high’ protein diet. It may be speculated therefore that ‘low’ CHO ‘high’ protein intakes are appropriate to fuel the pre-season, although whether these intakes are sufficient to fuel the in-season is unknown. Once the demands of the pre-season were established, the next aim of the thesis was to examine if requirements changed during the playing season, as well as quantifying energy expenditure. In Chapter 5 in-season training load using GPS and sRPE, alongside six-day assessments of energy intake (EI) and energy expenditure (EE) was measured in 44 elite Rugby Union players. Mean weekly distance covered was 7827 ± 954 m and 9572 ± 1233 m with a total m…
author: Bradley, W
keywords: TX341 Nutrition. Foods and food supply, QP Physiology, RC1200 Sports Medicine
date published: 2017-06
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:30:19Z
provider: Liverpool Jon Moores University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Liverpool John Moores University

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.24377/LJMU.t.00006624