Champion Australian rugby club powered by MyoQuip strength equipment

Australia's premier rugby club, Sydney University, has completed another outstanding season in 2008. A significant factor in its success in recent years has been its use of the MyoQuip ScrumTruk and HipneeThrust to build the size and strength of its players.

Some of the Club's achievements:

• Has won the Sydney First Grade Premiership for the past four years
  
• Has defeated the Brisbane Club Premiers in both 2007 and 2008 to claim the title of Australian Club Champions
• Has won the last five Sydney Club Championships as well as the last four Colts Club Championships
• Has won Premierships in all three Colts Grades in both 2007 and 2008
• Was undefeated in 24 matches in First Grade Colts in 2008
  
  

In June 2006 I wrote an article titled "Building bigger and stronger rugby players - the Sydney University experiment" drawing attention to the increasing emphasis on size and strength in modern rugby:

"Modern defensive alignments and strategies have transformed rugby matches into contests of attrition where bigger and stronger teams tend to wear down their smaller and physically weaker opponents over the course of a game. Perhaps the most notable change has been the increased importance of physical dominance in the backline.

"Responding to this, Sydney University's rugby club has been able to demonstrate that with the right combination of coach and infrastructure, it is possible to fast track the physical development of players outside a professional playing environment. In fact within a couple of seasons these players are able to achieve a body mass comparable to that of seasoned professionals together with a solid foundation of basic strength."

Current-year data confirms that this is still the case. Based on the player data listed on their websites the average body weights of the current squads for the Wallabies, Waratahs and Brumbies are 103.0, 103.3 and 102.0kg respectively. The average body weight for Sydney University's starting fifteen in this month's First Grade Grand Final was 101.5kg. It is true that this team included three Wallabies in Phil Waugh, Al Campbell and Dean Mumm, but even with these players excluded the team's average body weight was still 100.1kg. It can be seen that the young, part-time, unpaid Sydney University players weigh only a couple of kilograms less than seasoned professionals.

For the past five years the University Club has been operating an Elite Development Squad (EDS) program for its top Grade and Colts players. Utilising one of the best equipped gymnasiums in Australian rugby, players train for eleven months of the year and undertake four weights sessions per week off-season and two to three while playing.

The program's strength and conditioning components have been devised by Martin Harland and administered by him and his assistant, Tim Leahy. Harland's programs for rugby players place a high degree of emphasis on basic strength development and rugby-specific fitness. A distinguishing feature of his approach is a concentration on heavy lower body work. In the past couple of years he has decreased the amount of squatting and deadlifting and and made more intensive use of the MyoQuip ScrumTruk and HipneeThrust, apparatus that targets the large mass leg extensor muscles, specifically the gluteal and quadriceps groups.

Exposing backline players to basic strength training

Another distinctive feature of Martin Harland's rugby training regimen is his requirement that backs undertake the same rigorous basic strength routines as forwards. Many strength and conditioning coaches reserve the heavy "grunt" work for forwards, or even restrict it to the tight five.

Exposing backs to very serious weight training has produced quite significant results at Sydney University, as evidenced by the following table comparing body weights of forwards and backs for the Wallabies, two of the four Australian Super 14 franchises and Sydney University:

Comparative Bodyweight of Forwards and Backs
Squad/Team (2008)	Av Weight (kg) - Forwards	Av Weight (k) - Backs	Difference (kg)
Wallabies - Squad	110.5	93.4	17.1
NSW Waratahs - Squad	110.9	93.2	17.7
ACT Brumbies - Squad	110.0	93.8	17.2
Sydney University – Grand Final Team	107.3	94.9	12.4

Not surprisingly, the University's young forwards are outweighed by each of the professional squads. However, in the backs the situation is reversed with the University players outweighing the national and provincial squads.If we look at the column showing the difference in bodyweight between backs and forwards it can be seen that for Sydney University it averages 12.4kg, against 17.1 to 17.7kg for the professional squads, a very substantial difference.

The Sydney University experiment seems to be providing clear evidence that the bodyweight of rugby backs can be dramatically increased through serious weight training, and the results achieved by the Club in competition suggest that there has been no adverse impact on their playing performance.

The main justification for building heavier backs with superior leg drive lies in the already mentioned importance of physical dominance in the backline. With the modern emphasis on structure and coordination in defensive alignments, bigger and stronger backs are better able to continually repel opposition attacks and also over the course of a game are likely to create physical and mental fatigue in their counterparts.

Martin Harland has also regularly used both the ScrumTruk and the HipneeThrust in conditioning the University's rowers and female basketballers. The Rowing Club is currently ranked No. 1 in Australia, while the Sydney University Flames have appeared in the two most recent Grand Finals of the Australian Women's National Basketball League. The MyoQuip apparatus would appear to have strong applicability to not only these sports but also to other football codes such as American football, Australian football and rugby league.

(In recent months the Sydney University Gymnasium has replaced its ScrumTruk and HipneeThrust machines with the more advanced and compact MyoTruk and MyoThrusta models.)

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MyoQuip releases the MyoThrusta leg extensor strength builder

MyoQuip has released the first of its Myo range of strength equipment. The Myo technology embodies direct-linkage force transmission through heavy-duty industrial bearings rather than the cables and pulleys used in our previous models.

The MyoThrusta replaces the HipneeThrust but takes up 40% less floor space and eliminates problems of cable slack and increasing friction with extended operation.

Unique features and performance characteristics of the MyoThrusta:

· Fully recumbent exercise position.

· Comfortable and natural body position throughout the full range of movement ensuring no adverse loading on spine, hips or knees.

· Exercise movement range from extreme flexion of hip and knee joints to full extension.

· Uses MyoQuip’s patented technology providing effective activation of hip and knee extensors over the full range of movement

· Synchronised joint angles distribute load evenly between hip and knee extensors.

· Pin adjustment of the rate of change of load providing multi-functionality of the apparatus.

· Intuitive operation - no requirement for instruction in correct technique.

· No danger of exerciser being trapped under excessive load.

· No stress on ankle joint - no imposed dorsiflexion of the ankle.

· Ideal for rehabilitation of hip or knee joints.




High functionality for developing and strengthening leg extensors

The leg extensors - primarily the gluteus maximus and quadriceps - constitute the body's largest and most powerful muscle group. They are also vitally important for a wide range of athletic and sporting activities.Traditional methods of developing and strengthening leg extensors include the barbell squat and the leg press and leg extension machines. However each of these has significant limitations. They do not adequately exercise the muscles from full flexion to full extension, and there are also issues associated with adverse loading and excessive shear forces on the lumbar region and knee joints.The MyoThrusta has been designed to overcome these problems.

As can be seen in the figure above the athlete operates from a supine position so that the action of the extensors can be effectively isolated. The recumbent position also means that the spine can comfortably cope with the compressive forces generated.The arc through which the foot plate of the machine moves is designed to closely parallel the path that the feet would normally traverse if moved from flexion to extension without resistance. It also creates a natural tendency for the two joint angles to vary synchronously so that they are effectively sharing the load throughout the exercise movement.

Exercises the total range of limb movement

It can be seen that at the start position both hip and knee joints can be tightly flexed. As the feet move forward the trunk and shanks remain virtually parallel until the legs are fully extended. Thus the potential range of movement is from included angles of around 30° to 180°. (In fact, by starting with the feet placed low on the footplate it is possible to hyper-extend the hips beyond 180°.) Throughout this extreme range of movement high range muscle fibre recruitment is achieved by means of our patented technology.

With an exercise like the squat or a machine such as the conventional leg press, exercisers attempting heavy loads tend to restrict themselves to modest degrees of hip and knee flexion. This is because as joint flexion increases, the exerciser's capacity to cope with resistance decreases. By contrast, with the MyoThrusta the effective load is automatically reduced when the joints are flexed and increased as they extend.

Multi-functionality

The rate at which the effective resistance changes is varied by selecting different pin positions on the adjustment bar.

With mid-range pin settings the effective load from the start of the movement to full lockout is intended to match the body's capacity to handle resistance, so that the exerciser has to expend basically the same degree of effort throughout the movement.

With low-range pin settings the increase in effective load from start to finish of the exercise movement is greatly increased. These notch settings are ideal for practising explosive or ballistic movements. When utilising heavy loads there is a "ballistic braking" effect toward the end of the movement, eliminating the need to decelerate.

High-range pin settings are ideal when the focus is on overcoming inertia, i.e., moving a heavy load from a position of rest. For example, if the objective is to improve performance in the barbell squat, the additional initial loading conditions the leg extensors to operate more effectively in the deep squat position.

Laying a foundation of basic strength

Until the introduction of the HipneeThrust athletes had no means of developing optimal muscle strength through the full range of a complex bi-articular movement. The MyoThrusta provides an even more effective way to adequately strengthen the major extensor muscles of the lower limbs before focussing on sport- and activity-specific tasks. This results in obvious and significant performance and injury-reducing benefits.

Contact MyoQuip for further information or for a quotation on the MyoThrusta.
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