How Elite Rugby Players Really Train: Ellis Genge vs Men’s Health

What does it take to play 70+ times for England, start every match in a Six Nations campaign, and earn a Lions Tour victory in Australia? Ask Ellis Genge, or better yet, watch him train.

Ellis talks through the method behind the madness: Westside-style programming, assisted eccentric overloads, grip rotations, and why rugby players need more than just brute strength.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:14 Pull Day Structure
0:34 Eccentric Overload Explained
1:30 Why It Works (Muscle Science)
2:05 Grip Variations for Rugby
3:15 Row Variants + Programming
5:00 Squat Week Breakdown
6:25 Rugby Strength & Durability
8:03 Bench Press Structure
10:00 Conditioning Pain Cave (Watt Bike)
13:00 Final Words + Culture

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I’m Andy Tracy. He’s Alex Ganch. And this is how I build my body. How often are you doing pulling movements? Uh to be fair, we literally do go at that. The cadence would be squat, bench, and then pull on like the Monday all the heavy lifts. And then on the Tuesday, as I said, that’s sort of except not accessory day, but you do like eights and maybe do a like the assisted uh eentric lifts. Yeah. Talk me through an assisted extension. Yeah. So, essentially, I don’t know if they got any there, but there’s like a metal pole. You don’t have to use the pole, but we put like a something you clasp onto, and as I’m sort of pulling, I pull down on my own. Yeah. And then you’d sort of hang on that weight bracket and pull me back up and I just resist as much I can. So you’re making the lowering portion heavier than the concept. I actually don’t know why we do it. Do you want me to say? Yeah. Yeah. Cuz you’re stronger through that eentric portion. So you’re always going to be stronger in the lowering portion. So if you think of something like a deadlift, if you took a deadlift out of a rack, you could lower a lot more weight. Maybe deadlift’s a bad example, but so by doing that over eccentric, you’re stressing the muscle through that eentric position more than you’d be able to cuz your concentric is always going to be the limiting factor. So think of your bench, same thing. Like it’s harder to push than it is to lower. So by adding that extra weight into the eentric, you’re overloading the eentric. It’s definitely exhausting. I can tell you that. And it’s good for growth as well. Yeah, it feels like that to be fair. When we do like big blocks, we always have like eentric lifts in there. Even though it’s like really technical and it’s really like over eccentric lift, it’s like quite a fun broy thing to do as well. It is funny because obviously the person who’s pulling down gives you a load of grief while you’re wh trying to pull it back up. So it is it is a laugh but yeah it’s exhausting. Should we get some reps in? Yeah, sure. Would you normally go with this sort of grip? Um I don’t know what’s on there now. Uh 45. I do the full stack to be fair. Oh is it 120 the full stack? 140 maybe? I don’t think I do 140. Do you always go over close grip? Uh, no. We do the white grip sometimes, but that’ll be on like a Thursday. You’re um alternating throughout the week. Always. Yeah. I think they did a grip just to make it rugby specific. Yeah. I want this grip. Well, all of them like mixing up. Yeah. That’s very sort of westsidey that like West, you know, Westside barbell. Yeah. Like sort of going you’ve got that strength day, you’ve got the dynamic day, power day, and you’re going through obviously like those big varieties of grips and movements. It’s really sort of westside. That’s nice. It is nice to change it up as well. Yeah, it keeps it interesting, doesn’t it? I don’t know about interesting. The only thing about these grips as well is like cuz all of our fingers are shot pieces from rugby, they actually work quite well cuz you can like slot your fingers in like that as opposed to some of those other ones, you can’t even get your fingers in the bar. What uh what other grips would you use that like you were saying a little bit more um rugby specific? Yeah. So, this one just same as that, but we use this one more more so than that wide. Yeah. Do you think a lot of these moves are like they’re specific to your training, but do you think more than anything it’s just like getting stronger, getting more durable? Is we call it robust? Yeah. So, not to be cringey, but like if we just I don’t think I think rugby, as we said earlier, is like a good example of like an athlete that is almost like an all rounder. Yeah. It’s strength and conditioning done right, isn’t it? Yeah. Like we’re quite big men. Yeah. Reasonably fast. Take a knock. Yeah. Getting knocked about. I’m pretty strong. like it’s every element of fitness like cardio, strength, power, speed, and we’ll have people who are like ridiculously quick and people are ridiculously strong and they play the same team. So, it’s quite a cool mix. Do you see many of these grips in the gyms or These are starting to get like more common now, these like mad grips, but they’re they’re just so nice, aren’t they? They’re so like it just it’s one less thing to think about landing like a really gripped nail. I do love like like a really nailed handle. It just gets you just right and you can focus on what you’re actually doing. Well, you said you’d do the whole stack, so you’d go heavy on these? Yeah, I’ll bang I’ll bang a stack on. I’ll do 120 for you. 120. Oh, easy. I don’t think I don’t think I’d be able to sit down. No, at 120. It wouldn’t pull you down. That’s literally bar weight. 76 77 at the moment. You probably won’t be down there, will you? No. Give me a push down. Got Let’s go. Woo. No. No. To be clear, I faked not being able to do that to make Ellis. That’s normally onehanded for me. Do you do any other sort of pulling? Any horizontal pulling? Or is it mainly just pull down? We do a bit of like neutral grip row. Yeah. Like laying flat and and and pull from behind. But other than that, no. It’s all it’s all horizontal and and vertical. Just like pretty stagnant lifts. So, back squats. How often a week are you squatting? You know what? We don’t actually squat as much as you probably think. We only squat about once a week. Um, and then sometimes if we’ve got like a Sunday game, I’ll try and get a session on the day off. But yeah, we go heavy once a week and then maybe do a bit of power like later on the week on a Thursday or something. What’s heavy for you? 223 is my PB at the moment. Well, yeah, it’s not too much. Thinking I’m 120 kg, so I can’t even do double my body weight, but it’s not too much. building. But yeah, we usually start with about 60 on the bar and then sort of build up. But obviously what phase you’re in training wise depends on on time of the year. So at the moment cuz we’re sort of tail end of the season. I’m just threes, threes, twos, ones. Yeah, just heavy weights. Just heavy like sort of maintenance trying to sort of Well, ironically, I hit a PB last week, but yeah, we’re not actually searching for maintenance. Yeah, just it’s one of them that you you’re not you shouldn’t be doing six, eight reps now. it’s probably too late to build all that that strength up. So, yeah, you’re just trying to sort of maintain it, I guess. Let’s get some sets done. Did you go low bar, high bar? Oh, it good. Instant click. Low bar. High bar. What on the back? Yeah. High bar. Yeah, I think so. Do you think this is high? I’d say high bar. Yeah. Yeah. There it is. Low bar is like almost on your traps and it really folds you forward. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah, right down the back. Yeah. No, I don’t do that. I saw your It was your 223 kilo post that you put up the other day, wasn’t it? Yeah. On uh and the uh someone called the depth police, didn’t they? What tell me about that? I don’t know. It’s one of them, and it like you anything you put out, you’re going to get feedback on. I’m certainly not going as low as you are right now, but I’d like to think for a big old lump I get low enough. But it’s good feedback. It’s good feedback. Whether it’s wanted or not is a different story. But do you ever work with high reps in the squat? When I was younger, I used to do German volume training. It was so like popular at the time. Yeah. 10 sets of 10 reps. Yeah. And I’d super set out with lunges. But that was when I was at college and I was a little bit more into my training. Weirdly enough, as you get higher up, I don’t know what you want to call the ladder of sport. I’d say you actually probably invest less time into your weights and more time into into the game. Yeah. Yeah. Which makes sense, I guess. And when you’re at college, you just want massive arms, massive legs. So you What sort of weight were you doing 10 by 10 at? What? When I was younger, probably what? Under 120. 120 for you. I was stronger when I was 18 than what I am now. Genuinely. Yeah. Down there. I don’t want any shorts to rip. They’re new. Do you ever do any other varieties of squats or do you just stick to uh stick to off in offseason? and I’ll do front squat and stuff, but no, I stick to just back squat usually. Who’s the biggest squatter in the in the squad? It’ll be a toss up between me and Max Leaf, who I’m sure you’ve probably come across a few times. He’s uh he’s a very strong boy. I’m just looking at some comments on your uh what squat was this? I don’t know. That was in the garage. I think that was the one the days off 180. 180. That’s 180. Yeah, 180. No, let’s say 190. Let’s say 190. Cut the 180. Give or take. Let’s have a look at the Let’s have a look at the comments, shall we? Can you go below parallel? And you you’ve replied to that actually. No. Huge Johnson blocks me squatting deep. Blessing and a curse. So, anatomy lesson. # holiday halfresps. Is that someone you know? Yes. Felt it. Get them hips on strictly. So, there’s a lot of positive. There’s some positive there. You up for doing a depth test? Yeah. Well, how about you squat and I I’ll set the uh I’ll set the bar low. The parameter. Set the parameter. Give me some extra motivation. You ready? These shorts could go at any time. Let’s go. Hip crease below knee. Yeah. Down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down. And up. Easy reps. And the shorts passed the test. They did just about. I think they ripped already to be honest. They can’t go again. Bench press. We’ve done squats first, but where do you rate bench? If you could if you had to lose one squat or bench, what would it be for after rugby or now? Right now I’d lose bench. You’d lose bench. What about after? Just cuz squats probably more important for my position, but after No, you keep bench all day, wouldn’t you? You put squats to one side, skip leg day. How important is bench? Like it’s obviously quite a it’s a classic bro. Only really curls are more broy than bench. But how much carryover does it have to your rugby? I think the the one about bench it actually makes you quite robust and that’s what I like about obviously when you put bigger weights on as well when it sort of comes off your chest. We had DEXA scans done which was quite interesting showing bone density and all the front rowers who lift a load of tin their chests were like so dense and I can only put it down to chucking the waist color rib cage. No, I think it’s Yeah, it’s massively important especially playing the front row to to have a big bench with big I’ve never heard that before. Like is that you like actually the dexterity of feeling? No, I enjoy it. Yeah, I enjoy it as an art. It’s an art form. Nice. Well, let’s hop on then. Let’s get some sets in. Yeah. How often are you benching? Uh, probably two or three times a week, but again, like different variations. So, obviously you got like flat bench. We got roller press. You’re going to roller press like a like a 30°. Yeah. With like a big sort of barrel on the middle. We do that quite a lot, but that’s always high rep stuff. It’s weird with bench. You like do so many reps throughout the year and you never feel like you’re done. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. You can never bench too much. No. No. So you you have quite a close Yeah, I got a tight grip. I’ve been told that a few times, but I don’t know. I feel like when you go wider and like you sort of people arch their back and bring their hammies up and stuff, I feel like you don’t get as much out the lift. That’s like powerlifting. Just move as much weight as possible whereas you’re literally saying you’re actively trying to let the bar Yeah. Quite literally. Yeah. So powerlifting would kind of be right out here. Yeah. Easy. Do you all bench together as well? Yeah. Well, like usually, so you got like a trainer, SNC. Yeah. Strength and conditioning coach, and they’ll just sort of have your program. You’ll more or less all do the same lifts, but just different weights. So, you’re just slamming different weights on for each person. I bet that’s a good vibe. Yeah. I mean, as long as the tunes are right, it doesn’t really matter, does it? What are your go-to bench tunes? I’m not in charge of music and they usually just put on the iPad and click shuffle. There’s a lot of country. A lot of country which is quite popular at the moment. If you if you were gunning for a PB, what would you put on in the garage? Probably gets artillery. Gets nice. Something a bit nasty. Nice. And you’re really accelerating that bar as well. Yeah, to be fair, we did power this morning. So, how many reps are you hitting this morning? only threes, but it’s um it’s done on velocity per how far the bar travels. So, speed of the bar. Yeah. As opposed to peak. I don’t know if it’s peak actually. Anyway, you get a number at the end of it and I won. And though you said you bench three times in a week, is that do you Is that like Westside? You you’re doing Yeah. I don’t know. So, first first session would be again on a Monday. I get all my heavy lifting on the Monday. So, I squat and then bench. Exactly. Yeah. Cuz it’s a bit of a down day in terms of running on field. So, I do my squat, my bench, and relax a little bit. I don’t have to run around. Whereas on like a Tuesday, for example, the day after, it’s a very attritional day out there. So you’d want to do like sort of higher reps, less weight. Yeah. So you’d probably go on to the chest press machine and Yeah. muck about on there as opposed to do like big manual lifts. Yeah. Just grab a pump. Exactly. Yeah. Quite literally. Good work. How’ that feel? That felt right. Actually, I wasn’t expecting I was I thought I was doing it. You were a bit nervous. Yeah. Yeah, I was. I won’t go up on that. When you’re um off season or you’re sort of off program, do you do any any like fun just bodybuilding type stuff or do you generally stick to just big compound moves? No, do obviously like a lot of neck and stuff for scrums. Like when we come back, you want to be used to lifting weight, but in terms of arms and and shoulders and all that sort of stuff, we get so much crossover from the rugby you don’t really need to. Yeah. Yeah. So, like cuz I bench quite close grip, I get a pump from that anyway with my tries. So, so you you kind of you don’t train your arms, but you make sure you’re always training your arms. Yeah. Passive passive aggressive arm sessions. How close is your PB bench to your PB squat? Within 40 kilo, which is quite worrying, but to be fair, I hit the 180 when I injured my lower body. So, you were benched every every single day. Didn’t have to worry about my lowers. That’s all. Yeah. Hopefully it’s a bit higher now. The what bike again? I really like a bit of car. Yeah. Yeah. I was I was warned that you were like super methodical. Um how big a part does uh conditioning play versus weights? I think it’s one of those things that no one really wants to do it. Um but you understand what you get out of it and and how important and integral role it plays. Especially in rugby, you know, like we always do what bites cuz rugby is not about like the long effort, it’s about the repeat effort. So you come from a scrum or a line out or a mall and then you got to run. So we actually like fill our legs up where you would have seen it firsthand when you came in and and trained us. We’d fill our legs up and then try and do some cardio and run around like penguins, but it’s No, I don’t think I was. Um but yeah, we sort of try to like write ourselves off and then and then train. So that’s method to the madness I guess. Yeah. So what sort of protocols do you do on the bike? Well, it depends really. Like if you’re doing like a mental fitness session, you probably do like six 1ks, three sets. So six 1 km intervals. Yeah. Yeah. Um well, have a look on there. See what they got on workouts. So you literally just come in and do like So there’s that one there which is 6 seconds on, 24 off. Have you ever done that one? So pure power. Yeah. And then 10 on 30 off. Yeah. again. It’s a custom on 50 second interval. You got to get 1k which I think would be some sort of world record. Yeah. Um 60 on 20 off. Yeah. And you’re just get you’re going for like peak power here. Yeah. They’re they’re max efforts. Yeah. They’re they’re all max efforts. Um and then you’d have like a whiteboard and they’d write all your wattages up and who here or on the England squad or whatever. Who’s the biggest cardio dodger? Cardio dodger. Love George up top. Yeah. I don’t have to think about that twice. He hates it. How did I get out of it? Pretend that he’s injured. Um or ill. No, he’s he’s he’s all right. Love Joy. Um and to be fair, cuz he’s been injured so much this season, he’s been relentless on the fitness. It’s one of them things in rugby. If you get injured, they’ll find a way to make you do cardio. Whether you’re on the the spark, the assault bike, or the what bike, you you’re doing what’s your uh what’s your like your least favorite element of all of what’s the bit they get you doing that you don’t want to do? Apart from all of it, um, probably assault bike, I think, is the biggest finisher of a of a body that I can think of. We were talking about earlier, weren’t we? It’s like the one piece of kit that will let you write a check that like your body can’t catch. Like you let you get up there. Yeah. And then when you get off, you get It’s like n impossible to maintain, isn’t it? We did that Matt Fraser one the other day. It was like 10 cows or 20 cows and then a rolling clock of a minute and it was hanging. Yeah. You said 20 20 cows every minute. 20 cows every minute on the minute. Six Six reps. Yeah, only one set, but it was like 8 minutes of work in total, I think, with the warm up. And then how much rest were you getting towards the end? I think I finished my last set in like 37 seconds, which is quite high. I think first one was like 19. And then Yeah, you just fall off the face of the face of the earth. Yeah. You don’t want to do a 10 cal test now. No. No. Me neither. So good.