Training as a 35+ rugby player: how to keep playing well for longer

Plenty of players are still turning out at 35, 40 and beyond, for the seconds, the vets or the first team. You can still play well and still get stronger, but the body that got away with no warm-up and a Sunday-morning squat session at 22 needs a smarter plan now. This guide covers what changes after 35 and how to train around it.

A note on the evidence: most research on ageing and training is in people over 60, not 38-year-old back-rowers. So the advice here is a set of gentle, sensible defaults, not hard rules. Use them as a starting point and adjust to how you respond.

What changes after 35

• Power and speed fall faster than strength. The ability to produce force quickly declines earlier and faster than maximal strength. That’s why the oldest players on a team often look strong in contact but lose a yard over 20 m.
• Recovery takes longer. Muscle damage and fatigue from games and hard sessions take longer to ease.
• Tendons need attention. Calf and Achilles problems become more common in older field-sport players, and tendons respond to steady, progressive loading.
• Gains still come, just more slowly. Yearly strength gains shrink with training age anyway, and over-30s should expect steady progress rather than personal-best promises. But they can still improve.

The good news is clear: resistance training is safe and effective for older adults, improves strength, power and function, and is recommended in a position statement from the National Strength and Conditioning Association Fragala et al. 2019. Two sessions a week still build strength.

Keep fast work in every week

Because power and speed fade first, older players should never drop them. Every week should include at least one dose of fast work:

• Short sprints with full recovery, for example 4–6 × 10–20 m accelerations.
• Jumps: box jumps, broad jumps or bodyweight jump squats, a few low-rep sets.
• Fast lifts: moderate weights moved as fast as possible, stopping each set before the reps slow.

After any break (an injury, a holiday, the summer), restart plyometrics at the easier levels, such as skipping, pogo hops and jumps on the spot, before moving back to bounding and depth jumps.

Give legs more time after games

In Match Ready’s 35+ setting, the heavy leg session comes 72 hours after a game by default. For a Saturday game, that means Tuesday rather than Monday. If your check-in two days after the game shows normal jump height and wellness, the app allows the usual 48-hour timing.

The day after a game is for rest or light recovery: a walk, an easy bike or swim, mobility, food and sleep. Read more in should you lift the day after a match?

Lighter weeks should also be lighter for masters players: cut intensity by about 10–15% rather than only trimming sets, and in heavy phases, volume drops about 5% per decade past 30 as a rough guide.

Calves and Achilles: twice a week

Add calf and Achilles strength work twice a week, all year. It takes five minutes:

• Straight-knee calf raises (on a step, slow lowering), 3 × 10–15, progressing to single-leg and then loaded.
• Bent-knee calf raises (seated or a slight knee bend), 3 × 12–15, for the deeper calf muscle.
• Isometric holds: rise onto your toes and hold for 20–45 seconds, 3–5 reps. Good in-season or when tendons are grumbling.

This choice is coach’s method rather than proven in trials for preventing Achilles problems, but tendon and calf strength are basic capacities every older field-sport player needs.

Warm up longer

A warm-up that worked at 22 isn’t enough at 40. Take a little longer over the general part (up to 15 minutes in cold weather) and use more build-up sets before heavy lifts: older or previously injured lifters can use up to five empty-bar or light warm-up sets. For club nights and matches, use a full evidence-based warm-up of balance, landing, cutting, strength, neck and shoulder work. In community rugby, a warm-up like this reduced injuries in teams that did it at least three times a week Attwood et al. 2018. See the rugby warm-up guide.

A sample in-season week for a 38-year-old forward

Two gym sessions a week build strength at any age. If one gets missed, don’t try to cram it into the next day; carry on with the plan.

Strength: still the foundation

Older players have most to gain from staying strong. Keep the same main lifts as younger players, with a few practical tweaks:

• Choose the variations your joints tolerate: trap-bar deadlifts, front squats or box squats, dumbbell pressing, landmine presses.
• Start lighter than you think after a break and build back over several weeks; returning lifters can produce more force than their tissues are ready for.
• Keep most sets short of failure, with 1–3 reps in reserve.
• Keep Nordics and hamstring work, introduced gently: a new or heavy lowering exercise costs strength for about three days the first time, so never in the 72 hours before a match.

Health checks

Once a year, run through the PAR-Q+ health questions, a validated screening tool Warburton et al. 2011. If you answer yes to any follow-up question, or you have a known heart condition, heart-related symptoms or a family history of sudden unexplained death at a young age, see your GP before continuing. From 40, get your blood pressure checked; many pharmacies do it free. Breathe through heavy efforts and isometric holds rather than holding your breath, and if you have uncontrolled high blood pressure or heart disease, speak to your GP first.

Sleep, food and the rest of life

Recovery depends on more than training. Aim for at least 7 hours of sleep, with a regular wake time and caffeine cut off after about 2 pm Walsh et al. 2021. Eat protein at each meal, around 1.6–2.0 g per kg of bodyweight a day in total; in a large meta-analysis, protein’s extra benefit for muscle gains levelled off at about 1.6 g per kg Morton et al. 2018. And be realistic about your week: work, family and a midweek club session are training stress too.

Coming back to rugby after years out

Plenty of players return in their late thirties or forties, often for a vets side. Treat the first two months as a rebuild, whatever you used to lift or how fit you once were. After a year or more off, go back to simple linear progression on the main lifts with deliberate restraint in the first sessions, and build running gradually before any flat-out sprinting. Complete the PAR-Q+ questions before you start, and allow at least 4 weeks (ideally 6–8) of preparation before your first game, including contact readiness at club training.

Common mistakes veteran players make

• Dropping speed and power work. It’s the quality you lose first, so it’s the one to protect.
• Training the day after games out of habit. Give legs 72 hours unless your check-in says you’ve recovered.
• Skipping the warm-up because you’re “only” playing vets. The older you are, the more it matters.
• Ignoring the calves. Twice a week, five minutes.
• Chasing old personal bests. Train for steady progress and a full season, not a one-off number.

Finally, keep perspective. Many veteran players train more consistently than they did at 25, and consistency beats intensity. Two well-placed sessions a week, a proper warm-up and enough sleep will keep most 35+ players strong, quick and on the team sheet.