Rugby
How I train: Jack Nowell
Exeter Chiefs and England winger Jack Nowell on how he stays in prime shape at all times – including when a major tournament is approaching.
For elite rugby players, the modern game truly is a survival of the fittest, given the unflagging pace and thunderous collisions they face in their remorseless schedule of big games.
England and Exeter Chiefs winger Jack Nowell has been playing elite rugby for club and country for the best part of a decade, helping his club to reach three Premiership finals (including their first win in 2017), while representing England in multiple Six Nations championships and two World Cups.
So what's been his secret for staying in peak physical condition over the last 10 years? Here, Jack gives a comprehensive and exclusive insight into his training regime.
How many hours of training do you do a week?
Jack Nowell weight training in the gym
© Greg Coleman / Red Bull Content Pool
We’re in every morning [at Chiefs] for probably about 7.30am and we don’t leave until 3pm most days, and we do that three times a week. Then on Fridays it’s a bit shorter.
A lot of hours are spent at the club doing that and then obviously we all go home and we do our recovery and stuff with the family as well, so you’re not completely switched off when you get home.
What does a typical training day look like for you?
Wednesdays are probably our main training day. We come in and we do a bit of hand-eye coordination stuff between the backs. The forwards will be in the gym and then we’ll swap over and the backs will go in the gym.
We basically do stuff that will make us better on the field in the gym and it’ll change from month to month or day to day
After that, we’ll have a quick meeting. [Exeter Chiefs’ head coach] Rob [Baxter] likes to sum up the week before we go out for our main session. And then when we do have our main session, we do a bit of defence, a bit of attack and that’s where we split into two teams and we do a bit of 15 on 15 against the boys who aren’t involved in the squad for the next game. Those guys will run a few opposition moves against the boys that are playing.
Then we finish at 3pm, so it’s not bad as a main training day.
Can you provide some examples of the cardio sessions and strength drills you do?
Jack focuses on strength and conditioning in the gym
© Philip Platzer / Red Bull Content Pool
Leg weights help Jack boost his power on the pitch and prevent injury
© Philip Platzer / Red Bull Content Pool
Monday’s just a feel-good session, so if we do weights it’ll just be about easing your body back up to getting used to what we need to do for the rest of that week. Tuesday we’ll go heavier with the weights with lower reps.
Wednesday it’ll be a bit of power stuff, so we’ll do power circuits as you need power for the game and we’ll do [medicine] ball slams or ball pushes against the wall [to help replicate] hand-offs. Anything we do on the rugby field, we try and do in the gym.
We basically do stuff that will make us better on the field in the gym and it’ll change from month to month or day to day.
We don’t do a lot of cardio. The way we get our cardio as players is to play rugby games, 15 on 15, which will get pretty heated and have a bit of contact in there. We get a lot of running from that.
I hear you particularly enjoy doing leg exercises such as split squats?
That’s right. I feel for me – and every player’s different – I do a lot of leg exercises because I feel that that is going to prevent injury and it definitely adds to my game when I’m out there.
I’m a bit different to other wingers. I admit there are other wingers who are a lot quicker than me, but for me it’s about what I do in traffic and what I do when I’ve got people trying to tackle me [that counts].
So a lot of that is do with leg weights and having lower-leg strength to be able to buck some tackles and to be able to carry forwards and things like that.
I struggled with my knees growing up and my ligaments probably aren’t the best so I find if my VMOs [Vastus Medialis Oblique, one of four quadriceps muscles] are strong [and] my hammies are strong, that takes a lot of pressure off my ligaments, which obviously helps me a lot and prevents injuries and makes me a bit stronger.
What does your training involve building up to a big tournament such as the Six Nations?
Jack in action during the 2019 England vs. Scotland Six Nations match
© NurPhoto / Getty Images
A lot of our training building up to the Six Nations is what we do with our clubs. The way you get picked to play for your country is how well you play for your club, who keep putting you in these big games in the European Champions Cup and Premiership. It’s actually very simple to prepare for a big tournament as it’s literally what our club week looks like.
For us, if it’s a normal Saturday game, we’ll be in on a Monday morning and we’ll do a bit of recovery, a bit of pool recovery and then do a few reviews of the game before. We’d then do a little light gym session in the afternoon of probably 15-20 minutes, no more. This would just be a bit of a flush-out. Tuesday’s our physical day, so we’ll beat each other up with a lot of weight training. Wednesday’s our main training day, 15 on 15. Thursday is a day off. Friday is a bit of a team run, again no more than 15 minutes, and then the big game day is on Saturday with Sunday off.
How does your training change when you’re in camp with England?
It’s not too different. Training days are kept similar to Exeter’s. You do the same sort of actual training, but we’re always in the hotel together, so training’s probably spread out during the whole day, where’s at the club you’re in from 7am until 3pm.
It’s important you stay fit and play how you play with your clubs because that’s the reason you’re picked for England
If you’re away with camp, you almost start at seven o’clock and I’d do a gym session and then you’ll have a good three-or-four-hour block off for lunch. Obviously [England] are able to do that because you don’t have to go home, don’t have to go back to your families because you’re in the hotel. They recommend you have a bit of a sleep then and in the afternoon, you do your training session and weights session a bit later on.
With England, they understand what kind of work we do at the club. It’s important not to change too much because everyone is different and does different leg weights and exercises. Obviously I’ll add a little bit in and it’ll be slightly different [to what I do with Chiefs], but the majority of it stays pretty similar. It’s important you stay fit and play how you play with your clubs because that’s the reason you’re picked for England.
Are you doing anything specific to help prevent injury?
Jack undergoing physio treatment at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre
© Philip Platzer/Red Bull Content Pool
I think a big thing for me is obviously my leg weights because no matter how tired you are or how fatigued you are, it’s very important for me to get those leg weights done because I have to be strong when I’m on the field and there’s no point getting to the end of the week and thinking: ‘Oh, I should have done that’, so sometimes you’ve got to grit your teeth to get through it.
I really enjoy the heat; I kind of stay away from the cold. There are no real ice baths for me because I feel that kind of makes me a little bit worse. I hit the sauna most nights, which I feel helps the oxygen move around the blood and body and all that stuff.
Do you do any mental preparation with England as a squad or individually with a sports psychologist?
Not really. Rugby’s a team sport but it’s very individual in terms of everybody being different so the boys know if they need psychological support, they can get it.
I’m very, very chilled out and very easygoing. I learned when I was younger that wasting your time worrying about games or panicking about games is just going to waste energy.
The time I really switch on is when you really have to switch on, which is when you’re about to cross that white line and about to start a game.
I learned when I was younger that wasting your time worrying about games or panicking about games is just going to waste energy.
Even in my warm-up, I’m very chilled out and I’m not really thinking too much about the game because I don’t want to give away too much energy.
I think about the game before I’m just about to play it.
To find out more about how Jack and other Red Bull athletes train, fuel and think, head to the Red Bull Pro hub.