Lions Tour 2025: How Elite Rugby Players Train on Tour

Luca Feser
Jul 29
2 min read

What Touring Does to Your Recovery Clock

Long-haul flights. Hotel gyms. Jet lag. Tight turnarounds.

Touring sounds elite—but it wrecks your routine if you’re not prepared. Whether you’re pushing for a national squad or grinding through your club's summer tour, rugby tour training isn’t about more volume. It’s about holding your edge in unpredictable conditions.

You’re not training for numbers anymore. You’re training for adaptability.

Tour environments—especially international ones like the Lions Tour—put pressure on three core systems:

CNS (central nervous system) — disrupted sleep and overstimulation tank power output
Musculoskeletal system — travel fatigue, altered surfaces, poor mobility
Neuromuscular timing — missed cues from inconsistent training schedules

If your gym plan doesn’t shift with your reality, your performance drops—fast.

Mobile, Minimal, but Mighty—Rugby Tour Training with CURVA

We built CURVA for athletes who can’t rely on perfect conditions.

Whether you’re bouncing between hotels in South Africa or juggling club rugby and airport lounges in pre-season, your plan needs to:

Work with limited equipment — hotel gyms, resistance bands, bodyweight
Protect key movement patterns — hinge, lunge, sprint, jump
Maintain power output — even with short sessions and tight recovery
Auto-adjust to fatigue and availability — training when you can, not when you should

Here’s how CURVA delivers:

1. Session Variants Based on Equipment Access

No barbell? Use dumbbells or tempo-based bodyweight circuits
No sled? Banded accelerations or hill sprints
Everything scales—same outcome, different tools

2. Quick-Trigger Power Sessions

20–30 minute CNS-focused lifts
Think explosive jumps, med ball throws, trap bar pulls (if available)
Low fatigue, high intent—get in, fire up, get out

3. Mobility First Protocols

Jet lag? Tight back? Hips gone from flights?
Mobility Hub kicks in with tailored flows to reset key joints
Keeps your spine, hips, ankles and shoulders firing under load

The Role of Prehab on a Travel-Heavy Schedule

One thing most touring players ignore? Prehab.

But tour = higher risk of non-contact injuries—tight adductors, hamstring tweaks, shoulder niggles.Especially if you’re going from match-to-match without consistent recovery blocks.

CURVA’s Rugby Prehab system focuses on:

Shoulder stabilisation — key for front-rowers and jackalers
Hamstring eccentrics — especially post-flight
Groin control drills — Copenhagen holds, tempo lateral lunges
Ankle mobility and activation — to reduce risk during quick surface changes

Prehab isn’t optional on tour. It’s insurance.

Final Whistle

The Lions Tour isn’t just a showcase of talent—it’s a test of consistency.Can you stay powerful, mobile, and match-fit—even when the schedule doesn’t care?

With CURVA, you can.

Start your tailored rugby tour training plan today. Wherever you go, your performance goes with you.