How to structure your gym week if you play rugby on Wednesdays and Saturdays

Midweek and weekend games? Welcome to the pain cave.

This schedule is common in uni leagues, development squads, and semi-pro rugby—but it’s a nightmare if you don’t plan your gym around it. Get it wrong and you’re either too sore to perform or not doing enough to stay strong.

Here’s how we structure the week to balance recovery, performance, and progress.

The problem: too much contact, not enough time

Two matches in five days means:

Limited recovery windows
High contact fatigue
Risk of undertraining or overtraining
No room for ‘junk’ sessions

You need focused, efficient gym work that supports your match schedule—not fights it.

The goal: maintain strength, stay fresh, avoid overload

Forget PRs or long hypertrophy blocks during this period. Your gym plan should:

Prioritise quality over quantity
Focus on neural (not muscular) fatigue
Maintain key qualities like strength, power, and joint control
Support injury prevention (not cause more niggles)

Sample rugby gym structure: 2 quality sessions

Here’s how we’d build your week inside CURVA if you play Wednesday + Saturday:

Monday – Primer + Mobility

Light full-body movement prep
Power primers (jumps, med ball throws, light barbell work)
Mobility work for hips, spine, and shoulders

Goal: prep for Wednesday match without adding fatigue.

Thursday – Strength Maintenance

Upper body push/pull (moderate load, low volume)
Lower body power (trap bar jumps, light cleans, jumps)
Core + prehab (shoulders, hamstrings, knees)

Goal: maintain key lifts without carrying fatigue into Saturday.

If you’re too beat up post-Wednesday, push this to Friday and scale it down.

Bonus: daily micro-dose recovery

Between games, your biggest wins come from small habits:

15 mins of mobility post-match and next day
Low-intensity flush work (bike or walk)
Targeted soft tissue (glutes, quads, adductors)
Sleep, food, hydration—boring but undefeated

What CURVA does differently

Most apps just give you a 4-day split and hope for the best.

We factor in:

Your match schedule
Your position and playing style
Contact volume and fatigue
Real recovery time

So your training works with your rugby—not against it.

The takeaway

When you play twice a week, every session has to earn its spot.

You don’t need more gym time—you need the right structure, in the right places, at the right time.

That’s how you stay strong, stay sharp, and stay on the pitch.