Stamford Rugby Club and Fusion 3 Fitness form partnership

Stamford Rugby have announced a partnership with Fusion 3 Fitness to develop the strength and conditioning of both the first and second teams for the new season.

The Hambleton Road club recently won promotion to Midlands 2 East (South) and fitness is going to be key to achieving more success.

Michael O’Connor, senior section manager, commented: “This is a great collaboration and good for the Stamford community.

“It builds a strong relationship with a local fitness centre and will benefit both of our rugby teams with speed and fitness for the new season.

“Now the we are in Midland Division Two the challenge has increased and physical fitness is even more important.

“The calibre in the division will be of a higher standard and we fully expect to face fitter and more capable teams week in, week out.

The club has worked with Fusion 3 Fitness in previous campaigns and are hoping the impact of improving their fitness will continue.

O’Connor added: “We look forward to working with Fusion to build on last season and continue to improve our levels on the field.

“The strength and conditioning work done by the lads have seen great progress in the sessions which has transferred over to the pitch and shown in our performances.

“The general fitness of the team massively improved after our earlier work with Fusion.

“It was great to see everybody making such a huge effort and putting the hard yards in off the pitch.

“It brought a different competitive edge to the boys and was a real leveller for all abilities. I believe that it made a difference to our overall team performances. On several occasions our fitness showed against our opposition in the last 15 or 20 minutes.”

Stamford lost just three of their 18 league games last season on their way to winning the Midlands 3 East (South) title.

And they are now working on their pre-season fitness programme in readiness for the challenges that lie ahead next season.

O’Connor continued: “We have a really fit and athletic team across the park which I believe has supported our success and allowed us to play and execute the style of rugby that we wanted to.

“In the off season we will again be working with Fusion to review the strength and conditioning programme for the whole team and individual positions.

“With their knowledge and expertise we will work closely with them to ensure that we are at our peak fitness come the start of the competitive season.”

The partnership will come more into fruition once sport returns following the current coronavirus pandemic.

The club used Fusion’s base at Cherryholt Road in Stamford to alternate their training during the winter last season and director Dan Gilbert is hoping the link will have a positive impact on the rugby players.

Gilbert said: “The sessions are planned and we are ready to go.

“There will always be a good mixture of strength work followed by some conditioning work.

“We saw some big weight shifted and some insane conditioning levels from the lads last season and look forward to seeing the levels go up again.

“In the first session, through a series of different tests (time trials, one rep max), we record strength and fitness levels and re-test at different points throughout the season-long programme.

“The re-tests allow us to look at any progression or regression needed alongside feedback from the manager in weekly discussions.”