James Haskell

At first glance you would be forgiven for believing James Haskell makes a living as a body builder, so huge are the muscles that ripple across virtually every part of his body, but it is an indication of just how physical rugby union is these days that the 6ft 4in, 112kg heavy 23-year-old is a rugby star for London Wasps and England.

Haskell, expected to feature heavily in the 2009 Six Nations tournament that begins next month, needs to be this big and this strong, just to be able to compete at the highest level against opposing men sporting similar physiques. It requires dedication to the cause, and hours upon hours each week of training, but on top of the immense strength and muscular physique, Haskell also needs to be quick with feet and mind, and possess enormous stamina to last 80 minutes of a game of rugby.

His week, unsurprisingly, is busy, and dominated by his profession, even on a Sunday morning, which is usually the morning after he has done battle for Wasps or for his country, and lost up to 3kgs in a little over 80 minutes of sport in the process.

“I tend to wake up battered and sore on a Sunday morning,” Haskell explains, with a grimace. “It would be nice to have a lie in but it’s more important to attend a recovery session at the Wasps training ground in Acton, in West London. This usually means a 20 minute massage, a ten minute ice bath with constantly running water to prevent numbness, 15 minutes on the bike or out jogging to loosen up, and a long stretch. In total it takes 90 minutes but it’s essential to do this to set you up for the week.”

And what a week it turns out to be, especially for the back row forward, who somehow finds time to squeeze in extra training outside that provided by Wasps.
It all begins in earnest on a Monday morning in Acton when Haskell gets to work on strengthening his legs in the gym for a 45 minute session, often combining this with general weights working on his pecs (bench presses in reps of between 8-10), glutes, quads, calves (squats, again with 8-10 reps), lats, biceps and forearms (pull ups for as many times as he can lift his heavy body) and more work on his biceps using dumbbells and long bicep curls. After a long lunch break it is on to the training field for a rugby session, concentrating on the more technical aspects of the game, where the backs and forwards divide and Haskell gets to work on line outs and scrums.
Tuesdays tend to be spent out on the rugby field all day. “We spend 90 minutes in the morning working on new moves and tactics but in the afternoon it’s a lot of contact and conditioning work. The ELVs (Experimental Law Variations) which have been brought into the game this season means there’s a lot more kicking and running backwards and forwards, so we now do a lot of shuttle work, where we have to sprint from the try line to the 22 metre line, hit the deck, jump back up again, and run back, for as many times as you can in blocks of 18 seconds. That tends to kill most of us off.”

After a Wednesday away from the training ground, where Haskell sorts out his business for the week, it is back to Acton on Thursdays where a major day of training takes place. “It starts with a power session in the gym,” Haskell explains. “We tend to focus on two areas: Olympic lifts, such as the snatch, cleaen, jerk and pulls, followed by more explosive stuff, with lots of bounding (2 sets of 3), frog jumping (2 sets of 5), and sled pulls. After a mid-morning break we’ll work on the technical aspects of playing in the pack, such as line-outs and scrums. After lunch it’s a big rugby session, which includes contact.

Fridays, the day before the big game, tend to be relatively easy, where Haskell joins his teammates for a morning team run, in which Wasps run through all the moves and tactics planned for the next day, and yet more work is undergone in the all-important line-outs.

On the Saturday morning of a home game at Adams Park in High Wycombe, the ground Wasps share with the football league side, Wycombe Wanderers, Haskell usually wakes up at his parents’ house. He then has a warm-up session in their garden. “It comprises of 4 to 5 sprints, then a series of drills with high knees, heel flicks and skips. I arrive at the ground 90 minutes before kick off and then get strapped up, to support my ankle, wrists and thumbs, and to protect my shoulders and forearms, which I always seem to land on. Then I have a massage, concentrating on my hamstrings and calves. Before official warm up I like to go out on to the pitch to catch some high balls and do some sprints, then it’s down to final preparations. This consists of jogging laps of the pitch, a series of what we call karaokes, which are running placing one foot across the other, and a few big hits on tackle bags. We return to the dressing room five minutes before the kick off, usually with a good sweat on.”

As if all this is not enough, Haskell also has two extra methods of training. One is to see Margot Wells, wife of the 1980 Olympic 100 metres gold medallist, Allan, and a highly-rated sprint coach. “I tend to see Margot three or four times a week, which includes my Wednesday day off, and often on a Friday as well,” he says. “She helps me find speed, dynamism and power, ingredients that a modern day back row forward requires. Midweek she oversees extra gym sessions, with more jumping, bounding and squats, as well as working on a boxing speedball, to help arm speed, and stair jumping. On Fridays it’s more sprint work.”

Haskell has also begun to go to a Hammersmith gym for wrestling sessions. “It breaks up the monotony of training, and is very relevant to the position I play in, where it’s all about body position, balance, moving from one position to the next quickly, and manipulating my opposing number, either by dumping them or by getting back to my feet as quickly as possible to get past him. I try and go once a week and wrestle with Mixed Martial Arts guys.”

To sustain all this Haskell has the kind of diet that would be a glutton’s dream. “For breakfast it’s always porridge, with fruit, two boiled eggs, two pints of fruit juice and a green tea. I’ll have a mid-morning protein shake, then a lunch of fish or chicken with vegetables and a yogurt. After the day’s second training session I’ll pop into Nando’s at Ealing Common, where we get a 20% discount, for some chicken stir fry and salad, and there’s still time for a healthy dinner, which is often salmon or sushi, or sometimes an Italian in the Kings Road which Danny Cipriani and I frequent often. I guess I also knock down 8 pints of fluids a day.”

On top of all this Haskell treats himself to the occasional blow out. “If we win it’s a large Domino’s pizza and a beer, if we lose it’s just the pizza,” he admits.
Yet this monster of a man boasts just 9% body fat. “Not bad for a man weighing 112 kgs,” he concludes.
Not bad at all.

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