Body Composition of Rugby League Players V.1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Physiological and Nutritional requirements of Elite Super League Rugby players: how best to prepare players for the demands of competition.
IRAS ID
169544
Contact name
James Morehen
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Liverpool John Moores University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Professional Rugby League is a collision sport which traditionally adopts a large emphasis on lean muscle mass requiring players to perform complex tasks involving bouts of high-intensity activity separated by low-intensity activity. These activities depend on player position, for example, forwards are involved in more frequent physical collisions than backs (Twist et al., 2012). Physical demands of rugby league positions often see differences in the anthropometric characteristics of both elite and sub-elite players (Lundy et al., 2006; Gabbett et al., 2008 respectively) from one club. Additionally, emerging evidence is now showing anthropometric differences in positions across multiple Super League clubs with a large range in intra-positional anthropometric characteristics (Morehen et al., 2015).
With 12 teams in the European Super League and 12 teams in the English Championship, it would be interesting to assess the difference in anthropometric characteristics between the top tier of professional rugby league and the league below. As such a comprehensive view of anthropometric characteristics could be profiled on an extensive number of players from multiple rugby league clubs. Additionally, it would be motivating to assess the physiology of multiple rugby league players in this research. For example, speed, power, strength, agility, force and aerobic fitness are all variables that successful rugby league players need to possess and it would be interesting to highlight any differences there may be between the two professional rugby league leagues.
During the pre-season period, physiological performance variables as aforementioned are all developed to enable each individual player to be in the best condition for the beginning of the season.REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/WM/0014
Date of REC Opinion
20 Mar 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion