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Jesse Kriel reveals his one-rep maxes as Springbok details gym routine
By Josh Raisey
There are some players who look like they spend every waking moment that they are not playing rugby in the gym. South Africa’s Jesse Kriel is one of them. In fact, the Springbok is the godfather of those players.
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The 28-year-old sports a physique that has seen him make the front cover of Men’s Health, and he recently gave fans a glimpse of what a normal gym session looks like for him.
Speaking to SuperSport, the double World Cup winner outlined what he will do in a normal leg session at the gym, and it is surprisingly simple.
“Normally I get to the gym and spend five to ten minutes on a bicycle just to get the blood flowing through my legs,” he said. “Then go and do a bit of activations with mini bands. Just some glute stuff and a bit of stretching.
“Then I’ll get under the squat bar, I normally do four to five sets of squatting. Then I do some Nordic curls, I like to keep the reps very low obviously because I don’t want to get injured when running. Just that activation and keeping the hamstrings stimulated. Then I’ll do a step-up into an A stance. That just gets your hips and your glutes nice and strong and obviously that running motion.
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“Then after that I’m pretty much done, it’s very simple. Quick, simple, but I think doing that for ten years, that’s where you find results, just being consistent.”
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Whatever the centre is doing, it is paying off currently as he is playing the best rugby of his career and has arguably been the Springboks’ best player so far in 2024.
But any discussion about the gym is not complete without players discussing what kind of weight they lift. Kriel did also add his bench press and squat numbers for those interested.
“Probably when I’ve been at my strongest I’ve been able to bench about 160kgs, but I’m not really big on one-rep maxes,” he added.
“I think when you’re playing week-in, week-out, your body is quite sore and I think putting a lot of stress and all that weight on your joints and muscles I think you’re asking for problems. So I like to keep it between 100 and 120, it’s a good weight for me.
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“Squats are a different story. The squat gives me a lot of confidence in a game week. It really makes me feel strong and makes my body feel solid. So I’ll get close to 200 there. It’s just a good start to the week and really makes you feel strong going into the week.”