Rugby conditioning: the Bronco test, the Yo-Yo test and how to train for them

Every rugby club has a fitness test, and most amateur players have a love-hate relationship with it. The Bronco is the one people talk about; the Yo-Yo test and the bleep test turn up too. This guide explains what each test measures, how to run it properly, and, more importantly, how to train so the number improves and you actually get fitter for rugby.

What rugby fitness actually is

Rugby is intermittent: short, intense efforts (sprints, collisions, rucks, get-ups) separated by brief, incomplete recoveries. You need a big aerobic engine to recover between efforts, the speed and strength to make those efforts count, and the specific ability to keep repeating them late in a game.

The demands differ by position. In amateur club rugby, half backs cover about 79 metres per minute of playing time, inside backs about 75, outside backs about 73 and forwards about 64–65 Olsen et al. 2023. The most intense passages of play are far harder than the average, so conditioning should prepare you for the busiest minutes, not the average ones Reardon et al. 2017.

The Bronco test

How it works

Set out cones at 0, 20, 40 and 60 m. From the start line, run to the 20 m cone and back, then the 40 m cone and back, then the 60 m cone and back. That’s 240 m. Do it five times without stopping: 1,200 m in total, against the clock.

What it tells you

The Bronco is a maximal, self-paced aerobic test with a lot of turning. In a study of 156 professional rugby union and sevens players, Bronco times correlated very strongly with the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 1 and strongly with the multistage shuttle (bleep) test. The authors concluded it’s a useful fitness test for rugby, but warned that the tests share relatively little variance, so scores shouldn’t be treated as interchangeable Sella et al. 2021.

Running it well

• Use a firm, dry, flat grass surface and mark the lines precisely. A metre short on each turn adds up.
• Warm up properly, including a few turns and build-ups.
• Touch the line with your foot on every turn.
• Pace matters: going out too hard on the first 240 m is the commonest mistake.
• Record the surface, weather and footwear, and compare only like with like.

We don’t publish “good” Bronco times for amateurs, because there are no validated amateur norms and conditions vary so much. Compare yourself with yourself.

The Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test

The Yo-Yo IR1 has you run 2 × 20 m shuttles at speeds set by audio beeps, with a 10-second active recovery after each pair. The speed steps up as the test goes on, and you continue until you can’t make the line in time. Your score is the total distance covered.

Its main advantage over the Bronco is pacing: the beeps do it for you. Coaching sources on in-season testing prefer the Yo-Yo to paced runs for that reason, and because aerobic time trials add fatigue in-season Coneyworth et al.. Its intermittent structure also looks more like rugby than a continuous run.

The MAS time trial: the most useful number

If your goal is to train well rather than just pass a test, the most useful number is your maximal aerobic speed (MAS): roughly the slowest speed at which you reach your maximal oxygen uptake.

• Run a 1,600–2,000 m time trial on a track or measured flat route. 2,000 m matches MAS best; women and less experienced players can use the shorter end Bellenger et al. 2015.
• Divide distance by time to get metres per second. For example, 2,000 m in 8 minutes (480 s) is 4.17 m/s.
• Shorter trials (1,000–1,400 m) overestimate MAS. If you only have a 1,300–1,400 m result, knock about 5% off.
• Off-feet alternative: a 5-minute all-out effort on a bike, rower or ski erg gives a machine-specific MAS for injured players or in-season leg sparing.

The point of MAS is that every interval becomes a distance for you. A 15-second rep at 120% MAS for a player with 4.17 m/s is 75 m; for a player with 3.8 m/s it’s 68 m. Everyone works at the same relative intensity.

How to train conditioning for rugby

Most hard conditioning should sit above about 92% of MAS, because time spent near maximal aerobic speed drives fitness gains Buchheit & Laursen 2013. Running below about 70% of MAS counts as recovery. Long, steady runs add little for experienced players.

A progression across pre-season

Each method runs for 2–3 weeks. Every 3–4 weeks, retest or move up a grid (about +5%). On the fast side of each rep, stop and start from a standstill so you can’t bank time.

No MAS score? Use heart rate: 4 × 4 minutes at 90–95% of maximum heart rate, with 3 minutes easy between Helgerud et al. 2007.

Make it rugby

About four weeks before contact training starts, add repeated efforts that look like the game: 3–6 second efforts over 5–20 m with about 20 seconds of easy recovery, including get-ups. Forwards’ sets include contacts (a get-up, a tackle-bag hit, a ruck clear) at about 0.7–0.9 a minute; backs at about 0.3–0.4 Reardon et al. 2017. Back-rowers and centres can use sprint-contact-get-up bouts of three.

Keep it apart from heavy legs

Hard running and heavy or explosive leg work should be at least 6 hours apart, ideally on separate days. Aerobic training doesn’t blunt maximal strength or size much, but it can blunt explosive strength, mainly in the same session Schumann et al. 2022. If you must do both together, do whichever is the priority first.

In-season: less is more

For a player who trains twice and plays every weekend, club sessions and the match are the conditioning. Extra hard running usually just adds fatigue. Top up only when your week is short of it: if you played under 20 minutes, weren’t selected, or (for back three players) had no near-top-speed running at training. Read more in the in-season gym programme.

When to test

Three times a season is plenty: at the start of pre-season, mid-season and at the end. A full battery in sensible order: body measures, agility, jumps and power, sprints, then the aerobic test last so earlier tests don’t tire you for later ones. Mid-season, keep it short: sprint, countermovement jump and, if wanted, the Yo-Yo rather than a time trial.

A change only counts if it’s bigger than the test’s normal variation. Run the same test the same way on the same surface, and treat small changes as noise.

Off-feet conditioning

A bike, rower or ski erg lets you build fitness while sparing your legs, useful in-season and for players carrying a lower-limb niggle (with their physio’s agreement). Set a machine-specific MAS from a 5-minute all-out effort, then use sets such as 30 seconds at 100% and 30 seconds at 60–70%, building the work periods as the recovery shrinks. Repeat intervals on ergs cap around 110% of MAS rather than 120%. Compare scores only on the same type of machine, because distance and watts differ between them.

Common conditioning mistakes

• Only ever running the test. Practising the Bronco every week improves your Bronco, not necessarily your rugby fitness.
• Steady runs instead of intervals. They feel productive but add little for experienced players.
• Hard running the day before heavy legs. Separate them where you can.