Pilates helps Loyalists shape up

DIFFERENT TYPE OF EXERCISE: (THE DAILY GLEANER/STEPHEN MACGILLIVRAY PHOTO) Members of the Fredericton Loyalists men's rugby team are using Pilates to get ready for the season, which includes attending the inaugural 16-team national club championships May 17-22 in Edmonton. Here players listen to Pilates by Garda on Queen Street instructor Susie Grant. They are, from left, Ryan Jackman, Simon Pacey, Malcolm Reeves and Wade Yeo.

By BRUCE HALLIHAN
bhalliha@dailygleaner.com

If you were playing word association, 'rugby' probably wouldn't be the first thing to come to mind for 'Pilates.'

But the Fredericton Loyalists men's rugby players are benefitting from Pilates by Garda. They've been attending classes for an hour each Saturday and will continue to do so until mid-May as part of their cross-training.

The Loyalists are training - harder and earlier than ever - for the inaugural 16-team national club championships May 17-22 in Edmonton.

"It's going to be a long season so it's pretty important to have a solid core," longtime Loyalist Simon Pacey said. "That's what Pilates is all about."

The players have given Pilates two thumbs up.

"Unanimously, the guys have been impressed by how difficult and how hard of a workout it is, but also the almost immediate benefits," he said. "You can feel things tighten up through your mid-section. There's a lot of stretching involved with it as well. It's more of a preventative thing."

Owner and trainer Garda Milne says when she worked in Toronto most of her clients were male athletes such as football, rugby, soccer players and cyclists trying to alleviate back problems. Here, her clients are predominantly female.

"We said, 'You know what, guys can do this too. It's not just for girls.' It's an excellent way to keep yourself injury-free and, as a former athlete myself, if I didn't do this I wouldn't be standing up."

"The clientele would more typically be women," Pacey said, "so to see 12 or 15 burly rugby guys struggling, the instructors get quite a kick out of it. They've been great."

Milne says she knows many people who, over the course of their careers as athletes, have just ruined their bodies and wonder how they're going to keep fit.

"So they end up in Pilates or yoga," Milne said. "The cool thing that separates Pilates and yoga is we're exercise-based."

The rugby players have found that out the 'hard' way.

"They were so surprised after their first lesson at how hard it was to do," she said, "and how they couldn't find muscles. It's basically all the stabilizing muscles in the torso."

Milne says golfer Tiger Woods and most major football teams have Pilates instruction.

"When you have more control or awareness of your torso, you hit harder, you have better balance, you have better stability, you don't have as many injuries," she said.

Pacey said many players don't stretch properly. Pilates shows them how to do that and also increases their flexibility.

"All the guys have an off-season training program, but we'd normally start our structured training program right around now," Pacey said. "But we'll be playing some pretty important games early in the season, so we had to have everyone focused."

In addition to Pilates, the Loyalists have made four trips to Moncton to train at the Dundee Sports Dome.

"That's given us a chance for on-field training, so we can do some real rugby drills during the off-season," Pacey said. "The turf is amazingly soft, so we can do full contact drills on this stuff, which is such a benefit for us. I'd long for the day that Fredericton would get that kind of facility."

The Loyalists are planning to take 30 players to Edmonton where they'll play four 60-minute games in four days. There will be four teams from both Ontario and British Columbia, two from Alberta and Quebec and single entries from N.B., Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

"There's long been a push to get some kind of a club championship," Pacey said. "There's always been a feeling that the lifeblood of rugby in Canada is the clubs, but there's never been a forum for them to actually play against each other."

It's a single-elimination format, meaning if you lose your first game the best you can finish is eighth.

"There's obviously club pride, but also regional pride," Pacey said. "A lot of trash talking will be sorted out because each region has their thoughts on their place in rugby in Canada."

The trip to Edmonton will be approximately $30,000, including $25,000 for flights. Fundraising efforts are ongoing, Pacey said.

The Loyalists have an exhibition game in Boston at the end of April and will be hosting a tournament May 6 at Loyalist Fields for eight men's teams and six women's sides.