Fox Sports Journalist Nathan Ryan joins the Newcastle Knights for a day as the team take on a full day of conditioning as part of pre-season training.
I’m hunched over and exhausted.
I’m embarrassed.
I want to spew but my body is so exhausted that I can’t.
It’s clear to say, NRL pre-season is no place for a journalist.
I’m Nathan Ryan from Fox Sports and last month I was welcomed into the club to taste a full day of conditioning and weights in the Hunter.
The first thing you need to know about pre-season training is there’s a lot of running. I mean a lot.
So when you add in a full body conditioning drills like wrestling on top of the already demanding run work, it’s a recipe for disaster.
I’ll put my hand up. I failed to finish in the designated time and the entire team was punished but as you’ll come to see, that wasn’t even the worst part of my day.
As fans, you read about the hard slog that is pre-season and as a journalist I write about it.
But it’s not until you pull on the shoes and actually do the session yourself that you can truly appreciate what these athletes put their bodies and minds through.
Obviously, not everyone can be granted the access to such a session, so as the Guinea pig, I joined the Knights on the field and in the gym for an experience like no other.
This is a day in the life look at the Knights through my eyes.
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