James Haskell
I'm a white middle-class public schoolboy so I'm not particularly tough. But it turns out I don't mind going in the cage. I can dig in. And it's interesting watching people spar and train. There's no anger. It's all technique and delivered with venom.Collection: Anger
I hate losing and I think it's good to feel a stab of anger if it happens.Collection: Anger
I do not want to gain a reputation for lacking discipline because I always look to play within the laws.
All players want nice things to be said and written about them and you have to take the reverse in equal measure.
International rugby is an unforgiving arena.
As a schoolboy I can recall playing three games a week and not even feeling it.
As a player you have to look after your body because no one else will. I'd rather be proactive than kowtow to everyone and be injured all the time.
Matches aren't won on the training field and there is no point flogging experienced campaigners unnecessarily.
The bottom line is that players have to be responsible for getting themselves in the right frame of mind.
To stay at the elite end of professional sport you need to show an awful lot of dedication.
I've lost count of the times I've been asked what I do for a living. When I say rugby people say: 'Yes, but what's your other job?'
As soon as you're put on a pedestal, you're easily knocked off it.
I think as a professional sportsman you're aware that your time is limited.
A lot of people make the error of thinking rugby is going to last forever and they need to quickly discover that that isn't the case.
In reality, rugby is finite and unpredictable, so players need to have skills off the pitch too.
When I was about 15, I learnt that training hard doesn't get easier, you just learn to push harder. That's a powerful mentality to master.
When I started my professional rugby career, in 2002, there was one guy filming training if you were lucky.
We owe it to players, young and old, to train them thoroughly so that they can take full advantage of the insights that tech offers them. And what is true in sport also applies more widely to business.
We can't have tech just for the sake of it. To maximise the potential of technology solutions you have to understand how to use them.
I think 5G is going to make a dramatic difference in sport and beyond.
In rugby I think it is good to have a bit of a persona, a bit of a character because we are one of the last things that isn't necessarily controlled.
It was so important to have stuff outside of rugby so you have a life balance. I took a lot of criticism for that earlier in my career and thank God I ignored what everyone else said and did what I was always going to do.
I was diagnosed with ADD when I was 14. Weirdly enough, I then learnt, through doing different things, to concentrate.
When I am doing something I give it 100 per cent. I work on it, do it and go onto the next thing.
Do I respect my competition? Yeah. Do I always think that I could do a better job? Of course.
I'm always pretty fair-handed.
I like to think I am honest and open.
I like my boxing and jiu jitsu and that kind of stuff and one thing I always enjoyed from an early age was shooting. My godfather got me into it. It started with airguns and shotguns and that kind of stuff.
Shooting's not actually a bad place to take a girl on a date, unbelievably.
If you get an opportunity to win any silverware you take it.
Going to a final and winning is the best thing in life, and it makes rugby no longer a job. It makes it fun.
The best players aren't necessarily the biggest.
At some point, the power side of the game has to peak, players can't get much bigger. Guys will be doing more footwork and explosive-speed stuff.
If you want to build a larger physique that actually makes you look like you lift, you need to train your shoulders, back, triceps, glutes, and legs more frequently. You probably also need to suck it up and train them harder than you ever have before if you want them to grow.
The first step to optimising testosterone is eating right. That means cutting out the processed junk food and focusing on high quality proteins, carbs, fats, and an abundance of fruits and vegetables. Don't fall into the 'low fat' eating trap, as this will seriously inhibit your testosterone production.
In order to pack on the most amount of muscle from your training, you need to train specifically for hypertrophy.
Good nutrition must be at the core of all that you do training and health wise.
Although the TV commercials will try and have you believe otherwise, there is nothing good about breakfast cereal. No matter how 'low fat' or 'high in fibre' the box tells you it is, ditching the high sugar cereals is the first step you need to take towards a better breakfast.
Frittatas are delicious, convenient, and can even be eaten cold - perfect if you're working against the clock to make your morning meeting.
I'm all about helping people understand more about exercise in general and more specifically on occasion, about certain key parts of their body and physique.
No self-respecting gym goer skips leg day.
Front squats and trap bar deadlifts are the two best big compound movements for quad growth.
There's only one Lawrence Dallaglio and there's only one James Haskell.
If you want bigger arms, target the triceps, not the biceps.
There's no doubt that 'the plank' is one of the best core exercises on the planet.
If anyone out there is mildly curious about rugby, I'd recommend a weekend spent watching the Six Nations. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
I was always on to the next thing. I didn't celebrate all the little moments in my career that I should have done, I always focused on what was next, how could I do better.
It must be very daunting being an individual sportsman.
When I left rugby and bought my first commercial gym membership it was a shock to the system. I went in there and saw people training and thought 'I've got to get out of here and get in a proper gym.'
It is difficult for people across the world to be comfortable with their sexuality. We need more education and awareness.