WHEN the Huddersfield Giants step onto a pitch for the 80 minutes of Super League action, it signals the end of a week full of blood, sweat and – sometimes – tears.

But when it’s the opening game of a new season, it also brings the curtain down on three months of punishing pre-season work designed to ensure the players are in the best possible shape to mount a genuine top-flight challenge.

This is the work that goes unseen by the supporters.

They don’t see their favourites pushed to their absolute physical limits on the hills around West Yorkshire – a ‘popular’ pre-season past-time for many clubs – or the toughest of field training drills which would completely break us mere mortals.

Yet this is all part of the average working week for a full-time Super League player.

There is, however, far more to their daily routine than this.

Besides all the training sessions, there’s time spent with the physiotherapists who have the task of dealing with all the numerous bumps and bruises that are part and parcel of playing such a brutal contact sport.

Then there are various promotional activities to attend, regular talks by Rugby Football League officials on a whole host of subjects and the usual demands from the media for players to comment on a whole range of rugby league matters, with a preview of the next game often top of the agenda.

And away from the club the players have a duty to rest up as much as possible to ensure they’re physically prepared for the demanding challenges ahead and that they eat all the right food so their bodies have the right fuel inside them to work efficiently and effectively.

But what exactly is a typical training week for a Super League player, or for a Giants star in particular?

What they do during the season itself and in pre-season does alter dramatically, although it’s something that very few often find out about – until now!

Thanks to Giants captain Kevin Brown, he’s ready to reveal to the Galpharm faithful what goes on behind closed doors, or rather away from the full glare of the Super League field.

And he hopes his training diary makes for some interesting reading.

See the next page for the pre-season routine that the captain has been keeping, with his season training routine on page three.