‘It’s a great place to chat about everything and just get things off your chest’
When you think of rugby players, you probably don’t think of spa days. But one of English rugby’s biggest stars, Cadan Murley, has opened up about the health benefits a spa day can have for him and his teammates – both physically and mentally.
Cadan finished last season as the top try scorer in the Gallagher Premiership as his Harlequins side finished sixth in the league.
As Men’s Health Week kicks of on June 12, he’s spoken about the importance of men looking after their mental health, and how spas help him and his teammates look after their mental health.
Cadan, speaking at the launch of Spabreaks.com’s Men’s Health Week campaign ‘Real Men Relax’, said: “I think the biggest thing is talking and I think being able to chat to your friends.
“I’m pretty close to Marcus [Smith, his Harlequins teammate] as we lived together for four years and he’s put a sauna in his place.
“So, going up there and just getting in there and chatting about the whole situation, what we can improve on, and just getting in an environment where you feel comfortable to talk.
“We’ve got a good link with one of our hotels, across the road, and we all go to the spa afterwards and we sit in the sauna and it’s a great place to chat about everything and just get things off your chest.
“If you’ve got things like people not getting selected that can always be one that’s more easy to talk about in that environment like that rather than on the rugby picture in our training building.
“So just getting away and being able to talk about stuff like that is definitely helpful.”
It’s not just an opportunity to talk though – there are a range of health benefits that the Cadan gets from his spa trips.
He said that he tries to get into the sauna and plunge pool “most days after training,” and that the coaches encourage this.
It’s also a great opportunity for him and his teammates to get to know each other better.
Cadan explained: “It’s also a good place to chat, we get carried away in there sometimes and spend far too long in there than we should have done! Because we’re just chatting about things in general.
“Everyone goes in there and it’s nice to get to know some of the boys, who you probably wouldn’t talk to outside of rugby
“People with families, they go there just to switch off and get away from the kids I think a bit! But it’s a great environment, just to chat and get away from everything.”
Cadan Murley was speaking as Spabreaks.com, the UK’s leading spa booking and experience agency, launch their Men’s Health Week campaign “Real Men Relax”, to highlight the benefits of spa to men of all trades and backgrounds. For more information, visit www.spabreaks.com
