Allen has worked with the England squad as well as Gloucester

Gloucester have asked head of strength and conditioning Barney Allen to produce a leaner squad for 2010-11.

There will be less emphasis on bulking up the players with weights.

"I don't think we were unfit last year - we just had a slightly different take on what we wanted to do," Allen told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"Increasing the bulk and the size of the players was part of our pre-requisites and that's shifted slightly this year the way the game's gone."

Allen stepped up to become Gloucester's head of strength and conditioning in November 2009, but has been with the club since the 2005-06 season.

Supporters on message boards at the start of last season noted that the likes of James Simpson-Daniel were noticeably carrying more muscle, but questioned whether or not the three-quarter had lost a yard of pace.

Allen accepts Simpson-Daniel's form improved in the second half of last season when he had shed the three to four kilograms of weight, but points out that more powerful players such as Lesley Vainikolo and Akapusi Qera were also affected.

"We've got a lot of players that are at their natural playing weight and to alter that too much - to put too much weight on them - will only be detrimental to their game play," he said.

"We found that last year - we were able to bring them back down to their correct weight and they were better for it."

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