#1 Not emphasizing improved athleticism:
I believe that the best raw athletes in the world play American football.
Therefore, we should all be trying to improve our athleticism each and
every off-season. To put it simply, your program should be making you
faster, stronger, more explosive, and more agile. This sounds like a no brainer,
but every off-season it seems like more and more programs and performance
facilities are getting away from this. Instead, they attempt to create the
illusion of a great workout by simply making the athlete tired. I’m pretty
sure If I gave my grandma a whistle and a stop watch, (she already has a
bad attitude) she could kick the crap out of you for an hour. This would
in no way however, shave 2 tenths off your 40 time.
At a bare minimum, your program or facility should have some basic
athletic indicators or tests that can be periodically checked to ensure
progress is being made. At our facility, we test the 20 yd sprint,
vertical jump, and pro-agility drills every 4 to 6 weeks for this purpose.
This gives us immediate feedback to how what we are doing on a day
to day basis is actually transferring to the field. This also makes appropriate
adjustments mid-program very easy.
The subject of gaining weight is another common issue. I am in total
agreement that many football players can benefit from adding a little size
to their frame. The manner in which this is done can make all the difference
in the world however. If you gained 15 lbs. during the off-season, but got
slower in the process, you are not making yourself more athletic. By using
proper training and nutrition strategies, first year guys at our facility regularly
add 10-12 lbs. of muscle in 12 weeks. Emphasis on proper! They also
simultaneously improve their speed, agility, and power scores. Every ounce
of weight they gained is being applied to improve athleticism and performance
on the field.
Take home message: Spend a little time to educate yourself on proper
nutrition for athletes, and stick to basic and proven training systems.
Be wary of the program that fails to implement a system to actually
measure your athletic progress. If your program does measure this, and
you have not significantly improved your relative body strength, speed,
and explosive power in the last six weeks, well……. Its time for a new
program.
#2 Failure to periodize training
There have been entire books and collegiate courses dedicated to the
science of periodization. All this really is, is a long term plan for how
one lays out their training, in order to peak for competition. Teaching
yourself German to decipher secret Eastern Block training journals won’t
be necessary, but you should have a plan. Running gassers and maxing
out every day is not a plan.
Lets say your goal is to improve your squat from 355 to 405 during the
off-season. Research tells us that 70% of the population will plateau
within 6 exposures to a training stimulus. So, if you are squatting for
heavy sets of 5 reps every Tuesday, most of us will stop making gains
within six weeks, or shorter on this program. You will need to plan a
programming change every 4-6 weeks in order to attain your 405 lbs.
goal. A simple, long term plan might look like this.
Weeks 1-4: 4 sets x 5 reps (try to improve load used each week)
Week 5-8: 5 sets x 3 reps (try to improve load used each week)
Week 9-11: 6 sets x 1 rep (try to improve load used each week)
These minor changes will help eliminate plateaus and keep you moving
in the right direction for the long haul. You should have a simple plan
like this for every aspect of your training. All core & accessory lifts,
speed & agility drills, as well as conditioning. For example, you
might periodize your speed work like this:
Weeks 1-4: pop up sprints 10-15 yards
Weeks 5-8: kneeling accelerations 10-25 yards
Weeks 9-11: plyo-step accelerations 10-35 yards
#3 Over reliance on traditional lifts
The bench, squat, and clean have been staples of great football programs
for decades, and have been so for good reason. In terms of “bang for
your buck” exercises, these three are hard to beat. Strength, power,
and general bad assery all the way around. Due to the general
nature of the game of football however, these exercises, in their
traditional forms, may not be appropriate for every athlete.
Football is an extremely violent sport where shoulders become weapons,
knees are slammed into by 300 lbs mammals, and hands / wrists are put
through proverbial meat grinders. Choosing to push through an exercise
with pre-existing orthopedic issues, solely out of tradition, is detrimental
to performance at best, and potentially career ending at worst. By
making some simple modifications to these exercises, one can still reap
all of the desired training effects,yet eliminate much of the negative drawbacks.
Here are just a few of the modifications we make at our facility to do
just that.
Shoulder injury: (alternatives to traditional bench press)
BB floor press, board press, Neutral grip football bar press
Shoulder injury: (alternative to traditional back squat)
safety bar squat, cambered bar squat, front squat
Knee injury: (alternative to traditional back squat)
Box squat, trap bar dead lift, front squat
Hand/wrist injury: (alternative to traditional clean)
high pull, snatch, DB swing
I have yet to see any research that shows you must perform a traditional
back squat, bench press, or clean to become an outstanding football
player. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box once in a while.
#4 Not properly addressing Chronic injuries
This is a carryover from #3. Finding exercises that give us a great
training effect and can be performed pain free is great for continued progress,
but doesn’t necessarily address the problem. Contact or trauma related injuries,
as bad as they may be, are pretty straight forward in most cases. In other
words, you will be dealing with a qualified physical therapist or sports
medicine specialist. It’s the non-trauma or overuse injuries that tend to
get a little tricky.
For example, we have had more than one offensive lineman come in with
chronic hip issues. When you start to break things down, many of them
are always driving out with the same leg to initiate their zone blocking
schemes. Literally thousands of times over the course of a season.
Essentially they have created a huge length/tension and right to left
imbalance. The last thing they should be doing to start the off-season is more
zone blocking techniques. Instead they should be working to correct
structural imbalances by addressing soft tissue quality around the hips,
strengthening the glutes, and improving internal hip rotation deficiencies.
Other common examples could be for:
Lateral knee pain: soft tissue work for IT band & TFL, strengthen glutes
and VMO
Overuse pain in shoulder: 2:1 or 3:1 pull to push ration, stretch pec & lat,
mobilize thoracic spine, strengthen mid/lower trap
Hamstring pulls: address scar tissue in hamstring, balance posterior/anterior
chain work, lengthen hip flexors, strengthen glutes
#5 Chasing numbers
Improving your relative body strength in the gym should be a top priority
for most athletes during the off-season. That being said, remember why
you are lifting weights in the first place. TO MAKE YOURSELF A BETTER
FOOTBALL PLAYER! That means performing an exercise in a manner that
is going to transfer to the field, is just as important as the loads you are
using. There are way too many athletes, coaches, and facilities that simply
chase big lifting numbers with seemingly no standard of execution.
All things being equal, who do you think is going to better be able to
shed a block? A linebacker who can control the descent on a bench press,
pause for a brief moment on the chest,and explode the bar back up to
lockout? Or, a linebacker that dive bombs the bar off his chest, and
proceeds to squirm around until the spotter helps him complete the last
quarter of the movement while screaming “it’s all you bro” ? I know who
I have my money on.
You shouldn’t need a degree in exercise science to connect the dots here.
Set some basic standards and stick to them. Maintain a chest up posture,
squat to parallel or below, bench with control,and achieve triple extension
on Olympic lifts. Really….. No one gives a shit about your 6 inch squat.
Getting stronger while keeping your standards of execution high, will
ensure your weight room efforts are rewarded with improved performance
on the field. Ignore this, and you are simply chasing numbers.
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