NFL players aren’t the average-sized guys you see on the streets. They’re a rare breed. These guys have fast-twitch muscle fiber, which allows them to perform tasks rapidly and powerfully. Not everyone is built in that way.
While hard work is obviously necessary, genetics is undoubtedly much more crucial in terms of size and strength. True, elite professional athletes in any sport are, by definition, naturally superior athletes. These abilities aren’t usually enough to make a player excellent; hard practice is required.
However, the typical NFL offensive lineman is 6 feet 5 inches tall, and nothing you can do in the gym will help you achieve that height. Quarterbacks should be around 6 feet 4 inches tall; again, you’re either born with it or not.
There are other skills that NFL players possess, such as agility and explosiveness.
What about strength, though?
Their training regimen must be compounded in such a way that they become physically strong enough to endure the effects of on-field clashes. So, the question that arises is – does lifting weights make these already genetically superior guys into total beasts?
Let’s see.
NFL players lift weights both during and off the season. During the season, the weights used are lighter, and the total workload is reduced in order to reduce injury risk and help athletes maintain their size and strength gained during the offseason.
Lifting Weights In The Off-Season
Football players frequently spend their offseason lifting big weights and practicing explosive movements. Lifting weights in the off-season is beneficial to football players for several reasons: Muscle Gain, Speed Gain, Flexibility Gain, and Weight Gain.
These four primary factors will aid football players when they face their opponents on the field. When it comes to football games, the team that is bigger, faster, and stronger usually wins.
Strength training will help strengthen a football player’s foundation and natural power, especially if your offense relies on physically moving players out of the way.
Stronger
So, we already know that the main goal for NFL players during the offseason is to get bigger, faster, and stronger, right? But how does lifting weights for a long time help a player achieve his ultimate goal of becoming more dynamic?
In the off-season, football players frequently perform “explosive” lifts such as squats (a full-body workout), deadlifts (which measure how much force a player can get off the ground), and hang cleans.
Hang cleans are a great indication of a player’s ability to produce power from the ground into the bar with his hips, and the players who can hang clean a lot of weight are usually the hardest hitting and fastest running.
Faster
Tight muscles “pull” and force an athlete to sit out while the wounded muscle heals; to avoid this, a player must stretch and keep the muscle flexible while growing it. Offseason flexibility will also aid athletes in staying healthy during the season, as muscles will be able to absorb impact rather than pull or strain.
Bigger
It’s general knowledge that muscle weighs more than fat, thus lifting weights will help you gain muscle mass, which will outweigh fat. That is just what football players require. They lift heavy weights to put on weight, which has proven to be advantageous for offensive and defensive linemen.
To out-due their opponents, offensive and defensive linemen rely on strength and power, which is aided by weight gain. Once an advantage has been created, stronger players will frequently use their muscles to move smaller or equal-sized opponents.
Gaining weight is also necessary for skill positions in order to be able to run away from and through opposing defenses. Defensive players will hit harder as a result of the increased mass supplied with each hit.
Phases To The Offseason Program
The offseason program is divided into three parts, with a minicamp concluding the third phase. However, because the minicamp schedule and practices differ from the third phase, players always regard minicamp as the fourth phase, even if the NFL does not.
There are particular criteria for phases in the current CBA, so let’s take a look at each one to have a better idea of what NFL players do in the summer.
PHASE ONE
Phase One of the offseason program can be a little boring for the players. They spend the first two weeks, four days per week in the facility with their teams where they work for a total of four hours each session that includes a maximum of two hours for the weight training and 90 minutes of fieldwork.
Because two hours is typically insufficient to complete their lift and run/conditioning, players frequently return to the gym to finish their lift (even if they are not obligated to do so).
The first week in the weight room is primarily exploratory, as strength coaches want to see how athletes are moving and what physical form they have returned to.
In the first week of lifting, there can be two obstacles: the first is a veteran player entering a defined strength program; these players usually have favorite lifts and workouts, and they will try to redesign the program with their coach to adapt to their favorite exercises or those that their body requires the most.
The second obstacle is when a new strength staff is attempting to implement their own program, each player must grasp what that program is and what the goals are. New coaches must assess what their players can and cannot do, which frequently results in an uneasy start.
Because coaches are not permitted on the field with the players, athletes have time in the classroom with their coaches afterward strength training. While the coordinators work on an offense or defensive concept, the head coach greets the players, lays out the expectations, and begins the process of forming his squad.
PHASE TWO
While the rules above still apply during weeks 3-5 of the offseason program, coaches are now allowed to be on the field within four hours of being at the facility. The classroom time is now divided into two parts: one hour for the room and one hour for the field.
PHASE THREE
The third phase consists of structured team activities, which are limited to three each week for the first two weeks and a fourth one for the final week, for a total of ten. They also increase the number of hours they work per day from four to six. Lifting, meetings, and practice take up most of the day.
The offense and defense are reinstalled from the ground up at this phase. It’s the first time the players have had the opportunity to return to the field in a situation similar to that of a football game. Rookies receive a firsthand look at the game’s speed, which isn’t even near to that of games.
Before the three-day veteran minicamp, players usually consume two meals a day, in addition to any rehabilitation or prehab. They concentrate on mobility or increasing their weight-room reps. It turns into a workday, with the added benefit of being able to go home well before dinner time.
The offseason program provides for weekend travel if necessary. Many players do not live in their playing city full-time, so they return home every weekend of the offseason program to see their families before the season starts. Players take long weekend getaways and generally enjoy their time off, knowing that time will be limited once training camp begins.
Lifting Weights During The Season
Football players frequently lift weights for most of the year to gain strength and muscle mass, which allows them to run quicker, jump higher, and develop strength and power. Weight training must be done regularly, as muscle and definition begin to fade after two weeks.
As a result, if athletes work hard in the off-season to gain muscle, they must work hard in the season to maintain it. Teams that don’t lift during the season lose muscle they built up in the off-season. Lifting and muscle-building regularly will help athletes’ bodies absorb contact and heal faster, reducing their risk of injury at the end of the season.
During the regular season, NFL players lift weights two to three times per week. These weightlifting practices are not as strenuous as those held during the off-season, but players do lift the same amount of weight. Lifting weights is an essential part of NFL preparation. Throughout the season, all NFL players are expected to lift weights many times per week.
During the season, NFL teams usually require their players to participate in two to three mandatory weightlifting sessions. On Mondays and Wednesdays/Thursdays, NFL players frequently lift weights. To guarantee that they are fully recovered and able to demonstrate their athletic skills on game day, NFL players avoid lifting weights the day before or the day of the game.
During the season, NFL weightlifting practices differ from those held during the offseason. During the season, NFL weightlifting practices are aimed at lowering injury risk and assisting players in maintaining their size and strength developed during the offseason.
Coaches must be careful to ensure that their NFL players are working hard enough in the weight room to preserve muscle and strength, but not so hard that they become weary during on-field practice and, most importantly, game day.
The difference is that throughout the season, the weight is dropped and coaches add extra conditioning elements to the workout. During the season, it is typical for NFL players to undergo circuit and Crossfit-style exercises. During the season, NFL players often lift weights in the 60 percent to 75 percent range, with coaches aiming for high-quality reps and guys who can move the bar quickly.
Lifting Weights On Game Day
On game day, NFL players don’t lift weights; instead, they warm up thoroughly.
Lifting weights too close to kickoff time reduces an NFL athlete’s speed and power, so you won’t find them at the gym before a major game. Lifting weights also increases athletes’ soreness, which has a negative impact on their performance.
To ensure that their bodies are fully recovered and responsive, NFL players avoid lifting weights a few days before a game. The last thing they want to do is reduce their speed because their leg muscles haven’t recovered after squatting or because their backs are tired from deadlifting.
Lifting weights before a football game would fatigue the players’ muscles and central nervous system, reducing their speed and power output and increasing the chance of injury. Briefly, lifting weights prior to a football game would be counterproductive to their performance.
Olimpic Lifts Benefits For NFL Players
Leg strength and power – When compared to “powerlifting-based regimens,” Olympic lifting programs resulted in an 18 percent increase in squat 1 repetition maximum and a double improvement in 40-yard sprint speeds, according to a 2004 study.
Furthermore, this same study found that Olympic-lifting-based training outperformed powerlifting-based programs in terms of vertical jump performance. Weightlifting exercises (typically in combination with classic strength lifts) can be a fantastic way to get maximum strength and power expression.
Improved peak power – Peak power is defined as the ability to express maximal power outputs in the shortest amount of time, which is extremely useful in high-intensity sports like football. Olympic lifts like the clean and snatch, as well as the push press, have been proven to be among the finest workouts for increasing overall power and strength in the gym.
Improving athleticism by increasing skill complexity – The Olympic lifts, according to research, necessitate a high level of muscle coordination, strength, power, and neural adaptations. Despite the fact that these lifts are the most difficult and time-consuming to teach, “short-term” training benefits of weightlifting motions appear to be more helpful for enhancing performance. Weightlifting activities entail a higher level of skill complexity, which allows for the development of a broader range of physical abilities that appear to be more applicable to performance.
Conclusion
Football is a physical sport with a lot of contacts. Football players must be in top physical shape to absorb hit after hit and survive the contact. Lifting weights is something that football players do all year to stay in shape.
To stay strong and avoid injuries, football players lift weights during the season and offseason. These NFL lifting sessions during the season are primarily about conditioning and assisting athletes in maintaining their size and strength. In comparison to off-season training, the weights utilized are lighter, and the total workload is reduced.
Football is a contact sport, thus players must have strong and flexible muscles to absorb a season’s worth of contact.
