In order for NFL players to reach their true potential on the football field, they must maintain the strength they built during the entire season. As obvious as it seems, strength training is still a greatly underrated aspect of training in many programs and often a neglected element during the actual playing season.
NFL players actually work out during the season, but since they’re not Olympic lifters, powerlifters, nor bodybuilders, they don’t need to train that hard. Usually, they take a safe, time-efficient, productive in-season approach that takes them as little as 20 minutes twice a week.
I used to play poker with Tom Brady’s cousin and am currently friends with a dude who works in the Packers front office. From what they’ve said (2 separate franchises and five years apart), every player is on some kind of program with the trainers and strength staff. This involves during the season.
Players usually work out only 1 or 2 days per week to preserve body strength and perhaps help the body recover from the aches and pains of playing football. Most of the weight training will happen early in the week so that the players are fully healed by game time on Sunday or Monday.
The pounding and soreness from playing the game make obtaining any strength or power from lifting weights questionable – and trying to train with heavy weights increases the chances of injury.
Why Do NFL Players Work Out During the Season?
The fundamental goal of a strength training program within NFL players is to reduce the occurrence and severity of the injury. Football is very difficult physically.
Training the muscles, ligaments, and tendons of the body to be more muscular lessens the injury’s occurrence and/or seriousness (like a pulled groin or rolled ankle) and keeps players on the court.
Further, improves their performance on the court. The stronger the player is, the more force he can produce. The more force he can produce, the higher he can jump and the faster they can run.
But most importantly, strength is a condition that can quickly diminish. In as little as four weeks, players may have a notable decrease in strength. That indicates every week that goes by without a workout, the whole team is getting weaker. Come playoff time, the team will be physically at their weakest when they need to be at their strongest.
NFL players do mostly functional movements to strengthen large muscle groups and limit injury. A lot of cardiovascular maintenance is taken into effect throughout the season too.
Regarding weight lifting itself, you are looking at two days a week of heavy squats, bench press, and a few technical movements like cleans, weighted pull-ups, and only a few machines. This is interspersed with sprints, burpees, among other calisthenics.
What Are the Goals for a Workout During the Season?
The rigors of a football season make it difficult to do serious weight training during the season. You also have to consider that some guys are rehabbing from injuries, so they have to be doing some kind of work to get back on the field.
Every team in the league has it broken down to where they lift on lighter practice days or something along those lines to keep everyone fresh.
There are many strength training methodologies as there are ways to score a touchdown or run a fast break. Regardless of players’ needs, safety, time efficiency, and intensity are the backbone of the in-season strength training philosophy.
The principal focus during the season is to maintain (if not develop) the player’s overall muscular size and strength. The in-season program should approach his larger muscle groups (legs, hips, core, and upper torso) as well as pay appropriate attention to the most injury-prone areas: ankles, knees, groin, lower back, and hands.
Coaches are trying to minimize risk within the training atmosphere. They only use the safest exercises available and do their best to ensure that all workouts are well supervised.
Furthermore, players perform each movement in a slow, controlled, and deliberate fashion, emphasizing the lower portion of each lift. Lastly, players work inside a proper repetition range and avoid maxing out (seeing how many pounds can be lifted in one repetition), which can be very dangerous.
Time is a valuable commodity for both coaches and players, especially during the season. Therefore, the purpose in-season strength program is to get the best results attainable in the least amount of time.
The standard is using a limited number of sets and exercises during each workout (1-2 sets per exercise) while minimizing rest intervals (very little rest within sets) to affect overall conditioning. This makes each training session brief but intense.
Why Do Some Players Need to Train Harder than Others
The programs all vary. Sometimes the teams ride younger guys to bulk up together on a program while veterans work out on their own.
Guys who have known issues with weight can have daily/weekly/monthly weigh-ins and be fined if they miss a workout. Clearly, the teams are wary of fatigue and injuries, but it’s not like high school/college where teams have obligatory lift days.
I remember hearing about how the Dolphins wouldn’t let Will Fuller lift heavy weights. They didn’t want him bulking up too much. On the other hand, I remember seeing how Robert Turbin would do a full-lifting workout every game day, even on the road.
*Kurt Warner is a former NFL quarterback who played for 12 seasons.
It is all calculated by what their position on the team is as well. For instance, punters have more free reign to lift weights however they want all year because their position doesn’t require much contact or force.
With that said, you will rarely see anyone on the team doing isolated exercises like bicep curls, calf raises, and tricep extensions. This is because movements such as these serve no goal other than aesthetics, and they needlessly risk injury. I am not stating these movements are ‘wrong’ in any way, but football players need to concentrate on large muscle groups and compound functional movements.
Why Manual Resistance Is the King During the Season
Manual resistance exercises are a wonderful tool to use during the season, as they demand no equipment, can be done anywhere (which is excellent when your team is on the road), promote communication among players, and are an efficient way to build and sustain strength.
Manual resistance exercises are strength training exercises in which a player or coach uses the resistance rather than using weight, such as a regular barbell, dumbbell, or machine.
It is crucial to make sure that each team member understands the concept of manual resistance so that the exercises are as useful as achievable.
Further, a player must complete these exercises correctly, learning to utilize resistance evenly during the entire range of motion and ensuring resistance on both the positive and negative portions of exercises.
With manual resistance, a player must:
- Perform slow and controlled repetitions.
- Pause at full contraction.
- Give consistent tension within a full range of motion.
More precisely, this indicates that they need to “push or pull” upon the tension the spotter provides on the positive portion of the movement, and “resist” into the tension on the negative portion.
A common error many players make is not resisting through the negative of exercises. The spotter’s duties include implementing variable resistance within the entire range of motion and ensuring the lifter keeps good posture.
In-Season Strength Training Workout Samples
· Football push-ups
· Pull-ups
· Manual resistance lateral raise
· Dumbbell standing shoulder press
· Manual resistance rear deltoid
· Seated row
· Dips
· Barbell curl
· Plate pinchers (grip)
· Lateral lunge
· One-legged dumbbell squat
· One-legged leg curl on a physioball
· Manual resistance hip adduction (groin)
· One-legged dumbbell calf raise
· Football plank hold (core)
· Football woodchoppers (core)
