This week I’m gonna’ give you a peek inside what I do to propare for a game, one week out. With our first game looming Saturday, I want to give you guys an idea of how to prepare for a game. It’s not just about what you do the night before…its mostly about what you do the months before, but, without a solid pre-game week, a lot of your efforts can be lost.

First, one of the most common problems in the week before a game is doing too much. Yes, you can still get stronger throughout the week, but, you want to avoid excess soreness like the plague. Sore legs will kill performance.

Next is doing too little. Rest is good, lying around every spare minute you have will leave you lethargic and tight.

Third is lack of proper nutrition and hydration. You can’t live on diet Coke for 6 days, drink a glass of water before the game and expect not to cramp up. Well…you can, but I think we know how that’ll work out.

You have to strike that balance between pre-game practice, football training and restoration. Most teams hit once in the week of a game, electing to go upppers for the rest of the week, then a walk through the day before.

The nutrition, and supplementation is the same for all 5 days. We’ll start with Monday, 5 days from game Day. We had a full contact practice yesterday which is not the usual day, but not a huge deal to adjust.

Today’s Football Training goes like this:

Prowler Sprints:

Big Jim Wendler pushing the Prowler

Forward Push – 4 x 3o-yards

Back Pedal – 4 x 60-yards

Lateral Pull – 2 x 30-yards

Upright Pull (Goose – Steps) – 4 x 30-yards

The weight here is medium-heavy…more concerned with speed of movement than piling on the plates.

Supplements:

Meal 1:

100mg Zinc

Glucosimine & MSM

200mg Vitamin C

B-Complex

Meal 2:

100mg Zinc

200mg Vitamin C

Meal 3: Post Work-Out

Glucosimine & MSM

Multi Vitamin (Opti-Men)

100mg Vitamin C

400mg Potassium

Pre-Bed:

Magnesium & Zinc

50mg Vitamin C

200mg Potassium

• Drink 12-cups of lightly salted water per day. Add a pinch or two of Sea Salt to your water jug. Most people get afraid of salt and over-load potassium. But, you need the sodium to pull the potassium into the cell. You can’t have one without the other. Typically, you shoot for a 2:1 Potassium/Sodium balance.

• Food wise, everything is pretty normal. High Protein, low carb, high healthy fats and a ton of vegetables.

• This is when I start my caffeine de-load. I’ll cut to one cup per day Mon – Wed and no additional caffeine tablets pre-workout. On thursday and friday, I’m completely off…I’ll share why during the last part of this series…and, this tip can boost your performance through the roof.

Restoration

This is where most guys screw up big time.

Back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, “over-training” became a huge hot topic. Every guy who lifted a dumbbell at least once was screaming that they were over trained. They couldn’t make progress, they were tired, bla bla bla. Strength training took a huge step backward (football was just as guilty of this garbage).

The problem, however, wasn’t over training. We are capable of handing enormous amounts of training stress…ask any Olympic Athlete or think of any time you had 3-a-days in football camp.

The real issue is under recovery. You can’t beat the shit out of yourself and not do anything to help you heal. The issue of recovery is worthy of entire books, so I’ll keep it specific to game-week prep for now. (if you want a good article on recovery written by yours truly, check out 10 Steps to Super Recovery.)

This will be specific to each day, but on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, it goes:

Yoga is actually a great tool in your Football Training arsenal

25-minutes of Passive Stretching – This is basically a modified Yoga session, with some football specific stretches (like the hip flexor stretch) thrown in.

10-Minutes Full Body Foam Roller Session – Foam rollers are the bee’s knees! I once thought they were idiotic, but, after using them for the first time a few years back, I can honestly say they saved my career. And, they cost between 10 and 20 bucks, so no cheaping out, big spender.

90-Minute Hot Epsom Salt Bath - Using hot baths with Epsom salt is one of the oldest tricks in the recovery book. I think Pheidippides used them after he ran to Marathon. These baths can literally transform you from sore and jacked up to loose and feeling Bruce Lee-Flexible. I’ll cover why they work in a future article but, these can be game-changers. Do this on Tuesday and Friday nights before bed.

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Tuesday – ME Lower – 80%

Snatch Pulls – 6 x 3

Romanian Deadlift - Worked up to a Single with 80%

Weighted Hypers – 3 x 15

Weighted Sit-Ups – 3 x 8

You’ll notice this day is fairly short. That’s because, again, we are trying to strike that balance. Start with a quick movement, then a heavy one, some assistance and out.

• Football practice followed by an extra 20-minutes of stretching

Wednesday ME/RE Upper – 80%

DB Jerks – 6 x 3

DB Incline – 6 x 3

Chins – 3 x 8 – 10 (depending on how much I ate that day)

Bar Push Ups- 3 x 12 – 15 (with band) [superset]

Tre-Foil Raises – 3 x 12

Football Exercises – Tre Foil Shoulder Raises from steven morris on Vimeo.

1-Arm Shrugs – 3 x 25

• This day is a bit longer because it is a combo RE/ME. It is the only upper body work for the week and it allows for 2 full days of rest before the game. If you’d like, you can slip in some gun work on thursday, but it’s not necessary you vain bastard.

• Football Practice followed by Wednesday’s restoration activities

Thursday – Lite Prowler and Recovery

Prowler Pushes for Football Training - Lite before a game.

Very simple, take a medium Prowler and walk with it for 5 – 6 sets of 60-yards. This is a walk, nice and deliberate.

The goal is just to speed recovery by pushing a ton of blood into the legs.

Thursday’s recovery is 25-mins passive stretching, 15-minutes of Foam Roller, a half-hour nap before practice (if possible)

Football practice, which is fairly light, mostly game planning and assignments.

Friday – Recovery/Restoration

Day before the game. No football training at all today, just get yourself ready physically and mentally.

Just don’t make the mistake of doing nothing on this day. Again, you’ll get tight and out of whack.

Today is:

Stretching

Foam Roller

Epsom Salt Bath

20-minute Nap

Think about your assignments, your keys, and devote some time to visulizing how the game will go…but, don’t go crazy. If you obsess all day you’ll burn a huge amount of mental and emotional energy that you’ll need tomorrow.

This brings us up to the night before. Now, game day prep is different and I’ll put up a specific article on Saturday morning. Don’t make the mistake of doing everything right all week and blowing it on game day.

Game day requires special attention to diet, supplmentation, and physical readiness. Stay tuned….

Back again with another plug-and-play football workout. As always, remember that occasionally pulling a workout off the internet or out of a magazine is a nice change, but, you can’t put together a full football training program like this!

Random football workouts lead to random results...

You have to have an actual plan, not just a random string of workouts thrown together, Frankenstien style. That kind of training will give you results…but not the kind you’re looking for!

Here is a pre-season football strength workout done by a wrestler turned football player. He’s working on the transition and is ready to give this whole football thing a shot.

This is a combo day, because the season is extremely close, we are combining his upper body days to give more rest time, especially as the season draws near. This is extremely important…if there’s one thing that will just kill your strength in-season it’s doing too much.

It is necessary to sometime mix things up and actually take a day off. Football is certianly draining a great amount of energy and recovery ability.

So this basically worked out to a combination Rep-Effort and Max Effort Upper Body Day.

Plyometric Push ups done to build hand speed and upper body explosiveness for football

Plyo Push – Ups – 3 x 4

These are quick, they are done to wake up the Central Nervous System and build explosivenss in the upper body.

You have to develop the ability to generate enough force to propel your body off the ground and up into the air. You want to be able to deliver a crushing blow to your opponents chest…this is true of pretty much every position on the football field except maybe QB.

Plyo Push Ups are good for getting the CNS fired up to bench some big weights…it’s also great for getting ready before your 225-Bench Test.

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Close Grip 1-Board Bench – 6 x 2 @ 75%, 1 x 1 @ 80%

This is a great way to continue to gain strength and muscle while not over-doing it. If it’s in-season, and you find yourself too beat up after the 12 reps at 75%, skip the 80. If you’re feeling ok, go for it, you beast you, you.

You have to use your head in the pre season or during the actual football season…if you’re beat to hell after a crazy game; back off a bit. If you wont the game 40 – 0  and most of the back-ups played the 2nd half, then you can push for a little more. The point is, you have to listen to your body and your brain.

Lat Pulls &

Inverted Rows - Done as part of a timed-block for 15-minutes (superset style)

• Set the timer for 15-minutes

• Do a set of Lat Pulls, then do a set of Inverted Rows.
• Rest as needed and start again

Start by doing higher reps, in this case he started with 12’s…by the end of the period, sets of 4 are not uncommon. Key points are:

• Rest as needed
• Don’t stop till the bell sounds
• Always try to get more reps or more weight the next session

Blast Strap Push Ups – 3 x 15 – 20

Blast Strap Push Ups are amazing for working the triceps, chest, and, most importantly, the stabilizer muscles of the shoulder girdle. The straps are extremely affordable and should be part of everyone’s training program. They can actually be used for over a dozen exercies for football, so they’re a wise investment.

Anytime you can work the stabilizers, you will be much better off on the football field. Stronger stabilizers = more upper body power and less injuries.

I have a band stumped around my back in the video. If you are going light, you can omit the band. But, if you want to take the common Push Up and turn it into a true bulking exercise, Band it up.

1-Arm Shrugs - 2 sets x 2-mins (per arm)

I’ve seen some strong dudes humbled by 140lbs on this one…

I’ve done shrugs in excess of 800-lbs and I can tell you that a few two minute sets with 185 makes me feel like I got hit with a Carnival-Sytle Sledge Hammer in the traps.

Set the timer, put the bar in the rack and grab it right in the middle. Now, shrug for 2-minutes. You can set the bar on the pins, but, the goal is to do as many shrugs as possible in those two minutes. Do this before a big date cause you’re traps will look huge…you can thank me later…

Neck Harness - 2 x 20 reps, each way

You can never do too much neck work. Using a Neck Harness strengthens your neck and protects you from injuries on the football field. We can all bounce back from a blow ACL or a broken arm…but, neck injuries are scary business.

The problem with using a Neck Harness is that it can be hard to do the motion forward. Your best bet is to choke a band around the rack and loop the other end to the harness. This way, you can easily do Forward, Back, and both Sides.

In the case of the neck, higher reps is usually best.

Last night was a huge night in football geekdom. The first airings of the vaunted NFL combines. The tests that decide who can play football, who gets 10-mil a year and who goes home to drive delivery trucks.    

This poor schlub will never make it in the NFL. Hell, he'll probably go 6th round!

Yes, it’s what football is all about, eh?   

The NFL Combine is and always has been total bull shit.And, in a No Child Left Behind esquetwist, has ruined football strength training programs as coaches are now compelled to “teach to the test.”   

Worse, the “combine” style of testing has filtered down from the NFL to college to High School…even into pee-wee ball. What the hell is going on!   

More time and effort is now spent on training for the combine tests than for, ya know, like, getting better at friggin football.   

A few years back I tuned into this freakshow and saw scouts measuring a guy’s hand-span to see if he could catch….here’s an idea…THROW HIM A F’N FOOTBALL!    

For the most part, by the time guys get to the NFL, they have no less than 8-years of game film on these players.   

Really take a look at the tests and evaluate their merit for football skill. Then, decide if you really want the bulk of your football strength and conditioning program dedicated to these fakakta (פֿאַרקאַקט) tests or if you’d rather do the alternatives…things that will actually help you for football.

225-lb Bench Test

Let’s start off the bat with maybe the most offensive of all the tests. Guys damn near break their tomatoes training for this bench test. The test, however, is total crap.    

The test measures strength endurance, not max strength. And, what the hell does a coach care what a running back can Bench Press anyway? Other than the O and D-lines, strength in the Bench’s plane of motion is not a priority. Sure, it’s important, but to measure a guy’s football talent based on this? Bull.    

The great irony is that guys spend un-told amounts of time reppin-out on the bench in the hopes of building up their test when in fact, this is the direct opposite approach they should take!   

Here we go again…Max Strength is foundational to all elements of athleticism…including strength endurance.    

So, want to add reps to your test? Up your max. If you can Bench 300lbs and you currently get 20-reps, train to get your max up to 350 and you’ll get 27+.   

But, Coach, if the max determins the number of reps, would doing more reps mean you have a bigger max?     

Excellent question! Glad you asked. The answer, unfortunately, is no.    

There is an enormous time factor involved. You have a very small window to get the work done before your system shuts down. Usually this ranges from 30 – 40 seconds. Remember when Creatine was the Holy Grail of the Bench Press?    

This was becasue creatine refills ATP stores (the stuff that fuels your muscles in anaerobic movements like lifting weights, sprinint, etc). The faster refill and bigger tank had guys doing more reps.    

The time factor is so overlooked and it is HUGE. I can do as almost as many reps with 320 as I can with 225.    

Yea, re-read that. Why?    

How can I knock out 25 reps with 320 and be able to do 30 with 225, seems absurd. But, once I hit that time wall, show’s over.    

• If you have to do the test, get your max up as high as possible, do the test as fast as possible…there’s also other tips and tricks you can use to add more reps…again, what this has to do with football is beyond me…

A better alternative would be to have the guys Squat or Deadlift, but, if they’re insistent on using the Bench, have the guys do a max Double. This keeps them from killing themselves while still demonstrating max strength.    

I know, I give a bonus manual to add 4-reps to Your Bench Test with the Football Workouts Manual. But, it’s necessary…if you guys are forced to test, might as well crush it, eh?   

Football Strength Training – Bench Press 320 x 18 from steven morris on Vimeo.   

The 40-Yard Dash

Oh the 40…builder of fortunes, killer of potential football careers, ruiner of football speed training programs. 

Can some please explain how: 

Running in a straight line, under perfect conditions, with special shoes, after countless hours of coaching on special techniques on the test translates to football! 

It doesn’t. If it did, we’d simply import Track stars over from the olympics every year. But, it doesn’t happen. And, when it does, it never works. 

Why? 

The Beagle and the Greyhound. 

I once got a chance to see my Beagle, Grables, play with a Greyhound. They ran around chasing each other like crazy.

Oh, and you get the “Add 4-reps to Your Bench Test” manual too…

Back again with another strength training session. This was a hybrid session, part Rep Effort Upper and part Sub-Max Effort Upper.

Because we have out first actual game situation scrimmage Saturday, I went easy.

One thing people tend to forget about pre and in-season training is that you have to adjust your workouts constantly. Even if the practices are fairly “easy” they are still taking their toll on your joints. But, you can’t just skip your workouts…you worked all year for strength and speed, don’t blow it by being lazy at this critical time.

Most football players fall into two groups:

1. Those who do no training at all and lose their strength and speed

2. Those who Train to hard, too heavy, too frequently and lose their strength and speed

Don’t lose your focus, all of your training is aimed at:

• Getting Stronger
• Getting Faster
• Getting Bigger
• Becoming a better football player..

While we borrow from their sports, we are not Powerlifters or Strongmen or Bodybuilders…we are football players and all efforts must be focused on improving your game.

So, you need to find that medium where you are still getting stronger and faster pre and in-season without over doing it and hurting your football skills.

A good rule of thumb is to shoot for 80 – 85% on ME Movements during this time. Beginners can get away with 75 – 80%, more advanced guys will fall in around 85. This allows you to go fairly heavy without burning out. But, if you jammed your shoulders all day on the field, don’t feel bad if you don’t get your planned numbers on the Bench! Eitehr go light or find an alternate movement.

So, on to today’s workout…as I said, this was a hybrid, so pay attention.

Bench – 320 x 2-minutes x 2

That’s two, two-minute sets.

Some of you have probably seen video of me doing 320 x 25…but, my shoulders are beat up from football so, this is a good way to get a good amount of reps without further beating down my poor shoulders. Plus, my forearms cramped up terribly on rep 14, which is quite odd…will have to look into the reason for that.

But, the point is, sometimes this higher rep stuff is great for moving blood around, putting on size and actually recovering from the rigors of football.

Lat Pulls - 3 x 12

Close Grip Pad Press – 365 x 5, 5, 4

We occasionally use a Foam Roller instead of a pad. This makes the movement a cross between a Pad Press and a 4-Board Press. The Roller has a good amount of give so it forces you to produce more force in less time to overcome the bar sinking into the foam.

Fast Hands, Strong Legs, Powerful Hips = Pancaking Fools

This is a great tricep movement and is excellent for building explosive hands to block people’s faces off.

Neck Harness – Forward & Back – Black Band x 3 x 25

Face Pulls – 3 x 15

That’s it…short and sweet. Our in and pre season workouts change constantly, just like our off-season workouts. They are made to match how the body is responding to practice, work, school, family stresses, etc. You have to take all this into account when you plan your training at any time of year.

If you have finals coming up and you’re working after school and sleeping for 5 hours a night, your training will suffer. Sucks, but true.

But, the cool thing is, top-end strength (max strength) won’t fall off much. So, the key is to get in, warm up to get your mind and body ready, hit up some major strength work, do a few accessories and then go rest. You’ll run out of gas faster when times are tough, but, as long as you get in and bang out some good, heavy work quickly, you’ll keep getting stronger for football…

And, how strong you are determines how fast you are, how explosive, how big, etc…so get the hell out and get stronger, even when it feels impossible.

Feed Your Head, Train Your Brain…Get a Heap of Free Football Strength Training Books…Check it out Below…

Get faster for football...hit harder...simple science F = MA

…you know, the kind of hits that absolutley crumble your opponents…the ones that can be heard all the way up in the cheap seats… Of course you do, you maniac, why the hell else would you be reading a site about football training!

First, there is no one magic exercise that will make you faster and able to deliver bone-crushing hits…but, there are a few that will absolutely get you there faster than any others….today, we’re focusing on the Snatch Grip Deadlift.

Next to Box Squats, the Snatch Grip Deadlift might be the top exercise to help you get faster for football…with the nice side benifit of having you hit harder than you ever thought possible!

Here’s why:

Check out this video on how to do the Snatch Grip Deadlift correctly so that you can maximize football speed increases and send your leg strength through the roof:

Concentrate your efforts with the Snatch Grip Deadlift as a Max Effort movement. Again, when this exercise goes up, so do all other leg movements, and your 40 time will drop as well, so, it is a wise ddition to your football strength and speed training program!

We will be adding 2 New Bonus Manuals and an Online DVD. But, with all the new cool stuff comes an increase in cost.

…but, I have something cool for you guys…

The re-vamped Manual will be out in a few weeks, with the DVD and the added bonuses for $15 more. BUT!…

Anyone who investes in the manual before Friday the 26th will get it for the old price PLUS will be sent the new bonuses & DVD when they are released…thats a $15 Savings and you get all the cool new stuff.

I can only do this for 3-days, however. So, you’ve gotta act now…after this, it’s higher prices on the game-changing strength manual.

Click Here to take advantage of this crazy offer!

The fact that they’ve been our most popular articles (both in terms of views and amount of emails they generate) give me hope that not every young football player is duped into believing that weaving through cones while wearing a tinfoil hat, pulling a parachute and sporting $75 stretchy Under-Wear.

Let’s recap.

 Strength is the basis for speed. Cones and gimmicks are an enormous waste of time…unless your goal is to get faster at running cone drills and not football.

 You need to develop explosiveness through high speed exercises
 To really get faster for football, you need to add Plyometrics to your Strength Program

 
I got more than a few hate mails about strength’s effect on football speed. Usually its talkin about how some big guy on the team Squats “like 400lbs” and is “mad slow” but there’s a small dude who isn’t that strong but runs fast. It then goes on to explain how my program sucks and SPARQ training rulez cause NFL flavor of the week endorses it.

Bullocks, I say.

One, your “big” friend isn’t strong if he’s only squatting 400lbs. Let’s say the guy weighs 285. That’s about 1.4 x bodyweight. Now, when sprinting we sometimes produce 2, 3, 4 or even 5x’s bodyweight in terms of force. Looking at those numbers, do you think your big friend will be fast?

Now let’s look at that smaller guy who is fast. He only squats 365. But, he weighs 180. He’s using twice his bodyweight. While he’s not as “strong” as the big guy in terms of weight on the bar, he is relatively stronger…he lifts more weight in relation to his bodyweight than the big dude.

So, in order to get faster for football, we need to figure out just what strong is. Mr. 285lb’er should be Squatting between 550 and 600 to even begin to realize his speed potential. This is why I constantly harp on strength!

What they lack is reactive ability.

And, when training your Reactive ability, you must keep several points in mind:

–> The speed of the pre-stretch is key

–> More Speed of pre-stretch (eccentric) = More Force Produced

–> Luckily, this aspect of strength is highly trainable

One of the best ways to train this ability is through Plyometrics.

Yes, yes, we finally get to the damn plyos. I’m always hesitant to give Plyometric advice to young players or inexperienced coaches. They take what is a fairly straight-forward training tool and turn it into something Stephen Hawking couldn’t figure out.

Born in the old Soviet bloc, Plyos helped those damn commies dominate almost every sport. Despite their lack of resources (and sometimes lack of food) the Russians, East Germans, etc. absolutely kicked some American asses in the Olympics. They were bigger, stronger and faster.

They even produced a boxer who killed Apollo Creed!

 
Eventually, some Western coaches found about plyometrics and began to apply it to American sports. Of course, they became fascinated and all went overboard…coming up with jump programs with insane volume and advanced exercises that should’ve only been used by those with years of experience at an elite level…and using them on High School kids.

Watching a 300-lb lineman with a 250lb Squat do a 30” depth jump wearing a 20-lb vest is an absolutely cringe-worthy sight!

So, before we even get into why plyometrics can help you get faster for football, and yes, take time off the loathsome 40, understand this:

• Keep it simple and progress slowly!

Plyometrics and Football Speed

Plyometrics are movements that allow the muscle to reach maximum strength
in as short a period of time as possible. Re-read that and think of its applications to
football training! That’s what it’s all about…Producing as much force as possible, as fast
as possible.

 You train in the weight room to get stronger. More strength = more force production. The amount of force your legs can produce will determine your speed abilities.

Remember that Newton guy from science class? For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.

If your legs can produce 200lbs of force per step, the earth will return the favor by returning an equal amount of force.

Plyometrics are exercises that allow the body and the brain to take your strength and have it be usable on the field. They train your muscles to produce max force in minimum time…even the definition sounds fast!

See, you can only use around 80% of your max strength in most football skills, like running or jumping.

When running on the field, your feet only hit the ground for about .1-seconds. But, for a voluntary muscle contraction, it can take .6-seconds to get the body going! You don’t have to be a math genius to figure out that those figures do not bode well for you.

• Sports movements happen in much less time than it takes for your muscles to contract maximally, so, this is why plyos are so important – they train your body and Central Nervous System to react as quickly and with as much force as possible without you even thinking about it.

So, you need two key qualities to get faster for football:

 A surplus of strength
 Explosiveness/Reactive Ability

We build strength in the gym and explosiveness with plyos. Simply (yes, I know I’m repeating myself, but most people who do plyos have no friggin idea why), plyometrics condition your muscles to have elasticity…basically, they make them like a spring.

You coil and then release that energy. Think of when you jump…you take that short dip-squat before you leap, right? You don’t try to dunk a basketball from a standing position with knees locked!

Plyos produce a rapid stretching phase that is so important…and, it is key to realize its
importance. The myotatic reflex, also called the stretch reflex, responds to the rate at
which a muscle is stretched and is one of the fastest in the human body.

This response is automatic.

The muscle contracts faster during the stretch-shortening cycle (think of the spring) than in any other type of contraction.

If you had to actually think about doing it, it’d be too late for jumping or running – the contraction would be too slow.

In the Classic text Plyometric Training by Dr. Yessis, he states:

…the key to developing explosive force, which is the main outcome from doing various forms of plyos, is the switch from eccentric contraction to the concentric. This is controlled by the nervous system and because of this, a good portion of the training is directed to nervous system [CNS] training; not just the muscle. When a tendon or active muscle is rapidly stretched, the elastic energy is stored and this energy is recoiled and used to enhance motor output in the concentric phase. 

Or, more simply: The faster a muscle is stretched, the greater the potential force.

 

When this happens, you can produce a more forceful movement, or simply, you can hit
harder, run faster, jump higher…you’ll be more explosive.

Ok, Mr. Science, how does all this help us get faster for football?

By giving your muscles that elasticity, you are able to fire off the line faster, jump higher, develop great closing speed, and get better starts on your 40-times.

While I have the 40-test because it has absolutely nothing to do with actual football skill, I do realize you guys get tested in it.

So, if you’d like to impress the guy with the stop-watch, you’d be wise to add plyometrics to your strength training program.You’ve all no doubt seen videos of guys perfecting their starting form, their stance, their arm punch, etc. Those things are important but, if you don’t have the necessary explosive power, you’ll look good going slow. Even the best designed car is useless if it has a lawnmower engine.

 
Because of the better start, (let’s break down the 40), you can easily take .1 off your 10-yard dash; .2 off your 20 and up to .5 from your 40.

Forgetting the 40 for a second, look at the 10 and 20 yard speeds. How many times have you seen someone just miss a tackle by a split second…or a receiver just miss the ball when sprinting…think you’d be a better running back if you could hit the hole in .1 seconds less time? 

Seems like such a small amount of time, but add all those .1’s and .2’s up and you become the guy who’s always getting to the ball and making the tackle.Ok, I’ve tortured you long enough with the reasons why to do plyos…hopefully after the aforementioned 1500 words, you know why plyometrics can make you faster and more explosive.

But, what do you do now? Most people just start jumping, doing depth jumps off their roof and quickly injure themselves.[The following 4 paragraphs was taken from the How to Use Plyometrics to Get Explosive for Football Manual, which comes free with the Football Strength Workouts Manual]This seems to be a lost concept in football training, but let’s start at the beginning.

These exercises are known as Sub-maximal Drills. They aren’t always classified as pure
Plyometrics because they require less involuntary effort, but they are extremely useful for
teaching explosive strength and reactive ability.

These movements help build the skills necessary for performing more advanced Plyo moves.

Butt Kicks

• Teach the recovery phase of sprinting
• Teaches the shortest “stroke” possible when running, which will speed up movements

High Knees

• Teach quick feet and force production

Power Bounding

• Great for force production and an excellent warm-up to football activities

Multiple Jumps

• These are easy to put in your program and will train the CNS for the more advanced movements to come
• Simply line up and do a series of standing long jumps
• Start off juming for 20-yards then work your way up to 30

After you’ve gained a good grasp of the basics, it’s time to get into some actual Plyos. This is where the true increases in football speed happen.

Again, keep it under control. While plyos aren’t inherently dangerous, you can fall and break your ass if you try to get too advanced too quickly.

Box Jumps

If all you did was Box Jump, you’d be miles ahead of the competition and your football speed would explode.

Box Jumps are just what they sound like, you, jumping onto boxes.

The most basic version is the single box jump – stand in front of a plyo box, dip into a very fast knee bend then propel yourself up onto the box.

You’ll need to coordinate you arms and legs – the arms, flexed at about 90-degrees will swing back during the dip and drive forcefully upward when jumping. The arm motion is crucial…and it must be violent, like throwing two uppercuts into someone’s face.

Once you get on the box, step off, re-set and jump again. This is a good way to begin teaching the body and CNS the explosive force needed to run fast and tackle hard.

Do not worry about your knees or ankles being bothered by Box Jumps. Because the surface of the box is high up, you’ll only be landing from a few inches off the “ground.” If you jump on a 30” box, you’re physically jumping about 31 – 32”, so, you’re only landing from about 2” above the surface…

Compare this with the “plyo hurdles” many advocate where you leap over a 30” hurdle and land from 32” in the air…ouch.

Next up is the Multiple Box Jump

You stand before a series of progressively taller Plyometric boxes and jump up on one, step off, and jump to the next.

Notice I said STEP off the box, not jump. You simple step off and land naturally. It’s kind of like people who jump off a building…they usually actually step off rather than jump.

When you perform a Box Jump onto multiple boxes, each time you step off a box and drop to the ground, the energy is stored because of the rapid pre-stretch and they you

rebound up to the next box.

• The time you spend on the ground in between boxes is critical!

Once you start doing multiple box jumps, you’ll see that if you stay on the floor for even a split second too long, you’ll miss the next box.

If you hesitate on the ground you teach the CNS to move slowly. While you may think a brief pause is no big deal, remember what we’re after here…an almost involuntary reaction to the stretch by contracting the muscles hard and jumping.

Lateral Box Jumps

If there’s one aspect of football speed…I’m talking actual game speed, that is ignored, its lateral speed. We spend a lot of time each game moving side to side – shuffling down the line, pass blocking, sliding to another hole or down the line…

Yet, how many football strength programs address lateral strength? Those that do deal with lateral speed usually limit it to a few 20-yard shuttle tests.

Football is a game played at extremely high velocities from all angles, you’d better train that way. To truly get faster for football, you need to strengthen the muscles that move the body sideways. So, you need to do Side Lunges, Angle Lunges, Lateral Sled Pulls, etc.

But, again, we need to transfer that strength into real-world usability.

Enter Lateral Box Jumps.

Exact same concept as Box Jumps, but you move laterallyYou can either jump a single box, multiple boxes or do Side-to-Sides.

To do Side-to-Sides, stand to the side of a low box, jump laterally onto the box, off, on the opposite direction…back and forth until you get to the desired number of reps.

Seated Box Jumps

Seated Box Jumps are the bee’s knees when it comes to getting faster and more explosive for football. These are a great exercise to wake up the CNS before testing as well…

Very simple, but not easy! Grab a chair, bench or low box. Sit down and relax. Now, from a seated position and without rocking, you jump up onto a box.

Talk about switching all the muscle fibers on at once! You must relax in the chair…if you try to flex and tense up, you’ll jump about 3”

Don’t rock…just relax … then Explode!

Volume and Loading of Plyos for Football

Ok, finally we get to how, when, and how much to use these jumps. This is where most go horribly wrong. Because there’s no “weights” involved and you don’t get that sore, wobbly leg feeling during jump training that you do when Squatting, most assume they are easy and can therefore be hammered away at.

In reality, they are quite hard on the tendons, muscles, and very taxing on the brain. They are highly concentrated and must be treated this way! To get faster for football, not much is needed! The bulk of your speed and strength building will happen in the weight room. Plyos are the tools you use to transform that strength.

There are a few options with regard to when and how much, but, the one that seems to work best, especially for those training with the team is the Pre-Lifting Option.

Doing the plyometrics before you lift actually has some big advantages in addition to increasing speed and explosiveness:

• They serve as an excellent warm-up
• They wake up the CNS in a way nothing else can
• Because of their ability to wake up the CNS, they can lead to immediate increases in the weightroom

Here’s what your day would look like:

Warm up – Whatever you do as a team, but, it should include general mobility work and some calisthenics to get the body warmer.

Low Level Plyos

High Knees 2 x 10-yds

Butt-Kicks 2 x 10-yds

Lunges – 2 x 10-yds

Jump Rope – 2 x 50

Plyos

Box Jumps – 3 x 5

Lateral Box Jumps – 2 x 5, each way

Weight Training

Do this twice a week. You can vary the exercises as needed.

Vary the intensity also. For example, one day jump up to as high a box as possible.

The other, shoot for a box that is 80% of your best box height. So, if your best Box Jump is 40,” you’d jump about 32” on this day. This keeps you from overdoing it while continuing to increase your reactive ability.

As we discuss in the How to Use Plyos to Get Stronger and Faster for Football Manual, there are many variations of the above training session. We use them to transform our weight room strength into usable football speed…taking .5 off the ol’40 and increasing game speed like crazy.

Want the Plyos Manual (one of our most popular, and for good reasons – like takin half a second off your 40-time)? Then head over to the Explosive Football Strength Workouts page.

Click Here and save $5, this week only…take .5 off your 40 and become dangerously fast…

The Plyos Manual comes FREE with the Strength Workouts Manual!

Strongman vs. Power Cleans For Football

You might disagree, but hear me out on this… as an ex-college football player and currently as a strength coach, I have found the utilization and teaching of Olympic lifts to be tedious, inefficient and down-right boring.  

As a college athlete I hardly found the patience to learn the correct lifting technique for the power clean.  Although I held the St. John’s University power clean record my freshman season, muscling 335 lbs. (152 kg) off the platform – my technique was completely flawed and the attempt looked more like an Axle C&P in Strongman than the smooth pull of an Olympic Weightlifter.

After undergrad I studied Exercise Science at the graduate level.  The director of the Masters program was an avid Olympic Weightlifting coach and ex-competitor.   He spent hours with the students teaching us the finer points and intricacies of how to perform a proper Clean & Jerk.  Once we were proficient enough at performing these lifts we were granted permission to then coach the university’s athletes on how to use these lifts to better their sports performance.

I remember the very first day that I was given the “OK” to start coaching the athletes; I was assigned to the football team.  Since I had been a former college football player myself, I felt that I would instantly be greeted with fellowship and amity.   This was NOT the case!  In fact, there were a few of the kids who hated the fact that I was there.  I sensed their apprehension in allowing me to coach them, and they especially hated it when I taught them how to Olympic lift.

As it happened, many of the more “meat head-ish” type football players confided in me that they wanted to,  “lift heavier weights and stop wasting time with this BS.”  It turned out, it was during the off-season prior to my debut that these athletes were first exposed to the technicalities of OL.  It was also the first time that they were coached in the weight room by graduate students instead of their sports coach.  They have previously been using a power lifting model that yielded great size and strength gains.  
 

I do believe that including power cleans and other Olympic lifts into a Strength and Conditioning Program for football players is beneficial.  But, I also believe that – the less an athlete has to “think” about a movement, the more ATTITUDE he can bring to its accomplishment.  Also, I am a big advocate for saving time.  I hate nothing more than “getting things RIGHT before getting them going”.  It is a personal philosophy of mine that ‘success is more a product of attitude… than of technique’ (granted, that you’re not taking foolish risks and causing injury).

Consider for a moment – when you are coaching a player on the Kick-Off Team do you tell him…

“Look Johnny, you’ve gotta sprint down there with your elbows at a 90 degree angle, your jaw relaxed, hands in a loose fist and be sure to breathe through pursed lips.  Now, when you get to the first blocker take a short inhalation and hold your breath, brace your abdominals and furrow your brow and your dip your hips, lower your shoulder and explode though him by extending your ankles, knees and hips in a simultaneous manner.”

If this sounds crazy to you, consider that this is the way that Olympic lifts are typically taught.  Instead of letting the athlete “do his thing”, we spend hours ‘breaking down’ and analyzing the movement for them.  These valuable hours spent “teaching” could very well be used for building real strength and speed in a timely fashion.

In the same manner that you coach your athletes to go “balls to the wall” on the football field, you can coach them to go “balls to the wall” in the weight room as well.  Also, besides getting bigger, faster and stronger by training like a maniac, these kids will then bring this type of ATTITUDE to the field more often.  Like they say, “you play the way you practice.”

Training in the weight room should be just as intense and as fun as training on the field.   When athletes learn to “attack” an exercise in the gym like they attack a tackling dummy, they will develop size, strength, speed and,  ATTITUDE faster than ever before.   Also, for weight training to become a REAL part of your schools program, you’ve got to promote it as a benefit of being on the team, not just a necessity.  I remember looking at a few small colleges when I graduated high school and one of the most important questions I asked was, “what kind of strength and conditioning program do you have?”

So, what the heck do you do if Olympic Lifts are not working?

Train like the World’s Strongest Men!  Not only are Strongmen great examples of brute strength, they are also well conditioned, and possess great speed and power.   Strongman exercises build functional strength, speed, power and most importantly ATTITUDE!  Besides the performance benefits of flipping tires and loading sandbags, Strongman training is FUN and easy to teach.

Strongman & Sandbags for Football Strength and Speed

Tire Flipping

This exercise is a staple in Strong Man and a big part of the football strength programs that I design for my athletes.  If there ever was an exercise that trains the entire body from “The Rooter To The Tooter”- It’s tire flipping.

Getting your hands on a 300, 400 or 700 pound tire is a lot easier than most people think.  Also, the best part of this piece of equipment is that it is FREE!  All you need to do is look in your phone book for a tire company in your city.  They’ve got tons of these things and they need to dispose of them, and this costs them money.  They are as happy as hell when someone calls and says that they are willing to take one off of their hands for free.  This biggest issue will be finding a way to transport it to your facility.  Many times the tire yard will drop it off for you; make sure you give the delivery guy a nice tip.

Car Push

 It’s as simple as it sounds – push a car.  That’s it.  But make no mistake, this exercise is not only fun and brutal – it’s actually very useful.  When pushing a car it is essential that you lean forward which creates a “positive knee angle”. This develops the quads which are the dominant muscles being activated during short sprints and change of direction.

This is probably the most practical exercise to perform, from an equipment stand point.  All you need it an automobile, the bigger the better.  I’ve heard stories about Mike Alstott and how he used to push his Jeep around campus in college to get in football condition.  If Mike Alstott does it, it’s got to be good!

Farmers Carries

I am often asked, “What are the best overall exercises for strength AND conditioning?” My answer without hesitation is always – Farmers Carries.  There is NOTHING that this exercise doesn’t do.  Besides a killer conditioner, farmers carries trains the arms, legs, core, shoulders, neck, grip, eye lids, eye brows and ear lobes like nothing that I have ever discovered. 

What makes this exercise even more incredible is that anyone can do it, anywhere, with little or no equipment.  Everything from the Torpedoes that you see those beasts on ESPN2 carry; to milk jugs filled with sand will get you strong and crazy fast.

Sand Bag Carry

This is another exercise that is easy to put together.  In fact, when I first began training athletes at a local park, this is all I had to use.  I simply went to Home Depot (there may be one in your city) bought a few 80 pound bags of pea gravel, threw them into contractor bag and duct taped them shut.  After a while I noticed that we needed heavier bags so I bought a few large army duffle bags and tossed the smaller bags into it.  Now I’ve got bags from 40 pounds to almost 300!

This exercise is as simple as – pick it up and go! But make no mistake, it is NOT easy.  This exercise goes on my list of the best overall body conditioners as well.

Keg Clean & Press

Keg Clean & Press

We’ve all used or taught someone to use the famous Olympic lifts, in particular the power clean and press.  And for good reason, they train the whole body and they produce faster and stronger athletes.  But I do them a bit different.

When you use a half filled keg to clean and press, you are playing a whole new game.  First of all, the neutral grip is more specific to football especially if you are a lineman.  Second, the water (or beer) that you have used to fill your keg will be sloshing around in there, which turns this exercise into a real core conditioner!

If you want to get brutally strong and fast, you’ve got to add this super strong man exercise to your routine.  

Sled Dragging

This is a staple is all of my training programs and I use this exercise for several different reasons. 

First, upright forward sled dragging is a great posterior chain builder.  Nothing gets those lazy glutes into tip-top shape like sled drags.  Second, backwards sled drags does for the quads what forward dragging does for the glutes… fries em!  Third, when done for distances greater than 50 yards or with short rest intervals this is one of my favorite work capacity / conditioning exercises.  Finally, because your legs are always moving in a concentric fashion there is minimal soreness associated with doing this exercise.  You can drag today and max effort squat tomorrow.

Keg Carries

A thick, strong and powerful upper back is paramount for building upper body strength that lasts.  Everything from an increased bench press to decreased risk of shoulder injuries are associated with having a strong set of traps, rhomboids and rear delts.

Nothing builds a strong upper back in conjunction with leg strength and agility like keg carries.   Caring kegs weighing between 50 to 300 pounds for short distances is one of my favorite ways of training generally weak and unathletic athletes to build endurance, strength and mental toughness.

I’ve got a video at http://HulseStrength.com about a great example of how to set up a “keg run”.  You can train several athletes at the same time with a set up like this.

Keg or Sand Bag Loading

Want to increase speed and jumping capacity?

Keg, Sandbag or stone loading takes even the flattest ass and turns it into a J-Lo.  And we all know that a strong set of glutes in synonymous with explosive hip extension and speed. 

Strong Man Training is not only for those 300 pound beasts on ESPN2, it is a great way to train even the most deconditioned athlete and turn average boys into hulking men.

In Part 2 of this series I will show you exactly how I add these exercises to my training programs… stay tuned!

Who the heck is Elliott Hulse?

I am a Certified Strength And Conditioning Specialist and owner of Strength Camp, a Sports Performance service in St. Petersburg Florida. I train athletes to get incredibly strong and lightening fast in a “warehouse gym” with about $1000 worth of equipment.

Lean more about me plus my Top 10 “Smash Mouth”  Exercises For Explosive Football Speed: http://www.FootballStrengthProgram.com

When I'm not reading, writing, or lifting, I'm tackling people....

On this site alone there’s around a hundred articles and I’ve written dozens more for other magazines, journals and websites. Not to mention the thousands of football training articles available on places like EliteFTS.com, StaleyTraining.com, Bodybuilding.com and Josh Henkin’s SandbagExercises.com…all about how to get stronger and faster for football.

Yet, the more I attempt to explain the ins and outs of football training, the more questions seem to roll in. We may be in a situation where there’s too much incorrect info out there and guys are getting confused. I answer all questions you guys email to me, but, over the years, I’ve noticed patterns of questions. A lot of guys seem to be asking about the same things.

Sometimes the confusion is warranted. A beginner is going to need as much info as possible. But, there’s plenty of “well-read” football players out there who are operating somewhere in la-la land. All you have to do is look at the forums on Bodybuilding.com to see the mix of confused newcomers and idiotic self-proclaimed experts. Despite all the good football training info out there, guys are as confused as a group of non-native English speakers listening to Shannon Sharpe talk.

So, if you have a question, fire away, because chances are that there’s a lot of other guys asking the same thing. Plus, this gives us a chance to fire back at the fountains of misinformation that invade the football training landscape.

Since there are so many related football speed and strength training questions, I’ve decided to do a monthly Q & A, taking the best and/or most frequently asked training queries so that we all can benifit from the answers. So, with that said, let’s get down to business…

1. I want to get faster and jump higher. What’s better for speed and my vertical, Squats or Deadlifts?

This is a great question. For many years the Squat was refered to as the King of exercises, and, in the football training world, Deadlifts were essentially exiled. Many parents and coaches assumed that since they’d injure their backs when they’d bend their fat asses over to pick up a heavy box, that Deadlifts were guaranteed low back injury. And, nothing scares an American over 35-years old more that a potential back injury!

Bill Starr, the origional Football Strength Coach, chose to omit the Deadlift from the “Big 3″ in his all-time classic text, “The Strongest Shall Survive: Strength Training for Football.” He did this because he felt most coaches did not have the ability and knowledge to teach the Deadlift. Most conisder the Dead to be a pure-strength exercise, but, there is actually a great deal of technique involved. Starr later admited that he made a mistake on this one as many took his omission to banish the Deadlift forever.

Now, Squats are great. Box Squats are better. In fact, Squats and Deadlifts work many of the same muscles.

Which is better for your vertical? Which will get you faster for football?

This may surprise you, but Deadlifts have the slight edge

However, this does NOT mean Squats are inferior. They can, should and will be done…or else!

Anyway, the Deadlift (and it’s variations) is great for football for several reasons:

The problem is, Deadlifting too often can be hard on the Central Nervous System (CNS). This is sloved by Squatting and Box Squatting in place of your Deadlifts. And but using Deadlift variations like:

Snatch Grip Deadlifts

Trap Bar Deadlifts

All you have to do to make sure you are getting as fast and strong for football as possible is to do both Deads and Box Squats. NOT in the same workout, it’s overkill.

You can alternate Box Squats and Deadlift variations on your Max Effort Days each week or go 2-weeks on, 2-off. Often, we’ll rotate Deadlift variations each Max Effort Day and use Box Squats on DE days. Then reverse the trend.

Either way, make sure you pull heavy and always, always, always lift the bar with as much force and speed as possible, regardless of the weight.

2. I want to move from Defensive line to Fullback. I’m really fast once I get goin, but I’m not fast at the start. Any exercises I can do to build that quick start?

Unfortunately this is a common problem. I used to have it, big time! You have good speed, but you take a few steps to get going…kind of like a Mac Truck…destructive once going, but slow to get it goin.

Fortunately, this is easily fixable. Well, easily in the solution, but it takes plenty of hard work.

Basically, you have strength (you need strength to have speed) but, you lack starting strength. We commonly call starting strength “explosiveness.” It’s what accounts for that “great 1st step” and what gives backs the ability to hit the hole in an instant.

You need to focus a bit on exercises that build tremendous starting strength.

On your Max Effort days, concentrate on:

You all know most of these. Notice that they all require you to either start from a dead-stop, or, pause and hault momentum (as in Box Squats). Think about a heavy Deadlift.

You are approaching a bar loaded with weights and attempting to rip it from gravity’s clutches with no help from momentum. If you can’t turn on all of your muscles at once (the basis of starting strength), the bar won’t move. Even if it does, if you can’t maintain that speed, the bar will stall and you’ll miss the lift.

Some exercises are excellent for building starting strength to get you faster for football. Not that D-lineman don’t need starting strength…everyone of the field does. But, if you want to impress your coaches enough to make the leap to Full Back, you’ll need to work in these specialized movements. They should be included in everyone’s football workouts throughout the year.

Box Jumps

The basic Box Jump, when done before your heavy leg work, can go a long way to building exposive football speed. All you need is a Plyo Box or stair case (please be careful either way). Stand, dip, jump.

Seated Box Jumps

Same idea, but you start off sitting in a chair or on a bench. Relax completely then explode from the seated positon up onto the box. Don’t rock on the box, it teaches bad habits. If you can train your CNS to propell your big ass out of a chair and onto a box 30+ inches high, you’ll have built some real starting speed.

Bottoms-Up Squats

These are easy to do but oh so brutally hard. Get ready to have your Ego kicked in it’s proverbial balls.

Set up a bar in the power rack at a height that would be the bottom of a normal squat. Now, wedge yourself underneath and squat that sucker up. Sounds easier than it is.

This is a brutal Max Effort Exercise, keep it to singles and doubles. This will teach you very, very quickly to apply max force to the bar and fast.

If you’re looking to move from D-line to Fullback or you just need to build staring speed/strength, use these exercises. Go heavy, for low reps but again, always apply max force to the bar (lift the bar as fast as humanly possible, even though it’s heavy and will appear to move slowly)

3.  I need to bulk up for football, I’m just too skinny. But, I need to get faster too. Someone told me getting bigger for football will make me slow, is this true?

Man, just when you think all the really old myths about football training had been destroyed, the old “bigger = slower” arguement rears it’s ugly head.

This is tied to the billion-year old belief that lifting weights would make you “muscle bound” and unathletic. This is, of course, total bullshit.

In the old, old, old days, guys just looked at what bodybuilders did and tried to emulate their methods. Bodybuilders are good at getting bigger, it’s their job. But, the do so without any regard for getting faster, stronger, or more explosive. If a football player trains the same way, he will get worse.

However, those days are long gone and football strength training has come a hell of a long way. So, that old excuse is out.

All you need to do is look to the NFL where 290-lb D-lineman are as fast as some linebackers to see that bulk doesn’t equal slow.

Now, if you’re goal is to eat like a pig and become a big fat ass, then you’ll probably get slower. But, if you gain weight for football intelligently, then you can actually get bigger while getting faster and stronger for football.

If you need to get bigger for football but still want speed, strength and explosive power, you need to:

This is what we do in our Explosive Football Workouts Manual.

If you follow along with the program for an off-season, I guarantee you’ll gain no less than 20-lbs of muscle and put at LEAST 50-lbs on all your major lifts…yea, it’s that good.

Click Here to check it out.

How can I get a faster 40?

How do I hit harder?

And, of course, the all time Classic…”Bro, whatya Bench, bro?” …

Yes, yes, if you look like you’ve ever lifted even one weight, you’ll get asked this question at least 5 times a week. America went bench crazy back in the late 80’s – early 90’s and it’d only gotten worse. Most football strength coaches have a love/hate realtionship with the bench press.

It’s a very good overall power builder, but it is far from the most important exercise in one’s football strength program. Many coaches opted to remove the bench altogether. But, after a near revolt by bench loving football players, the bench has crept back in to strength programs.

Now, personally, I like the bench. I’m built to do it, and, breaking the school bench record my junior year certianly helped (thank you, thank you).

In reality, the Incline and Dumbbell Incline are actually better exercises for building football strength. They much more closely mimic the pattern of the arms when blocking or tackling. Also, there’s an odd a carry-over from the Incline to the Bench that doesn’t work the opposite way.

If you increase your Incline, your Bench will usually go up as well. But, as anyone who’s ever watched a bench-only guy try to incline will tell you, it doesn’t work in reverse.

I remember sometime around my junior year of college, I was nearing a 500-lb raw bench. Shortly after I got the big 5-oh-oh, my shoulders started hurting like hell. A sharp, stabbing sensensation in my front delts stopped me from benching for a long, long time. I started to concentrate on Incline because this did not hurt my shoulders.

Well, after having the problem fixed evenutally (rotator cuff problems should be fixed or they’ll never go away), I returned to benching.

However, it had been over 3 years since I last did them. No matter, all that Inclining did me a world of good. The first day back I went up over 400lbs. Not bad for not benching for several years, eh?

The Bench Press and Football Strength Training

So, is the bench worthwhile for football? Many have argued that if you are on your back and need to press someone off of you on the field, you’re not a great player!

Poppycock and Bulderdash I say.

The bench press is a great builder of power in the chest, arms, and tris. And, oddly enough, training for a big bench, is similar to what you need to do to train the upper body to get stronger for football…lots of pressing, back work, tricep work, and heavy weights.

Also, the bench, like having big arms, is a great confidence booster. Let’s face it, when a guy hits a new milestone in the Bench (200, 250, 300, 400, etc), their confidence goes way up. They feel much stronger. Feeling stronger leads to increased performance because a guy is more sure of himself on the field.

So, if we’re going to use the bench in our training, we better go after it big time, eh? Here are 4 ways to Increase Your Bench by 15+ lbs. And, they’ll also improve your on the field performance because of the newly-aquired power.

1. Board Presses – Get Wood to Get a Big Bench

The Board Press is usually thought of as a Powerlifting-only exercise. Some feel that it’s some advanced exercises that only big, ugly, mean super-heavyweights can use.

Truth is, they’re an excellent way to not only add major poundage to your Bench, but to increase your overall upper body power on and off the field. Is there anyone who can say that having stronger arms and pressing power won’t help with blocking or tackling?

Board Presses are, as the name implies, combines Benching and Boards.

Rather than have you read through a long explination of the Board Press and why it’s a kick-ass movement for football, watch these videos:

Football Strength Training – Board Press Explination from steven morris on Vimeo.

Football Strength Training – Board Press Explanation from steven morris on Vimeo.

Use Board Presses as part of your Max Effort Upper rotation. You can also use 4 and 5 boards as a high rep tricep movement as well.

2. Train Close, Max Wide, But Always Keep Your Elbows In!

You can increase your bench in one session if you follow this tip.

If there is one universal bad habit when it comes to benching, especially among high school football players, it’s they they bench with their elbows flared way the hell out wide.

This is asking for rotator cuff problems, shoulder injuries and, worst of all, less weight!

Skinny as he is, this kid is leaving at least 20-lbs on the table & risking injury by flaring his elbows.

Plus, would you ever block someone like this? Of course not, you’d get your ass kicked. So, don’t train like it either. The purpose of every exercise we do is to get you stronger or faster for football…don’t waste any movements in the gym.

Here’s what you do.

• Train with a fairly close grip much of the time. Keep your elbows tucked in close, like in this video.

Football Strength Exercises – Close Grip Bench from steven morris on Vimeo.

This will keep your shoulders from rotating and also put much more stress on the triceps. Despite what most assume, the bench press is powered by the shoulders and triceps, NOT the pecs. And, as a very cool added bonus, the shoulders and tris are extremely important for success in football…so training them hard has a double purpose.

Now, you might think I’m being hypocritical here, but, when it’s time to max out, you’ll want to go wide with your grip. You can train in this range very, very occasionally. There’s too much stress on the shoulders to do all the time.

• You must still attempt to keep your elbows as tucked in as possible! (Watch this video of a high-rep Wide Grip Bench)

Football Strength Training – Bench Press 320 x 18 from steven morris on Vimeo.

Why do all this?

Simple. Training close strengthens the hell out of the tris, but, you shouldn’t max this way because the closer your hands, the farther the bar must travel.

It’s such a simple concept but so many guys miss this. If you have to push a bar 22″ or 14,” which one will you use more weight on?

Doing this will add at least 10, and probably closer to 15lbs to your bench instantly. If you have max-outs coming up, practice the wide grip style once then turn to it for the big day. But, KEEP YOUR ELBOWS IN!

3. Row, Row, Row Your Bench…

This is something that will take longer to pay off, but, again, it pays off in two ways. One, doing tons of rows will give you a bigger back…a bigger back reduces the distance the bar must travel.

Two, you can never train your back hard enough for football.

Not only does it add to your overall upper body size. Having a big, strong back also helps with pulling power, pressing power, and gives a solid layer of protection to your ribs, and back.

The best exercises to build this barn-door sized back are:

• 1-Arm Row (and all the variations)

• Low Seated Cable or Band Rows

• Chins

Work these hard every time you train upper body, using 3 – 5 sets of 5 – 15 reps. Like I said, you can never do enough back work.

4. Train the Triceps Like a Mad Man for a Huge Bench and Mad Blocking Power

Like we said earlier, it is the triceps, not the pecs, that build huge Benches.

It is also the triceps that power then end of blocks, allow you to seperate from the linenman across from you, and to deliver a good old-fashioned stiff arm to the face.

A lot of people are surprised when they see how much tri work we do. It’s fairly prominent in our workouts, at least on Max Effort day.

There’s no need for confusion though – the triceps are like the hamstrings of the upper body…if they’re weak, you’re cooked. Yes, the legs and hips are where blocking power comes from. But, when you need to get seperation, lose your footing, or simply want to manhandle the guy across from you, a strong upper body is a must.

You should work the triceps both heavy for low reps and with more moderate weight for higher reps.

The low reps, of course, being an overall upper body strength builder which will help on the field and on the Bench. The higher reps are for elbow health and overall size…remember, the big arms/confidence thing?

What are the best triceps exercises for a big bench and blocking power? …glad you asked:

• Close Grip Bench
• 4 or 5-Board Press
• Close Grip Lock-Outs
• Lying Extensions
• JM Press (great for building strength)
• Bar Push Ups (great for adding mass)
• Behind the Head Extensions
• Rolling Tricep Extensions (great for adding mass
• French Press

Work the tris hard and heavy twice per week. Once for low reps, the other for higher (6 – 12) and watch your bench and on-field performance explode.

5. Bonus JM Press – CGB

Here’s a little bonus move for ya.

It’s the combining of the ever-awesome JM Press followed directly be Close Grip Benches till almost failure. This is a great movement for overall strength and an excellent way to bulk the triceps.

Now, you can begin applying these tips and see an immediate increase in your Bench, hitting power, and size. But, if you really want to go from having a good bench to school-record-breaking kinda weight, you should check out all the FREE Bench manuals we’ve put together.

“Add 25-lbs to Your Bench in 5-Weeks (over 50-pages)”

Critical Bench’s “50-Keys to  a Bigger Bench”

“Increase Your 225-lb Test by 4-Reps Instantly” (over 40-pages!)

With these 3 manuals, you’ll be blowing the school record out of the water in no time. They all come free with the Explosive Football Strength Workouts Manual.

Head on over to the page and check them out, I personally guarantee that if you follow the advice in all 4 books, your bench will go up no less than 50-lbs in no-time!

• Click Here to take your Bench higher than you ever dreamed!

I realize that most of you guys are in your off-season, but, as a minor league player in a spring league, I’m actually in my pre-season. This session took place on Sunday, the day after a full-contact practice.

I also realize that usually the last thing most of you want to do after getting pounded for hours on the practice field is do your strength training, but, it’s actually the best thing you can do. Yes, you’re sore as hell and as stiff as a board, but, laying around and restricting blood flow is the best path to prolonged soreness.

Getting a strength workout it the day after a practice is an excellent way to:

1. Continue getting stronger throughout the pre-season and in-season
2. Reduce soreness

If you’re sore, you won’t perform well on the field. Let’s not bullshit here, on most teams, even if you’re the starter, all it takes is a few bad practices or even one bad game to lose your job and find your ass on the bench. Performing at less than your best is a great way to accomplish this.

It seems crazy to think that if you’re sore from football practice, you should lift weights. Wouldn’t a strength workout just make it worse?

No, especially if you do it correctly.

Should you go in and try a personal record in the Deadlift? Of course not. You’d be insanely disapointed.

Here’s how you should approach a pre-season strength workout:

• Do higher reps (if it’s the day after a practice or scrimmage, stick with high reps (8 – 15 reps)
• Warm Up Thoroughly – the surge in blood flow will make you feel better and speed recovery
• Stretch after the session – again, take advantage of the blood flow and help remove the “junk” from inside the muscles
• If it was a light practice, start off with a big exercise (Squats, Deads, Bench) and hit a heavy Single…this isnt usually an all-time best, but what you can do for that day

Now, with all that said, here’s what my workout looked like…

DB Press – 2 x 2-minutes

This is a really cool way to run up the volume without further injuring yourself or causing any joint pain. This can be done for presses, Bench, Incline, etc.

Pick a weight you can do for 12-ish reps. Set a timer. Now, press for 2-minutes. 

Obviously, you can’t do it for the entire 2-mins. You do a bunch, say, 6 – 10. Rest with the dumbbells on your shoulders, then do another batch, rest…and so on until the timer goes off. 

Two sets of this is more than enough, trust me. 

Close Grip Incline – 4 x 8

 Trap Bar Shrug Pulls – 3 x 8

• This is like a shrug using a Trap Bar, but, instead of simply shrugging the bar, you shrug and and continuing pulling till your hands reach the bottom of your rib cage

• This is an excellent exercise to strengthen the traps…and make them bigger as well.

Face Pulls – 3 x 8

Lat Pulls - 6 x 6

Normally, I might have also done some bicep work, but it was about -10 degrees in the gym and, frankly, I hate doing bi’s. I typically keep a set of 50’s in my office and do various curls and tricep extensions throught the day, I put an inch on my arms this way… (more on that another day)

Now, if you want to see how we do our Pre-season, In-season, Off-Season and every other type of workout…