I don’t disagree. I like the O-lifts and, if you read around the site, we use them (not so much the full snatch but variations). Also, I used to compete in O-lifting for many years.

Now, the box squat does produce more force for several reasons but that doesnt mean cleans shouldnt be used.

If you would like to write an article about using the O-lifts for football, shoot me an email steve@explosivefootballtraining.com

The Chest and Bench Pressing
——————————

Chest muscles (pecs) exist to bring the arms to the center line of the body and nothing more.

Bench pressing is a waste of time.

Blocking takes thrust that comes from the legs, mid body, upper back and shoulders, mostly.

Testing for Fitness
——————-
A better test to measure fitness for the football field would demand a guy run a 440 yard sprint (approximately once around a track) and then go for max bodyweight pull ups.

Testing for max strength measures nothing regarding football.

Testing for the likelihood of a player being able to give it his all after a short rest between plays gets closer to what happens in a game.

Repeating this test three times within a short period shows how well a guy can last in a series of plays.

Proper Training
—————
What counts in burst sports such as football and rugby is the strength-to-weight ratio.

Sadly, most NFL, NCAA and high school football players suffer from a low weight-to-strength ratio and thus are quite weak.

Why? Most football players train like bodybuilders, who are trying to increase the appearance of muscles by expanding the capacity of existing muscle tissue to hold cellular fluid instead of training.

Instead, burst sport athletes need to grow the density of muscle fibers through neuromuscular shock followed by eating right.

Burst sport athletes need to train their bodies for movement. Football players need to train their bodies to drive back opponents and to break away from opponents.

What to Train
————-
Gymnasts set the bar for strength-to-weight ratio and give a hint as to how football players should train.

Players want to train for explosion and torsion.

For the upper body, players should focus on the back, shoulders and triceps.

For the lower body, players should focus on the glutes, hams and quads.

For the mid body, players should focus on obliques, abs and erectors.

Best Exercises
————–

To transform the guy into an athlete ready for football, here are some of the best exercises.

upper body
==========
1) Weighted vest back-hand pull-ups.
2) Suspended incline presses or Inverted wall push ups (weighted, if possible).
3) Dips
4) Weighted vest palm-up pull-ups.
5) Jackknife weighted tricep presses or triangle push ups.

lower body
===========
1) Bondarchuk weighted step-ups.
2) One-legged squats (weighted, if possible).
3) Weighted vest side lunges.
4) Squat jumps (plyometric)
5) Tuck jumps (plyometric)
6) Broad jumps (plyometric)

mid body
=========
1) Dead lifts.
2) Romanian Dead lifts.
3) Cable pull up and pull down twists.
4) Bicycles.
5) Captain’s Chair Leg Lifts.
6) Mountain climbers
5) Front planks
7) Side planks

explosion & energy systems work
================================
1) Weighted squat thrusts using Tabata protocol.
2) One-man weighted sled pushes and pulls.
3) Sprints.

You can do conjugate with younger guys. If they’re really raw (and God knows some of these guys are!) we start with an 8-week block thats a little closer to 6 x 4/ 5 x 5 style before proceeding. If they are still behind, we’ll do another 8 weeks.

But, after that or if they’re ready, go ahead and go Conj.

The main thing isn’t so much the amount of weight on the 2,3,4-Rep max but the “strain” of it and the force applied to the bar.

For box height, at parallel is fine. If it’s a touch above it’s ok. Powerlifters need to be at or below or it’ll mess up them up come competition day.

For football, vary it. Go an inch or two below, go right at, and maybe an inch above.

For Box Front Squats, def. try out the higher version, they’ll see big improvements.

If you can, get the Elite FTS soft box pad and set that at about parallel. When they sit on it, they’ll actually sink past parallel and have to develop a hell of a lot of force to get out of the hole.

http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=114&pid=2650

There’s a link to the pad…got it a few years back as a Christmas gift…beyond worth it.

When training youth athletes do you recommend conjugate vs. block periodization for beginning lifters around 13-15 years of age. I’ve found that high reps overall (~8-15)seem to help more and seem safer than using heavy weight and low-reps on the max-effort days. What are your thoughts? Finally, what height would you suggest the box be at for most box squats. I know once in a while we dip a little lower than parallel and a little higher at times but overall I’ve been using a 13″ box for myself and these youngsters I train because we are all about the same height (5′8″) and it seems we’re at parallel or a slightly below. On Defranco’s site it seems like most are just a hair above parallel, but Im not breaking out the goniometer to check haha. What’s your thought?

All glamor, no guts.