Football Training Workouts
Size, power, strength, and speed are all integral characteristics of successful football players. The nature of the game—blocks, tackles, and the like—demands that any successful football player have the basic strength and muscle mass to hold his own in the efface of 300 pound plus linemen. But size alone is rarely enough to make an athlete great in this sport. To be great, he needs to be able to move quickly—explosively—to turn raw size and strength into power.
In the gym, heavy lifting (low repetition sets at maximal and sub-maximal weights) are beneficial for gaining essential strength and size. To help athletse transition from large to powerful, however, football training workouts should be combined with exercises such as plyometrics, that recruit fast-twitch muscle fibers and allow quicker muscle contractions. The more quickly an athlete’s muscles can “fire” or contract when called upon, the more power he will exhibit on the field.
The game of football requires a player to be able to accelerate quickly and repeatedly, from a static position. Whether the job at hand is blocking, running, or tackling, the athlete must be able to move quickly while maintaining precise control over his movements. Often a football player has only a few seconds to act within the course of a play; and his success in performing will depend on how quickly he can get those big muscles to work.
Though a football player rarely runs long enough during a single play to reach his top speed, there is no denying the importance of quickness for a successful athlete. Football training workouts can better equip players for success on the field by incorporating power and acceleration drills (short sprints, for example, that emphasize gaining speed over the first 10-15 yards) with more traditional strength and field training.
Tags: acceleration drills, fast-twitch fibers, football players, heavy lifting, muscle mass, power, size, speed, strength