Why You Should Train Like an Athlete
-- You May Not Be Playing Sports, But All of Us Are Competitors in the Game of Life
On a bright, sunny day in May of 2023 I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when a black SUV rolled up alongside of me.
The window rolled down, and a man’s head popped into view. Turns out he was one of the coaches for the local high school football team. They were looking for a volunteer strength coach, and he wondered if I could help them out.
Long story short, I agreed to give it a try — and I’ve been working with the football players ever since.
It’s been a very interesting job, and it’s caused me to do a very deep dive into sports training — not just for football players, but for athletes in pretty much any strength and power sport.
I’ve had the guys do quite a few things to improve their over-all athleticism. They need to be strong, of course, and they need to carry enough solid muscle mass to withstand the rigors of a high school football season — but they also need a variety of other physical attributes.
Thus, the “strength training” program quickly morphed into a comprehensive program designed to build:
— Overall body strength.
— Increased muscle mass.
— Better body composition and a greater strength to weight and power to weight ratios.
— More speed.
— Explosive power.
— Fast hands.
— Fast feet.
— Better balance.
— Better coordination.
— Muscular endurance specific to football.
— Aerobic (cardiovascular) endurance specific to football and to their respective positions (e.g., linemen, running backs, defensive backs, wide receivers, etc.).
As anyone who has ever played football knows very well, football is a combat sport. Your hands are your weapons. Strong hands improve your playing ability enormously.
So we pay particular attention to training the grip. I tell the players that when they grab an opposing player, I want him to feel it — and I want him to stop right there and ask himself, “Why in the world are we playing against guys like this?”
We also do plenty of core training — and I don’t mean we do bunny crunches. We train our core for two reasons. One is to be able to absorb the impact of a hard blow from an opposing player without crumbling like a stale cookie. The second is to deliver force.
Remember, football is a game where you succeed by delivering force against an opposing player — and force delivery begins with your feet, moves up through your legs, and transfers into your shoulders, arms and hands. If your core is weak, you can’t deliver effective force. If your legs are stronger than your core, your back bends, twists, or rotates a bit — and you dissipate the amount of force you can deliver. A strong, iron-hard core prevents this.
We also began training on exercises that reduce the risk of common football injuries, as well as helping to minimize the severity of any injuries that may occur. Thus, we focus on training, building and strengthening the muscles, joints and connective tissue of:
— The neck and upper back. (This is critical for preventing/reducing concussions.)
— The shoulders.
— The knees.
— The ankles, shins and lower legs.
— The hands, wrists and fingers.
As you would expect, our training looks nothing like typical bodybuilding workouts — nothing like typical powerlifting workouts — and nothing like the kind of training that most people do.
We do plenty of:
— Olympic weightlifting and related exercises.
— Medicine ball drills.
— Grip training (especially for the crushing grip and for the pinch grip).
— Dumbbell training.
— Unilateral exercises for both the upper body and lower body.
— Exercises where we generate as much force as possible as quickly as possible.
— Exercises where we absorb force as quickly as possible.
— Neck training.
— Agility drills.
— Running and jumping drills.
— Hills.
— Plyometrics.
— Specific exercises to strengthen the parts of the body that are most at risk when playing football, such as the knees and ankles.
Almost all of our exercises are ground-based movements, i.e., “stand on your feet training.”
Most (but not all) of our exercises are compound movements.
Most (but not all) of our resistance exercises are performed with barbells, dumbbells or medicine balls.
We do most (but not all) exercises for relatively low reps.
We train for maximum performance in short bursts — because that’s how you play football. The average NFL football play lasts only 4 to 5 seconds.
We don’t chase the pump, we don’t try to look like bodybuilders, and we don’t try to build huge muscles that don’t directly contribute to our ability to play football. Yes, we put weight on the guys who need to gain weight — sometimes as much as 40 or more pounds in less than a year — but it’s a by-product of athletic training, not the goal of our training.
We don’t focus on the bench press. Some of the guys do it — others don’t. Some only do dumbbell bench presses or dumbbell incline presses. Personally, I’d rather see them clean and push press or clean and jerk big numbers.
By now, you may be thinking: “That’s great for high school football players, but what does it have to do with me?”
The answer is simple.
All of us are athletes.
We may not be playing an actual sport, but we’re all players in the Game of Life. The better prepared we are, and the more resilient we are, the better our chances of success.
That’s true for everyone — at any age.
For example, if you’re 40. 50. 60 or 70 — or older — don’t you want strong ankles?
Bulletproof shoulders?
Injury-resistance knees and hips?
A strong core?
Low back muscles that can stand up to anything Life throws at you?
Strong hands?
To be stronger, faster and more explosive?
To be able to DO the things you need to do — whatever they might be — and whenever you might be called upon to do them?
The way to do this is to train like an athlete — or rather, to modify athletic training used by athletes in their teens and 20’s, and make it appropriate for your own use.
That’s what I do in my own training, at age 67 — and it’s one of the things I’m going to help teach you in these substack posts.
Sit back, strap in, and get ready for some serious strength talk — and for tons of great training ideas to use in your workouts!