Football is a grueling sport that challenges you mentally and physically. Luckily we are here to help you with the physical part.
If you want to make it, you have to be fast and strong or you might get manhandled or get your doors blown off.
That said if you look around the internet for a strength program you can find some college football weight training programs and even the pros. These are great, but the problem with most of them are way overly complicated to the point where you need your scientific calculator and a slide rule to figure out what the heck you should be doing.
The strength coaches at this level get paid a ton to make these programs so it’s no wonder they go into every detail there is to cover, and they should. That’s their job and these athletes make the teams/schools a ton of money. That said I would be willing to bet most guys on the team don’t follow these programs to a tee. Sometimes they just overcomplicate things more than is needed.
It’s either too complicated or you find someone who has taken a basic bodybuilding workout and called their “Football Training Program”. The problem is training for football and training for bodybuilding are 2 separate animals. Bodybuilding workouts are designed to build muscle while football players need strength, speed, explosiveness and endurance. That means you need a different workout program for football than you do for bodybuilding.
Below we have put together what we feel is a solid and easy-to-follow offseason strength and conditioning program that effectively trains you the way a football player should train. If you are on summer break and playing football at Ohio State or are a member of the Chicago Bears you should probably read through the summer conditioning encyclopedia they give, otherwise, this should do well for you.
Related: Ultimate Strength and Conditioning for Athletes
Conditioning
Monday
Hills on the Mills
Elevate the treadmill to 25% grade. If your treadmill doesn’t go to 25% raise it to its highest level. Mount the treadmill with your legs straddling the running deck. Step on the deck and begin sprinting while holding on to the front handrail. Sprint for 15 seconds and dismount. Rest for 1 minute – 30 seconds and continue this procedure until you have completed ten reps. Cool down. When you can complete ten reps using the above protocol, increase the speed by 1/2 mph the next time you run Hills on the Mills. Quick warning on these, they may make you hate life as we know it.
Tuesday
100-yard sprints
During this workout, you will run one set of 100-yard sprints. From a stance, sprint 100 yards. After crossing the finish line coast ten yards and turn around. The rest interval begins as soon as you cross the finish line. Rest 45 seconds and again sprint 100-yards. After crossing the finish line, coast ten yards and turn around. Continue until you have completed ten 100-yard sprints.
*Rest time starts as soon as you cross the 100-yard marker.
Sprint 14 sets of 40-yard dashes, rest interval between sprints is 35 seconds.
*Rest time starts as soon as you cross the 40-yard marker.
Friday
2 sets of 20s
Sprint 16 sets of 20-yard dashes with a 20-second rest between each set. Once you have completed 16 sets rest for 5 minutes then complete another set of 16.
*Rest time starts as soon as you cross the 20-yard marker.
That’s it. This is basically a simplified version of a few different D1 college football off-season strength and conditioning programs mixed with some conditioning the Houston Texans use so it will work well if you put in the effort. Get strong at all these exercises and hit that conditioning hard and you will be the best version of yourself you can be.
I will try this program, but why so many sprints? Shouldn’t you do sprints every other day for recovery. (Not a hate comment)
John
May 10, 2019 10:15 pm
That’s too many repetitions for the Olympic lifts, the emphasis is on the triple extension typically anything over 5 reps you will lose the efficiency of the movement and purpose. Beginning with 3×5 with clean progressions at 60-70% is a good place to start, than expanding into 70-80% with 4×3 or 5×3 in the next mesocycle is the common way to approach Olympic lifts.
I will try this program, but why so many sprints? Shouldn’t you do sprints every other day for recovery. (Not a hate comment)
That’s too many repetitions for the Olympic lifts, the emphasis is on the triple extension typically anything over 5 reps you will lose the efficiency of the movement and purpose. Beginning with 3×5 with clean progressions at 60-70% is a good place to start, than expanding into 70-80% with 4×3 or 5×3 in the next mesocycle is the common way to approach Olympic lifts.
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