BLOG: Off-season football training – Quarterbacks

The Quarterback is the leader for any football team.  You need to be a leader, calm under pressure and make the throws necessary to lead your team to victory.

After working with QB’s from youth to the NFL level I found that it is important that they have a specific program tailored to their needs.  Many college programs train their Quarterbacks with all the other players.  They focus on getting them stronger and do a lot of bench pressing, overhead pressing etc.  what they don’t do is spend enough time on the smaller muscles in their backs and shoulders that are critical for both throwing velocity and injury prevention.

With this in mind, The muscles that we have to incorporate into our programs are the external rotators, rhomboids, low traps and latisimus dorsi.

External Rotators(ER’s) –  throwing causes  an internal rotation of the humerus,  then why would we spend so much time with the external rotators?  First off, you want to build balance by strengthening the opposite muscles which help keep the shoulder aligned properly.  People who do too much internal rotation (including bench pressing)  cause their shoulders to roll forward because their internal rotators may become stronger and tighter then muscles in the back.  For an overhead throwing athlete this is a disaster!  Also the ER’s act as decelerators and the stronger they are, the more power you can produce!

Rhomboids –  these are the muscles that are in between your scapula (shoulder blades).  They help to keep your shoulder blades from protracting during throwing movements.  If you look at your upper back and see your blades winged out like a bat, then you likely have weak and underdeveloped rhomboids.  These muscles help keep your shoulder stabilized and when they are weak it limits your ability to develop power.  The saying is that we use…”it’s like trying to fire a cannon while standing in a canoe!”

Low Trap – these muscles are often overlooked because you can’t see them in a mirror.  They are deep muscles in your upper back that help to keep your scapula depressed.  Most athletes tend to have over active upper traps which leave the low traps lengthened and weak.  This also leads to scapula instability which can cause issues for quarterbacks who will make thousands of throws over the course of a season and their careers

Latisimus Dorsi –  while this is not a small muscle we would like to note that strengthening these muscles will help improve throwing distance.  We generally like to use a neutral grip for throwers.

As far as bench press in concerned, SST still incorporates some into the training, but prefer dumbells instead of the bar at the beginning phases of training.  We also use closed-chain movements like push up variations.

Here is a sample off-season upper body program for quarterbacks:

A1 Neutral Grip Chin Ups. 4 x 6 4010 60s rest

A2 Mid Pulley Ext Rotations 4 x 10 2011 60s rest

B1 DB Bench Press on Sb alt arms 3 x 8ea 2010 60s rest

B2 1 arm DB Scapula Retractions 3 x 10e 1013 60s rest

C1 35 Prone DB Rows – Neutral grip 3 x 10 2013 60s rest

C2 1 Arm Bent Low Trap Raise 3 x 10e 3010 60s rest

It is important to train hard, but train smart.  This program will help improve performance, but also reduce the chances of injury.  The Quarterback is the one of the most important players on the team so you need to focus on injury prevention as much as development!

If you have questions about how to improve this off-season contact your local SST facility.

Dont forget that SST’s famous Quarterback Camp starts February 3rd, 2014. If you wish to reserve your spot please call 905-632-3558

Steve Bodanis- SST Franchise Manager

SST Hamilton

[email protected]

www.sstcanada.com

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