Football In-Season Training Program

Summer football is approaching and the question everyone asks is “Can athletes continue to build muscle and strength during the playing season?” Do NFL, NCAA and CIS players’ workout during the season?

YES! Damn right they do…why waste all of your hard working gains and be de trained by the time high school season starts?!! Would you rather be the strongest and dominate or some pathetic weakling who gets pounded every play!

If what you want is a workout schedule that will steer you into peak condition for the game without sapping your strength, here’s the workout for you. Assuming game day is Saturday, your workout days are:

Sunday: Full body workout – metabolic conditioning
Monday: No workout
Tuesday: Lower Body – strength and power day
Wednesday: Upper Body – strength and power day
Thursday: No workout
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Game day

Many coaches think that an athlete can’t plan to build muscle during a busy game season. They mistakenly claim that, at best, an athlete can only hope to maintain the strength gains they made during the off-season training. At SST we believe strength and power can be increased even during peak season.

SST stresses sound nutrition practice throughout the year, which, depending on the individual, may include increasing carbohydrate-calorie intake to ensure that no muscle is burned off due to calorie deficit. A sensible nutrition routine enables the player to maintain the muscle he already has, while making sure he has the nutrients necessary to build new muscle mass. At SST we want our players to become stronger and more powerful during the season and so we promote this workout frequency to build strength without fatiguing the player.

Take a look at the workouts:

Sunday – Full Body Workout

*SST includes Rotator cuff exercises throughout the year to ensure stability of the shoulder joint.
Check out how an SST athlete squat with BANDS in this video:

Sunday’s workout is designed to flush out the lactic acid produced during the previous game day. The intention is to use weights in the range of 50 -75% of your 1 rep maximum, depending on the exercise. This workout duration should be 45 – 50 minutes. The pace is fairly quick because of the short rest intervals, which is why the weight on the bars should be less than your full capacity. The first set of squats may feel easy but beware of putting the weight up too fast because of the shorter rest intervals.

After this 45-minute workout, head out to the field and do a light run-down for 15 – 20 minutes. The run should consist of 100-yard sprints at about 70% max speed. Walk back and sprint again. Remember this workout is designed to flush out your system from the previous day. If you push yourself too hard all you achieve is another increase in lactic acid and cortisol level, rather than a flushing out.

Here is a video of CFL player Junior Turner tearing up the bench press:

Tuesday – Lower Body

*Choose a lower and rotational abdominal exercise and perform at a moderate speed for the desired number of reps. Alternate both exercises with a sixty second rest in between.

Tuesday’s workout consists of only 1 power exercise – Hang Cleans. (Olympic lifts are not paired with other exercises due to the technical demand of the exercises.) Deadlifts are used because more motor units are recruited when performing deadlifts vs. squats. We only have one day for lower body so we like to perform exercises that provide the “best bang for the buck”. Unilateral exercises such as lunges and 1-leg hamstring curls are performed to balance the level of strength in each leg.

Wednesday- Upper Body

*Choose 1 finger and 1 wrist exercise for the desired time.

Wednesday’s workout starts off by alternating Incline Bench with Chains and Supinated Chins. SST uses chains because the resistance matches the strength curve. In other words when you are at the weakest point for incline the weight is the lightest and vice versa for your strongest point. The reps are kept low thereby increasing the athlete’s strength levels. Dips are an ideal exercise because of the large number of motor units recruited.

Remember, choose exercises that give you the best bang for the buck!

SST changes an athlete’s in-season workout every month. Depending on the length of your season, you will need to keep changing some of your exercises. Here are the guidelines to follow:

1. Change the exercises, rep schemes, sets, tempo or a combination of all six features.
2. Choose exercises that recruit large motor units. For example, for your next lower body cycle choose front squats over deadlifts. Use exercises such as deadlifts, squats, bench, incline, dips and behind-the-neck press.
3. Follow the same frequency structure ensuring you get the proper rest and recovery time.
4. Make sure to stretch with enthusiasm, paying attention to good form and not go through the motions in a lackadaisical way. Try to develop flexibility. Too many athletes limit themselves because they lack flexibility.
5. Aim to workout 4-6 hours before your team practice starts, allowing time to recuperate.

SST has trained thousands of athletes from a variety of sports. SST’s no nonsense approach to training has been used by thousands of athletes’ from a variety of sports all over the nation!

Check out SST’s most popular High Performance video:

For more information please visit www.sstcanada.com