The Importance of Conditioning | Part III
By · CommentsNow that the NFL season has come to an end, it is time for players to start their offseason football training program. Unfortunately as I predicted in Part 1 and Part 2, the injury rate for the NFL hit an all time high. Even if Greg Williams hadn’t been paying for HITS, the injury rate was extremely high. Now that may just be my perception, because it is the outcome I expected. However, I am relatively sure the numbers are there. I know here in Jacksonville, the home team placed a total of 27 players on the injured reserve list during the 2011 season, more than half of an active NFL roster. I find it hard to believe that it is just a coincidence. The complete lack of an offseason football training program, and the reduced work during the season cost a lot of players a lot of playing time.
How Important is Conditioning in a Football Training Program?
More importantly, how does this apply to you? Well besides killing your fantasy football teams chances, you should learn from the high priced athletes mistakes. Sometimes less work is not better. When they negotiated the new CBA, the thought was that reducing the workload would prolong players careers. Unfortunately, when you reduce it too much it has the opposite effect. Players did not put in enough time to build their conditioning level to a point where they could withstand the season.
So how does an NFL player’s offseason football training program apply to you?
What can you learn from football conditioning drills to improve your athleticism and conditioning levels. Well if you have been a regular at this site you have learned that there is a new trend in strength and conditioning. The implementation of strongman training has had a direct carryover to the field of play. Football players regularly use strongman training in their football training program. Again, how does that apply to you? Pretty simple, if you want to increase your overall strength and conditioning level you should add elements of a strongman workout to your training.
Top 5 Conditioning Exercises
- Tire Flip
- Sledgehammer Swings
- The Prowler Sled
- Farmers Walk
- Keg Carry
Tire Flip: This is a staple of any strongman workout. Flipping a huge tire requires strength and explosiveness. For football players is also better mimics the sport they play. The best part about the big tire is that you can find it for FREE. Tire companies in your local area will be glad to give you as many huge tractor tires as you can find a place for, otherwise they have to pay to have them disposed of.
Sledgehammer Swings: This is another great strength and conditioning exercise. Now that you have your big tire, go out and buy a sledgehammer and beat the hell out of it. Sledgehammer swing build your grip, forearms, abs, as well as increasing conditioning and work capacity. It is best to do them for time, not for reps. 30 secs of work to 30 secs of rest is a good place to start.
The Prowler Sled: This is one of the best pieces of equipment for conditioning. Entire articles have been written on the many different uses of this very versatile piece of conditioning equipment. It builds your posterior chain while increasing your work capacity. If you want to take your conditioning levels to new heights this is a must have for your toy box.
Farmers Walk: This is another staple of a strongman’s workout. It works the grip, shoulders, traps, as well as strengthening your core. Farmers walks can be done for distance, or can be done for time. It really depends on your goals. Just make sure that you have ample area to do them, and be sure to track your progress so you can continue to improve.
Keg Carry: This is similar to the farmers walk, except with the keg you can carry it many different ways. Find a keg is pretty easy, then fill it with water and or pea gravel. Using water makes it unstable, and increases the difficulty. Again, like the famers walk you can do the keg carry for time or distance. Be sure to mix in some overhead carries with the keg. Carrying things over your head is one of the best ab workouts ever. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself.
There you go, 5 of the best conditioning exercises that you may or may not already be doing. If you training is getting stale and you need something to break you out of your rut, one of these exercises might do just the trick. Summer is almost here, so get outside, and get some much needed vitamin D. You always wanted to play professional football, and if it wasn’t for that high school coach that had it in for you, you would. Well now you can at least train like an NFL player. Unfortunately it doesn’t come with the healthy pay raise, but it will increase your strength and conditioning levels. Let’s hope, for my fantasy football team’s sake and for their own, the players get serious about their offseason football training program.
The Importance of Conditioning | Part II
By · CommentsIn the Part I of this article I discussed the NFL players managing to eliminate two-a-day practices in the new CBA. They did so in what I believe was a misguided effort to reduce injuries and prolong careers.
“Legs Feed The Wolf!”
In the movie “The Miracle”, Herb Brooks uses that quote to explain to his players the importance of conditioning. He made a point of the fact that the reason that the Russians won so many consecutive games was because no team had ever been able to skate with them. In the 1980 Miracle on Ice the Russian’s were no doubt the more talented team, however Brooks had gotten them into such shape that they were able to stay strong throughout all three periods, and FINISH!
While we all strive for a level playing field, there really is no such thing. Despite what T-ball games that don’t keep score, and everyone gets a participation trophy teaches our kids; some players are just better than other players. When I say that I am referring to the physical tools they are born with. You can love basketball all you want, but if you are 5’9” it’s very doubtful anyone will ever pay you to play. The other side of that is that blue chip athletes can get away with being lazy sometimes. They are used to things coming easy to them. Other players have to work at it, and more times than not the players that have to work for everything they’ve gotten are usually the ones that are better prepared at the end of the game.
Man...We talkin' bout practice...
So what can we learn from this?! The lesson is this…in sports Conditioning can be a real equalizer. The elite athletes may be bigger, stronger, and faster than you in the first 10 minutes of the game, in perfect conditions, but how fast are they in the last 10 minutes of the game?
Game of Inches
Using speed as an example, lets take a linebacker that runs a 4.6 and a running back that runs a 4.3. The linebacker has conditioned all offseason and is in great shape. The running back was born fast, and doesn’t see the need to condition. He dogs it in practice, and gets by on his given talent. What if these players oppose one another in a late season matchup or the playoffs? The linebacker may never be able to run a 4.3, but because of his conditioning level his speed won’t have dropped off as much during the season. The under conditioned running back could have been brought back to the pack after 13 or 14 weeks. Suddenly, because of sheer hard work , the playing field has been leveled, and the linebacker has the chance to shut the running back down. At the very least it could be the difference between a shoestring tackle, and a game changing run.
For an even easier example, think about northern teams coming South cramping up, and southern teams not playing well in the cold. They are not conditioned for that environment, and their performance on the field suffers dramatically. Despite the “asterisk era” of baseball, the stat sheet doesn’t have asterisks for severe weather. It also doesn’t have an asterisk for being out of shape, and beat up at the end of the season.
Obviously these are very simplistic examples, and there are numerous factors that go into success on the field. However, my point about not wearing down over the course of a season being related to preseason conditioning remains.
The bottom line is that production is the only thing that matters in pro sports, and it’s the only thing that will get you to the next level if you are an amateur. In Part III of this article I will give you some ideas to increase your conditioning, and subsequently your performance on the field.
The Importance of Conditioning | Part I
By · CommentsSo the NFL lockout is finally over, and the players can go back to work. Well they can kind of go back to work. Part of the new CBA has drastically reduced the players workload, and even eliminated two-a-days. The players managed to negotiate this as a part of player safety. And while they did win this point, I believe it will prove to be a Pyrrhic victory.
Do Work = Get Paid
Enter my new favorite player in the NFL, Bart Scott. Scott, lineback for the Jets, has been the most outspoken on his objection to taking away the age old practice of two-a-days. ”I think it’s wimping out, making football more soft,” Scott said, according to reports. “No reason to try and make camp easy.” He went on to say,”I get concerned you’re making football players weaker because you don’t push them past that threshold.”
Acceptably Soft Football Players
It’s refreshing to think that, despite all the ridiculous tweets followed by insta-retractions that some pro athletes “Get It”. Despite Scott’s reference to “wimping out”, two-a-days are not a macho thing. They are in fact a business thing. The better conditioned you are the better you play, the better your numbers, the better your paycheck. It’s simple math. So simple even an NFL player should understand it. This also holds true for any athlete trying to make it to the next level. Coaches and scouts are looking for on the field production. They are looking for NUMBERS. And to increase your chance at better numbers you need to play the entire game at a high level and not fall off in the final minutes. How do you do that?! CONDITIONING!!
The players that were in favor of less off season football workouts and no two-a-days, presumably did so to decrease injuries and lengthen careers. However, reducing their conditioning work, in the end, will have the exact opposite effect. During the lockout the players and owners proved they are only interested in money. I have absolutely no problem with that. If you have an area of expertise, if you are the best at something then you should be paid accordingly. Fans are naive to think that the players care about them, and if they truly wanted the NFL to care they could withhold their weekly investment. It is no longer “just a game” when you get paid. It’s your job. And whether they admit it or not everyone with a job would gladly let someone negotiate a better compensation package for them if they could. Eliminating two-a-days is a mistake. Lower conditioning levels will decrease the quality of the product in the fourth quarter as well as the final games of the season. These lower numbers will lead to less $$ on the players next contract.
Scott was also quoted as saying “Two-a-days, it’s what football is all about…It’s about endurance, pain, will, putting yourself through something when your body is telling you it doesn’t want to go. Your mind controlling your body. That’s what camp is all about. With one-a-days, guys might not be in as good of shape as they would have been. Camp tears you down, and then a smart coach starts pulling back in enough time that allows players’ bodies to build back up.”
Once again he is dead on. The purpose of the extra football workouts in the preseason is to build your conditioning level up as high as possible. Once the season begins your conditioning level begins to drops off. There just in not enough hours in the days to recover from any extra workouts in season to keep your conditioning up. That’s when the litte nicks and injuries come in, and this is when people start to wear down in week 13 and 14.
NFL players fought hard against the 18 game schedule because of increased risk injury. What they don’t realize is that by reducing preseason conditioning they are doing the same exact thing. In the second part of this article, I will address what lessons you can learn from the NFL’s mistake, and how you can apply it to your own training.
