Top 10 Exercises for Football Players
When working with my football players, there are a lot of exercises we use to make our program effective. But some have a bigger bang for their buck and produce better results!
If you don’t have the luxury of training with your own strength coach, have no fear! I’ve created a list of my top 10 exercises every football player should keep as a staple in their program.
So let’s get to it…
Squat: The king of all exercises. If you’re serious about getting bigger, stronger and faster you need to get under the bar and squat. No other exercise will build size and strength like this one. You can do traditional back squats, high bar squats, low bar squats, front squats and box squats. I like to use back squats most of the time but changing it up from time to time throughout your program will help you spot any imbalances or weaknesses you may have. Either way, get under the bar and squat!
Deadlift: You can argue that the deadlift is more important than the squat or vice versa. In my opinion squats are 1A and deadlifts are 1B. Not 1 and 2. Use both and get strong at them. Some people (even athletes) have poor flexibility and cannot maintain a neutral spine with a straight bar. In this case use a trap bar with high handles or pull off of a few mats. This will help you keep a neutral spine due to the increased height. With that being said this is another exercise that, like the squat trains your entire body. Use them and add as much weight as safely possible!
Standing Military Press: Grabbing a bar and pressing it straight over head is one of the best ways of developing real upper body strength. Don’t mistaken this for just a shoulder exercise. You’re also hitting your chest and entire core when you press overhead. Make sure to squeeze your butt and abs when you’re doing these for proper core activation. Remember pressing a heavy poundage straight overhead is a tremendous demonstration of strength. If you aren’t doing these yet add them in today.
Sprint: I’ve already posted a few times on sprinting, so I don’t want to sound redundant. But I think you get the point. Sprinting builds muscle, speed, strength and athletic ability. Do them. And for added agility work do misdirection drills like the 4 corner drill. Football is a game of misdirection so it’s vital to train that way.
Rowing: You can’t be imbalanced in sports or life. So if you are only doing presses you can bet your ass that an injury will be coming your way. You need to do pulling exercises to make sure you are well rounded and avoid injuries. You can use 1 arm rows, barbell rows, or even seated cable rows. Concentrate on squeezing your shoulder blades together to make sure you’re pulling from your back and not just your biceps.
Horizontal pressing: Sorry to burst your bubble, but the bench press isn’t the only show of strength like some may think. Don’t get me wrong it’s an awesome exercise and to press a big weight gets everyone fired up. But the excessive bench pressing over the years has taken its toll on a lot of people. It can really do some damage to the shoulders. However it is important to press in the horizontal plain. And if you’re training for a combine you certainly have to bench press. But to save your shoulders, use variety with your bench pressing. For example, instead of always using a barbell try using dumbbells with a neutral grip (palms in). Or use an incline. Or, use a specialty bar like the renegade bar so you can press with a neutral grip. Do push-ups with a weighted vest, chains, or have your partner hold plates on your back. These alternatives are much safer for your shoulders and will keep you in the game longer. It doesn’t mean to stop bench pressing completely, just change it up from time to time.
Chin-ups: Just like rowing, it’s just as important to do vertical pulling as well, for the same reasons. If you aren’t strong enough or have too much body fat to do chin-ups then you can use different pulldown variations to develop your lat strength. Just make sure you’re doing some type of overhead pulling.
Jumping: Jumping builds power and athletic ability. That said it’s a no-brainer for football players to add jumping into their program. Vertical jumps, broad jumps, dumbbell jump squats, whatever. Just start jumping. And like I mentioned in my last post, jumping in the beginning of your program will maximize your power development. So hit them early on.
Prowler sled: One of my favorite tools for lower body strength and conditioning. Stack it up with plates and push it. Or pull it. It will beat the piss out of you either way. Nonetheless, it is highly effective and every athlete should have one. The prowler is awesome. Fuckin awesome!
Loaded carries: Using loaded carries like the Farmer’s walk are tremendous for building grip and core strength and also jacking up the traps. They are also a great exercise to get competitive with. Having great grip strength will help you get stronger in all your movements.
So those are my must have exercises for football players. Of course it’s important to do other stuff like unilateral lower body work, direct ab work and some elbow flexor work. But this is just a list of the absolute must-haves. Just add the other stuff in to go along with this list. Train hard and heavy and be done in 45min-1 hour. Eat the right foods and you will get the most out of your program.
Follow a program based on these exercises and I guarantee you will be a badass on the gridiron come September. Just be smart and keep your form clean. These exercises will not only get you strong but can make you much more resistant to common injuries.
Until next time folks,
Train your ass off!
