Guest post by H. Marie Williams
We have arrived at the most exciting time of the football season: Bowl games, playoffs and, ultimately, the Super Bowl. With all the attention these games draw, fans and fitness enthusiasts alike marvel at how well-conditioned and skilled the players are. Getting to that level of performance requires dedication, hard work, skill and excellent programming.
What is ‘Programming’?
A program is a structured, tailored series of workouts geared, in the case of football, toward improving power, strength, speed, recovery and myriad other aspects crucial to achieving and maintaining peak performance. This type of program is used to advance an athlete as his or her endurance, strength, speed and agility improve.
Training like a football player requires an athlete to:
• build power by performing Olympic lifts, such as the “snatch” and “clean and jerk,” which demand a great deal of power from the lower body;
• do plyometric exercises, such as “box jumps” and “bounding”—explosive movements that require the muscles to fire rapidly and respond to ground contact just as quickly (if you’ve ever jumped off of or onto the curb at the edge of a sidewalk, you’ve performed a plyometric exercise);
• execute agility and speed drills that use fast-twitch muscle fibers and train and maintain muscle-firing patterns (this type of training can include the use of resistance bands, speed ladders, chain belts, sleds and more).
Want to try it out before the big game?
Here are a few exercises you can add to your program this season to train like a pro:
Jump Squats:
1. Place your feet hip-width apart and bend your knees by bringing your hips and buttocks back. Make sure to keep both knees behind your toes as you bend.
2. As quickly and forcefully as possible, pop your hips forward, and press your toes down into the ground jumping up as high as you can. Your arms should swing up overhead as if you are trying to touch the sky.
3. As soon as you land, repeat the entire movement without pausing, for 10 repetitions.
Broad Jumps:
1. Place both feet hip-width apart and bend your knees, bringing your hips and buttocks back, just as with the jump squats.
2. In one fluid motion, swing both arms (slightly bent) forward and thrust your hips forward as you jump three to five feet forward.
3. Land with your feet parallel to each other and still hip-width apart.
4. As soon as you land, repeat the motion, traveling forward a total of 10 times.
Cone Drill:
1. Set up five cones in a zig-zag pattern with about five feet between each cone and between both rows in the pattern.
2. Starting at the first cone, sprint forward diagonally to the next.
3. As soon as you reach the second cone, backpedal diagonally to the third cone, in the original row.
4. Continue all the way through to the fifth cone and immediately begin again in the opposite direction.
4. Once you have returned to the starting position, rest for 20 seconds and repeat the drill a total of five times. Stay low in a squat position the entire time.