Playing football demands significant preparation. It is not enough to go through several practice sessions during the week and then show up on game day to play. Those who want to become productive and consistent players have to be at their best physically, which requires working out to get faster and stronger to produce more on the field.
Weight Training
A solid weight-training program started in the off-season can help you play with more functional strength on the field. The bench press, arm curls, lunges and dead lifts will help you build a stronger base in your legs and get your arms and upper body more powerful as well. To build a strength-training program, work with your team's strength and conditioning coach or trainer to devise a program that best suits your physical needs. Football strength workouts are usually demanding, so it's important to space out your workouts. Don't lift every day. Hard workouts every other day will give your body a chance to recover.
Explosive Leg Strength
Quickness off the line of scrimmage is an important factor for linemen, linebackers, running backs, wide receivers and defensive backs. Having initial explosion is a function of leg strength. Offensive linemen who are trying to open a hole for a running block will be successful if they can knock their opponent backward. This is regularly a function of explosive power in the legs. The leg press machine can help a player build this explosive power, and so can exercises like box jumping and calf raises.
Parachute Training
Skill-position players like running backs, wide receivers and defensive backs will spend much of their off-season and off-the-field training trying to get faster. One of the most popular football workouts for this is parachute training. Players attach a running parachute to their backs and go out to the football field or running track and sprint. The running chute attaches like a backpack. As you sprint, it unfurls and provides significant resistance. Start off at one goal line and sprint to the opposite goal line. As you run, resist the urge to turn around and look at the chute or stop. Run as fast as you can until you get to the goal line. When you finish, take a 10-second break and sprint back the other direction. When you get to the 50-yard line, press the release button on your harness and the chute will drop off. This will give you a sudden surge called overspeed. Do three sets before you leave the field.
Hill Running
Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and the late Walter Payton made hill running a staple of their off-season training so they would be faster, stronger and more explosive on the field. Running uphill helps your get stronger and more explosive while running downhill helps you get faster and more balanced. Rice did this drill throughout his career. "It didn't matter what I had done the previous year," Rice explained. "I wanted to be the best I could be. I didn't want anyone catching me from behind. I knew running the hills would help me and I didn't get caught very often."
Function
Players who work hard in the off-season and continue their off-the-field training during the year have a chance to be successful. Football requires athletes to use strength and speed on nearly every snap of the ball. If you are working hard to get stronger and faster, you have every chance of being more effective on the field with every game you play.
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