Although practices and games will require the majority of your energy during the football season, you should not neglect the weight room. Performing workouts for football can enhance your performance by increasing your strength, endurance and speed and reducing your level of body fat. An excellent football workout will provide adequate exercise for all of your muscles and will focus on strength as well as cardiovascular capacity. Consult a doctor before starting any workout program.
Compound Exercises
Compound exercises are a vital part of an excellent football workout because they train whole-body movements. Compound exercises are those that use multiple muscle groups at once, much like moves in football. The Merced College football program recommends performing compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts and the bench press to improve football performance. Because these compound lifts use multiple muscle groups, you can move a lot of weight, which can help you make or break tackles against larger opponents.
Isolation Exercises
Isolation exercises concentrate on one muscle group at a time and can be useful when you are working on developing a specific skill. Weight training website Muscle & Strength recommends performing the standing barbell curl to improve football importance; this can aid in ball control and blocking. The website also suggests that dumbbell incline sit-ups can aid football players; this exercise strengthens your core, which aids in balance and transferring power through your body.
Explosive Exercises
Working on your explosive strength is important no matter what position you play because it allows you to produce the maximum amount of force in a short period of time. Because of the high level of stress explosive exercises exert on your body, you should begin with very light weights or no weights until you become more comfortable with the movements. Box jumps, squat jumps and plate jumps can be useful for building explosive sports strength, according to trainer Matt Brughelli.
Cardiovascular Exercises
Improving your cardiovascular capacity will help you outrun opponents and improve your stamina and endurance. Running and cycling are excellent ways to improve your cardiovascular capacity, and you should vary your sessions with short and long distances. Performing resisted, or weighted, sprints can help improve your acceleration, according to research from the January 2009 issue of the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research." You should also incorporate high-intensity interval training, in which you alternate periods of sprinting and lower-speed work. A study from the April 2011 issue of the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research" found this type of exercise to improve aerobic performance and work capacity.
References
- Merced College; Workout - Blue Devil Football; Justin Pinasco
- Muscle & Strength: Football Strength Workout
- Yampa Valley Medical Center; The Importance of Core Strength; Jen Kerr; June 26, 2006
- Bodybuilding.com; 10 Exercises for Explosive Athletes; Matt Brughelli
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; The Effect of Resisted Sprint Training on Speed and Strength Performance in Male Rugby Players; A.J. Harrison, G. Bourke; January 2009
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; Aerobic and Anaerobic Changes with High-Intensity Interval Training in Active College-Aged Men; E. Ziemann et al.; April 2011
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