Total-body Weightlifting Routines For Football Players

Planning and implementing a total-body weightlifting routine is something that can help you, as a football player, develop and strengthen the muscles needed to excel on the football field. Focusing on each of the body’s major muscle groups, including upper-body, core and lower-body muscles, should be the goal of your weightlifting endeavors, regardless of what position you play.

Upper Body

The upper-body muscles that play an important part in football include the arms, chest and lats. Each of these muscles can be effectively worked in the weight room with muscle-specific exercises. For instance, the arm muscles, including the biceps and triceps, are targeted when performing curls and pull-downs on a weightlifting machine. The chest muscles are most effectively worked through the bench press, which comes in a variety of styles, including traditional and inclined. The lat muscles, which stretch from the outer sides of your chest cavity into your upper back, can be strengthened by performing lat pull-downs on a weight machine.

Core

Your body’s core includes the abdominal, hip and lower back muscles and is vital in helping you perform an assortment of activities, including twisting and turning. These muscles also play an important role in many of the tasks required in football, such as tackling and blocking. While weight-free exercises, such as crunches and situps, are ideal for targeting your abdominal muscles, weightlifting exercises, such as dumbbell side bends, are effective in helping strengthen them. Deadlifts are an effective lift that helps you strengthen the lower back muscles. Some football programs, according to Mike Martinez, defensive line coach at Antelope Valley College in Southern California, have abandoned this lift because of increased occurrences of injury. Even so, Martinez says, the deadlift can serve as a useful part of a football weightlifting routine if it is taught and administered properly.

Lower Body

The leg muscles, which include the calves and quadriceps, play obvious roles in football and should be part of a total-body weightlifting routine. Squats and leg presses are effective lifts that focus on the quadriceps. Calf presses using a leg press machine are an efficient way to target these muscles in your lower body, and hang snatches are good for working the hamstrings.

Considerations

One of the key aspects of an effective weightlifting program is allowing at least one day of rest between lifts that target a specific part of the body. For instance, if you work your upper-body muscles on Monday, wait until at least Wednesday to target them again. Maintain your full-body weightlifting routine by alternating days between parts of the body. Work the upper-body and core muscles on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and lower-body muscles on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. As with any training regimen, a healthy diet and the proper amount of rest should be a part of your workout routine.