If you've recently become a big fan of football because of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce and/or the upcoming Super Bowl, you've probably wondered how easily players can run, throw, pass and Dodge a tackle.
Personally, I think these bulky athletes have to bench press refrigerators and sprint on treadmills for hours, but according to Teddy Savage, national head trainer at Planet Fitness, a football player's workout is actually more practical than that. In fact, it's so practical that you can try it yourself at the gym.
Instead of using a barbell to build muscle, athletes go through a more relevant series of warm-ups, followed by full-body exercises and endurance training. "When you're on the court, it's not about how much weight you can lift, but how you translate your strength into functional movement," Savage tells Bustle. Think jumping up to catch the ball, darting sideways to beat the defense, etc.
This means football players' workouts aren't just a bunch of boring bicep curls, but some more interesting moves like speed skates, medicine ball squats, and kettlebell swings. Players perform these drills because they mimic what they do on the field, such as pushing and throwing, but Savage said the moves can also translate to everyday life.
Before the big game, Savage offered me a football-inspired workout to try, which is also available on the Planet Fitness app, and now I'm ready to take the field myself.
warm up
Savage believes that warming up is actually the most important part of any workout, especially before a sport like football. He said if you watch a game, you'll see players getting ready with arm circles and leg swings to make sure they're fully prepared for all the explosive moves they're about to encounter on the field.
"This is called dynamic stretching, and its purpose is to move your body through its maximum range of motion to get blood flowing to the muscles, optimizing performance and counteracting possible injury due to stiffness," he says.
To prepare for training, Savage said I should do these four dynamic stretches for thirty seconds each, one after the other, and then do a second round.
- arm circle
- torso rotation
- leg swing
- jumping jacks
As someone who tends to skip warm-ups to save time—which Savage says is very common—I have to admit, it felt good to get my heart pumping before trying anything tougher. By the time I finished the jumping jacks, I was 100% ready for whatever was next.
functional fitness
The second set of exercises focuses on functional strength and compound movements designed to target multiple muscle groups at once, Savage says. These exercises allow your body to move in different planes of space, which is good for football and everyday life.
Savage recommends performing three sets of 10 reps for each exercise below, resting 30 seconds between each set. Another option is to perform kettlebell cleans with overhead presses, alternating kettlebell reverse lunges, kettlebell swings, and kettlebell torso twists, which also trains your grip strength, but I opted for the medicine ball exercise.
- Medicine Ball Alternating Lunges and Overhead Presses
- Medicine Ball Alternating Lunges and Arm Extensions
- Medicine ball squat
- fitness ball climber
Savage said I should first try the techniques for each exercise without a medicine ball to make sure my form was stable. After I've done a few lunges, I grab a 10-pound dumbbell and slowly complete each exercise. Although there are only four moves, I quickly started to sweat, especially on the climbs.
stamina and stamina
To my relief, soccer workouts don’t require a lot of running. While professional athletes are fast, they don't achieve that speed by jogging for miles. Instead, Savage said they focus on cardio.
"That's why this cardio component is a more dynamic, functional movement like the TRX Jump Squat," he says. "These things require a high output from your heart, so your endurance will be challenged more than running on a treadmill for 30 minutes."
TRX jump squats are a form of plyometric training, also known as exercises that train the body to jump and bounce. Savage said I should do each move below for 30 seconds, rest 45 to 60 seconds between each set, and then do it again.
- TRX cycle jump
- TRX speed skater
- TRX Jump Squat
- TRX Alternate Sprinter
Typically, I walk by TRX wristbands at the gym, so it was fun to try them out. Bike jumps involve grabbing onto these stretchy resistance bands while lunging backwards, jumping and switching legs in the air.
Speed skaters are perfect examples of functional lateral movement that helps athletes avoid each other, while squat jumps and alternating sprinters also look exactly like what's happening on the field. The whole workout was tough, but it made me feel like a real athlete.
The most important cooling time
Football is very, very hard on the body, which is why it's so important for players to focus on cooling and recovery during training - and for someone like me who goes to the gym regularly.
Savage recommends static stretching, which involves staying still and stretching the muscle to maximum flexibility for about 45 seconds, rather than dynamic stretching (which is all about movement). "This will help relax your muscles, lower your heart rate, and has been shown to improve recovery time," Savage says.
I did each for about 45 seconds in the corner of the gym.
- shoulder stretch
- triceps stretch
- standing hamstring stretch
- hip flexor stretch
- butterfly stretch
takeout
While I may never have to grab a pigskin, dodge defenders, and sprint 60 yards in front of millions of screaming fans, it feels good to train like a football player regardless. By the time I finished these moves, I was flooded with endorphins, sweating, and really felt like I'd had a well-balanced, full-body workout.
Savage says this routine inspired by professional athletes translates surprisingly well into everyday life. Any good workout, he says, is training in the gym for everyday things, whether it's throwing a football or climbing stairs.
"In order to be efficient in these movements, you have to train like this," he said. "You're not always lying there doing bench presses, but you're bending over to get something, hinge your hips, and then reach up. When you do that, that's lunging, pressing, torso rotation. Functional movements are what the game is about name."
source:
Teddy Savage, Certified Fitness Trainer, National Head Trainer at Planet Fitness
Research reference:
McGowan, C. J. (2015). Warm-up strategies for sports and exercise: Mechanisms and applications. sports medicine. doi:10.1007/s40279-015-0376-x.
Oplett, J. (2018). Acute effects of dynamic stretching on muscle flexibility and performance: an analysis of current literature. sports medicine. doi:10.1007/s40279-017-0797-9.
