52-Week Football Training: Part 6

By Ben Cook

Thanks to an agreement with Human Kinetics Publishing, NFLHS.com is proud to present 52-Week Football Training, a book that provides the conditioning plan you need to maximize football-specific physical development and motivation. Players can gain the perfect balance of power, speed, and agility by implementing this proven in-season and off-season training plan.

Conditioning coach Ben Cook, who has worked with 27 players that went on to the NFL, includes more than 160 photos showing correct technique and nearly 200 exercises and drills.

After taking a week off in early May, we begin phase 4. Depending on the college or high school you attend, your break may occur during a different week. The break in the workout schedule should correspond to your particular academic calendar. This eliminates the possibility of having to miss to many days of working out. Phase 4 returns to what was initiated in phase 2 - a gradual increase in intensity with an eventual decrease in exercise volume. This phase of the program produces the highest potential for athletic power. This seven-week phase flows into phase 5 with no break, creating a 14-week period of structured work before the in-season period.

This phase, like phase 2, will increase the nerve activity and excitability. Muscle mass will increase during this phase, but less from a fatigue-related response and more from the load increases planned during the exercises.

The exercises during this phase consist of core lifts and supporting and assisting exercises. We change the supporting exercises in this phase from single-joint exercises to more multi-joint exercise. You will use less cable and machine resistance. You will also make a progression to primarily free-weighted resistance and more power-producing techniques. The order of exercises works the larger muscle groups first followed by the smaller muscle groups.

During this phase the style of repetition is less strict. Perform each repetition with good form to avoid injury. You can incorporate more speed into the movement so that you can use higher resistance. As you move from phase 4 to phase 5 you are pushing with everything you have to move the resistance while maintaining good form.

Execute the repetitions in this phase with a pausing tempo. Although you can perform some repetitions without pause, as the resistance begins to cause fatigue, pause for an instant in a locked-out position to allow momentary recuperation. This will help ensure that each repetition is powerful.

Conditioning during this phase is much the same as the conditioning in phase 2 - you can choose additional running and conditioning activities to provide more movement information for your sports skills. The progression of running workouts during phases 4 and 5 is more subtle than in phase 2.

In weeks 24-30, do your running and conditioning four times per week with these emphases:

As in phase 2, I begin to incorporate more agility work in phase 4, eventually replacing interval spring altogether with agility drills in phase 5. You can perform these drills at high speeds with little rest to produce good cardiorespiratory benefit. I reduce the workload from four days per week to three at week 30 to help boost recovery from workout to workout. This also helps to enhance power production, which coincides with work performed in the weight room. Thus, the plan for week 30 (and into phase 5) includes the following:

Find more information about the book 52-Week Football Training by clicking here.

From 1990 to 1994, author Ben Cook was the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the University of North Carolina (UNC) football team, where his assistance helped 27 players reach the NFL. He is currently the strength coach for the Tar Heel basketball team, one of the nation's top programs.