52-Week Football Training: Part 4

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.

Phase 2: Winter Workouts

Phase 2 begins during the second week of January and continues through the third week of March, when spring ball practice begins. The progression of this phase gradually carries you from the hypertrophy stage of the periodization model toward a power stage. At the end of this 10-week phase, you perform tests to measure physical improvements. The battery of tests is similar to those administered by pro scouts during their scouting visits.

The basic purpose of this phase is to increase gradually, over a period of weeks, your level of nerve activity and excitability. Muscle mass will continue to increase, but less from a fatigue-related response than from the load increases planned during the exercises.

During this phase, the progression toward power is subtle; the decrease in the number of repetitions moves from eight to six to five to four, and finally to a single repetition near test time. Some may argue that this approach provides less of a shock to the neuromuscular unit, thus resulting in less power potential. My athletes, however, have gained the best results performing with this stair-step descent in repetitions. I feel that the success of the program depends on close supervision by the strength coach.

The exercises during this phase consist of core, supporting and assisting exercises. The supporting exercises include more multi-joint exercises (for example, flat dumbbell fly rather than flat dumbbell press) than in phase 1. This swings the emphasis from individual muscle fatigue desired in phase 1 to the promotion of intermuscular cooperation, in which several muscular groups work together to produce a powerful movement. You will use fewer cable and machine-resistance exercises. Also, you make a progression toward using primarily free-weight resistance and more power-producing techniques. As in phase 1, you work the larger muscle groups first in the workout and the smaller muscle groups later. You will no longer do the supersets and decreasing-resistance sets.

During this phase the style of repetition is less strict. Perform each repetition intelligently. Use good form to avoid injury. By incorporating more speed into the movement, you can use greater resistance. By week 16, you should be pushing with everything you have to move the resistance while retaining good exercise form.

Execute the repetitions in the phase with a pausing tempo. You can perform some repetitions without pause; however, as the resistance begins to cause fatigue, pause for an instant in a locked-out position to recover for a moment. This helps ensure that each repetition is a powerful one.

Conditioning during this phase is highly diversified and addresses many of your physiological needs. At the same time you must remember the physical requirements of football; don't try to put too much stuff in the workout. Time limitations may prevent you from doing so anyway. In the first weeks of this phase, weeks 7 through 10, the plan includes four running conditioning sessions per week with these emphases:

By week 10 the workouts incorporate more agility work, eventually replacing interval spring entirely with agility drills. You can perform these drills at high speeds with little rest, thus producing good cardiorespiratory benefits. The workload is reduced from four days per week to three:

This reduction in days per week boosts recovery from workout to workout and helps to enhance power production that coincides with work performed in the weight room. You complete the conditioning phase by week 13. On week 14, Monday and Tuesday are void of conditioning to allow you to regain your legs before sprint testing on Thursday of that week.

Note that the academic spring break usually occurs during the second week in March. This break allows added recovery before testing.

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.