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Upper Body lifts

Upper body strength is crucial in football. It allows you to make plays at a level you couldn’t do otherwise. Whether it be throwing the ball, stiff-arming the defender, jamming a receiver or shedding a blocker, your upper body muscles are what help you make the play once you’re in a position to do so. Here’s some of the best upper body lifts for football. Make sure you consult a physician before attempting any of these lifts and never lift unsupervised:

• Bench press. The holy grail of lifting. It mainly develops your pectoral muscles, along with triceps and biceps, all crucial in pushing motions. Complete this lift by lying with your spine flat along a bench, pressing a bar with a proper amount of weight from just below your pecs to above your eyes with arms fully extended. For a different workout, try varying the width of your grip, as well as weight and reps. Also, bench pressing dumbbell weights allows for proper muscle functionality and equal strength on both arms.

• Military press. This lift can be performed standing or sitting, by lifting a bar or dumbbells from shoulder height to above your head with arms extended. Works shoulder and triceps muscles mainly.

• Incline bench press. Works basically the same as bench press, but with the bench itself set as an incline. This creates a combination between military press and bench press.

• Triceps extension/curls. I include these 2 lifts together because I consider them mutually necessary. Whenever I’m doing curls, I’m also doing triceps extension, which is done by using a triceps extension machine (usually also part of a lat pull down and seated row machine) to pull the bar down, which in turn uses a pulley to raise a stack of weights. Curls can be done with a bar or dumbbells. I have found isolation curls to be helpful in muscle building. These iso curls consist of sitting on a bench, placing your elbow on the inside of your knee and performing curls with a dumbbell by raising the weight from the floor to your shoulder by bending the elbow and flexing the biceps muscle.

• Lat pull down. This can be found in a weight room as a bow-shaped bar attached to a pulley and a stack of weights. Hands should be placed shoulder width apart or farther, and the bar should be pulled down to chest height. This works shoulder muscles, as well as biceps and lat muscles. For variation, try using a reverse, closer grip to work the biceps more.

• Rows. This life has several variations. Upright rows require a bar to be held at waist height while standing, and pulled in a straight line along the body to chin height. Seated rows are found on the same machine as lat pull downs and triceps extensions. It consists of sitting on the bench with feet in place and pulling the special bar to your chest in a rowing motion. Bent rows require placing a knee and hand on a bench with the opposite foot on the ground and an arm hanging with the dumbbell. Look straight forward and bring the dumbbell to your shoulder.

• Butterflies. To be done with dumbbells. Lie straight on the bench as if in the bench press position. Bring dumbbells from slightly below body with arms slightly bent to a position above your chest with arms bent at same angle. Use a safe weight and do reps slowly. Helps build healthy, strong pectoral muscles by stretching them at the same time.

• Wrist/lower arm. Often overlooked when lifting. Having a strong grip allows you to make plays you could not otherwise. You don’t need to buy the grip strengthening things online, they aren’t necessary. Use dumbbells with arms hanging at your side and wrists straight, and curl wrists inwards at a 90 degree angle. Other ways to improve wrist/lower arm strength include laying several sheets of newspaper out in front of you on a table, grabbing a sheet with one hand, bringing it to eye level with arm straight, and bunching it into a ball with that one hand.

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Lower body lifts

Upper body lifts help you make plays in football, but lower body lifts help get you to the place you need to be to make a play. That makes lower body lifts arguably the most important ones, considering that you can’t make a play if you can’t get to the right place to do so. These lifts are some of the ways to get stronger for football and better at football. As always, you must consult a physician before attempting any of these lifts, and never lift unsupervised. Here are my favorite lower body lifts:

• Parallel squat. In the same way that the bench press is the Holy Grail for upper body lifts, so is the parallel squat for lower lifts. The lift consists of placing a bar with weights on the back of your shoulders so it is comfortable and squatting with chest spread, eyes up and feet shoulder width apart until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Do not attempt lifting more weight than you are comfortable with. Do not attempt this lift without proper supervision. It can be a dangerous lift if you don’t do it right. Make sure your physician is OK with you squatting. Other variations of this lift include the box squat, which involves squatting onto a sturdy box seat that is a few inches above parallel. Squats help increase explosive athletic power in your legs by building strength in the quadriceps, glutes and hamstrings. If you have back or knee problems, try using a leg press machine if your physician approves.

• Leg extension/curl. Leg extension machines are a safe way to build powerful quadriceps muscles, and leg curl machines do the same for hamstring muscles.

• Glute ham. This structure found in weight rooms provides the ability to do what looks like a reverse sit-up. It can be done with weights and provides explosive strength in your glutes and hamstrings.

• Calf raises. Builds strength in the calf muscles. Can be done by placing front half of foot/feet on a slightly raised surface with the back half in the air and lowering/lifting self. Can be done with dumbbells held in hands or with a partner pressing down on shoulders for extra resistance.

• Push a car. You absolutely need supervision and physician approval to do this. Have your partner put the car on a flat, safe surface with no other cars around (i.e. empty parking lot). Put the car in neutral and turn it off. Make sure someone is always in the driver’s seat operating the steering wheel and brakes. Get behind the car and push it with back straight, legs bent, and partner in driver’s seat. An excellent alternative to squats if done safely.

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Overall strength lifts

These lifts cannot be categorized into either upper or lower body lifts because they require overall strength, speed of movement, and explosion. As always, you must consult a physician before attempting any of these lifts, and never lift unsupervised. Here are my favorite full body lifts:

• Power clean. Like the squat, this is a dangerous lift if you do not do it properly. Consists of getting in an athletic stance with a straight back over a bar, bringing the bar from the ground along a straight line to about chin level, then moving the arms to get into a front squat. Consult a physician or coach to learn how to do this lift. Power clean and hang clean are 2 of the hardest lifts to do properly, so make sure you are safe.

• Hang clean. Like the power clean, but starting with the bar already at about knee level.

• Snatch. This is a lift that I mention simply because I believe high school athletes should not do it. If you would like to learn how to properly perform the snatch lift, consult a physician and a professional.

• Jammer. Some high schools and gyms have this great machine, which allows the player to start in an athletic stance and perform a jamming motion.

How to gain weight for football

NOTE: These weight gain tips for football are simply things that I’ve found to be successful personally. In no way should they be interpreted as sound medical advice. Consult a physician before making any dietary or exercise changes.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I weighed 150 pounds. Now, as a freshman entering college, I weigh 250. Maybe this can be attributed to a growth spurts, but I haven’t really grown much since then. Here’s some tips that I would give any football player looking to gain weight:

• Work out. A lot. One of the best ways to gain weight for football is to simply get in the weight room and get stronger. Not only will you look better, you’ll perform better.

• Bigger meals, less of them. A lot of guys preach eating small meals constantly throughout the day. Personally, I’ve found eating 2-3 huge meals per day has really helped me gain weight. I skimp out on breakfast, eating maybe a bowl of cereal or a protein bar, especially if I’m about to run. My biggest meal of the day is without a doubt dinner, when I start pushing the limits of how much food I can eat.

• Stay really hydrated. Hydration is a much-overlooked aspect of weight gain. Guys focus on the food too much. Push your water intake to the limit, as well. It’ll help your metabolism, your muscle growth, and your overall health.

• Eat high quality food. All too often guys assume, hey, if I eat a lot of fast food and junk I’ll gain a crap load of weight. Not true. I’ve found that I gain weight faster when I eat high quality, low fat foods. Lots of skinless chicken, fish, and other high protein, high quality food not only helps you gain weight, it helps you do it in a healthy way. It helps you gain the right kind of weight.

• Bedtime routine. When I’m trying to gain weight, I usually consume about 30 grams of protein in protein bars, as well as a crap ton of water, and – pay attention here – a spoonful of peanut butter. That peanut butter is a secret passed down to me by a teammate, and it’s great.

Once again, I have to stress the importance of having a physician’s approval before doing any of these lifts. This is meant as advice and should not be substituted for a physician or coach’s recommendations. I, Chris Jarmon, am not liable in any way for injuries sustained while completing these exercises. Feel free to comment on this post with any other lifts you find helpful.

Questions? Comments? E-mail me at jarmonsports@yahoo.com

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© 2008 Christopher Jarmon