Footbal Training Program for the College and Professional Athlete
The proposed program for college and pro athletes is a year-round training plan, as presented by figure 3.2. Since our suggestion is to use it only as a guideline, you should adapt it to your specific conditions, equipment availability, as well as according to own training potential. The complexity of the football training program considers the development of each of the physical ingredients necessary to succeed in this intricate game: strength, muscle size and increased body weight (hypertrophy), power, speed and quickness, and specific endurance.
The proposed exercises are as sport-specific as possible, except for the Anatomical Adaptation (AA) phase, where the intent is to activate as many muscle groups as possible. However, during the Hypertrophy (H), Maximum Strength (MxS) and Power (P) phases, exercises are addressing to the prime movers, or the main muscle groups used in your sport. Therefore, if you’d like to change an exercise make sure that the new exercise is addressing to the same muscle groups as the one you’ll replace.
For maximum efficiency our suggested program is presented in a form of charts, easy to read and apply. Please also observe that Adaptive (AA), Hypertrophy (H), Maximum Strength (MxS) and Power (P) are presented separately. Same is true for the aerobic training (O2), speed and agility/quickness.
Please also note that each training program is suggested for either one, or two weeks periods. For best adaptation, adjustment of the body to the suggested program, you have to repeat the same program every day it is suggested in the weekly schedule. For instance, if strength training is suggested twice a week, for two weeks, it means that same program has to be repeated in each of the days that type of training is planned. If the time dedicated to training a given physical ability is not long enough, the adaptation to that work won’t be complete. As a result, your improvement is not going to match your expectations, nor will it properly follow our plan.
The suggested training program should be viewed only as an outline, which you may either follow as is, or you may slightly change, according to your own potential and training facilities / equipment available to you and the hypertrophy phase of the program is position-specific. Since the physiological requirement for each position is quite different from others, the program is suggested for the following three groups of players:
- Group 1: offensive linemen, and defensive linemen
- Group 2: linebackers, running back, and inside receiver
- Group 3: defensive back, wide receiver, quarterback, and specialists
Therefore, for maximum benefit, please follow the program suggested for each specific group you belong to.
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