A few articles have been appeared dealing with the exercise programs used by some professional football players. They show the athletes doing exercises such as the tire lift and flip (tractor tire weighing 115 pounds) pushing a 400 pound wheelbarrow up a hill, hitting the tire with a sledgehammer, running while dragging the tire behind you and so on.
According to the articles, some of the workout is related to MMA workouts, some to crosstraining and with all work focussed on core and power endurance training. Also, the workouts are designed to simulate, in an amplified manner, the types of movements and muscles the player requires for his position. Does such work get them ready for the season?
The answer to the question of whether such workouts prepare the athletes for playing is equivocal. On the one hand, such workouts are great for conditioning and can really get the athlete in good physical shape. On the other hand, such workouts, but even though they use some of the same muscles as are involved in game skills, they do little to improve skill execution.
In comparison to a player who is in relatively poor physical condition, such workouts will enable the player to perform up to his abilities and to perform for longer periods of time. Thus they should be able to do as well at the end of the game as at the beginning.
However, because these workouts are general in nature, they belong in the general conditioning period, better known as the general physical preparation period (GPP). This period should precede specialized work which should be the emphasis in the pre-competitive period. This means that the workouts prior to beginning competition should duplicate or come close to duplicating what occurs in game play.
Specialized work in this case means that most of the exercises should duplicate the same neuromuscular pathway (technique) as involved in the competitive skill, develop strength in the same range of motion as exhibited in the competitive skill and duplicate the same type of muscle contraction regime.
Execution of such exercises, which are also known as dynamic correspondence exercises, will have a great affect on enhancing execution of the game skills. These are the key exercises that an athlete should do to improve player performance. General conditioning exercises as in these workouts, only create the base upon which specialized exercises can be done.
The exercises described in this article are very difficult to say the least. But difficulty does not equate to better performance. They will enable the athlete to play well but this does not mean that he will be capable of playing better than he did in previous years or as good as he is capable of playing.
For more information on specialized — dynamic correspondence — exercises read Build a Better Athlete or any one of the books in the Explosive series.