The Home of the Big Man
The Front Squat!
Try doing 5 heavy sets of front squat without a belt and tell me how your abs feel. The should be bulging out of your stomach if you go heavy enough and challenge yourself.
That’s why I love throwing in the front squats in the summer. Check the vid for my reasons!
In the Trenches
Rusty
I see a lot of coaches jump straight into regular back squats, no progression, just jump right in. Here is the truth….your kids aren’t strong enough or have good enough technique for that. I’m going to show you a simple progression that leads up to a back squat that will get your lineman strong as hell!
First up in the Progression is the Overhead Squat!
Yes I said it. the OHS is one of the best bodyweight/barbell squats out there. Now I say bodyweight loosely there. Most of the time you won’t be adding weight unless your lineman are mobile, agile, and hostile. It takes a lot of practice to get good at these. But the first 2 weeks of summer camp I rock out the overhead squats. Check the video below why it’s so important!
In the Trenches
Rusty
Here is the bottom line, I talk and talk about coaches not teaching the squat right especaially football coaches. Everyone wants to put weight on the bar and do quarter squats. It’s one of those things I cringe and cry about every time I see it. So I’m going to give you a little squat variation progresssion. What each squat will do for you at that time and how it helps with progression.
Here is the list of squat variations I use with my lineman as a summer off-season progression
Overhead Squat
Front Squat
Back Squat
Now this is at a high school where I don’t have any boxes and there will be about 4-5 kids at each rack due to size and equipment of the weight room. I will add in a few other squat variations such as….
Zercher squat
Goblet squat
Racked Squat
Box squat
There are a bunch of variations. I will hook you up with some videos and teach the 3 big ones I do for my lineman and why I do them.
The summer schedule for me is only 2 months long I have about an hour to an hour and a half with the kids 3 days a week. So we squat 1 day a week maybe a 2nd light day depending on the recovery of the athletes.
But for now check the video out below and get your MIND RIGHT!
In the Trenches
That seems to be the number 1 question leading into the summer this year. It’s all about the conditioning it seems like. And for good reason. Many, and I mean MANY coaches leave the lineman out to dry when it comes to conditioning. Many coaches especially in high school just have these big guys do 20+ yd sprints over and over again or have them run gassers over and over again. Punish them with more “sprints” for running the longer sprints slower.
That it self is another posts. And we will get to that issue. But first I want to hit you with a question. Do you know what a tempo is? In football this is used a lot in practice. ”Keep the tempo high, I want practice to run smoothly” things like that are said by a lot of head coaches. Well the same is true in the weight room. Not all of your conditioning needs to be done on the field or track running.
Here is my tricky trick for you from the trickster himself. Tempo in the weight room. The lineman won’t even know what hit them.
Here is what I’m talking about. Lets say you have 45-60 minutes in the weight room, You want to get your core work done (squat, bench, deads, cleans, etc…) But you have around 100 kids in a weight room the size of your garage. Here is how you do it. Tempo your sets. This means 2 things.
1st: Tempo the rep it self. This builds work capacity and loaded conditioning. Also builds incredible strength if you use it during any eccentric phases. If you are in a small room and organization is your most important factor. Make EVERYONE do the rep at the same time. You can do this by blowing 1 whistle to stop, and 1 whistle to start. It might be mundane but it will get the results you want.
2nd: Tempo the supersets. That means don’t let the kids stand around and talk. Always give them something to do. Keep them moving. This higher tempo builds work capacity (aka conditioning) These kids will be able to work harder for longer and recover faster. Here is an example of what I’m talking about.
After core work on a lower body day
B1: Bulgarian Split Squats: 4×10 e/ leg
B2: KB Swings: 4×10
B3: Sled March/Plate Push: 4×20 yds
Boom! 4 sets of something like this will WRECK your lineman, and quick. Their legs will be wobbly and their lungs will be burning. Make sure there is no rest between sets. They are trying to get this done as fast as possible with perfect technique. Start the split squats with just bodyweight until they get low enough and don’t get tired as easy.
1 thing I DON’T want you to do is try and add the tempo into their Core lifts. Those lifts are meant for strength. You can superset them but make it something that is for the brain, or recovery. Their focus should be lifting as much weight as they can. Here is an example of a Upper Body day for my lineman here.
A1: Close grip Board Press: 6×3
A2: Banded Face Pulls: 6×20
B1: Hammer Grip battle ropes (waves & slams): 4×25 e/ arm
B2: Modified BPA (band pull aparts): 4×25
B3: Bench press grip push-ups: 4xsub max reps
C1: Neutral grip pull-up holds: 3xmax time
C2: 3 Level push-ups (7 reps at each level): 3x
D: KB Farmer walk: 2 x max lap around building
There it is. An upper body day that will condition and wreck your kids uppers. We cover strength and conditioning along with some prehab work. Make sure the athletes aren’t standing around it will defeat the purpose of the supersets. Give them just enough rest so that they are at about 85% recovered from the previous set.
There is my little trick for ya, a little conditioning outside the field.
In the Trenches
Rusty
Today we are going to take a more holistic approach to our lineman. A little deviance from our daily path. I want to talk/rant about the strength and nutrition of our lineman. You are probably saying well coach thats one heck of a broad spectrum there can you be specific? Hell ya I can!
We are in a nation of weakness now. A nation that used to be a powerhouse both physically and mentally. It’s unreal to me that there are things going on in this world challenging our physicall strength and we can’t answer. MANY MANY MANY middle school and high school kids and even athletes have poor overall strength. The obesity, diabetes, heart disease problems in this country right now are crazy. And yet people want
to blame the others around them. Instead of getting their own strength to change their life styles. Lineman coming into high school not being able to do a push-up, squat, run 1 20 yd sprint. Having a LACK of strength entering into their (for most) first year of sports. You expect to be good without your strength. Think again. If you are a coach or a parent who is on this blog, I want to tell you something. HAMMER IN THE BASICS.
No one cares if their workouts are “cool” if they don’t give RESULTS. So stop looking for the next FAB workout to do with your kids. It pisses strength coaches like my self off when you guys doing things just to look “cool” really? Get the results, that’s all that matters. Strength is a skill all people have to learn, some more than others. Some people have to learn this skill for a life time just to get decent at it. But the BASICS (push-ups, pull-ups, squats, deads, sprints, jumps). Can be mastered and done by ANYONE, yes even a 50lb overweight kid. It takes good coaching and some common sense. And please don’t be “That Guy” who thinks they know it all and doesn’t need help figuring it out. Coaches need Coaches. Strength needs to be learned and mastered, Take your time doing it right!
How do you get strength without nutrition?
It’s an insane thought, but your muscles need nutrients. Crazy to think you build muscles by putting good things into your body. Eating right is the easiest and fastest way to getting stronger. A simple reason I want to talk about this is because I see EVERY kid that comes to me with NO knowledge of what to eat. So here is a little advice coming from a guy who loves food!
Eat what’s on the outside: Meaning eat the things that are on the outside of the grocery store (veggies, fruits, meats, nuts, etc…)
If it has a bright color eat it: Any fruit/veggie with those bright colors are high in vitamins and nutrients.
Take the time: Take the time to make your food. If it cooks in 2 minutes it probably isn’t good for you. Think of the stuff they put in it to be ready in 2 mins. EVOO your self to sleep: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, use this instead of any other butter/lard try getting it in a spray form.
Stop eating FAST FOOD: Not much else to say on that.
Guys here is the bottom line. We as offensive or defensive lineman are already big. I am personally tired of seeing these ex players with huge ass pouches on their stomachs looking as if they just got done giving birth and they have the left over skin from it. Take pride, you guys worked your asses off all your career just to let your self go for the rest of your life. What drives me to get stronger and leaner is that I want to be an example for my kids when they grow up (I don’t have any yet). I want to be an example for my athletes as well, those things drive me everyday.
If you are a athlete who is having trouble with their fat loss/lean out. Here is my advice. Don’t try to much. Stick to one thing and give it time to work. Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes a minimum of 21 days to break a habit. If you have been doing it for your entire life then it will take longer to break. But you have to give RESISTANCE to it. Don’t give in easy, fight for it. Keep your eyes on what’s important. Ya it will suck but FIND THE STRENGTH
All right enough of the doctor phil stuff. Check it out. 2 things we need to get better at. Getting Stronger and tighten up our Nutrition. Get on it!
Also congrats to some of my fellow Wildcats. Jace Daniels and Zach Anderson. Both got invited to rookie camps this weekend. Both are hardworking deserving kids who will dominate this chance they have gotten. Good luck fellas. PoundGreenPound
In the Trenches,
Rusty
So we have reached the conclusion of our speed and agility drills for our lineman. It’s a simple drill that I love that teaches coordination and is hard to do.
I call it the AG Drill. Don’t ask me why it’s the first thing that popped into my head. So what this incorporates is a little power, acceleration, and change of direction. The distance is small so the lineman can go balls to the wall. It’s also a good way to compete.
All you need is 2 cones. Both are 5 yds apart from each other. Your lineman start on 1 end Jump forward and backward OVER the cone and then sprint to the 2nd doing a 5 back through 5. So they are really running 15 yds with direction changes.
A few things to watch. Make sure the lineman get over the cones. They will want to short the back cone by jumping with their feet wide. Make sure they don’t get lazy and do this correctly, it helps with spatial awareness because jumping backwards at 240+ is hard. Also make sure they stay low. Most of the time they will want to change directions standing tall and will sometimes change directions with straight legs (which seems impossible to me, but they do it). To make it more difficult give them certain hands to touch with. I always like using their outside hand because it helps them learn what the outside is haha.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
In the Trenches
Rusty
I want to head into the next few weeks gearing up for you. I have a few ideas rolling on what to pump out as far as infomration but I would love to hear your feedback on this. I am here for you and want to know what I can pump out for you! I don’t like hearing myself talk all the time haha, even though I have a sweet, soft, soothing voice, I don’t like to hear it!
I have already gotten some requests but I would like to see if we can get more.
It doesn’t matter what it is. Life, Lifting, eating, technique stuff for lineman, strength stuff for lineman, strength stuff for you, nutrition tips for lineman, how to pick up a chick as a big guy….I don’t care. Information is what I want to give!
You can drop us a line at our Facebook Fan Page on YouTube and finally on Twitter or hit me up through e-mail jack@steelyardstrength.com
For now check out Arnolds 6 rules of Success……these are words of wisdom and NO EXCUSES!
In the Trenches
This drill does a lot for me. It’s a little longer distance than I will usually do for lineman but it helps with down field blocking or pursuit. It’s the Lateral Resisted sprint. I use a light sled to add resistance.
Here is how this works. The lineman are to keep their shoulders as square to the line of scrimmage. So they have to switch their hips. This does a whole mess of things….1st is mess with their coordination. Naturally they will want to turn their shoulders forward. But Especially as an Offensive Lineman you need to be able to run on angles and keep your shoulders square, unless you want that LB to juke you out! Next this helps work abductors (in this case the inside foot here). This will help with any first step slowness issues.
What I really like about this…is that it’s a change up from just running straight all the time. I feel like for lineman this is a little more applicable running form than the other stuff. Just because our shoulders are and hips are usually never in line when we are attacking! That’s just me though! Let me know what you think! The last of the lineman speed drills, we have 1 more agility drill then moving onto a new series
In the Trench’s
Rusty
