Professional athletes must be among the most fit and athletic people in the world. However, in no sport does that mean packing on muscle quite like it does in the NFL. While there’s no comparison chart available, it’s safe to assume that, apart from sumo wrestling, the average weight of an NFL player surpasses all other sports. And that has everything to do with weightlifting.
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Hitting the weight room is one of the most important non-football activities in a player’s life. The muscle mass and physiques of some NFL athletes today are incredible. We’re talking Greek god levels. But that doesn’t happen without hard work and proper guidance. That’s why nearly every NFL team employs a group of strength and conditioning coaches to keep its players on track with their bodies.
But there are 12 months in a year, and an NFL player does not continue on the same workout regimen for all 12. Of course, there are different techniques and goals depending on where we are in the NFL calendar. Surely NFL players can’t be lifting weights during the season as often as they do during the offseason?
NFL do most of their lifting during the offseason
That’s right, NFL athletes don’t lift as much in-season as they do during the offseason. It comes down to the body’s need to recover after the high-intensity workouts that NFL players put in.
During the offseason, players spend more time in the weight room than at any other point in the year. This is when they not only sharpen their grasp of the playbook and refine technical skills but also focus on bulking up, adding muscle, and becoming stronger, tougher versions of themselves on the gridiron.
And while there are over 22 positions on a football field, nearly all of them require strength in one area of the body or another.
How do NFL players train in-season if not weightlifting?
The reason for the differing regimens in-season and during the offseason is that players have different goals. During the offseason, they’re trying to increase their muscle mass and build strength, so they work out more and focus on exercises that will help in that area.
However, during the season, it’s all about maintenance. A 16-game season was already tough enough on these guys’ bodies, but now with 17 games and an additional playoff game, maintaining is even more crucial.
Players need to put themselves and their bodies in a good position by the time the season starts. Because after that, it’s all about trying to retain all of the additional muscle and strength they worked on gaining during the offseason.
Different NFL positions require different workouts
As we mentioned, there are a lot of different positions in the NFL. More than perhaps any other sport. And those positions all have different responsibilities, which require them to build their bodies in different ways. For example, for a quarterback like Tom Brady, who relied almost solely on his short-area quickness, his workouts were all about high-intensity band exercises.
Meanwhile, a hulking running back like Derrick Henry needs a much more comprehensive weightlifting regimen. Henry’s schedule includes one day for lower body power, one for upper body strength, one for speed and agility, one for full-body strength and conditioning, and then another for recovery and increased mobility.
