My son has been doing alot of lifting during the winter. What do you consider the best lifts for football? What is a good max? (bench, squat, deadlift)

Personally I like cleans, it builds your hips and just the motion works on explosion at the hips and legs which transfers to tackling or running on the football field.

For football the best lifts are: Bench, dead lift, squat, and clean. These are the lifts he should be concentrating on.

 

As for maxes, it depends on his size and body frame.

By far, clean is the best lift for football. It is almost identical to the motions made in a game situation. You build your legs, arms, back, and shoulders, as well as significantly improve explosiveness. A good secondary lift are dumbell punches, especially for O-linemen.

Squats and Cleans when they are doen correctly. Form is everything. It seems like players these days are only worried about weight, but if you have good form thats what carries over to the field and the weight takes care of itself.

 

Good formed Repetition, mot weight,

Yoter

There are a thousand different philosophies to what lifts are good for football and what lifts are not. You need to do a lot of research on your own to find out what is good and what isn't. Coming to this board won't help you much. Good luck.

Bench, Dead Lift, Squat, Clean

I think one lift that helps a lot but isn't mentioned much is jammers. The jammer machine is designed strictly to improve explosivness and the ability to explode is everything in football. I don't know why a lot of programs don't put much emphasis on jammers.

I think one lift that helps a lot but isn't mentioned much is jammers. The jammer machine is designed strictly to improve explosivness and the ability to explode is everything in football. I don't know why a lot of programs don't put much emphasis on jammers.

Jammer? what's it like?

Incline is better than bench. think about, a lineman trines to get under his opp. and pushes upward"IE: INCLINE"

 

Anything that builds fast twitch fibers, so that means no jogging, because that builds slow twitch fibers. Lots of short sprints with quick cuts.

There are a thousand different philosophies to what lifts are good for football and what lifts are not. You need to do a lot of research on your own to find out what is good and what isn't. Coming to this board won't help you much. Good luck.

 

Agreed!

 

In a football game, how many times is a lineman pressing away from his body with his back against a support system? Never. The ONLY thing a bench press is good for is confidence. "How much you bench?" is the most popular question in any weightroom, and the better your answer, the more impressive it sounds.

 

I could argue the same thing for squats. How often do you put a guy on your shoulders and lift him up and down in a "slow" motion.

 

 

 

Dont get me wrong, strength is VERY important, but if a guy concentrated on cleans and explosive power lifts, he will be ready when fall comes along.

I think the clean is the best lift. What use does the dead lift have as far as being a football lift?

I think the clean is the best lift. What use does the dead lift have as far as being a football lift?

 

 

I think that some lifts that football players will help other lifts that they do.

 

 

Having a strong core (squats, deadlifts, ab work, etc) will help your explosive lifts. In order to enhance your "football specific strength" you must develop your core with addional lifting.

 

 

ALL lifts in general are also going to give an athlete a stronger frame (muscle structure, tendons, etc) - thus preventing injury.

It also depends on what position your son plays, for example cleans: If your son is a lineman, he will get more use out of doing power cleans, but if he is a db, wr etc he should be doing hang cleans. Variety is the best thing in all reality, within 4 weeks the body gets used to doing whatever you are lifting, even if you put on more weight you actually become weaker, sounds counter-intuitive, but it's the truth. Mix up bench with incline and dumb bell bench, regular squats with box and front squats, etc. As a side note, another good lift that works explosiveness that hasn't been mentioned is overhead jerk.

Curls...