If there’s one thing I dislike about working out it’s cardio. You’re probably thinking…..this guy is going to give me the same lecture I’ve heard time and time again about how essential cardio is to your workout program. Close. I’ve been around sports my entire life so I’m just going to talk a little about the conditioning exercises and techniques that I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing.

Let me start by reiterating that fact that I really don’t like cardio, unless it’s for a purpose. I’ll explain. I don’t mind running down field to catch a pass or sprinting down the court for a fast break, I just don’t like doing cardio just to do it. I did run track in high school for a year, not sure what I was thinking - apparently I wasn’t.

In this post I will focus on conditioning for football - I will get into other sports in future posts.

Football Conditioning

To get started, it’s important to make sure you’re running the “proper way.” Form running is a very effective exercise used to help develop or improve your running skills. The workout consists of: high knees (10 yards down and 10 yards back), butt kickers (10 yards down and 10 yards back), high jump skip (10 yards down and 10 yards back), stride outs - just like Deion Sanders which is why this is my favorite (20 yards down and 20 yards back), and lastly put it all together and sprint for 15 yards down and back. This workout is great as it effectively dissects the running motion and allows you to work on each individual aspect of the movement.

Read on for more!

Football is a game where you are constantly changing speed, or gears, as I like to put it. You need to be able to give that extra burst of speed at any given moment. As another conditioning workout, go to a nice open space (track, football field, parking lot) and jog out the first 15 yards, then sprint the next 25 yards, and then jog the last 15 yards. It should end up being roughly 50 yards in total to put it into perspective. Do about 10-20 of these depending on your fitness level. This can also serve as a great HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout.

As a football player, you are responsible to cover a lot of ground - end-zone to end-zone, sideline to sideline. A great conditioning workout to help build your endurance is to run 300 yard shuttles. Again an open space (preferably a football field) would be best. Run out to the 50 yard line, touch the line, turn around and run back to the goal line. Repeat that 2 more times. Try timing yourself and work to beat your previous time. If you aren’t in shape, start off slow - trust me, otherwise do 3 or 4 of these shuttle runs to improve your stamina.

Changing direction is a huge part of football which is why shorter speed shuttles are key. Line up on the 10 yard line facing the sideline. Sprint to your right and touch the 5 yard line, then turn, sprint and touch the 15 yard line. Next, sprint and touch the goal line and finally sprint through the 20 yard line. It’s important to focus on planting your feet, opening up your hips, and accelerating in the opposite direction. These movements are a common denominator in almost any sport. Mastering this will set you apart.

Strengthening your reflexes are an important aspect of football. You need to be able to take a hit, and be able to hop up and make a play. Want to change it up a little bit? Start at the goal line and chop your feet, every time you move up 5 yards, drop and touch your chest to the ground. Jump up and sprint 5 yards. Do this every five yards up and down the field.  I highly recommend a verry light meal before performing this one.

Picture 7:30 am on a summer morning in August, birds chirping, grass still wet from last night’s dew, humidity so thick you could cut it with a knife, andfully strapped with football pads head to toe. You know where I’m going with this. Now picture this. Setup 5 stations all around the field. The stations would be as follows: push ups and sit ups (alternate every 10 reps), sled (hit the padded sled and drive it 10-15 yards), back peddle, shuffle, sprint, karaoke shuffle (all in the shape of a box outlines by cones), weave in and out of agility bags, and lastly run through the high ropes (ropes that are preferably elevated off the ground, otherwise draw boxes with chalk on pavement). Do every station for 2 minutes NONSTOP and a 30 second breather in between stations. Don’t worry, you won’t need to utter a word afterwards - this workout speaks for itself.

In the off-season, you should focus more on building stamina, strength, and endurance, while during the season your main goal should be to maintain that - same goes for weight training. If playing football was easy, everyone would do it.