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I'd like to know what gym exercises I should do to get better as a defensive end. The thing is I live in Sweden where American football is a really small sport (smaller than soccerball is in the states) , and because of it the knowledge is...less than satisfying. I've been doubleing as oline/dline and specialteams for the last 2 years, but now im gonna join a team were i'll only go one way at least most of the time and thats why i'd like to specialise.
Ah and please state how many reps and sets I should do of each exercise, that would be really great.
I can't tell you how many reps etc to do. but I know that you want to be strong all over! and you really want to work on quickness. a defensive end needs to have good footwork to get off the line fast and get to the QB and get away from the OLine blocker.
Bench 12,11,9 reps with 65 kg OR dumbelpress 10,8,7 (alternating)
(sometimes) Inclined bench press 13,12,10 50 kg
Cleans 10,10,8 65 kg
Squats 12,10,8 90 kg OR Leg extension 10,8,7 90 kg (alternating)
(sometimes, instead of squats and leg ext) leg press 12, 10,10 140 kg)
Military press 15,14,12 40kg
Dips 12,10,8 bodyweght (90 kg)
(sometimes) Atomic pushups on pilates ball 15,15,15
Crunches with weight discs 15,14,12
One arm rows 10,10,9 30 kg OR Two arm row(in machine) 12,10,10 75 kg (alternating)
Bicep curl 12,10,8 30 kg
Standing calf raises 15,15,14,14,13 80 kg
3-4 times/week
+Speed/leg power drills 2 times/week with the team
Is this a good off season program?
Are the one arm rows enough or should I add the renegade rows anyway? should I add front squats or is standard squats+ leg extensions better?
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First of all, congratulations: You occupy the best position on the field in the greatest game on earth. I'm a bit biased but absolutely nothing compares to the DE slot and it must be occupied by the best all-around athlete on the team. You have to be strong enough to wrestle a 300 lb. man on every down and fast enough to contain fleeing backs or close on a mobile quarterback in a matter of seconds. The D-Line has the FIRST opportunity to make a play and can influence the outcome of a game more than any other position (a grudging acknowledgement to offensive lineman for being almost as influential should probably be inserted here). Cheers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dlineerik
Atm I'm doing the following:
Strengthening your "pushing muscles" is important and bench press is certainly a component of that but it shouldn't be the primary focus. Incline bench is more germaine to linemen and you should be incorporating it into your core lifting schedule. Also, think about rotating some lower repetition sets into your workouts, for example 3X3's, 3X5's and 10-8-6's to increase your strength base and explosiveness. My strength coach incorporated medicine ball training into a lot of our cardio workouts. Just to give you some idea, he would line up 3 medicine balls spaced about 3 yards apart. Start in a 3 point stance over the first ball, on the whistle snatch the ball from the ground and throw it with a pushing motion as far as you can, sprint to the next ball, dive on the ground and recover, snatching the second ball and throwing it as far as you can, etc. etc. ad nauseum (literally).
Cleans, squats, and leg press are incredibly important. All of your power in football comes from your legs and waist. If you don't have that, you have nothing. That said, I can't recommend heavy, low repetition squats and power cleans in good conscience. That's how I screwed up my knees. Be careful with your body, this is just a game. I wouldn't do any weight in power cleans or squats that I couldn't execute 3 sets of 5 repetitions.
Military press is good for building the beach muscles and augmenting "upward" strength and explosiveness, but be certain you are working in a lot of exercises that strengthen the smaller muscles in the back of your shoulder. I used to call it the "rotator cuff series". Use light dumbells or bungees for resistance to lateral rotation exercises, the JOBE series, cokebottles, etc.
Never stop doing dips and push-ups. Both are excellent exercises.
Crunches, glute extensions, leg raises and any other core exercise is totally necessary for overall strength and can help you avoid injury. Never neglect your core.
Upright rows, bench rows, machine rows, rowing machine, cable pull-downs, shrugs, etc. etc. are very important for a number of reasons. One, a defensive lineman needs to be able to explosively PULL and DRIVE his arms in a downward motion as hard as he can push and two, these exercises will prevent problems associated with hypertrophied pectoralis majorae and overtraining the push-muscles.
A defensive lineman needs to have big, well-developed biceps with a vein the size of sausage running down the middle or he will not be intimidating to his opponents. My favorite was always buddy curls: stand facing a teammate of the same approximate strength, you have one EZ-curl bar loaded with a mutually acceptable weight between the two of you. You start with one repetition, hand the bar to your buddy, he does one repetition, he hands the bar to you and you do two repetitions, hand the bar back to your buddy and he does two repetitions, continue in this manner until you have both completely failed. You get a better workout because you are competing with eachother and will not let eachother "cheat" with bad posture or incomplete lifts. Apart from that, preacher curls and dumbell isolation curls are good. These do not have a lot of applications on the field, so this should be carried out the way bodybuilders do it.
It seems like your routine is a tad light on strength building and should focus more on explosiveness and speed.
Good luck and happy hunting. Remember, good players become great players in the off-season.
Great advice from jimboburnsy with just one point of disagreement.
Don't spend so much time on working those biceps for size; it is functional strength you need. He's right about those lifts not having application on the field.
The bigger a man's biceps, the more mass he has on which I as an offensive lineman can dig my elbow either right into the center of the bicep (between the two heads) or deeper into his elbow where the muscle actually inserts. Causes quite a bit of pain and makes it much easier for me to control his entire arm that way.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunil's Dad
Great advice from jimboburnsy with just one point of disagreement.
Don't spend so much time on working those biceps for size; it is functional strength you need. He's right about those lifts not having application on the field.
The bigger a man's biceps, the more mass he has on which I as an offensive lineman can dig my elbow either right into the center of the bicep (between the two heads) or deeper into his elbow where the muscle actually inserts. Causes quite a bit of pain and makes it much easier for me to control his entire arm that way.
I know, I know...
But a workout just isn't a workout if you don't pump the bi's...
First of all, congratulations: You occupy the best position on the field in the greatest game on earth. I'm a bit biased but absolutely nothing compares to the DE slot and it must be occupied by the best all-around athlete on the team. You have to be strong enough to wrestle a 300 lb. man on every down and fast enough to contain fleeing backs or close on a mobile quarterback in a matter of seconds. The D-Line has the FIRST opportunity to make a play and can influence the outcome of a game more than any other position (a grudging acknowledgement to offensive lineman for being almost as influential should probably be inserted here). Cheers.
Strengthening your "pushing muscles" is important and bench press is certainly a component of that but it shouldn't be the primary focus. Incline bench is more germaine to linemen and you should be incorporating it into your core lifting schedule. Also, think about rotating some lower repetition sets into your workouts, for example 3X3's, 3X5's and 10-8-6's to increase your strength base and explosiveness. My strength coach incorporated medicine ball training into a lot of our cardio workouts. Just to give you some idea, he would line up 3 medicine balls spaced about 3 yards apart. Start in a 3 point stance over the first ball, on the whistle snatch the ball from the ground and throw it with a pushing motion as far as you can, sprint to the next ball, dive on the ground and recover, snatching the second ball and throwing it as far as you can, etc. etc. ad nauseum (literally).
Cleans, squats, and leg press are incredibly important. All of your power in football comes from your legs and waist. If you don't have that, you have nothing. That said, I can't recommend heavy, low repetition squats and power cleans in good conscience. That's how I screwed up my knees. Be careful with your body, this is just a game. I wouldn't do any weight in power cleans or squats that I couldn't execute 3 sets of 5 repetitions.
Military press is good for building the beach muscles and augmenting "upward" strength and explosiveness, but be certain you are working in a lot of exercises that strengthen the smaller muscles in the back of your shoulder. I used to call it the "rotator cuff series". Use light dumbells or bungees for resistance to lateral rotation exercises, the JOBE series, cokebottles, etc.
Never stop doing dips and push-ups. Both are excellent exercises.
Crunches, glute extensions, leg raises and any other core exercise is totally necessary for overall strength and can help you avoid injury. Never neglect your core.
Upright rows, bench rows, machine rows, rowing machine, cable pull-downs, shrugs, etc. etc. are very important for a number of reasons. One, a defensive lineman needs to be able to explosively PULL and DRIVE his arms in a downward motion as hard as he can push and two, these exercises will prevent problems associated with hypertrophied pectoralis majorae and overtraining the push-muscles.
A defensive lineman needs to have big, well-developed biceps with a vein the size of sausage running down the middle or he will not be intimidating to his opponents. My favorite was always buddy curls: stand facing a teammate of the same approximate strength, you have one EZ-curl bar loaded with a mutually acceptable weight between the two of you. You start with one repetition, hand the bar to your buddy, he does one repetition, he hands the bar to you and you do two repetitions, hand the bar back to your buddy and he does two repetitions, continue in this manner until you have both completely failed. You get a better workout because you are competing with eachother and will not let eachother "cheat" with bad posture or incomplete lifts. Apart from that, preacher curls and dumbell isolation curls are good. These do not have a lot of applications on the field, so this should be carried out the way bodybuilders do it.
It seems like your routine is a tad light on strength building and should focus more on explosiveness and speed.
Good luck and happy hunting. Remember, good players become great players in the off-season.
my belief is linebacker is the best athlete, and most versatile player on the field. de deserves a lot of respect though.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,309 posts, read 38,782,175 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by renter8319
my belief is linebacker is the best athlete, and most versatile player on the field. de deserves a lot of respect though.
Well, I'm certainly not asserting "unbiasedness", but I will concede that linebackers probably deserve some sort of honorable mention. My gripe with linebackers is that they can be in a position on the field that is completely wrong and is actually tantamount to dereliction of duty and yet still founder into a moment of heroism. Great, you made the stop but you were supposed to be covering the TE who had 90 yards of daylight ahead of him.
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