College Football Workout Program

By Franco Ruggiero

In today's game of college football, the off-season is no longer a time to just sit around, party, and enjoy the luxury of doing absolutely nothing. College football players today are basically at work year around. They watch game films, do speed drills, conditioning and definitely weight train.

In fact, the weight room is probably the most important part of their off season training regimen especially from February to June, before the incoming freshman arrive and double sessions start up once again. Many people associated with the game of football believe that championships are won during the season but made in the off-season. The work done in the weight room helps tremendously at getting teams to the National Championship.

The work that college teams do in the weight room is taken very seriously. In years and decades past, off-season weight training was considered somewhat of a foreign concept and not taken too seriously by many college coaches and college players. Now the work in the weight room along with many teams enforcing a strict diet has been broken down and analyzed piece by piece, exercise by exercise to help college athletes excel and succeed expectations on the football field.

Football is About Explosive Power

Football itself from a physical stand point is a game of explosion, power, and leverage. When two players meet head on in the open field, the size of each player doesn't matter because the lower man will always win. So, you can either lie some out or get laid out yourself.

Olympic Style and Core Strength

Typically college exercises that football players do are the Olympic style and core strength lifts. These consist of the bench press, power clean, dead lift, squat, push press, hang clean, and clean and jerk. Now don't get me wrong there other exercises done to compliment and help maximize the affects of the ones that were just listed. These exercises are done to generate maximum explosion and leverage in minimal amount of time, which is basically what power is. The equation for power is P= Strength x Speed.

Developing Power

For a college football player, developing power is the most important thing when weight training is improving power. Football on the collegiate level is a game that consists of much more talent and speed with bigger, stronger, faster and more agile athletes competing against each other than high school or Pop Warner level football. So doing these types of lifts (which all involve explosion to perform the movement) enhances power.

The element of explosive power is used in just about every aspect of football. Whether you are a lineman in the trenches, a linebacker attacking the line of scrimmage or a receiver who has to create separation from a defensive back, explosive power is a necessary tool for gridiron success, especially on the collegiate level. Think of it like this: basically a football player will either win or lose his one on one battle on the football field within one to two seconds - which is the same amount of time it takes to perform one repetion of a set of power cleans.

That's how fast the game is and it shows football players must use their time in the weight room developing that explosion,so they can win their own individual battles. The more individual battles the team wins, the better their chances of winning the game.

An example of a college football weight training program:

Monday- Upper Body

Bench Press – 5 sets – 6 reps, 6 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, 2 reps
Incline Bench Press – 5 sets – 8 reps, 6 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps
Standing Push Press – 4 sets -6 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps
Bent Over Rows – 4 sets – all 6 reps
Skull Crushers – 3 sets – all 6 reps
Standing Dumbbell Curls- 4 sets – 8 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps, 6 reps
Dumbbell Shrugs – 4 sets - failure

Tuesday – lower body/abs

Hang Clean – 4 sets – 6 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps, 2 reps
Squat – 5 sets - 6 reps, 6 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, 2 reps
Dead Lift – 5 sets – 8 reps, 6 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps
Front Squat – 4 sets – 6 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps
Lunges – 3 sets – 8 reps
Leg Curls – 4 sets – 8 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps, 6 reps
Behind the Neck Barbell Calf Raises – 4 sets – 8 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps, 6 reps
Calf Raises against the Wall Using Bodyweight as Only Resistance – 3 sets- failure
Weighted V crunch – 3 sets – all 10 reps
Trunk Twist – 2 sets – failure
Weighted Decline Crunch – 4 sets – 8 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps, 6 reps

Wednesday – off

Thursday- Upper Body Day #2

Incline Dumbbell Press – 5 sets – 10 reps, 8 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps
Bench Press – 5 sets - 10 reps, 8 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps
Seated Military Press – 4 sets – 6 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps
Lat pull downs to front – 3 sets – all 6 reps
Pull-ups – 5 sets – failure
Close Grip Bench Press – 4 sets – 6 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, 2 reps
Weighted Dips – 4 sets – 8 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps, 6 reps
Barbell Curls – 4 sets - 10 reps, 8 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps

Friday – Lower Body Day #2

Traditional Power Clean – 4 sets – 6 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps,
Snatch – 4 sets – 4 reps, 4 reps, 3 reps, 2 reps
Box Squat – 5 sets – 8 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps
Dead Lift – 3 sets – 8 reps, 6 reps, 6 reps
Leg Extensions – 4 sets – 10 reps, 8 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps
Barbell Calve Raises – 3 sets – 10 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps
Weighted Leg Lifts – 4 sets – all 8 reps
Trunk Twist – 1 set – failure
Medicine Ball Sit Ups – 4 sets – 8 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps, 6 reps

Heavy Means Chance For Injury

The number of reps are low because your whole purpose is to build power. We aren't training to look sexy on the beach. Make sure you have a spotter and use proper technique when performing this workout or any of these exercises. You will be going heavy almost every time, so the risk of injury will be high. This football workout program is an example of what type of routines college football teams are hard at work performing during the off-season. Grueling is a huge understatement to describe this program. But that is the sacrifice teams make to make it to the NCAA Championship in January for the coveted Sears National Championship trophy.

Comment from Reader...

When talking about your physique from lifting for football it is important to note that your appearence is 75 percent based off of your diet. The reason why alot of football players look bulky and almost fat is because they have the whole "get big fast" attitude. If a football player can eat right with mostly lean protein whole grains and healthy fats, he will look good because in the first stages of lifting he will lose body fat and gain muscle. My point is,keep your diet controlled and clean and you can be powerful and look great too.

Franco Ruggiero is a fitness expert based in New Jersey. His major in college is Exercise Science and he supplements his lifitng with Pure Protein bars, Protein Plus Bar, Nitrix CEM3, MuscleTech Thermogain, 150 caps, Extreme Body RTDs , and ANAVOL Volumizer. Visit this page to sign up for low-cost, one-on-one personalized fitness advice from a Campus Men trainer..

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