Football Training with the Powerlifts for High School Football Players

Football Training for High School Football Using Powerlifting

Can you use Powerlifting as your high school football training program? Well, using it as the entirety of your program is a mistake, however, using the powerlifts and their variations is the foundation of any good strength program, especially for football.

Powerlifitng for Football Strength and Speed

Forget gimmicks like parachutes, "strength shoes," or fancy Nike productsfootball speed is built with strength. Always has been, always will be.

Football speed is about strength. How strong you are and how explosive you become because of that strength is what leads to getting faster for football. Football speed is NOT track speed. Re-read thatFootball Speed is NOT Track Speed.

Specifically, you need strength in the hamstrings, glutes and hips.
And, what better way to build these muscles than with the Squat and Deadlift!

Granted, the Bench Press will do nothing for your speed, and, its value for football is not as high as some would make it out, especially when compared with Incline and Dumbbell Incline. However, for overall upper body power, you can and should Benchjust rotate it with Overhead Presses, Inclines and Dumbbell Inclines.

Now, back to speed. As I said earlier, the hamstrings are your speed muscles. Followed by the glutes, hips, and calfs; basically, your entire posterior chain. The Squat and Deadlift build these muscles like no other.

The problem is that people who push the fancy, high-tech products and programs somehow got coaches and players to believe that lifting super-heavy (Powerlifting) makes you slower.

Not only do the Deadlift and Squat, when done heavy and with maximum force, build tremendous speed and strength, the lifts that increase them build speed and strength as well. This is the real key. While a football player always wants to be stronger, he shouldn't get too caught up in numbers.
If you follow a conjugate approach, you'll improve the core lifts and become a better football player. Take a look at some of the best movements to increase the Dead and the Squat:

Box Squats Excellent for increasing jumping ability, explosiveness and speed.

Glute Ham Raises Great for hamstring and glute power

Pull Throughs Build strong hips and Hamstrings

Deadlift Variations Movements like Rack Pulls, Snatch Grip Deads, and Pulls with Chains all work the PC extremely hard but from different angles.

And, the best part is, movements like Box Squats, Rack Pulls, Snatch Grip Deads, Trap Bar Deads, etc can be rotated on your heavy days so that you are constantly setting new records in them, rather than just concentrating on your Squat. Plus, this makes it extremely easy to compete in Powerlifting in the off season, which I encourage all football players to do.

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