In honor of the Super Bowl on Sunday, I figured why not stay fit for this week with exercises inspired from the football athletes themselves. Of course, we are not going to eat over 4,000 calories and bench press 300 lbs, but there are some exercises we can adapt from these men.
For a football player, or any athlete, the foundation of their workout is strength training. Football players will focus on strength training legs, if they want to improve their kicks, and upper body, to increase general strength. But both strength training and cardio are super important to the success and capabilities of any athlete.
In an interview with Bodybuilding.com, Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots, during the season does strength training (lifts weights) Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. He takes a break from strength training on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but still stays active on Sundays when he is playing in games. In order to improve his conditioning, Brady also does 40-60 minutes of cardio six days per week.
“In the off-season I still do cardio six days per week 40-60 minutes per day but I do more running than in-season,” said Brady. “In the off-season I also switch my weight lifting over to a routine more so orientated toward strength and my sessions are usually about 25% longer since my body isn’t beat up from playing.”
Obviously, we aren’t expected to have a fitness schedule parallel to Tom Brady’s schedule, but one thing we can learn from him: it takes cardio AND strength training to see the results we crave.
Often times I find that women will avoid strength training because we are afraid that we will get muscly. Fear not though ladies, we would have to be strength training like Tom Brady to see results like that!
Photo courtesy of lancetraining.com
