Top 11 Exercises for Athletes
By
Steven Morris
Too many athletes develop pet lifts and stick to them no matter what. I’ve run
into guys who I’ve trained with ten years ago, and they’re still doing the same
routine! While we need to rotate exercises constantly to avoid accommodation, we
can’t just add any old exercise in to our regime and hope for the best.
Here are the top 11 movements for athletes. Add them to your rotation and
work them hard.
1. Deadlifts: Deadlifts are the king makers. Before I go on, some
of you may have heard that deadlifting is bad for the back or other such
debauchery. This is plain ole BS. When done properly, the deadlift and its
variations may be the single best builder of strength and speed known to man. If
all you could do was deadlift, you’d be head and shoulders above the guys who
bench and curl ad nauseam. It still sickens me when I hear from athletes who
tell me that their coaches tell them not to deadlift.
Deadlifts are important for several reasons. They build tremendous starting
strength. Many athletes are woefully lacking in the ability to get explosive and
apply strength quickly. Deadlifts strengthen the posterior chain, building power
and strength in the hamstrings, glutes, calves, and the entire back. Like
squats, deadlifts build insane strength in the hips—the seat of power for all
sports. They build slabs of muscle. Nothing will make you grow from your calves
to your traps like heavy deadlifts. The deadlift can be extremely useful for
injury prevention. Some believe that the moderate to high hamstring activity
elicited during the deadlift may help to protect the anterior cruciate ligament
during rehabilitation.
Deadlifts can be used as ME, DE, or moderate repetition exercises. The classic 5
X 5 protocol applied to the deadlift can put more muscle on your frame than most
other exercises combined.
2. Box squats: Box squats and box front squats are essential for
building tremendous leg strength and explosiveness while taking almost all
stress off of the knees. Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell Club, whose club has
done more to popularize box squats than anyone else in America, describes the
benefits of box squatting in one of his articles—“Many trainers have found that
a great deal of flexibility can be developed while box squatting by going lower
than normally possible and by using a wider stance.”
You can isolate all the correct squatting muscles by sitting extremely far back
on the box. By sitting back on the box to the extent that your shins are
positioned past vertical, the glutes, hips, hamstrings, spinal erectors, and abs
are totally pre-stretched and overloaded simultaneously, producing a tremendous
stretch reflex. Box squats eliminate many of the problems encountered when doing
traditional squats. Gone are the knee problems associated with the knees
traveling way past the toes. You’re also limiting the stretch reflex so box
squatting becomes much like a deadlift in its ability to build explosive
strength.
Box squats also teach an athlete to stay tight and explode up using the hips,
hams, and glutes. This is essential for any sport that requires running or
jumping, which is pretty much all of them! Some other huge advantages of box
squatting include less soreness than traditional squats, allowing you to recover
faster and train more often, and there’s no guessing on depth. Set the box to
where you want to go and simply sit back on it. Box squats can increase real
world flexibility. If you widen the stance, push the knees out, and descend
under control, you will develop excellent mobility and flexibility in the legs
and hips. Use box squats for ME or DE movements. If using the box squat as a
speed exercise, it’s best to use bands or chains.
3. Clean and jerk: A few years back, Olympic lifting only
training programs were all the rage. Then they fell out of favor and along came
the anti-Olympic lifting brigade. As usual, there was an overreaction in the
short term and an under-reaction in the long term. The truth is that the Olympic
lifts are still extremely helpful for athletes, and the undisputed king of the
Olympic lifts for athletics is the clean and jerk. It’s a lift that builds
toughness, identifies weaknesses, and requires strength, power, and
determination—all the traits an athlete needs!
The clean and jerk is similar to the deadlift in its ability to point out
weaknesses. Lifting a heavy bar from the ground to over your head requires
strength in the entire posterior chain in addition to the abs, shoulders, and
triceps. If any one of those areas is weak, you will miss the lift.
Some say that they are hard to teach, but I can get an athlete doing cleans in
one session. Remember, the clean and jerk (and just about any other exercise)
does not have to be done with a barbell alone. Using sandbags, barrels,
dumbbells, kettlebells, a stone trainer, a thick bar, or a log are excellent
ways to build real world athletic strength and get around the technique issue.
This kind of lifting can be used to build brute strength and is also excellent
for conditioning and mental toughness.
Grabbing a pair of dumbbells and doing high reps or timed sets of the clean and
jerk is an excellent conditioning tool. I picked up this idea from an old Louie
Simmion’s article, and it’s helped me and many of my athletes get in top shape,
even when the weather prevents us from going outside. Plus, it really helps
build focus and mental toughness. If you’re using the clean and jerk for
strength, stick to singles and doubles. If you want conditioning, go with higher
reps or time your sets.
4. Box front squats: Just as with the Olympic lifts, people went
crazy with training the posterior chain. Yes, it’s supremely important, but many
athletes and coaches went overboard, completely disregarding the front of the
body. Athletes need strong quads for sprinting, jumping, and driving another
human out of their way. Many feared that training the quads at all would lead
them to overpowering the hamstrings. This can happen when the hams are
undertrained, but we can’t allow the quads to become weak either. Any imbalance,
either way, will lead to decreased performance and possible knee injuries.
I always loved front squats and believe they might be better than back squats
for many athletes, especially football players. Having the load held at the
front of the body will build tremendous strength in the core, and the entire
motion is very similar to the motion of blocking. But, most guys I’ve seen can’t
front squat to save their life. They have more bad habits than Artie Lange. They
push the knees way over the toes, they don’t sit back, and they fall forward.
Enter the box front squat. Using boxes at different heights and a soft box
allows the athlete to sit back, stay fairly upright, and drive through the floor
rather than just squat up and down. It does place some of the stress on the
glutes and hams but leaves plenty of work for the quads as well.
It’s especially helpful to do your box front squat with bands or chains. This
will help build amazing driving ability and the power to simply run through
people. Football is not the only contact sport. In soccer, basketball, and
hockey, your ability to get the enemy out of your way en route to the goal is
essential.
Keep the repetitions low when front squatting. Use multiple sets of 1–4 reps, or
use it as your max effort movement and work up to a heavy single.
5. Romanian deadlift: Romanian deadlifts are an excellent
assistance exercise for deadlifts and squats. They build muscle and power in the
hamstrings and glutes and also hit the lower back quite well. The Romanian
deadlift is great for athletes because it’s performed in the stance very similar
to the “ready position” used in so many sports (hips down, knees bent, flat
back…think a linebacker or the position of the body pre-jump).
For many athletes, the Romanian deadlift is a far superior exercise to the
straight leg deadlift. For anyone with a long torso, the straight leg deadlift
can become a lower back exercise and damn near neglect the hamstrings. But,
because of the hip position (traveling backward) and the intense pre-stretch of
the hamstrings, the Romanian deadlift is much better for working the posterior
chain.
Romanian deadlifts can be done as your max effort movement, especially if you do
them in the rack. But their main strength lies in using them as an assistance
exercise for squats and deadlifts. If using them as an assistance movement, go
for 3–5 sets of 3–8 reps.
6. Rows: Too many athletes and lifters focus way too much on the
pressing exercises and neglect the muscles of the back. This will lead to
injuries like rotator cuff tears, pec tears, and shoulder impingements. Worst
than that it will also lead to a crappy bench press.
There are about a billion row variations so pick two or three and put them in
your training program. You can go heavy, for reps, or both. If you’ve been
neglecting your back, you should start off by doing twice as much back work as
chest/pressing work!
7. Side lunges: Most of us simply don’t do enough training on
lateral movements, which I find odd because so many sports are played while
moving from side to side. There are several reasons why most athletes avoid
movements like side lunges. One reason is ego. You use much less weight (much
less) with these, especially at first. And you’ll never be able to slap on
endless 45-lb plates with this movement. Most people just avoid the hit to their
pride. There’s also the pain factor. Side lunges, even with light weight, have
the potential to leave you with damn near injury like soreness, especially if
you aren’t used to doing them.
8. Dumbbell inclines: People hate me for saying this, but I
believe that the dumbbell incline is a much better movement for athletes than
the bench. Obviously, the bench press is a great exercise, but when it comes to
athletes—not powerlifters—the incline rules.
The dumbbell incline much more closely mimics the path taken by the arms in many
athletic movements such as blocking and punching and in many wrestling moves.
The incline is also much better at developing the all important shoulder girdle.
It’s a nice compromise between the overhead press and the bench, allowing an
athlete to hammer the shoulders, pecs, and triceps. For those with shoulder
problems, the incline can be a lifesaver. When I had rotator cuff problems,
benching even super light weights felt like I was being stabbed in the front
delt! However, I was able to continue doing inclines as heavy as I could handle.
When I fixed my shoulder problems, I returned to the bench and was practically
still where I had left off.
The dumbbell incline is also incredibly versatile. You can use it for timed
sets, high reps, or moderate reps. Or you can go super heavy and treat it as a
submaximal movement. If you’d really like a challenge, try doing a one-arm
dumbbell incline. Now, that’s real “core” training!
9. Sandbags: Lifting and carrying sandbags are excellent ways to
“bridge” the gap between the weight room and the playing field. Sandbags are
excellent strength and conditioning tools for wrestlers, football players, and
fighters. They will also help with just about any other sport that requires
strength, speed, and stamina.
Sandbags shift and fight you every inch of the way. They never relent. Picking
up and carrying or shouldering a sandbag feels a lot like wrestling a live
opponent. While all the work in the weight room helps build max strength and
speed, using sandbags will be an excellent compliment to your heavy training.
There are many great resources on sandbag training, but I recommend that you
check out Josh Henkin’s sandbag training course.
10. Prowler:
The Prowler owns all when it comes to conditioning for
sports. It can be pushed and pulled for time, distance, or speed. It can be
loaded with heavy weight or with light weight. See where I’m going with this?
The Prowler is also great because you can use it laterally, which as I said
earlier, most athletes ignore. Most sports are played moving laterally, yet
athletes neglect to train that way.
Use the Prowler as a finishing movement or on a non-lifting day as a way to
condition. Because of the lack of eccentric movement, the Prowler won’t cause
much soreness, which is a huge advantage for athletes. One of the biggest issues
when designing a training program for an athlete is how to give strength, speed,
and conditioning their proper due without compromising any of the elements.
Using the Prowler is simple. Go light for time for recovery and GPP work. Go a
little heavier for sprints and go heavy for strength work.
11. Snatch grip deadlift: Here’s another great movement borrowed from
the Olympic lifting world. I got an email the other day asking why I advocate
using the snatch grip deadlift so much and not other variations.
Well, there are several reasons. However, all variations of deadlifting should
be used.
Why the snatch grip? Snatch grip deadlifts just force you into a lower position,
thus forcing the hamstrings and glutes to work harder. Plus, the movement
benefits the entire back. Whenever you can involve the hamstrings more, the
better off you are for building leg strength and speed! If your hamstrings are
weak, forget being fast.
Pulling from a platform is similar but different. Pulling from a platform or
blocks is great for building starting strength. And, again, you’re pulling from
a much lower position so the hamstrings are being hit hard.
I recommend using straps on a snatch grip deadlift because of the wide grip. But
don’t go crazy wide. I’m six feet, one inch tall, and my index fingers are about
an inch outside of the outer rings on a York bar. I know you’ve probably seen
Olympic lifters use the collar to collar grip, but even when I competed in
Olympic lifting, I didn’t go out this far.
Steven Morris is a personal trainer and strength coach in the Philadelphia
and South Jersey areas and the owner of Explosive Football Training. He has been
lifting weights for over 15 years and has been helping people achieve their
fitness and strength goals for over a decade. Learn more about his methods and
services at
www.explosivefootballtraining.com. Check out his new training manual at
www.explosivefootballmanual.com.
Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength
training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products
and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the
industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit
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