Triple Extension Movements for Football Using Strongman Training
By
Josh Bryant
When you watch the world’s strongest man contests on television, it should be
obvious that these athletes are not only aggressive, fast, explosive, athletic,
and flexible, but they have a great anaerobic threshold. These amazing athletes
are intense and psyched up—two characteristics that can be found in good
football players. Most textbooks won’t teach you to train athletes this way, and
many “experts” won’t touch the subject. Dr. Maxwell Maltz has words of wisdom on
this topic—“Any new knowledge must usually come from the outside, not from the
‘experts’ but from what has been defined as ‘inpert’.” According to Dr. Maltz,
an “inpert” is someone who develops knowledge outside the prescribed boundaries
of a given science.
The Wright brothers weren’t aeronautical engineers but rather bicycle
mechanics. Maltz was a plastic surgeon who developed psycho cybernetic
techniques to heal his patients psychologically after they had been healed
physically. Personally, I have learned from the experts and it was beneficial,
but I remain an “inpert.” To be on the cutting edge, you must at least attempt
to be an “inpert.” If we don’t develop new techniques, we will get the same
results from doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different
result—the definition of insanity.
The body has three energy systems that it uses to carry out life’s functions.
The first is the immediate system, which lasts zero to three seconds (ATP and
CP). Shot putting is an example of the immediate system. The anaerobic
glycolysis system, which lasts four to 50 seconds, is used for any explosive
activity that uses glycogen as fuel and takes longer than four seconds but less
than 50 seconds, such as a 300-yard sprint. The last energy system is the
oxidative system, which lasts more than two minutes, such as an endurance
activity like a 5K run. All of these systems can be enhanced using Strongman
training techniques, especially the immediate and anaerobic glycolysis systems,
which are most important for football.
Strongman, as a competitive sport, requires absolute strength, dynamic
strength, lactate threshold, flexibility, core strength, powerful hip extensors,
and a strong posterior chain. Powerlifting is generalized as purely absolute
strength, the object being to move the most weight possible, regardless of time
or any other factor. Olympic lifting is classified as speed strength, meaning
the speed of muscle contraction or strength exhibited with speed. Bodybuilding
is seen as muscle hypertrophy, a scientific term for the growth and increase in
the size of muscle cells. Let’s explore a hybrid that accomplishes all three
safely and effectively!
Many people subscribe to the belief that the only way to lift explosively is
through Olympic lifting. When performed with sound technique, Olympic lifts are
great for building explosive power. Many elite athletes efficiently use Olympic
lifts. Louie Simmons at Westside Barbell has advocated a speed day using the
dynamic method of training with weights at 50–60 percent of one’s max. However,
he still puts maximum force on the bar.
Joe DeFranco, a top sports trainer, says, “The truth of the matter is that
any lift can be explosive! By incorporating the dynamic effort method with
submaximal weights into your program, you can turn any lift into an ‘explosive’
lift.” Joe goes on to explain, “By training with weights that represent 50–60
percent of your 1RM (one rep max) in a given lift, science has proven that the
weight is heavy enough to produce adequate force yet light enough to produce
adequate speed. And we should all know that speed X strength = power.”
Dr. Fred Hatfield, co-founder of the International Sports Science Association
(ISSA) and author of numerous books on training, devised compensatory
acceleration training (CAT.) In layman’s terms, CAT is lifting with maximum
force but with a submaximal load, usually 60–80 percent of a 1RM. Hatfield held
several world records in the squat in the 1980s, including a 1014-lb squat at a
body weight of 255 lb in the over 45 years of age division. Rarely would he go
over 800 lbs in training, but he would put maximum force into the bar.
All these methods are great ways to lift explosively without directly using
any Olympic variations. Many strength coaches will argue that while these are
explosive movements, they aren’t triple extension movements. A triple extension
movement is the extension of the ankles, knees, and hips. The extension of these
three joints occurs in most athletic movements. Triple extension is obviously
important for football, and many strength coaches and trainers believe that
triple extension can only be worked through snatches, cleans, and Olympic
variations. Obviously, if performed properly, these are great ways to build
explosive power with triple extension movements. However, how often are these
lifts performed properly in a high school group setting or even a college one?
Not very often. The risk of injury is high, and the amount of weight lifted is
often a fraction of what the athlete could use in some of the traditional power
movements. It takes the best Olympic lifting coaches in the world years and
years to make an athlete technically sound. Think about that!
The jump squat, assuming the athlete has the strength level, is a simple and
effective triple extension movement and a great warm up for Strongman events.
Strongman events are great for football. Most college programs are now
implementing them in one form or another, but they aren’t part of the core
philosophy yet. Ten years ago, this would have been taboo, so the pendulum is
swinging in the right direction.
If properly implemented, the use of Strongman events in a football training
protocol is a superior method for an average or elite athlete to develop
explosive power using triple extension exercises. Olympic lifts can be tedious
and take years to execute properly. Eastern block Olympic lifters, routinely the
best in the sport, begin training as early as age five. With technique being a
critical component, most high school kids learning to Olympic lift correctly
must start off using just the bar or a broomstick. They never develop any
strength or explosive power. In some cases, athletes are prematurely given the
green light to go heavy and often get injured in the process. Olympic lifts must
be broken down and analyzed microscopically and therein lies the problem. This
teaches athletes to concentrate more on form than on attitude and the amount of
weight they can or should be using.
Strongman training encourages athletes to be aggressive, focusing on “kicking
butt” rather than perfecting technique, which is similar to a game situation.
Very few high school football players are “fired up” to do Olympic lifts, but
most do look forward to and enjoy Strongman training. These training techniques
allow athletes to focus on being aggressive. Too much aggression in Olympic
lifting will destroy technique.
Strongman training has obvious benefits. Building explosive power through
triple extension is one of them. Other examples of triple extension movement
exercises include 25-lb plate throws, keg throws, keg rolls, Atlas stone
carries, keg loads, and tire flips. Basically, any loading or throwing event
will qualify.
According to Bob Jodoin, strength coach and ISSA master trainer, “With stone
lifting, you start with your knuckles on the ground and finish at triple
extension. The loads and leverages are different, however, and this plays well
into the concept of dynamic, real world training. Good stone lifting technique
emulates the perfect football tackle.”
Does a snatch emulate a perfect tackle? Triple extension of the hips, knees,
and ankles trains a football player to put maximal force into the ground in a
shorter period of time. Is the best way to train this triple extension with a
barbell or variously shaped Strongman objects? Football opponents move and are
all shaped differently, making Strongman training more relevant. If done in a
team setting, Strongman training gives athletes a chance to compete and gives
coaches a chance to coach as they would in a game without having to break down
every small detail.
Technique is important and needs to be coached in Strongman training.
However, it is much simpler than teaching proper Olympic lifting technique to an
average athlete. I know people who have never competed in a Strongman contest
win their first contest without touching the implements in training. Obviously,
it is fairly easy to learn these techniques. To my knowledge, this has never
occurred in Olympic lifting or even in powerlifting, its less technical cousin.
“It’s like game day every time we do it,” says Ken Mannie, head strength and
conditioning coach at Michigan State University, speaking about team Strongman
workouts. “It puts pressure on the players and forces them into truly
competitive situations—more than weight room sessions and scripted workouts ever
could.”
Players can compete against each other as individuals or be divided into
teams. Relay events in such events as tire flipping are very competitive and are
a lot of fun. These team relays can be varied in terms of events, distances, and
time. Variety is great and helps prevent athletes from becoming mentally stale.
Mike Golden, the director of strength and conditioning at East Carolina
University, believes Strongman techniques for football are superior because “the
physical benefits are beyond reason. To me, it’s the best way to train for
football.” Multi-joint movements in conventional lifting are great, but how
often will an opponent stand still? Will his weight shift? A keg filled with
sand shifts nicely!
“Functional training” is a buzzword within the strength and fitness
community. What strength training system is more functional for a combative
sport such as football than being able to move fast with heavy weight? This is
true functional training for football.
“It’s irregular lifting, which makes it closer to football movements than
ordinary weight training. It makes the body perform when it’s not in a perfect
line, so tendons and joints get stronger. And just like in football, a player is
forced to use his whole body,” argues Mike Golden.
Compare the starting position in a tire flip and the starting position in a
clean. The tire flip starts with the shoulders on the tire, the feet shoulder
width apart, the chest over the tire, and the back arched, similar to a
four-point stance. As the athlete lifts the tire up and gets triple extension,
he will push the tire downward as hard as possible like a bench press. This
mimics extending an opponent on to his heels and pushing him to the ground. An
athlete gets triple extension with a clean, but even if the athlete jerks the
weight, it is not nearly as sport specific as the triple extension of pushing
over a heavy tire.
I could give other examples of the biomechanical superiority of Strongman
training, but world renowned strength coach, Joe DeFranco says it best: “The
beauty of Strongman training is that there’s no one way to perform the
exercises. Athletes usually end up improvising to complete the event. The tire
doesn’t always flip over the same way. The sled doesn’t always glide easily over
the surface. The awkwardness of these events builds true ‘functional’ strength
from head to toe. This enables the athlete to strengthen muscles that are nearly
impossible to strengthen with traditional training.”
Olympic lifting is great for developing competitive Olympic lifters and for
some elite athletes. However, Olympic lifting fails to duplicate the movements
in football in any true way, and the risk to benefit factor is extremely great.
Strongman training is very similar to actual football movements and will build
legitimate transference strength. Strongman training develops every type of
strength. In a future article, I will expand on other Strongman training
techniques—not just triple extension ones—that will help your football players.
Josh Bryant works as a strength and conditioning coach at Kennedale High
School in Kennedale, Texas, and as a personal trainer. He received his
bachelor’s of arts degree from Cal State University–Northridge. As a teenager at
275 lbs, Josh won the USAPL Teenage Nationals with a 1,824-lb total in only his
third full meet. He was also ranked #1 by Powerlifting USA for Teenagers in 2001
with a 727-lb squat, a 512-lb bench, and a 1835-lb total. In 2003, he became the
youngest person to bench press 600 lbs raw in powerlifting history at the USPF
Texas Cup in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit
www.joshstrength.com.
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