On Sunday, the Carolina Panthers will take on the Denver Broncos in Santa Clara, California, to determine who will hoist the Lombardi Trophy. Though many dream of the moment, few will ever get there. But what does it actually take to get there?

“Blood, sweat and tears” is a common answer, but there’s a lot more to an NFL-er’s training than in the days of the Monsters of the Midway, the Steel Curtain or even the Greatest Show on Turf.

From meditation to MMA, today’s athletes approach the game much differently than those from decades past. You might be surprised to see some of the methods currently being used by today’s elite athletes to give them an edge in the modern NFL.

“You can squat and leg press all day, but body-on-body work takes place on a whole different level,” Jacksonville Jaguar Marcedes Lewis said, speaking of his MMA training sessions.

“You can’t describe how real it really is,” Arizona Cardinal Carson Palmer said, explaining what it’s like to put on an Oculus Rift headset with custom made NFL training software.

Interested in more nontraditional NFL training methods? Read the full article online at the Telegraph.

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