Bill Romanowski | Romo

We are almost to the end of June, which means that all you high school ball players have had a month off from school to rest up and have some fun.  But with the high school season only two months away, it’s time to get to work on strength, fitness, and conditioning.  The hard work you put in now during the summer is the stuff that can elevate your game to the next level during the football season.  Or maybe you play another sport, like soccer or la crosse.  For this first month, follow these summer training tips for strength and fitness and then I will provide you some football-specific workouts for the second month of training.  I recommend following these tips 6 days a week, with the 7th day devoted to your rest and recovery.

1. Start Running - Ok, this is very important for your aerobic fitness, your body composition, and your overall athleticism.  Running may be the fastest, most time-efficient, activity to boost your fitness.  I recommend starting your day with a small breakfast such as a Lean1 shake, or fruit and yogurt, or oatmeal, followed with 20 to 30 minutes of running in the morning.   If you can, do most of your running on a soft surface such as dirt trails, grass, or a track to prevent injuries.  You can mix up your running program by incorporating different speeds, such as jogging for 10 minutes, followed by intervals of 30 second sprint/30 second recovery for another 10 minutes, and then another 10 minutes of jogging.  When you finish your running, your muscles are warmed up and limber so use this as an opportunity to stretch very thoroughly.  This will help you feel fresh every day and prevent injuries.  Be sure to immediately follow your daily run with another breakfast, or recovery meal, to refuel your muscle glycogen (the carbohydrate stores in your muscles) and prepare for your next workout.  This time of year, your running program is about your aerobic fitness but soon we will turn to speed and power which is more important for football.  When do you ever see a great player jogging through a play?  Never.  If he did, he sure wouldn’t make my football team.

2. Focus on Your Core - I was 14 when I read an article by Herschel Walker about how he started his strength routines with push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups.  I started doing the same, and I believe several of Walker’s tips in this article were the foundation of my success in high school.  You can do the same by committing to a core routine on a daily basis.  Be sure to work your abs with sit-ups, side-crunches, bicycle crunches, leg raises, and any other ab exercise you know.  Also, strengthen your opposite muscle group with back extensions.  I recommend 50 reps of each of these core exercises.  Then move on to pull-ups, both forwards and backwards.   I recommend 2 sets of 10 for each of these exercises.  As for push-ups, I recommend 3 x 10 for both forwards push-ups and backwards push-ups.  Finally, I also recommend taking an extra few minutes for lunges and squats.  Try 2 x 10 lunges for each leg, and another 2 x 10 squats.  You do not need to use weights and you can do these anywhere.  For all these core-related exercises, remember to focus on your form and technique.  It is more important to execute the exercises in a strong and controlled manner rather than doing a thousand sloppy exercises!

I recommend doing your running and core workouts back to back in the morning and then taking a break for some fun, rest, or work, during the middle the day when its hot.  You can do the next two exercises in the early evening.  If you don’t have a time schedule that lets you split workouts, then go ahead and finish your training straight through. 

3. Sharpen Your Skills - This will vary quite a bit depending on what sport you are playing and what position you play.  For football, it important for everyone to do some passing and ball handling.  Also, you should all be focusing on your agility with fast feet drills, jumping, and backpedaling.  Here is one of my favorite drills: mark off or envision a Line of Scrimmage and a 20 yard line.  Drop back off the Line of Scrimmage into a back pedal as fast as you can for 20 yards.  As soon as you reach the 20 yard line, break as fast as you can and sprint back to the Line of Scrimmage.  Give yourself 25 seconds rest between each set and do atleast 10 sets.  It’s great to sharpen your skills by training with your friends or teammates.  You can help push each other together. 

4. Weight Training - Again, this will vary depending on what sport and position you play.  However, I am confident that most high-school aged athletes can really benefit from hard work in the weight room.  If you have never lifted weights before, please find someone who can show you how to lift properly to prevent injuries and maximize your strength gains.  You need to do lifting exercises to work both your legs and upper bodies.  Squats, leg press, hamstring curls, and calf-raises are incredibly important for your power and speed.  For upper body, you need to do bench-press, a row exercise for your back, and medicine ball lift and throws.  Be sure to follow your lifting with a solid protein recovery shake or meal.  I like Lean1 the best, since it is based on all my favorite aspects of a recovery or meal replacement. 

Use this workout program as a guideline to get your summer training started .  You will build the strength, fitness, and agility you need as a foundation and then soon I will give you some very specific exercises for football season.  I want you to focus on quality over quantity, on speed over distance, and raw power over weight lifting numbers.  You may need to make changes to this program to work with your schedule or other training you already do.  Depending on your current fitness and strength, this training program may not be easy for you.  To really make the strength and fitness gains required to take your sport to the next level, you need to take care of your body by getting atleast 8 hours of sleep a night, taking your vitamins and minerals, and eating a well-balanced diet with lots of protein, fruits, and vegetables.  Drinking, smoking, partying, and neglecting your body will hold you back from reaching your goals - so don’t do these things.  Good luck and please write in if you have any questions and I will do my best to get them answered.

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