If you believe in exercising and developing strength, there is no reason to go underground. Strength training is a subject that is not whispered about behind closed doors or in dark tunnels. It is a current health issue topic that has value for everyone.
Underground Strength Training ? Radical Change
Often a subculture has radical views, which is one reason why they go underground. Strength training is viewed as radical exercise by some, but the truth is it is just good physical conditioning sense. You can always become a radical and workout with weights for hours every day.
But the average person does not have the time or desire for such an intensive program. What they want is strength training that conditions and tone and provides basic good health.
- Maximum muscle strength related to good physical condition
- Strength endurance
- Muscle Flexibility
- Balance and coordination
Most people who go to the gym aren't looking for a radical underground. Strength training is more a program to create well being and improve general conditioning.
Many want good muscle tone, but not bulging muscles. But there are men and women who need high intensity strength training. If there were an underground group of exercise radicals, they might sign up!
- Athletes in all sports who compete to win
- Bodybuilders who emphasize large muscles
- Weight lifters who need maximum strength to lift the greatest number of pounds
- Exercisers who are advanced and always looking for a challenge for self-improvement
If you joined this group in their underground, strength training would be your passion! You can find more about intensive strength training programs at http://www.strength-training-woman.com/underground-strength-training.html
Underground Strength Training ? Guerrilla Warfare
Political groups often go underground. Strength training is part of their regimen for preparedness. You are not a guerrilla, and you aren't preparing for war. But what you are doing is preparing to become fit. Most of us need to start with the basics.
- Tighten glutes with squats and leg presses
- Strengthen calves with bent knee calf raises
- Target abdomen core muscles with crunches and curls
- Strengthen quadriceps with leg extensions
- Improve posture with back muscle strengthening planks
- Improve hip flexibility with leg lifts
- Strengthen chest muscles with push-ups or bench presses
- Develop arm strength with curls and kickbacks
The rule of thumb is to begin with the larger muscle groups. This way you are doing the toughest exercises before you begin to deplete your body's energy.
If you were one of the radical exercisers underground, strength training would involve an assortment of conventional and unconventional routines that push your muscles to the limit.
But for a daily exercise regimen for the average person, strength training does not require a lot of fancy equipment. It does require an understanding of the muscles in the body.
Strength training is for everyone. There is traditional training done in the gym, or there are the more intense programs that push bodies to the limit. Whichever program you choose, above or underground, strength training equates to being fit for life.
Here is a quick list of facts that you need to keep in mind concerning your strength training for football. It isn't just about how big and bulky you can get - quite the contrary actually.
Bigger muscles are not necessarily stronger muscles o You need to not only develop the size of a given muscle; you need to actually be considering the muscle's strength. That's what it's all about.
o A strong muscle is more than big; -.
o Many a big muscle is torn loose from the joint that it is meant to move. A torn muscle can literally take months, even years to heal fully. Some never do.
You develop tendon and ligament strength by taking your training seriously. Don't attack your weight training like a crazy fool. Take your time. Pay attention to strict form in every rep. Perform your reps slowly and with full control. Haphazardly jerking or throwing the weight up and calling that a successful rep is not only careless; it is a false achievement. Weight training is about far more than just moving the weight from point A to point B. Remember that!
Bulky muscles too often yield decreased speed, agility and finesse. o Especially for wide receivers, defensive backs and tailbacks, muscles need to be specifically trained for bursting power and speed. They have to be able to start right now, stop right now and absorb some seriously unexpected impacts. Football is no game for wimps. It is also not an event for big, slow, overly bulky pigs just because they might be able to bench 400 lbs in a quirky, jerky, off-balance fashion. Be real!
Do yourself and your team a serious favor and ensure that you will be around season after strenuous season to help out. Take your strength training for football very seriously. Slow down while at the gym. Develop your tendon and ligament strength along with your bulk. The end result will be superior, lightening fast, impossible to rip, explosive muscles that have the true strength of a beast! Now that is what you are after.
There are several types of strength training for football to consider. Football is versatile and needs versatility in strength training programs. Here are the types that we will address:
Functional strength training for football Hypertrophy strength training for football Maximal strength training for football Power strength training for football
First, we will define each one and then address how to combine them all into the total athletic package for football.
Functional strength training for football:
Football can really put a hurtin' on your body in a lot of different ways. Your body is twisted, bent, bounced and forced into uncountable positions of unnatural strain. You need to ensure bilaterally symmetrical development while engaging your strength training. That means that you give equal, animalistic (but controlled) effort to both sides of your body. You want symmetrical development, not lopsided malformation.
You also need to ensure that you never get so wrapped up in the development of your prime movers (quads, biceps, pecs, etc.) that you neglect your supporting muscle (hamstrings, triceps, calves, posterior delts, lower trapezius, etc.). The message here is that you must maintain balance. If you fail to develop your body in a symmetrical, holistic fashion, you are begging for injury.
Hypertrophy Strength Training for Football
Don't let the hard-to-pronounce name fool you; an increase in muscle fiber size makes up for the improvement and increase in the muscle mass. This is the type of strength training for football that everyone thinks of. You get to concentrate on muscular growth and sheer bulk. Remember that even linemen should only dedicate roughly half of their strength training to hypertrophy strength. More than that and you are entering into the slow zone - the zone of painful injury because you lack agility and speed.
Maximal Strength Training for Football
In a nutshell, this refers to the development of cross sectional areas of each muscle. It is responsible for explosive power. You have to lift maximal loads in order to promote the development of these "fast twitch" motor units. Strength and power are close cousins. When you are performing maximal strength training, you explode into the lift. You fire a burst of energy into the weight propelling them to the desired destination. You must remember the first lesson about strict and proper form. Do not ruin your workout by flopping like a fish under the weight. If you have to do that, then take some of the weight off of the bar. Remember: you didn't really lift it at all if you flopped your way through it. More importantly, flopping and squirming invites bench-sitting injury. Believe it!
Power Strength Training for Football
You have to possess the ability to instantly convert all of your strength into booming power to prevail on the football field. The stronger and more powerful athlete is the one who will best survive a collision. You have to accentuate your functional, hypertrophy and maximal training sessions with power strength training. You want your CNS to recruit fast twitch muscle fibers as quickly as possible. Now that you understand that more than just going in and fish-flopping through your workouts is needed in order to develop the total package for football, you need to understand something else: Cycle training. If you wish to optimize your strength training for football, then you have to incorporate all of the above training methods.
Develop a timeline. Construct a program to cycle through each of the training types in succession. After (say) 4 weeks of functional training, engage 4 weeks of hypertrophy training. Follow that with 4 weeks each of maximal and power training and then repeat. Vary your training. You do not want your body to plateau so training cannot be the same consistantly. Think of your body as a multifaceted machine that needs different care at different times. Always take your time with each individual rep to ensure proper form. Develop symmetrically. Develop tendon and ligament strength. You must develop size and power!
Release your inner beast through diverse and intelligent training and rule the field!
Both Lynn Vandyke & Patrick Beith are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Lynn Vandyke has sinced written about articles on various topics from Personal Desktop, Fitness and Health. To learn more about Underground Strength Training methods and practices, please visit the only place on the net for