Every high level lineman has brute strength, explosive hips, quick feet, hip mobility, mental toughness, and intelligence. The first five of these six elements can be built and improved upon in a properly planned strength and conditioning program.

There are very few sport-specific needs that carry over into the weight room as closely as those of a football lineman. The competition skills that are required of him are the definition of a power athlete: max force explosion, recover, max force explosion. In a football game, athletes give max effort for four to six seconds, followed by a rest period of 30 to 40 seconds. When an athlete is in the max effort explosion phase of their competition (the duration of a single play), he needs to drive quickly out of his stance, maximizing his ability to move his feet fast with a low center of gravity. This allows him to beat his opponent to the "spot," gaining a positional and leverage advantage to complete his assignment of blocking the defensive player/filling the gap.

Once the athletes are in position, they need to call on their hips (power) to move the opponent in the direction that they wish to take them. Once the lineman has delivered the "punch" to their opponent (hip driven punch with both hands to the chest of the opponent), he needs to rely on brute strength to handle and control the opponent until the end of the play. Throughout the duration of the game, the athlete needs to rely on mental toughness to continue to give max effort play after play in a brutal and emotional environment that has both positive and negative outcomes multiple times throughout the course of a single game.

Brute Strength

The job description of a lineman could be stated as simple as 'to push another person where you want them to go while they are trying to do the same thing to you.’ This is why brute strength is so important to a lineman's success. Brute strength can make up for many deficiencies.

The foundation of brute strength training is squats, squat variations, deadlifts, deadlift variations, strongman training, and heavy upper body pushing. These elements need to be programmed in multiple times per week.

The most important lift that a lineman can do is back squat. This lift needs to be programmed every week, and should be the first lift done on your first lower body workout of the week. When squatting, it needs to be heavy and you need to have your hips below your knees. The depth is necessary for strength in all positions and hip mobility. The more time you spend driving out of the hole with heavy weight, the easier it is to play strong in a low position. Along with squats, you want to add in a variety of squat and deadlift variations. So we’re looking at front squats, single-leg squats, deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, and single-leg deadlifts.

In addition to your heavy lower body lifts, a key component to any lineman program is strongman training. The primary movement of a lineman is to push, so sled pushes and other pushing movements are the foundation of the strongman training that lineman should do. When you are having lineman push sleds, remember that you want to go max effort (speed, weight, or both) for a short period (four to six seconds) and rest for a longer period (30 to 40 seconds). This work to rest ratio will prepare them best for competition.

In addition to these pushing movements, I like to add in heavy pulling: sleds, cars, really any heavy object that you can have them pull. To round out the strongman training, use yoke walk, farmers walk, Atlas stones, tire flips, tire battles, and a favorite of mine to train the hips, the Hungarian core blaster. (Thanks, Sorinex).

To finish off the brute strength training for linemen, it is important that they have lifts with heavy pushing in their program as well. As I mentioned, they spend the majority of their time pushing, so is it is important that they have well trained and strong “push muscles.” The pushes that are most important to lineman are push press, bench press, incline press, and floor press. It is also important to incorporate programming with a multi-grip bar that puts their pushing at a more sport specific angle.

All of these elements will raise the athlete’s strength level and get them ready to have functional strength/power in every circumstance that a football game will present.

Explosive Hips

If you want to improve an athlete’s hips, the very best way is through barbell power movements. The base lifts that will help a lineman’s hips the most are cleans and snatches. Using a variety of cleans and snatches in programming will develop hips and make them explosive on the football field. The key snatch and clean movements that a lineman needs are the power snatch, power clean, hang clean, hang snatch, single-arm snatch, and single leg clean. When it is time for an athlete to work on explosiveness, it is good to have them do two pulling power movements back to back. When doing this, you want them to pull from different levels, pull to different spots, and incorporate single-leg and single-arm variations.

In addition to barbell power movements, jump training and sprint training are good ways to develop the athlete’s hips. It is impossible to generate power in these activities without starting the movement with the hips. For lineman, max effort box jumps, long jumps, weighted jumps, and change of direction jumping are going to maximize the power development needed for football. When sprinting with a lineman, you want to make sure that everything is in the five to 25-yard range. All of the work linemen do is in short bursts, so train them accordingly.

Quick Feet

The best way to improve a lineman’s feet is to make them stronger. This is taken care of in the brute strength and explosive hips area of the training. The stronger a lineman is, the quicker they can move their body. Once they have reached a solid level of strength, you want to incorporate supplemental training that focuses on speed. This can be done through sprinting, quick jumps (multiple jumps spending as little time with their feet on the ground as possible), and change of direction work. The more comfortable a big person gets moving fast, the better he will become at it.

Hip Mobility

The first and most important way to build hip mobility is to make sure that the athlete is working through a full range of motion in all of their lifts and exercises. In addition, you want to have them train mobility at the beginning of every workout. To play in a low athletic position, it is necessary to have ankle mobility and knee mobility along with hip mobility. Shoulder mobility is a key component to a lineman’s success due to the amount of time spent pushing, and punching from multiple angles in a game. Thoracic spine mobility is also important due to the position that lineman play and have impact in. The more mobile a lineman is, the more comfortable they are playing in a low athletic position. In addition, their bodies become more resilient to injuries.

Mental Toughness

In order for a lineman to be successful, mental toughness is a must. To achieve at their highest level, lineman have to be able to give max effort confidently on every single play. Playing offensive line is demanding; it is squaring off against another person in a max effort war for territory. A lineman has to believe that he is the best player on the field and that he has the ability to physically dominate the person across the line from him.

Linemen have to have the ability to play every play with this confidence regardless of how they performed on the play before. When the ball is snapped, they need to go into attack mode, four to six seconds of ruthless aggression in order to dominate.

These are attributes that can translate from training to the football field. The bigger, stronger, quicker, and faster that a lineman becomes, the more confident they are in their ability to beat the person across the line. Improving builds confidence, period. When lifting, an athlete needs to train their mind to attack the barbell (or whatever equipment they are using) on every single rep. This helps athletes lock into what they are doing and commit to doing what it takes at max effort to succeed. Training puts athletes in a position where they are not comfortable; football is a game where things aren’t comfortable. In training, you learn how to give 100 percent when you are not comfortable. This teaches athletes how to succeed when their body feels like it can’t. It also shows them that the harder something is, the harder they have to push back in order to find success. Trying to move a 300-pound man is much easier when you have sat in the hole on a heavy squat and drove the weight up when it felt like there was no way it could happen. Training builds mental toughness by teaching athletes that they are capable of accomplishing more with their body than they believe in their mind. A proper training program for lineman will break mental barriers, build confidence, and teach them how to perform at a high level even when they are uncomfortable.

Programming

Take all of the information above and lay it into a proper program to maximize gains. The blueprint below is for an off- season training program. You would want to pull back volume and load when a lineman is in season. With power athletes, I will run them through a five-week cycle, the fifth week being a deload.