6 Tips for Training Big Guys

Nutrition. Conditioning. Strength.

NCS is critical to being a modern Offensive Lineman, so we asked Khrys Speed, a former professional and international rugby player and now rookie running back for the Ouse Valley Eagles to give us his 6 top tips for training as an Offensive Lineman.

Khrys is a High Performance Coach, building everyday people and athletes into the best they can be by encompassing every facet of performance into the approach – strength training, mobility, speed, conditioning, nutrition and overall lifestyle are worked in detail with him.

Whether it’s tight five players in rugby or the line players in American Football you can’t train the big bangers the same way as you do speed players. For one their skills are chalk and cheese, punching up on an opposing lineman isn’t the same as pushing off a DB or LB at the line. There’s a ton more resistance to press up on, and there’s also a lot more constant contact at the line. For these reasons our big dudes, need to carry as much muscle as possible, as much close quarter speed as they can (first and second step agility and acceleration is everything), and repeat power and strength (the ability to pancake a guy once isn’t worth much if you spend the next 10 plays recovering from the one big block you made).

1. Go close grip on your bench press, and do speed work (55-70% of your 1RM) more than heavy work. (85% and over).

The reason you want to go close grip is because it mimics your punch, John Welbourn referred to it as having your hands on the steering wheel. If you practice benching with a wide grip, way outside the shoulders and chest, flared elbows it’ll start to creep into your blocking ‘punch’, so whilst I agree the bench isn’t a sport specific exercise, it’s what we call GSP, or General Specific Preparation which is something that helps transfer your raw strength and fitness into your game skills. So when we say close grip it should mean your elbows are tucked close to your sides and your hands are shoulders with or a tiny bit narrower; a grip like this will help you keep things in close to your torso and have a better pop to your block.

Let me make a few points before I delve into the idea of ‘speed work’, let me just say you do need to be strong. But there’s a level when strong is strong enough. For a big dude you should probably be able to bench press close to 1.5x bodyweight. This means you can’t be a super chubby guy because fat won’t push the weights you need. Once you are hovering or have smashed that 1.5x BW (Body Weight) number you need to transfer that pure grinding strength to power. Most of your time should be spent hitting weights in that 55-70% range, for sets of 2-3 reps, and bands or chains aren’t a bad idea. Why is this? The weight is heavy enough you have to focus, get a little aggressive and punch against something and produce a lot of force, but it’s light enough that you can move pretty fast against the weight. That should sound familiar, having to be aggressive, fast and produce a ton of force through resistance (that’s a good block in a nutshell).

Now you should still hit some heavy work but never really circa (90-95%) or true max territory (100% and over), but it shouldn’t make up a bulk of your sessions or be a large focus of your program. You need to be strong, powerful and move fast. So you need to make sure you cover those three things. Get strong enough, then get fast enough and powerful enough, and just a hint you are never powerful or fast enough.

2. Don’t sprint over 20 meters/yards, and don’t run long distances or ‘pound the pavement’

You are probably around 250lbs+ if you play line at a high amateur level in the UK, and in the States you are probably breaking the scales with how much you weigh. Look at marathon runners now look at you, look at the runners, now back to you, you have a lot more weight to carry than them, and thus a lot more stress to put through your bones and tissue. The stress produced is not really worth what it would give you (a higher level of aerobic fitness) and there are other ways to build your work capacity and aerobic fitness anyway.

Think about your speed and conditioning work as specific to your position, when do you run a 2-5 yard sprint? The answer is damn near every play. How often do you go up to 10 yards? A little less often than the 2 to 5 yard burst. And how often do you run 20 yards or more? Not very often at all, so your sprint work should be up to that distance but no more, your agility work should focus primarily on that 2-5 yard box you are aiming to blow up your opposite man in. So your speed work should consist of 5, 10, 15 and 20 yard sprints with a focus being on either high quality speed work (long rest periods) or a conditioning effect (short rest periods that slowly get shorter as your fitness improves).

Your aerobic conditioning should be low joint impact to unloaded joint stuff. So med ball throws, barbell or dumbbell complexes. Some blocking drills done with short rest periods, workouts on the concept rowers or even a step machine or hill machine are good options. Anything that lets you perform a lot of work without making your knees creak is good.

3. Work for explosiveness and balance

You want twinkle toes, a quick first step and a solid punch. Every sport has a guy who can wreck you with one hand if he gets a hold of you, but he can’t move fast enough to get anyone! Linemen need to be fleet footed ballerinas in cleats and lids as well as brutally powerful guys with a punch on them. So because of this, you need to perform quick feet drills, ladder drills, rapid response drills, lower impact plyometric type movements and some game specific footwork drills are what you need to focus on. Simple things like learning to jump rope, perform basic ladder drills and rapid response drills (similar to ladder drills where you’re trying to move your feet with maximum speed and accuracy but without moving too far). You need to have that mobility to manoeuvre in a 5 yard box like no one else on the field can, so make sure that your practices and even some of your gym sessions include some footwork practice.

4. Get your protein in

I realise that big boys will be big boys, and especially those of you who are actually having to overeat (past your natural appetite levels) to hold your weight up where it should be will have to eat things that wouldn’t be on a nutritionists healthy foods list; try to add that stuff on top of a basic foundation of good food. Get in a ton of lean protein (at least a gram per lb of bodyweight) as it helps with recovery, muscle mass, health and it actually elevates your metabolic rate (you can eat more to maintain weight). Try to get your protein target covered before you start eating the rubbish food to make up calories.

5. Recover as well as you Train & Play

You’re a big dude, so you not only have more potential to smash up other players but you put a ton of stress on your own body when you move around and hit people. So you have the most potential to get injured, so it’s important you spend time recovering, the smaller guys in the slot, out wide, the pocket and running the ball can get away with training hard, playing hard, going to eat after and leaving it there to recover and just let passive rest help them recover, but you big guys are going to find hard training and playing more unforgiving, you need to be doing some kind of soft tissue work, whether this is simple mobility work like Yoga, Kelly Starret banded stretching, foam rolling, hot Epsom Salts or a sports massage, just do something twice a week that is going to speed up your recovery and make you feel better. Don’t underestimate how much just feeling better does for your actual physical recovery!

6. Hydration is key

Whether you want to gain weight, lose weight or recover as efficiently as possible, taking in the right amount of water is vital. And when we say water, we mean water. Not tea, not juice, not coffee, straight out the tap water!

As a general rule, be looking to have 2 pints of water with every meal, it’ll keep you hydrated, and aids digestion too. That should equate to around 6-8 pints per day. And if you are exercising on top of that, you’ll need more to compensate for sweat loss. Don’t underestimate just how important water is to you as an OL, Lucozade and other sports drinks are great supplements to good water intake, but don’t be fooled into thinking you are totally replenished after a workout/training session/game after you’ve down 500ml of ‘isotonic orange’ or whatever, keep the water intake up.

Also, a good tip for 2 a days or training camps is to put a very small pinch of salt and a half teaspoon of sugar in the water bottles, as this will help you hydrate much better. Will you have tasted better, yeah, does it help you make better use of the fluids you are taking in, yes. Plus it’s infinitely cheaper than Gatorade, with 1000% less sugar in it, so not only will your body appreciate it, your bank account and dentist will too.