FAQ

I heard on the radio that at AFL level they no longer want to ‘bulk up’ with muscle size, but now instead focus on improving movement and strength, and trying NOT to gain weight in the process. Is this true? And why?

Yes this is absolutely true. The old approach to weight training for footy, where it is all about ‘bulking up’ and ‘putting on some size to absorb the hits’ is no longer a focus at the top level of performance. Of course a little extra muscle mass is important, but this is no longer the primary aim of strength training for footy. As a result, the old bodybuilding approach, which used to be so prevalent in weight training for footy (and still is in lower grades) has been left behind for more modern approaches to functional strength training. In short, the main reason for this is because simply putting on size will not necessarily make you a better more effective footballer, and indeed, if all you have done is gain several kilograms of muscle mass during the off season, yet haven’t at the same time as a result developed your explosive speed, vertical leap, agility and tackling ability (just to name a few) this extra muscle mass has actually detracted from your ability to perform better on match day.

So what does that mean exactly? What should I do about it?

Focus on exercises which are movement focused, using as many muscle groups as possible at the same time – just as they would be used in a game of footy. Not only that, but ensure that these exercises have a high level of carryover to the physical demands and tasks that you will encounter in a game. Tackling, jumping off 1 leg, jumping off 2 legs, changing directions quickly – the ability to perform these tasks better certainly wont be improved by doing bicep curls, leg extensions and shoulder raises. So with every exercise you are performing, ask yourself – ‘how is this going to improve my performance?’

How do I break down my sessions during the season?

During the season, ideally you would still perform 2 strength sessions a week. 1 is still better than nothing, but 2 is ideal to maintain strength and performance gains made in the pre season, because make no mistake, if you stop strength training during the season, any gains in performance you made during the off season, will be completely evaporated very early on. However it is important to layout your strength training program correctly through the season, using effective exercises and programming of them, in order to maintain gains, as well as reduce burnout. Most guys fall down with this last point.

What is the best split when doing pre season 3 nights a week? ‘Chest and tri’s’, ‘back and bi’s’ and ‘shoulders and legs’ each only once a week?

The old ‘bi’s and tri’s’ and similar body-part breakdowns are an old bodybuilding approach to weight training, which has no place in an athlete or sportspersons training approach. The muscles of the body – directed by the nervous system – are required to function together to perform a variety of physical tasks in a game of footy. They do not operate individually to perform tasks. Whilst breaking down the body into various parts means certain muscles get a break on days when you train others, the reality is that your nervous system (which is in reality what you are really training in order to improve) doesn’t get a break. This also brings up another point – that of time availability. If you are breaking the body down into individual parts, you will have to perform many more sessions at the gym – and when you are fitting in club training, match day, or extra running sessions if it is pre season, this is impossible. The simple answer is that every strength training session should be targeting many muscles groups, often your whole body. The key to achieving this effectively is breaking down the exercises correctly and periodising your program over the calendar year, in order to achieve the biggest improvements in physical performance.

Will leg extensions help with my kicking distance and power?

In one word, NO! Even if these are performed 1 leg at a time, this will still contribute absolutely 0 to your kicking. There is a lot more to a kick than simply extending your leg. Also do you kick sitting down? When kicking, you must also balance on the other leg, and stabilise around the hip and core whilst swinging the opposite leg. Hip flexors and effective inter-muscular coordination with the hamstrings also contributes greatly to kicking efficiency – 2 things which aren’t worked on at all doing leg-extension machine.

Are leg presses good for developing my vertical leap? Or are squats? What is better?

The simple answer to this question is that properly programmed squats will certainly contribute to the improvement of a double legged vertical leap. Leg press wont – and in many cases – will only detract from it (by adding extra muscle mass with no proportional improvement in the ability to move that weight effectively.) This is another common misbelief. It stems from the belief that leg press and squats are similar. In reality, they are nothing of the sort. A squat requires the use of not only your quads and glutes, but also your hips and torso. A leg press locks your hips in place removing them from the movement, and effectively just isolates the knee joint. So in other words, a leg press removes the most important and highest contributing joint associated with a vertical leap (the hips.) This should make it clear that a leg press will not improve vertical leap at all.

How many days a week should I dedicate to strength training, if footy is the main goal?

3 days a week during the off-season and pre season is ideal (but certainly no more), but 2 days a week if programmed correctly is also ok. During the season, 2 days a week is ideal, but 1 session per week is also acceptable if programmed with effective exercises targeting specific goals.

Are plyometrics good?

This is a very broad question and hard to give a hort and simple answer too. But in general, yes plyometrics are good for developing power output, specific to footy, provided that;

1)They are selectively picked with a targeted end goal in mind. In other words, they aren’t just plyometric exercises that other guys you know do, but rather are picked with specific carryover to a particular task in footy in mind (say explosively pushing off and opponent or jumping for a ruck contest)

and

2)They are periodised correctly with the rest of the program – and included after the appropriate preparatory work has been done (because they should only be included in specific intervals during the program)

Without these 2 important ingredients, plyometrics all of a sudden aren’t so useful, and are also far more likely to lead to injury.

Is crossfit a good form of training for footy? I have done it for a while and it kills me (in a good way).

We discuss crossfit in more detail in the actual book. In general, crossfit is a good form of general conditioning to perform once every few weeks to break things up a bit (and obviously provided you are proficient in the exercises and circuits you are doing.) However, it certainly isn’t an effective form of strength training for footy, as it is very broad and general, and not in any way specific to footy. There is also no periodisation of programming specific to a footy season. So crossfit shouldn’t be used as a primary strength training approach for footy, but yes certainly once eveyr few weeks as a work-rate conditioning style session can be good for a change.

I am a ruckman who is jumping a lot. Does that mean that I would do less weights in order to keep my weight down, and therefore jump higher for longer (with less muscle mass to carry)?

You are spot on in not wanting to ‘bulk up’ too much, however eliminating or minimising weight training certainly isn’t the answer. You certainly wouldn’t want to be performing a bodybuilding-style weights training program like many young guys – and unfortunately many young footballers – around the place do. This a very outdated approach to strength training for footy.

However what your real aim is, is to improve your strength and power to weight ratio. In other words, to improve your ability to jump whilst maintaining your bodyweight as light as possible in this pursuit. This can only be achieved however with strength training. This is because a vertical leap is an expression of power, and power can only be improved if a baseline of strength if first improved. In other words, strength comes before power. A properly periodised functional program where you gradually progress from strength to power is the answer to how to achieve this – and this will not leave you gaining heaps of (if any) weight, as this isn’t the aim or a footy strength training program.

Is it true that I should only do certain exercises at certain times of the season? And that they should be changed and certain intervals?

Yes absolutely. Doing the same exercises and in the same sets and reps all years round is a recipe for not only no improvement, but also going more and more backwards as the season goes on. Effective periodisation is the key missing ingredient where many guys training for footy fall down, even when they are performing good exercises.

So what is periodisation with footy exactly? I thought only Olympic weightlifters did that sort of thing?

The origins of periodisation did certainly start in sports such as powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting, but periodisation is now widely used at the elite levels of just about any sport I can think of – and this is slowly filtering down through the grades. It has to be said though – periodisation for a footy season is a lot more challenging than periodisation for weightlifting for example, and looks completely different, as there are many more variables to consider, and many more ‘competitions’ that you are required to ‘peak’ for (18-25 matches).

Essentially periodisation is the practice of breaking down a 12 month period (often longer at the highest level where this is necessary, but a year is by far the most practical) into smaller blocks or periods of anywhere between 4-8 weeks, with different program variables in each period. The aim is to be able to build one block on top of the previous one, in order to produce better results. Greater periods of rest are also worked in at different times by doing this, which means less fatigue, and also allows for greater performance at key peak times.

In other words, for a program to be as truly effective as possible, training periods must be outlined with a bit of structure in advance. These need not be overly technical – and indeed the concepts and exercise progression is pretty simple to understand.

I have read and heard lots about how guys spend WAY too much time on upper body, and not enough time on lower body. But with all the running conditioning work that I do for footy, doesn’t this count a lot, and therefore mean less lower body work in the gym?

There is certainly too much of an emphasis on ‘chest, shoulders and arms’ amongst young guys at the gym these days – and that fine, each to their own. But this is a big problem if improvement in footy is your goal. And no running does not count as ‘leg work.’ Functional lower body strength work is vital if you want to improve your ability to perform tasks such as accelerating, decelerating, changing directions, jumping and tackling (yes effective tackling is very much lower-body driven.) As a result, doing predominantly upper body weights, and then just running as most of your ‘leg work’ will not cut it if you want genuine improvement, as not only will you end up pretty top-heavy, but you will also predispose yourself to more lower boy injury to joints and soft tissue as a result of not effectively preparing yourself for the rigors of a match.

What are the best arms exercises to improve strength for things like tackling an opponent?

The best exercises for improving tackling ability aren’t ‘arms’ exercises, but rather full body exercises that involve some contribution of the arms, but also a great amount of contribution from the hips and torso. In short the best ‘arms’ exercise in general are the pull up variations, the best tackling related strength exercises are the variations of the cable woodchop progressions.

My friend who does crossfit says that Olympic lifts are a great method for power development for footy. Is this true?

Your friend is right – but I must outline a couple key notes of caution here. The Olympic lifts are a great way (and widely used way) for athletes from other sports to improve their power generation around the hips, but a few key points;

There if more to power required in footy that this powerful hip extension – What about a jump off one leg? What about an explosive push off an opponent in a marking contest? These are just 2 quick examples of power requirements which Olympic lifts have absolutely no benefit to developing. So in terms of their carryover to footy, they are somewhat limited.
Olympic lifts (even just the standard power clean) take quite some time to learn properly. Many people you see performing them aren’t performing them anywhere near properly – they may look like they are doing ok, but in reality they aren’t hitting to key areas. Just a couple quick examples, if the movement involves some form of reverse bicep curl, or requires more than a fraction of a second to complete, it isn’t being done correctly.
Another key point about the value of Olympic lifts for a footy program is that if they aren’t don’t totally correctly, they are useless. They are an exercise where there is no in between- it is either effective or useless, and unfortunately, with the technique and form that these are performed in most of the time, they aren’t worth the time.

This is just a very brief snippet – we discuss and analyse to pro’s and con’s of the olympic lifts specifically to how they relate to footy, in detail in Strength Training for Australian Rules Football, as well as Power & Plyometrics for Footy.

Is bench press the best upper body pushing exercise, to develop the ability to push off an opponent?

The bench press is certainly the king of upper body pushing exercises, and due to the weight you can potentially move on the bar, is the exercise which gives you the most potential to improve your ability to push off an opponent. However, simply improving your bench press, or even getting a more explosive and fast moving bench press, will not translate to match day, unless it is combined in a program with a couple other specific pushing style exercises, with a specific carryover to footy. Remember, when you perform a bench press, you are lying down and supported by the bench, where all you need to do is lower the bar and push it back up. When pushing off an opponent, you are standing for starters (which changes things completely), and you also will require a lot more core activation, balance and the ability to transfer power from the ground up through your legs and torso and finally out through your arms in the pushing motion. If you have included pushing exercises that train this ability – and integrate it with the bench press, you will be a lot less effective.

Will strength training improve my ability to accelerate away from an opponent, or improve my ability to change directions quickly, or will it just slow me down and make me worse at these?

Performing effective exercises with a high level of carryover to performing these tasks in a game of footy, and having them included in a periodised program specific for a footy season will most certainly improve this ability. But performing a bodybuilding style program – with useless leg exercises like machine leg extensions, and machine hamstring curls and leg presses will most certainly be of no benefit at best, and at worst slow you down as well as cause you injury on match day.

I have read different information on the best sorts of sets and reps to do in training. Some say standard bodybuilding 3×8-10, others say 5×5 with more rest and more weight, whilst other sources have even more variations on these. What is the best sets and rep scheme, keeping in mind I’m more interested in being a stringer footy player, rather than a bodybuilder or powerlifter?

The simplest answer to this question is it depends on what exactly the exercise you are doing is, and what time of the year it is, and by extension, what the specific training goal for the exercise is. There is no ‘best set and rep scheme’ or ‘best exercise for this or that.’ It is simply a matter of planning out a program correctly, in order to get the best out of each exercise you are doing, and therefore make it the best exercise for the goal that you specified.

I have previously done a lot of weight training before and it actually made me a WORSE player. It slowed me down, I felt like I was working herder than before just to keep up, and I didn’t feel stronger either. So I don’t think it’s a good idea to strength train if your genuine desire is to improve at footy, rather than how you look in the mirror! What do you have to say about that?

I am not surprised to hear this. Your experience sounds very common for guys who have been performing bodybuilding style routines, in the hope that it will transfer over to the footy field. This is a classic example that breaking the body down into parts and performing useless isolation exercises, and pin-loaded machine exercises, will not contribute to improved performance at all, and in many cases will actually make you a slower, weaker and more ineffective player. A cut-and-paste article from a bodybuilding magazine or website which has been re-packaged as a ‘footy program’ is always garbage. Please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that all strength training programs are basically the same.

By following a peridoised program that is actually designed to improve physical abilities required in footy, your performance will improve. You certainly will not feel slower or more tired. Your previous experiences highlight much of what I am highlighting here. The guys at the highest level certainly arent getting bigger and slower, and that is because the high performance staff around them learnt long ago that this outdated approach wasn’t doing anything for their football ability.

So why is it that simply getting bigger, and more muscular doesn’t mean that you are a stronger player, or sometimes barely stronger than before?

Put simply, muscles on their own are useless. It is in fact the nervous system that you want to train. Your muscles are basically slaves to your nervous system – your nervous system gives the commands and the muscles do whatever the nervous system says. Any improvement in performance is more about various improvements in the nervous system, than about gains in muscle size (although some muscle gain is of course going to occur to some degree, which is fine.) That is why you will see guys who don’t look that muscly, but who are in fact incredibly strong as well as agile when you come up against them. This is another point that we expand on considerably in the book, and in an easy to understand manner that is relevant to footy.

I have had back injuries/shoulder problems before. Is strength training for footy – and specifically this program appropriate for me?

Every injury, every individual and every case is different, so this is far to broad a question to provide an answer to without knowing the individual. Any injury or history of injury requires you to work with a physio or specialist to discuss in detail where your body is currently at, and what you can and cant do (and the reassess this periodically.)

I have ________________ ‘insert medical condition here’. Is strength training for footy – and specifically this program appropriate for me?

Just as above, every individual is different and every medical issue is different, and will express itself differently in different individuals. I am not a doctor, and therefore I am in no position to give medical advice, especially on a broad scale to people without knowing them. However the advice that I will give, and indeed mention very early in the book, is that before undertaking any strength training program or exercise program of any sort, you should first obtain a doctors clearance, even if you are free of any ‘condition’ or complications as far as you know.

What is the ideal age to start strength training? Will it stunt my growth?

There is often this debate, and it will no doubt continue to rage on. However, as it stands, there has never been conclusive proof of any stunted growth or any damage to growth plates as a result of beginning a weight training program in the early teens. However, this certainly does not mean it is ok to go crazy with the bodybuilding style routine that many young guys get into early. I would encourage you to do more research and make a decision based on all the information that you can find.

The exercises included in the Functional Strength Training for Australian Rules program are all safe for young guys in their mid-teens, however I would still encourage young guys this age to;

1) Run them past a coach, PE teacher, physio, Chiro or someone who knows them and their body personally

And most importantly;

2) When first performing them, get clear and supervised instruction from a qualified strength coach or trainer to ensure form and appropriate starting weight.

What is the ability level required to perform this program? Who does it cater for?

There is no required ability, and the program and exercises cater to every ability level. It is just a matter of scaling things appropriately depending on how experienced you are – you will be clear on how to do this once reading the book, as the program is laid out in a gradual, progressive and easy to understand format.

Furthermore, it is important to understand that this isn’t just a periodised program outline with descriptions of each exercise, but also an in depth detailed discussion and outline of what exactly functional is in terms of footy, and what this means with your exercise choices. The information and concepts that are covered applies to anyone, regardless of whether you are a 15 year old beginner, a 25 year old beginner, or a highly experienced strength trainer and footy player of any age.

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