LaRon Landry plays defensive back for the National
Football League. A combination of speed, strength and endurance, he is
considered one of the most amazing physical specimens in the league. So it's no
surprise that his workout techniques have attracted some attention.
Professional football is an incredibly demanding sport.
Tens of thousands of college athletes dream of earning a spot on an NFL team,
but mere hundreds ever achieve that goal. Genetics and natural ability play a
large role in who makes it to the big time, but physical training is key,
especially in the demanding defensive positions.
Landry's commitment to physical training became legendary during his college years at LSU. Even then, he could bench press more than
twice his body weight. During those formative years he developed a unique blend
of exercises that built strength and bulk while maintaining flexibility and
preserving his impressive running speed.
Landry focuses on avoiding muscular adaptation. Muscular
adaptation happens when repetitive movements train muscle groups to optimize
for that one specific movement. With football, no single movement is central to
success, so avoiding this adaptation means that the muscle groups build in a
harmonious and balanced manner. To avoid adaptation, Landry changes everything
about his workout daily. He changes the actual exercises and the number of sets
and the number of reps for each exercise.
Landry uses a combination of free weights, weight
machines and free exercises. He even adds weights to his body when doing chin
ups. His routines combine muscle building elements (lifting extreme weights with very few repetitions) with endurance-oriented anaerobic exercises and good, old fashioned cardio routines.
When the team is on the road, LaRon packs resistance bands in his suitcase so that he can exercise late at night and early each morning. He is known for ordering a late-night steak dinner and then spending the following hour working out, even on nights before a big game. He says that this pre-game exercise ritual makes him "feel like He-Man" and give him the confidence to make the aggressive plays that are his trademark.
No comments:
Post a Comment