4-week block · 3-4 days a week
Training program for former football players
You spent years training for a 5-second play and a 12-week season. This block keeps the strength and power you liked about that, and drops the volume that your knees, back and calendar can no longer absorb.
Build my version of this planWhat football left you with
Football training was built around collision: heavy bilateral lifts, short violent efforts, and a weight room culture where the number on the bar was the scoreboard. Ten years later most former players still move well, still recover reasonably fast, and still know how to work — but they train in a body that has a surgically repaired knee, a low back that complains after deadlifts, and a schedule that gives them 45 minutes, not two hours.
This program keeps the parts of football training that still pay: a main strength lift, a power expression, and honest weekly progression. It replaces the parts that don't — max-effort testing, high-volume Olympic derivatives, and conditioning designed to survive two-a-days — with single-leg work, controlled jumps, and intervals that build an engine without wrecking the week.
What still carries over
You already know how to load a bar
Squat, bench, clean and trap-bar variations are in your motor memory. You don't need a technique rebuild, you need a rep range that respects the joints doing the work.
Power is still there
Rate of force development decays slower than max strength in trained athletes. Box jumps and broad jumps come back within two or three weeks.
You tolerate hard sessions
Effort has never been the problem. The plan is written to cap volume so effort stops being the thing that breaks you.
What the plan has to rebuild
Single-leg strength
Football lifting was bilateral and heavy. Split squats, step-ups and single-leg RDLs restore the hip and knee control that keeps you off the shelf.
Aerobic base
You trained the 5-second system for a decade. Two conditioning slots a week at a repeatable, conversational-to-hard effort raise the ceiling everything else sits on.
Ankles and hips
Old high-ankle sprains and hip mobility restrictions quietly change how you squat. The block starts every session with a hip flow and pogo hops before the loaded work.
The training week for former football athletes
Three sessions is the working minimum; the fourth is optional and can be replaced by a game, a skate or a pickup run. Every set is logged with load and RPE so the next week has a number to beat.
Day 1
Lower strength
Squat pattern, posterior chain, trunk
- Hip mobility flow + pogo hops — 2 rounds
- Back squat or trap-bar deadlift — 4 x 5 @ RPE 7-8
- Rear-foot elevated split squat — 3 x 8 each side
- Romanian deadlift — 3 x 8
- Dead bug — 3 x 8 each side
Day 2
Upper strength
Press, pull, shoulder health
- Band pull-apart + push-up ladder warm-up
- Bench press — 4 x 5 @ RPE 7-8
- Pull-up or lat pulldown — 4 x 6-8
- Overhead press — 3 x 8
- Single-arm dumbbell row — 3 x 10 each side
- Loaded carry — 3 x 40 yd
Day 3
Speed and power
Jumps, short accelerations, elastic strength
- Box jump — 5 x 3, step down every rep
- Broad jump — 4 x 3
- Acceleration runs, 20 yd — 6 reps at ~85% with full recovery
- Hip thrust — 3 x 8
- Pallof press — 3 x 10 each side
Day 4 (optional)
Engine
Work capacity without contact stress
- Bike or rower intervals — 8 x 30s hard / 90s easy
- Kettlebell swing — 4 x 12
- Farmer carry medley — 4 rounds
- Front plank — 3 x 30s
How the four weeks progress
- Week 1
Set the standard
Leave two reps in the tank on every main lift. Record load and RPE — this is the baseline the rest of the block moves off.
- Week 2
Add load
Same sets and reps, roughly 2.5-5% more on the main lifts. Jumps stay at the same volume with better landings.
- Week 3
Push the top set
Main lift drops to 3-5 reps at RPE 8-9. Accessories hold. This is the hardest week.
- Week 4
Deload and retest
Sets cut by one, load cut ~15%. Retest one jump and one main lift at the end of the week.
Football background: common questions
Other sport backgrounds
Get this block built around your schedule.
Six questions covering goal, experience, equipment, days per week, session length and anything you're working around. Your first week is scheduled in about two minutes.
Take the Athlete Assessment