Football Combine - Bench Press Training

At football combines, the test for upper body strength/endurance is the Rep Maximum Test (225lb for NFL combine/pro days, 135 - 185lb for high school). There are two keys to increasing your reps for the test. You must improve max strength AND you must improve your endurance. Early in the training week we work on max strength and later in the week we do high repetition work. This is the most common set up used by the top strength coaches in the world.


Here is the heavy upper body workout done today at SOAR. This is week 2 of combine training.


Bench press - we worked up to heavy sets of 4 3 2 and 1 based on percentages of their estimated 1 rep max.


Pair 1 Incline DB press 3 x5
Half Kneeling Rotational Throw 2 x 1 0 each side

Triple set - Rear delt fly 2 x 10
Band push down - 2 x 30 sec.
DB zottman curl 2 x 15

Then the athletes performed an ab ciruit of 4 exercises.

Upper body pulling exercises were done yesterday with legs.

On Friday, the athletes will perform their first attempt at the 225 test. Then we will perform sets of max reps weighted push ups.