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A conditioning specialist in Scottsdale, Arizona. He holds a Bachelor's of Science in Exercise Science. His articles will help you!

By: Josh Henkin

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Improve For Football?

I'm a football player at my middle school. I'm 13 and 101 lbs. I just want to improve my bench pressing and I want to gain more muscle than fat. The high school that I'm going to said that if I don't get stronger I won't make the team. What should I do?

Why do you only want to improve your bench press? The bench is a very small part of the development of a football player. A good athlete posses many different qualities. My favorite model of athletic preparation is one presented by John Davies. An athlete must have all these qualities:

Flexibility
Speed
Agility
Strength

So, you see just working on the bench press is not sufficient. Creating a program around movements that strengthen all the major muscle groups is much more effective. Exercises like squats, deadlifts, goodmornings, chin-ups, push presses, cleans, and snatches are all extremely beneficial. However, only perform exercises that you know how to do correctly. If you need help try to find a qualified strength coach or hopefully (however doubtful) your football coach will know how to properly perform most of these movements.

Being 13, you are just starting to mature physically and being consistent and smart about your training will dramatically increase your bench. I would consider a program that makes you train three times a week. It can look something like this:

Monday

Deadlift - View
Goodmorning - View
Glute Ham-Raise
Chin-up - View
Bicep Curl - View
Reverse Crunch - View

Wednesday

Bench Press - View
Push Press
Seated Row - View
Dips - View
Triceps Pushdown - View
Russian Twists

Friday

Squat - View
Semi-stiff legged deadlift - View
Glute Ham-raise
Pull-ups - View
Incline biceps curl - View
Rope Crunch - View

Now, just getting use to these movements is most important. Don't worry about the weight as you need to build up on these movements. Other exercises using medicine balls can be extremely useful. I would suggest you check out my article on medicine ball training. I hope this helps and I wish you luck on your upcoming season.

Click HERE For The Main FAQ Page!
This is just one question out of many! View the full listing of FAQs here.

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