Before I start my article, I would like to make it clear that during football season, football ALWAYS comes before bodybuilding. High school football only lasts 3-4 years of your life and you can never get it back. For those of you who put bodybuilding before football during your football season, you should reconsider why you are even out on the field. You can still be successful with bodybuilding even if you prioritize it behind football. With a good schedule, you can easily have both. With that being said, lets start the article.
I used to think that football and bodybuilding went hand in hand. Once I got more involved in bodybuilding and became more dedicated in football, I found out I couldn't have been farther from the truth.
In football, you need quickness, speed, agility, strength, and power. In bodybuilding, you need none of those. This is why it is difficult to combine these "sports".
Both sports use different training methods and exercises. Bodybuilders train for muscular hypertrophy while football players train for strength, speed and power.
Bringing Bodybuilding into your Football Schedule
It is easy for me to train like a bodybuilder during football season because the coaches usually don't make us train a certain way. They give us a recommended football workout and most people choose to follow that. Sometimes they make us workout after football practice, but that is not such a big deal because the workouts after football practice are short.
For those of you who are forced to use a specific workout, you might want to think about giving yourself some extra time so you can add some bodybuilding lifts to the end of your workout. If you don't want to do that, you could do a double split routine and have a separate bodybuilding workout.
Finding Time to Workout
It is hard to find time to workout during football season because of school, homework, practice, games and parties. I have a pretty busy schedule after school, so I decided to workout before school. I feel this is a great time to train, especially during football season.
One major benefit is that you are up and awake by the first bell and you won't fall asleep during your first few classes. Another benefit is that it's spaced out from your practice or game long enough to give you many meals and rest before your next strenuous activity.
Eating During the School Day
Many of you were able to eat whenever you wanted during the summer and took advantage of this. Now that you are back in school, you have scheduled lunch times and periods. You don't get to cook up a chicken breast or whip out a sandwich whenever you want. The easiest way to eat consistently and avoid muscle catabolism is to ask your teachers if you can eat during their class.
Simply talk to them when you have time and explain your bodybuilding goals and why it is necessary for you to eat. Make sure to tell them that it's a healthy snack and not candy or pop. Tell them how a healthy snack can be beneficial to your body and help you learn better.
If none of your teachers let you eat during their class or when you needed to eat, those teachers said no, then you should eat between classes. Nuts, protein bars, or anything else you can get your hands on between classes will be beneficial.
Before football practice, I usually have half a sandwich and a cereal bar or something. School gets out at 2:50 and football practice starts at 3:15, so I have time to quickly eat a small meal and get suited up and ready to rumble.
If you can afford it, a protein bar and Gatorade would also be a great choice before football practice. Make sure to take something high on the glycemic index (GI) after football practice. This will give your body something to digest and use before going home and consuming your protein shake or meal.
For those of you who workout or plan to workout in the morning, you should make sure to go to bed early and give yourself enough rest. With a good night's sleep, you won't find yourself falling asleep during class as often and your mind will be more alert and ready to learn. If your house is busy at night and you can't fall asleep because people are making too much noise, you should get some earplugs.
If it's too bright outside and you are having trouble falling asleep, you should get a blindfold of some sort to put over your eyes when you sleep. If this doesn't do the trick, just slowly start to go to bed earlier and let your body adjust to the new sleep pattern.
Making a schedule you can follow day-in and day-out is essential for surviving football season with more muscle than you started with. Here is my schedule to give you guys an example of how it can be done:
Football Season Schedule:
- 5:00-6:10: Wake up, eat, get ready and leave for school.
- 6:15-7:15: Arrive at school and have my morning workout
- 7:15-7:30: Shower and get ready for school
- 7:30-7:45: Eat something before school starts
- 9:45: Eat during third hour class (before the bell and during the first two minutes of class)
- 12:15: Eat lunch
- 2:50: Eat before football practice
- 3:15-5:20: Football practice
- 5:30: I get home from football practice and have my post-workout meal (protein shake w/ something high GI)
- 6:30: Eat dinner
- 8:30: Eat again (usually I am not hungry at this time, but I try to eat something anyway)
- 9:50: Eat cottage cheese and drink some milk
- 10:00: Go to sleep
On game days, I just eat whenever I can. Make sure to pack lots of food to take to school with you. Try to avoid cafeteria foods because they can be prepared unhealthy and most foods are not very nutritious.
I hope this helped you learn how to survive football season while still staying dedicated to bodybuilding. If you have any questions about fitting something into your schedule feel free to email me. Writers do care about their readers!!!
Good Luck,