Complete Conditioning for Football

Today’s game of football is more physically demanding than ever. Every play is full speed, sideline to sideline, goal line to goal line, for four punishing quarters. To withstand the rigors of the game, today’s players must be better conditioned than ever. The team with the stronger, faster, more agile, and more powerful athletes is the one earning Ws on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons.

Complete Conditioning for Football provides the modern training system needed to prepare your players to perform at their peak and win consistently. Former National Football League (NFL) strength and conditioning coach and current college senior assistant athletic director for football performance Aaron Wellman addresses every aspect of football conditioning—emphasizing strength, power, and muscle hypertrophy—to deliver results at every level of competition. From initial movement preparation to an integrated, comprehensive, year-round training plan, Complete Conditioning for Football offers ready-to-use research-based training methods and programs involving general and position-specific exercises, drills, activities, and progressions.

This book is an ideal resource to help strength and conditioning coaches design training regimens for their team and each player. It is also a practical guide for coaches and athletes in a program without a full-time strength coach. Complete Conditioning for Football explains how to evaluate current fitness levels and monitor progress in each aspect and phase of training throughout the year. Included are team-wide and position-specific exercises, drills, and programs as well as training plans for preseason, in-season, and off-season workouts, all aimed at building speed, agility, strength, power, and stamina to achieve optimal performance.

Useful nutritional information and recommendations are provided to boost the benefits of training, aid in recovery from workouts, and fuel players to perform their best in games. Guidelines and recommendations for sleep and rest are included to ensure athletes stay fresh and primed for every physical and mental challenge they’ll face. The book also features invaluable guidance for safely and responsibly reintroducing players to training and competition after an injury.

The most comprehensive conditioning guide in the sport, Complete Conditioning for Football offers readers expertise from a top strength and conditioning coach to physically prepare teams and players to dominate on game day.

Aaron Wellman is the senior assistant athletic director for football performance at Indiana University. He has over 25 years of experience in football strength and conditioning.

Wellman started his career as a graduate assistant with Indiana University before being elevated to assistant strength and conditioning coach. After his initial stint at Indiana, he served as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Michigan State University and went on to lead strength and conditioning programs at Ball State University, San Diego State University, and the University of Michigan. Prior to returning to Indiana University, Wellman worked as an assistant for one year at the University of Notre Dame before spending the subsequent four years in the National Football League (NFL) as the head strength and conditioning coach for the New York Giants.

Wellman earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise science, added master’s degrees in applied sport science and nutrition science, and earned his PhD in 2018 from Bond University in Queensland, Australia. He is certified as a master strength and conditioning coach by the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association (CSCCA), holds the certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and personal trainer (NSCA-CPT) designations from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), and is certified as a specialist in performance nutrition by the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA).