jrcowboys;4498586 said:
Guys:
I know official off season workouts start in a couple of weeks, but what are the current workout rules?
Are non injured players allowed to workout on their own at Valley Ranch?
Can the strength coach provide the players a workout plan to follow on their own?
Can the Cowboys pay for the player to workout at an off site facility? such as Michel Johnson's speed training facility?
Is there any interaction at all premitted between players and coaches?
Any of you have insight?
JR
I don't have answers to all these questions, but I do have a few I think. I worked at University of Delaware last year as a strength coach during the offseason (the time when the players were on break, and than during their offseason training as well).
Players were allowed to work out at the facility on their own. But most all of them were away, visiting family, travelling, relaxing, etc. because the month or two break is the only real break they get from football all year. This down time is especially important for starters and players who play most of the game. However there were a handful of gym rats that almost immediately started training with weights again after the season officially ended.
The strength coach, Mike Woicik, most definitely provided them with a basic template/workout routine, usually focusing on the big lifts (squat, bench, cleans) and %s of weights to be used based on their maxes. I would say about half of them actually followed this routine, and the rest either did their own thing for the time being or just took it easy for their offseason break.
I'm not sure about if the Boys pay for players to work out at other facilities, but I am sure some of them are at other facilities regardless.
In my opinion, this time until preseason starts is one of the most important time periods in football. Injured players are doing restorative work with some of the athletic trainers on site trying to get healed up quicker. THE most important thing in this period is the initial break from training, but once they are back to training with weights, they need to push things a bit. The offseason... they MUST get stronger. During the season, almost every single player is on a 'modified' workout because of one lagging injury or another. So they will all be in the weight room at the same time, but each player will be doing a slightly different workout based on what they can train.
Also in the offseason they can push some lifts much harder than in season. Especially squats and press (bench press, push press, military press etc.). By the time they are halfway through the season a lot of the guys are barely doing these lifts and if they are, it's with much lighter weight than normal. Their hips, knees, elbows, and shoulders are fried by this point. They lose some base strength at this point because they can't train as heavy and as hard as they normally do.
Sorry for getting off on a tangent, hope this helps a bit.
