Mike Flynt, 59 year-old football linebacker, returns to college football at Sul Ross State University Alpine, Texas. Forty-two years ago, Mike Flynt was playing at Odessa Permian (of “Friday Night Lights” fame) and helped his team win its first state title in 1965. Flynt chose Sul Ross for his college education and football experience in 1969 and in 1970 he led the team in tackles. He was set to be a team captain in 1971, but was kicked off the team during two-a-days.
Flynt shared this lifelong regret with former teammates at a reunion this summer when one of his friends encouraged him to go out for the team again. Flynt actually plays authentically for his 2007 Sul Ross State University Division III team. His playing is not a stunt.
Flynt has been a strength coach at Nebraska, Oregon and Texas A&M, and invented and promotes fitness equipment known as The Powerbase.
The Powerbase is a portable strength training device that utilizes resistance tubing attached to an industrial grade plastic base to provide progressive resistance to the user.
Football is a game of carrying or passing a ball into an end zone or kicking a ball through goal post uprights by one team to score more points than the other. Football requires strength, speed, coordination and strategy. A variety of football positions are met by a mix of player sizes, power, and abilities.
Goal post uprights are placed 18′ 6″ apart in the NFL and college football. The crossbar is 10 feet off of the ground. High school goal post uprights are placed 23′ 4″ apart. Hash marks are placed along two lines the width of the goal post in the NFL. College hash mark lines are placed at wider positions.
The following exercises are done in a variety of combinations. THIS SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION
CARDIO Run 3 miles Sprint Training Sprint Hill Training Agility Drills
STRENGTH
CORE
NECK Neck Flexion Neck Extension
ABDOMINALS Ab Curls Floor (Knees Flexed) Ab Curl Pro Machine with Resistance Icarian Seated Ab Curl BOSU Leg Ups Two Arm Cable Pulldown Twists
BACK Low Back Extension Machine (Cybex or LifeFitness) Glute Ham Equipment (Hip Extension) Glute Ham Eqiupment (Low back Extension
SHOULDERS Lateral Raise Front Raise Posterior Deltoid (Bent Over Raise) Military Press Clean and Press
BACK Lat Pulldown Bent Over Row Seated Row (Low Pulley or Cybex)
HIPS & LEGS Leg Press Squat Leg Extension Leg Curl (prone, hip slightly flexed) Leg Curl (seated) Leg Curl (standing) Calf Raise (Standing) Calf Raise (Seated, Knees Straight, Rotory — as in Cybex) Seated Calf Raise (Knees Flexed) Ankle Dorsiflexion
One of Walter Payton’s famous routines was running ‘The Hill’ now known as Payton’s Hill at Nickol Knoll in Arlington Heights, Illinois. In the 1970s and 1980s a landfill site provided a perfect grade for training. Payton sprinted up the 92-foot hill for repetitions sometimes as many as 20 times. At the top of the hill is a beautiful view of the city of Chicago, more than 26 miles to the east; and forests, farmland and suburbs to the north, west and east. Running the hill was a top example of physical fitness for performance as a football running back.
Walter Payton often sprinted the hill [MAP/SAT] with friends and teammates, such as Dennis Gentry (Full size image of thumbnail image of Walter Payton and Dennis Gentry running uphill is copyright of the Daily Herald newspaper in Arlington Heights).
Running the hill at about 2:27 into this descriptive video of Walter Payton’s career.
In the off-season, Payton did rigorous weight-training, but his daily routine included runs with obstacles near Pearl River in Mississippi. He ran through “The Sand” (65 yards worth of beach) or up another slope – ”The Levee” — a 45-degree grade.
Walter Payton’s football pre-game warm-ups were energetic and definitely didn’t follow the ‘no bouncing’ rule during stretching* that is often declared by fitness professionals. His hamstring stretches, quad stretches often had a bounce, not the prolonged, passive 20 to 30-second stretch you might have heard recommended by fitness experts. The 5-10, 200-pound running back missed one game his rookie year and then played 186 consecutive games from 1975 to 1986 — all with the Chicago Bears.
After the 1983 season Payton had arthroscopic surgery on both knees, which he joked was his ‘11,000-yard checkup.’ He was on his way to breaking Jim Brown’s career rushing record of 12,312 yards, which he succeeded on Oct. 7, 1984, against the New Orleans Saints. Payton broke the record with a six-yard sweep at Soldier Field.and extended the record to 16,726 yards in 1987.
*Leads to Understand Why Walter Payton’s Bouncing Pre-Game Stretches May Have Been Beneficial in Preventing Injuries
Gabriel DA, Kamen G, Frost G. published training recommendations on existing literature. Changes in the sensory receptors (i.e. Golgi tendon organs) may lead to disinhibition and an increased expression of muscular force. Agonist muscle activity results in limb movement in the desired direction, while antagonist activity opposes that motion. Both decreases and increases in co-activation of the antagonist have been demonstrated. A reduction in antagonist co-activation would allow increased expression of agonist muscle force, while an increase in antagonist co-activation is important for maintaining the integrity of the joint. Thus far, it is not clear what the CNS will optimize: force production or joint integrity.
