# American football strength and power program

> phase.fitness builds the football off-season in the four phases the document prescribes — adaptation, hypertrophy, strength, power and speed — conditions by position instead of by distance, and holds strength through the season by cutting volume, never intensity.

phase.fitness · Sport performance · Updated 9 October 2026 · HTML version: https://www.phase.fitness/training-programs/american-football-strength-program

## Quick facts

- Level: all levels
- Length: 16–20 + season weeks
- Days per week: 3–4
- Modalities: Strength, Cardio
- Equipment: A rack, barbell and platform for cleans, a sled, a field
- Sessions go to: Hevy, Garmin, Strava

## The short answer

An American football program in phase.fitness moves through anatomical adaptation (3–4 weeks at 65–75% for 8–12 reps), hypertrophy (4–6 weeks at 70–85% for 6–12), strength (4–6 weeks at 85–95% for 1–5) and power and speed (4–6 weeks of complex training, resisted sprints with a sled at 10–15% bodyweight for 6–8 × 20 m, plyometrics, and acceleration over 0–20 yards). In season it is two lifting sessions a week at 80–90% with volume cut 40–50%, placed as far from game day as possible. Conditioning is positional: linemen 5–8 efforts of 5–7 seconds with 30–40 seconds recovery; skill positions longer efforts of 10–15 seconds with maximal-velocity exposure. Eccentric hamstring work and high-speed running are never removed.

## Position is the organising principle

The football document phase.fitness reads starts from strength standards by position — 2.0–2.5× bodyweight squats for linemen and linebackers, 1.8–2.2× for skill positions, power cleans at 1.2–1.6× — and from the observation that Olympic lifts predict on-field performance better than the bench press the culture is built on. The off-season runs in four phases because each builds the next: tissue tolerance, then mass, then maximal force, then the power and acceleration the game is actually played at.

Contact is a load the plan has to account for, and speed degrades under fatigue: sprint work is placed fresh, kept in season at a handful of quality efforts a week, and never removed — taking sprinting out to reduce load leaves the hamstrings less prepared for the speeds the game demands. Pulling volume matches pressing volume for the same reason the shoulders survive contact.

## How much should you lift in season without losing speed?

Two sessions a week at 80–90%, with volume cut 40–50% and both placed as far from game day as possible. phase.fitness keeps eccentric hamstring work and high-speed running in the week regardless: the point in season is to hold what the off-season built, not to add to it.

## Do sled sprints make you faster?

They train the acceleration end of it. In the power and speed block phase.fitness prescribes resisted sprints with a sled at 10–15% of bodyweight for 6–8 reps over 20 metres, next to unresisted acceleration over 0–20 yards, complex training and plyometrics.

## What phase.fitness builds

| Phase | Weeks | Job | Band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anatomical adaptation | 3–4 | Tissue tolerance and patterns | 65–75% 1RM, 8–12 reps |
| Hypertrophy | 4–6 | Mass where the position needs it | 70–85% 1RM, 6–12 reps; pulling ≥ pressing |
| Strength | 4–6 | Maximal force | 85–95% 1RM, 1–5 reps; repeated sprints 1×/week |
| Power and speed | 4–6 | Complex training, sprints, plyometrics | Sled 10–15% BW 6–8 × 20 m; acceleration 0–20 yd; repeated sprints 2×/week |
| In-season | season | Keep strength, stay fast | 2 lifts/week at 80–90%, volume −40–50%; a few quality sprints/week; eccentric hamstrings year-round |

## A sample week

| Day | Modality | Session |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | Strength | Squat 5 × 3 at 87%, power clean 4 × 3, Nordic curl 3 × 5 |
| Tue | Cardio | Acceleration 8 × 15 yd, sled 6 × 20 m at 12% BW |
| Wed | Strength | Bench 5 × 3, weighted pull-ups and rows to match, trunk |
| Thu | Rest | — |
| Fri | Strength | Trap-bar deadlift 4 × 3, jumps 3 × 5, single-leg work |
| Sat | Cardio | Positional conditioning: linemen 3 × (6 × 6 s / 35 s); skill 8 × 12 s efforts |
| Sun | Rest | — |

## How it adapts when a phase ends

phase.fitness reads the lifts from Hevy, Liftosaur or the watch and the field work from Garmin or Intervals.icu. Garmin activities are read only if you allow it. A hypertrophy phase that moved bodyweight and the working loads earns the strength phase on schedule; one where the pulling volume was skipped keeps the 1:1 pull-to-press rule in the next block by trimming pressing rather than adding sets. When the season starts on the date you gave, the plan switches to two sessions with volume cut 40–50% and keeps the sprint exposure, because that is what the document says is lost first.

## Where the sessions go

- **Hevy** — Strength routines are written to Hevy; logged workouts return to phase.fitness. Cardio and calisthenics do not travel here.
- **Garmin** — Write it here, train it on your Garmin: strength and cardio sessions are sent to Garmin Connect and appear on the watch, and the activities you finish come back to mark the plan done.
- **Strava** — Post to Strava: the sessions you finish in phase.fitness go to your Strava feed, only the ones you choose. Nothing is imported from Strava.

## What phase.fitness does not do here

phase.fitness plans the gym and the conditioning by position; it does not write practice, and it does not know your depth chart. The strength standards in the document are references, not promises — the plan works from your logged loads.

## The evidence

The knowledge-base documents this page is built from (The phase.fitness generator reads them for this case):

- [Power, Speed, and Positional Strength for American Football](https://www.phase.fitness/methodology/training-football-performance) — updated 2026-02-21
- [Mechanics of Speed and Power Development](https://www.phase.fitness/methodology/training-athletics-power-speed) — updated 2026-02-21

Read more in the knowledge base:

- [Block periodization: evidence and application](https://www.phase.fitness/learn/posts/block-periodization-evidence-application)
- [Muscle adaptation: hypertrophy versus neural gains](https://www.phase.fitness/learn/posts/muscle-adaptation-hypertrophy-vs-neural)
- [Training around injuries: modifying a program](https://www.phase.fitness/learn/posts/training-around-injuries-modifying-program)

## Frequently asked questions

### How is the off-season structured?

phase.fitness structures it in four phases, as the football document prescribes: anatomical adaptation at 65–75% for 8–12 reps (3–4 weeks), hypertrophy at 70–85% for 6–12 (4–6 weeks), strength at 85–95% for 1–5 (4–6 weeks), then power and speed with complex training, sled sprints and plyometrics (4–6 weeks).

### What changes in season?

phase.fitness keeps two lifting sessions a week at 80–90% with volume cut 40–50% — intensity is what preserves strength — placed as far from game day as the schedule allows, with a few high-quality sprints a week and eccentric hamstring work kept year-round.

### Is conditioning different for linemen and skill positions?

Yes. In phase.fitness, linemen get 5–8 efforts of 5–7 seconds with 30–40 seconds recovery, sled work and short shuttles; skill positions get longer efforts of 10–15 seconds and deliberate maximal-velocity exposure. Nobody gets distance running once camp begins.

## The only app that plans strength, cardio and calisthenics together

For a football player the calisthenics day is trunk stiffness and scapular control under load — support holds, hanging leg raises — the bracing that contact demands, without adding volume to the legs.

Right now, phase.fitness is the only training app that writes strength, cardio and calisthenics into one periodized program — same calendar, same phases, same recovery budget.

You choose the mix. A calisthenics-only plan, a cardio-only block, strength plus cardio, or all three: the phases, the end-of-phase analysis and the sync work the same way with one modality or three.

**Why calisthenics is in the plan.** Bodyweight skill work is strength training in a different shape. Straight-arm work, levers and handstands build scapular control, tendon capacity and relative strength that barbell and machine work leave untouched, and they transfer because they are closed-chain, whole-body patterns. Treated as a modality rather than a warm-up, they get sets, holds and progressions like a squat does.

No exercise catalogue on the market contains a tuck front lever, so those sessions run in the phase.fitness built-in player; strength goes to Hevy, Liftosaur or a Garmin watch, cardio to Garmin and Intervals.icu.

## Keep reading

- [Sprint and track strength program](https://www.phase.fitness/training-programs/sprint-and-track-training-program)
- [Powerlifting program: accumulate, intensify, peak](https://www.phase.fitness/training-programs/powerlifting-program)
- [Olympic weightlifting program in blocks](https://www.phase.fitness/training-programs/olympic-weightlifting-program)
- [phase.fitness for athletes with a season](https://www.phase.fitness/for/team-sport-athletes)
- [phase.fitness for powerlifters](https://www.phase.fitness/for/powerlifters)

Build this program: https://www.phase.fitness/signup