The legendary workouts of Jerry Rice
Jerry Rice is considered by most to be far and away the greatest reciever in the history of the NFL. He wasn’t the fastest guy, or the tallest guy, or the most athletic guy, but he made plays game after game, for longer than just about anyone. He played in the NFL for 20 years, which is about 10 times longer than the average player.
One of the things he said that made him great was his training. His workouts where that of legends, and few people that spent a day training with him were able to walk out on their own, with very few exceptions, Barry Sanders being one of them.
One article that talks about the workouts has the following to say:
Dedication is a word often used far too loosely. But in the case of Rice, an athlete known as much for his ungodly regimen as for the fact that he’s arguably the greatest pass catcher in NFL history, it truly seems to apply. Just two weeks after reconstructive knee surgery last season, for instance, Rice decided he’d been lollygagging long enough - so he ripped off his splint in the middle of the night and headed straight for the weight room. “Jerry - he’s unreal,” says San Francisco Giants All-Star left fielder Barry Bonds, a friend who himself tries to follow his pal’s off-season program. “He just works harder than anyone else.”
Rice’s six-day-a-week workout is divided into two parts: two hours of cardiovascular work in the morning and three hours of strength training each afternoon. Early in the off-season, the a.m. segment consists of a five-mile trail run near San Carlos on a torturous course called, simply, The Hill. But since five vertical miles can hardly be considered a workout, he pauses on the steepest section to do a series of ten 40-meter uphill sprints. As the season approaches, however, Rice knows it’s time to start conserving energy - so he forgoes The Hill and instead merely does a couple of sprints: six 100-yarders, six 80s, six 60s, six 40s, six 20s, and 16 tens, with no rest between sprints and just two and a half minutes between sets.
For the p.m. sessions he alternates between upper-body and lower-body days. But no matter which half of his body he’s working on, the volume is always the same: three sets of ten reps of 21 different exercises. Yes, your calculator’s right: That’s 630 repetitions a day.
Yeah, I’d say that’s harder than the average workout a 40 something guy does on a Saturday afternoon, desperately hoping to get rid of that beer gut.
Note: This is a part of a channel-wide series among b5media sports blogs on athletes and their conditioning routines in recognition of May as national fitness month. Read also Scott Goldblatt’s post on Michael Phelps.
Tags: Of-Interest, PlayersRelated Stories
POSTED IN: NFL Football, Players
1 opinion for The legendary workouts of Jerry Rice
pete innaurato
Jan 27, 2008 at 10:39 pm
jrry rice has proven for two decades that talent is not everything.mental and physical drive rule.great story.motivational.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: