The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Oakland Raiders, and San Fransisco 49ers have used PowerCranks™ to get ready for the rigors of professional football. Why would these teams adopt a bicycle mounted training device popular with triathletes and bicycle racers? Here is why:

Picture these following game situations:

1. A runner recieves a handoff, and charges towards the sideline trying to turn the corner
2. A linebacker reacts to a reciever cutting across the middle, and accelerates from a standing start to cover him.
3. A quarterback receives the snap, and drops straight back to pass
4. A cornerback runs backwards keeping an eye on a wide reciever, then turns to run with him.
5. A player makes a top effort in every offensive or defensive down that his team plays that game. His ability to keep his intensity and physical performance at a higher level than the player lining up across from him in the fourth quarter will affect the game.

What do these situations all have in common?

1. These athletes are using a combination of leg power, leg speed, and pure acceleration to get into position to make the play.
2. Football players must be in great shape, so that the physical demands of their position do not overwhelm them, and effect their mind's ability to execute the complicated responsibilities that they have on each play. Physical recovery must be a top priority keeping the mind clear and reflexes sharp.
3. Some positions, like quarterback and cornerback, involve a lot of backwards running motion. This creates huge demands on the hamstrings.
4. Football players must repeatedly make maximal, intense efforts often involving incredible power and physical contact. They then must recover quickly and be able to do it again just within 30 - 45 seconds.
5. All positions in football require astonishing quickness and power over short distance, hence the popularity of the 40 yard dash as an evaluation tool.
6. Every play involves intense coordinated efforts. The least amount of incoordination makes the player increasingly likely to sustain injury. Both ACL and Hamstring pulls have been repeatedly shown to be associated with leg muscle imbalance. Injury prevention is as important as performance optimization.

To be competitive, teams need every possible advantage. Every down counts, and being a half step slower/tired can lead to making or breaking a tackle that turn the game in your favor. Although PowerCranks™ originated in triathlons and bicycle racing, and do not seem an obvious match for football, upon closer examination, they should be an essential tool in every teams training preparation for a new season.

What do PowerCranks™ do for Football players?

• There is an old saying that you build great players from the legs up, PowerCranks™ is a revolutionary device for training the legs.

• What do PowerCranks™ actually do for the legs? They train the hamstrings, hip flexors, and the many stabilizer muscles that control the legs and help drive them forward immediately after the foot leaves the ground during running. This improves top speed. They also improve the power/areobic ability of the hip flexors, increacing the ability to recover after anaerobic efforts and to play down after down without fading.

• If you increase the athletes acceleration driving the legs forward, you increase running speed and acceleration, increasing speed increases the chance of making or breaking that tackle.

• Certain positions in football do something quite unique in elite athletics. They run backwards. Quarterbacks and cornerbacks frequently spend much of their game traveling in this way. Running backwards involves a much different coordination and especially use the hamstrings much more than running forwards, and nothing can train these specific muscles like PowerCranks™ do. PowerCranks™ can improve both the power and speed of the hamstrings by creating the opportunity to train these muscles at higher cadences than one can do actually running backwards, and also to use more power than one can develop against the ground when running. Some of the football teams who have purchaced PowerCranks™ have installed some of their sets backwards, so quarterbacks and cornerbacks can even more closely simulate the backwards running motion.

• Football players, especially the ones who frequently play many downs in a row, need the ability to make a maximal exertion and recover quickly to go just as hard on the next play. Powercrank training on a stationary bike is superior to many other forms of training in creating this capacity, since it trains the muscles and neuromuscular systems specifically for running with zero impact, hence reducing risk of training injury. With the size and raw power of many players today, muscle trauma from running can be much more than in lightly built athletes. Running sprints still have an essential place, but a larger volume of training, creating great benefits to on field performance, can be accomplished on PowerCranks™.

• PowerCranks™ are a terrific rehabilitation tool to come back from the leg injuries that challenge even the best players, read our rehab section to find out more.

• Top track and field sprinters have found PowerCranks™ give them an advantage in their competitions. Read coach Aaron Thigpen's review on how he uses PowerCranks™ in his training, and see our in-depth video interview of Aaron talking about his 3 years of experience training athletes, including football players, for top speed running & injury rehab with PowerCranks™. smaller file (5mb) / High quality (15mb!) If PowerCranks™ can help already blazingly fast 100m runners get faster, what could they do for you? Wide recievers and cornerbacks need the same acceleration and speed as track and field sprinters, and PowerCranks™ can be just as useful to them as Thigpen descibes his experiences.

1. Ride in a more open position in the very beginning then move to riding with the hands on the handlebars
   At first, most users will find it very difficult to consistently raise the legs over top dead center of the pedaling arc, especially while in the fully crouched position. Riding more upright makes it easier to learn the basic coordination and develop some basic endurance. But, football running is always brief bursts of speed, and this involves running bent over, trying to stay lower than the opponent. Therefore, once you have the basic coordination all other riding should be done slightly to maximally bent over as this better reproduces your position when accelerating on the field. This is explained better by Aaron Thigpen in his video mentioned above.
   
   
2. Work on endurance first
   It is usually most effective to learn a new motion practicing it repeatedly at slower velocities before attempting to try it at maximum speed. Pedaling on PowerCranks™ is no exception. Football players are not marathoners so there is no need for 2 hour endurance. But, one needs to develop some aerobic capacity to facilitate quicker recovery after anaerobic efforts. Develop the ability to ride constantly for 15-20 minutes before working on other drills below.
   
   
3. Work on leg turnover rate.
   Since this sport involves burst activity, i.e., short periods of maximum effort with long periods of recovery (the only exception being catchers & pitchers, who need physical endurance) once football players have adapted to the new motion, they should work on riding at the highest cadence possible for short periods then recovering at low cadence and repeat. PowerCranks™ are an excellent cross training tool. The increased strength and endurance that occurs in the hip flexor muscles allows for increased forward acceleration of the leg, without going anaerobic, with resulting increased leg turnover rate and/or stride length. Increased running speed and leg control is the natural end result. Football is a burst activity sport, involving short but frequent bursts of activity with varying periods of reduced activity allowing recovery. Therefore, training requirements for top speed running are most like those of a track and field sprinter. While not confirmed, we anticipate burst activity athletes can benefit greatly from only riding PowerCranks™ for about 30 - 45 minutes 3 or 4 days a week.
   
   
4. Work on independent coordination skills.
   Since this sport, at least for some positions, requires substantial leg control to change direction and speed to avoid and /or make tackles, independent leg control is important. Therefore, pedaling forwards with one leg and backwards with the other and changing randomly is a usefull drill to develop better independent control over the legs.
   
5. Be Determined!
   PowerCranks™ are a whole new way of using your legs, unlike a bicycle racer or triathlete who has spent years building up cycling specific strength, this motion might be new and frustrating to some athletes, especially ones who have been used to excelling at everything they do right away. The first few weeks on PowerCranks™ can be a challenge, as even elite cyclists have been humbled by PowerCranks™, and take some time before they master them. Be determined and patient, and your players will be faster, quicker, suffer fewer injuries, and those moments where the game hangs on making or breaking that tackle, and avoiding mental errors due to exaustion, will more often be determined in your favor. If a player had never lifted weights before, and was introduced to professional caliber weight room training, how long would it take before their maximum strength could be realized? PowerCranks™ do not require that type of time investment, but the result is just as dramatic.

	Video
	Strength & Fitness at Diablo Barbell (20MB, 7 min)
	Rehabilitation Testimonials (4MB, 11 min)
	Video Library

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