gymratt wrote:Cleans are the single mos important exercise a football player (or many explosive-type athletes) can do. No one exercise is the end all be all of strength but If I could only do one exercise that would be it. What do tackling, blocking, and running all have in common...EXPLOSION. Who cares if a player can Bench 300 Lbs. if his lower body doesn't have the explosion to put a force behind it. Cleans and PARELLEL squats are the 2 most important exercixes for football players with everything else WAY WAY behind. Also, IMO, Deadlift probably hurts more highschool athletes than any other exercise. That is one lift I would get rid of if I were a strength coach or Head coach at a High School.
I agree completely with this, as one of my coaches used to say, "Bench Press can't really be used until you're flat on your back, and then it's kinda too late".