Sports Pilates
Despite athletes being in prime physical condition at the top of their game, they still need to push their bodies to maximize their impact on their game. Combined with other weight training and sport-specific workouts, Pilates has burst on the sports world as the way to keep you body fit and in peak physical shape.
One football player that has made a name for himself recently is, Pittsburgh Steeler wide receiver Antonio Brown. He, along with Mike Wallace and quarterback Ben Rothlisburger have transformed Pittsburgh from a ground-and-pound offense into a passing offense. And Brown has Pilates to thank for his recent accomplishments, which include being the first NFL player to record 1,000 yards in both receiving and return categories in the same season. The third-year player does some Pilates exercises to help him with his routes and his cutting and sprinting. Some of Brown’s exercises are: Pilates chair workout for wide receivers, Pilates reformer workout, and the Pilates core align warm-up. Here is the link where you can watch some of Antonio Brown’s incredibly difficult workouts that facilitate his explosiveness on the field. Antonio Brown Workout
Pilates for Football
Receivers are only as good as the quarterbacks throwing to them. QBs such as Aaron Rodgers, Chris Simms, and Carson Palmer have incorporated Pilates into their training to help improve conditioning and strengthen their core. Agility and stability are two additional benefits noted by these players.
Another facet of the offense is the running back position. They run through all the huge, muscular linemen and linebackers so they get banged up a lot and need to do workouts that will help them stay agile and explosive to burst through the line of scrimmage into the secondary defense and into the in-zone. Verron Haynes, a running back on the Pittsburg Steelers when they won Superbowl XL on February 5, 2006. His career isn’t as spectacular as he would want with his 738 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns, although the bright spot is that he averaged 4.2 yards per carry, which is pretty good in the NFL. However, after he was sidelined by a knee injury he needs to continue rehabbing if there is any chance of making it back into the league. Haynes uses Pilates do achieve that rehab that could save his football career. Here is Haynes doing Pilates using a type of theraband to work on his jumping and turning. Verron Haynes workout.