Back in my early days of training, a guy that went to my high school had a brother who played football at Michigan. He was talking about their strength program and how regimented it was. I asked him if there was a way he could get me their summer workout from his brother so I could take a look at it.

He said it wouldn’t be a problem. Then he contacted me a few days later saying that he couldn’t let me see it. Apparently, the strength coach gives strict instructions to all the players that this is “For Their Eyes Only.”

You ever wonder what makes the VIP area so special?? Because it is killing us to know what the heck goes on in there. Then a miracle happens, we finally get access, and realize that VIP really isn’t all it is cracked up to be.

That’s kind of what these workouts were like.

Eventually, I had my own athletes who played at all different colleges and when they got their workouts, they HAD to share them with me. I mean I have to know what the workout is so I can have their athletes in tip-top shape when they report back.

After looking at all these workouts, I’ve come to realize that there is no secret exercise that works with everybody. In fact, a lot of the same exercises are used across the board with all these strength coaches.

You could probably do the research and put together a list of all the exercises that you need to get your athlete faster and stronger. In fact, I’ve probably discussed them all on my blog at one time or another. If you go to my Fanpage, I probably have a video of one of my athletes doing each and every one of these exercises.

The best exercise for you to develop speed is probably the exercise that you have the best access to.  

If you have use of a rack and Olympic bar, then you could probably do all sorts of fun things like squats, cleans, and benching.

If you have use of a hill and the outside, then maybe incline and decline runs are your secret ingredient for speed. Throw in some single leg body weight training and there you go.

The speed and strength coaches I know are more than willing to share what they do with their athletes. They readily admit that they probably stole their program from 5 other different coaches before them. This is what works for them and it will probably work for you.

We all have certain twists to our program that makes it unique to us, but I guarantee I do a lot of the same exercises as your own personal favorite coach. How we package it to our athletes and progress them through this workout can be different, but it certainly isn’t a huge secret.

I’m sure you will find individuals who will not share their program with you and that’s fine. I guess.  But, if at some point I do get a look at it, I’m sure you won’t find a heck of a lot of differences between the next ten coaches you run into and your Top Secret workout.

Photo courtesy of 182nd Airlift Wing on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/182aw/