Yes, should football players lift weights during the season? Most can benefit from continuing strength training, provided they adjust the workload to games, practices, recovery, and their role on the team. The goal is usually to maintain strength and power, not to chase personal records during a demanding schedule.
Smart in-season lifting is brief, planned, and responsive to how you feel. Here’s how to choose the right frequency, time sessions around games, adapt training for your position, and recognize when recovery should take priority.
Should football players lift weights during the season?
Usually, yes. Continuing to lift can help players maintain strength, muscle, and confidence in contact situations. The key is to lower or adjust training stress when games and practices already place heavy demands on the body.
In the offseason, a player may have time to build strength with more training volume. During the season, the aim shifts toward maintaining useful qualities without carrying unnecessary fatigue into practice or game day. That often means fewer sets, less accessory work, and careful exercise selection—not abandoning the weight room altogether.
There is no single schedule that fits every athlete. Age, training experience, position, injury history, coaching demands, game frequency, and individual recovery all affect what is appropriate. A well-trained player with a full week between games may tolerate more work than a young athlete facing a short week after a physically demanding game.
Strength training also does not replace football practice, sprinting, conditioning, sleep, or rehabilitation. It is one part of the overall plan. If lifting makes it harder to move well, practice effectively, or recover for competition, the plan needs adjustment.
How often should you lift during football season?
Many players can maintain strength with one or two well-managed sessions per week, but that is a starting point rather than a rule. Some schedules or players call for less. A lighter session may be enough during a congested stretch, while a player with a longer recovery window may manage two sessions.
Training frequency matters, but it does not tell the whole story. A short, demanding session can create more fatigue than a longer session built around easy technique work. Coaches should consider the total weekly load: games, contact practices, sprinting, conditioning, travel, school or work, and lifting all contribute.
A useful approach is to keep a small amount of challenging, familiar strength work while trimming less essential volume. For example, a coach might retain a few quality sets of a main movement and remove several isolation exercises. The exact load and repetitions should reflect the athlete’s experience and the team’s plan.
Use the smallest effective training dose
A training dose is the total amount of work a session creates, including the exercises, sets, repetitions, and intensity. During the season, use enough work to provide a useful strength stimulus, but avoid adding volume simply because it appears on an offseason program.
Keep movements familiar where possible. Introducing a new exercise that causes substantial soreness just before a game can create problems without offering a clear in-season advantage. A player who needs a change because of pain or equipment limits should work with a qualified coach or medical professional.
When to schedule lifting around games and practices
Place the hardest lifting session where it leaves enough time for the player to recover before the next game. That may be early in the week for one team and later for another, depending on the game day, practice intensity, travel, and recovery habits. There is no universally correct weekday for every football schedule.
A common planning principle is to avoid a high-fatigue lift immediately before competition or a demanding practice. Heavy lower-body work, unfamiliar exercises, and high-volume eccentric training—movements that emphasize lowering a weight—can cause soreness or reduce readiness. Lighter work may fit closer to a game, but only if it does not interfere with preparation.
For a team that plays on Sunday, the following is an illustration, not a prescription. The schedule should move with the actual game calendar and the coaches’ practice plan.
| Training option | Typical focus | Best fit | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| One main lift early in the week | Brief full-body strength work | Players with one game and adequate recovery time | Heavy volume that affects later practices |
| Two shorter sessions | Split strength work across the week | Experienced players who recover well | Accumulated fatigue from both sessions |
| One reduced session | Low-volume maintenance | Short weeks, travel, or a demanding stretch | Trying to make up missed offseason work |
| Recovery or no lift | Mobility, easy movement, or rest | Players who are sore, ill, injured, or unusually fatigued | Ignoring symptoms to keep a routine |
For the Sunday example, a team might use Monday for recovery, hold its main lift on Tuesday or Wednesday, and keep later sessions lighter. But this layout may be unsuitable if the team practices hard early in the week, travels, plays on a short week, or has another game sooner than expected.
Coordinate the weight room with the coaching staff. A lift that looks manageable on paper can be a poor choice if it follows heavy contact work or lands before a demanding practice. Count football work and lifting together instead of planning each in isolation.
How to adjust the session without losing its purpose
In-season sessions should have a clear goal. If the goal is to maintain strength, prioritize a few controlled, familiar movements rather than trying to train every muscle from every angle. Preserve good technique and stop sets before form breaks down.
- Choose the main movements. Select familiar exercises suited to the player’s ability, equipment, and health. A squat, hinge, press, pull, or carefully coached variation may be useful, but no single exercise is required for every athlete.
- Reduce extra work first. If recovery is tight, cut optional accessory sets or conditioning add-ons before turning the session into a long workout.
- Keep effort controlled. Avoid repeated all-out sets or forced repetitions when the purpose is maintenance and the next practice or game is close.
- Review the response. Check soreness, movement quality, energy, and practice performance after the session. Adjust the next workout if the athlete is not recovering well.
These steps are principles, not a substitute for an individualized program. Training loads, exercise choices, and return-to-play decisions should account for the athlete’s age, experience, medical status, and coaching environment. Youth players, athletes new to lifting, and anyone returning from injury need additional supervision.
How position and playing time change the plan
Position affects the kinds of demands a player faces, but it should not be used as the only guide to lifting. A lineman who takes frequent contact, a receiver who runs at high speed, and a kicker who performs specialized skills may need different practice and recovery plans. Even players at the same position vary in playing time and health.
Starters and players who take many snaps may need a smaller lifting dose than reserves who see limited game action. A reserve should not automatically add extra hard workouts, though. Team practices, conditioning, and the player’s current training level still count toward total workload.
Consider these practical adjustments:
- High playing time: Keep sessions concise and make recovery between games a priority.
- Limited playing time: Discuss additional training with the strength coach so extra work does not compromise practice or team programming.
- Specialist roles: Maintain general strength while protecting the technical work and movement quality required for the position.
- Returning from injury: Follow the medical and rehabilitation plan rather than treating the standard team lift as clearance to train normally.
Actual snap count, contact exposure, symptoms, and recovery tell more than position labels alone. A physically demanding game may justify reducing the next session even if the player usually handles a higher workload.
Signs the weight-room plan needs to change
Some tiredness can occur during a season, but persistent or worsening fatigue deserves attention. A player should tell the coaching or medical staff about symptoms instead of hiding them to complete a workout.
Watch for soreness that does not settle before the next game, declining movement quality, unusual heaviness during warm-ups, worsening performance, poor sleep, or a growing reluctance to train. These signs do not diagnose a specific problem. They are reasons to review the overall workload and recovery plan.
Stop and seek appropriate medical advice for sharp or worsening pain, a suspected concussion, significant swelling, chest symptoms, or other concerning signs. Do not use a weight-room session to test whether a serious injury is safe to play through. Coaches should follow established medical and return-to-play procedures.
Recovery is not just time away from the weight room. Enough food, fluids, sleep, and sensible practice planning support adaptation. If those basics are not in place, adding more lifting is unlikely to solve a performance problem.
Common in-season lifting mistakes
Trying to make offseason gains during a packed schedule
Players sometimes keep an offseason program unchanged and add it to full football practices and games. That can create more fatigue than the athlete can recover from. In-season training should match the calendar, not an idealized week with no competition.
Chasing personal records
A maximum attempt is not necessary to maintain strength. Testing can add stress and risk, especially when an athlete is tired or unfamiliar with proper supervision. Use controlled training and let performance over time guide adjustments.
Adding exercises that create avoidable soreness
Novel exercises and large amounts of lowering-focused work may cause soreness that disrupts running, blocking, tackling, or kicking. Keep the program familiar and introduce changes cautiously, well away from competition when possible.
Treating every player identically
A team needs structure, but individual training histories and recovery differ. A single workload may be too much for one player and too little for another. Coaches can keep shared principles while adjusting volume, exercise choice, or session timing to suit each athlete.
Ignoring the effect of contact and practice
A lift is only one source of stress. A week with intense contact, extra conditioning, travel, and a game may require less gym work than a lighter week. Forgetting the full workload is a common reason a reasonable-looking program becomes too demanding.
Practical guidance for players and coaches
Before each session, check the game calendar, recent practice demands, and the player’s readiness. Agree on the session goal and what can be reduced if the athlete feels unusually tired. A written plan helps, but it should still allow responsible adjustments.
After training, note how the player responds at the next practice. If movement, speed, or concentration consistently suffers, the session may be too demanding or poorly timed. If the player remains healthy and performs well, the plan may be appropriate, but it still needs review as the schedule changes.
Most importantly, do not treat lifting as a test of toughness. The purpose is to support football performance and health. A planned reduction or rest day can be the right training decision, especially during a short week, after heavy game exposure, or while managing symptoms.
For most football players, continuing to lift during the season can help maintain strength, but the workload should fit the game schedule and the athlete’s recovery. Short, familiar sessions are often more useful than carrying an offseason program unchanged into a demanding season.
Start by reviewing the next game, recent contact and practice demands, and any soreness or injury concerns. Then coordinate a modest session with the strength coach, and adjust it if it interferes with movement, practice, or recovery. That is the practical answer to should football players lift weights during the season.