5 Workouts Guaranteed To Increase Hip Strength And Power

When a kicker wants to become bigger, better faster, or stronger, Leg Workouts For Kickers are a great place to start. Most if not all kickers and punters got to where they are today because they put in many, many hours in the gym.

Becoming strong takes discipline, focus, and dedication. However, if they can stick to it, the results are endless. Finding a routine that develops a kicker might be specific. However, most functional workouts should do the trick. We will do our best to highlight the best workouts that a kicker and punter can benefit from. Over time, these adjustments result in more Consistency, better Ball Contact, better Drills/results, and better Field Goals. Pair these workouts with a proper Stretching routine, and you are golden. Also, being able to use the best calorie counter app will improve your athletic performance by getting a better grasp on your health and fitness. By getting a better grasp on not only your strength, but your health, you allow yourself to maximize distance. Please use these workouts for kickers and or kicker workouts throughout the article to become the best version of yourself.

Hip Workouts

There are endless workouts that are designed to work out the hips, there are only a few that are known to fully benefit a kicking motion. The hips are among the highest priority for a kicker to have. By utilizing the hips, a kicker engages the elastic power when a body kicks a ball. When the leg makes contact with the ball, a lot of power must be generated in order to make the ball travel a great distance. Therefore, by strengthening the hips, consistency goes up, and so does power.

Deadlifts

The deadlift is often referred to as the king of exercises. Simply from the intensity required per lift. Almost every muscle in this exercise gets used for a deadlift. Therefore, proper technique needs to be in order for there to be no injuries.

Start with the legs slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Then, bending from the legs, NOT the back, grab the bar. While keeping the back straight, Lift from the LEGS, and push your hips through as you finish the rep.

An upright position maintains power. When the back begins to crunch, bend, and become parallel with the ground, injuries typically happen. As time goes on, weight should be increased. If a kicker keeps the legs closer, the quads become more challenged. As a result, the wider the legs go the more the hamstrings are developed. This wide stance is also known as a sumo deadlift.

Deadlifts workouts are also known as the king of workouts

Rep Range for Maximum Growth

There should be a weight to rep range ratio relative to the goal you are trying to achieve. The higher weight, lower rep range, the stronger your muscles become.

Now there needs to be enough reps in order to properly challenge the body in order for proper growth to happen. When reps are in the low range, the muscles become targeted only for a short period of time. A great place for a kicker to focus becomes the 4-8 rep range.

Simply because it becomes enough time under tension for the muscles to get endurance in while still working on the fast-twitch muscle fibers. Another way to target these muscles is by exploding through the motion. When the body becomes explosive for a few seconds at a time, kicking becomes effortless. The easier your body has to work the same amount, to get the same result, good things are happening.

Kettlebell Swings

According to Livestrong.com,

Kettlebell swings are initiated with a powerful hip thrust using your glutes and hamstring muscles. In weight lifting, these muscles are, in conjunction with your lower back, referred to as your “power zone” as they are strongly involved in virtually all lifting, running and jumping movements. Using a heavy kettlebell for low rep sets will improve your muscular power.”

The power zone for a kettlebell develops through the consistent beating of the hips. Since the kettlebell is more of an endurance movement than a strength-building one. This is a great way to develop the muscles when the body is beaten up. Not only does it get the blood flowing in the body, it also acts as a great 10-minute workout when you are short on time.

When using a kettle bell, do not try to rush or go too fast that form loses its priority. Maintain good posture as that remains the focus of the swing. Good form results in great power and mobility.

A Study a few years back showed people who did only kettle bell swings for 15 minutes a day for 2-3 times a week, lost over 50 pounds. While it may seem ridiculous, the swing is an aggressive movement, and it can either work for you, or against you.

These test subjects are now living life at a much more manageable weight, and are already changing their lives for the better. So whether you choose to do kettle bell swings, Turkish get ups, or any other variation of a kettlebell workout, using a kettlebell should burn a lot of that extra fat right off your body.

Kettlebell swing workouts

Walking Lunges

These are great for when you want to build endurance and functional strength. That is the importance of being an athlete, functional and practical strength takes a priority over physical strength. When performing a walking lunge, according to stylecraze.com, “the downward movement remains the same with exactly the same pressure being put on all the leg and thigh muscles.”

However, the upward movement is different in this form of lunges. All the focus is on the forward leg with all the muscles of the forward leg contracting maximally in the attempt to stand straight again. One needs stability while performing this exercise.

This is why not much pressure is applied on the rear leg muscles in this lunge workout.” When doing this exercise, listening to music gets to be an incredible “go to war moment” as the workout progresses. Mentally attacking the workout proves to improve you as each rep takes focus and control.

Walking lunges workout

Power Cleans/Hang Cleans/Clean & Press

The powerclean is a technical but extremely beneficial workout. Much like a deadlift, start with the bar on the ground, back flat. Firmly grasp the bar with the hands, using the legs, lift the bar off the ground, thrust the hips forward. Using that momentum, keep the bar going straight up towards the clavicle bone.

When the bar is chest height, squat down while aggressively shooting your elbows under and around the bar. This lets your palms go from towards you, to facing towards the sky. A proper power clean works the quads, hamstrings, hips, core, arms, and some chest. By starting the bar resting at hip height, this is now a hang clean.

Power Cleans/Hang Cleans/Clean & Press Continued

The purpose of the hang clean, like the power clean, targets almost the entire body. Now since you are starting from hip height, the dead lift portion does not take place. Therefore, the main focus of this lift is the hips. The hips are responsible for making the bar explode up into the chest are. Having explosive hips will only improve the experience of this workout.

Also, if you (like most people) want to take this exercise a step further, follow along! When the bar starts rising to the position on the clavicle bone, use your arms and legs in unison, and press the bar up over the head. The bar then goes back down either to the floor if you like to throw weights around (I do) or go to the clavicle, hips, then floor.

This workout targets most if not all of the fundamental muscles making it a great place to go for kickers. Due to the fact that kickers use their whole body to kick, using workouts that do the same are in their best interest.

Powerclean workouts are great for explosive power

Sprinting Workouts

Sprinting never gets old. It will always remain an incredible way to get more explosive hips while lowering your body fat as a result. Sprints have many alternatives; shuttles, circuits, suicides, kneeling get-ups, head start sprints, and the most simple, distance sprints.

While most of these may be a new term for many people we will quickly address each one so you can better understand most of these. Shuttles sprints start from a target distance of, let’s say a cone 10 yards away, then back to the start. This way, the main objective becomes, quick turns while maintaining control.

The next sprint, circuits, are simple in theory but much harder when you begin. A circuit starts with the kicker running either an obstacle, or a distance the first time, and they use that time as their base.

Another way to do a circuit sprint is to give your self 15 minutes to do as many sprinting rounds or obstacle rounds as possible. While they will obviously work the body, they work the mind in pushing it to keep going when there is little left in the tank.

Sprinting Workouts Continued

Suicide sprints are a staple in almost every category in sports. They clearly separate the conditioned from the out of shape players. This exercise begins with the kicker placing target areas at increasing distances away from them.

For example, the first cone is 5 yards away, then 10, then 15, then 20, all the way up to 40. That suicide for 3 rounds would be enough to tranquilize an elephant with the tough intense requirement of energy.

Or if you wanted to work the sprints more, lessen the cones between, making it less cardio intensive, and more high intensity. For example, placing the cones at the 10, 20, 30, 40. They touch each one, go back to the starting position and go to the next one. However you want to do it is fine, just make it challenging.

Kneeling get ups begin on the knees, then in an explosive motion, drive your legs from under the knees, land on both feet, and sprint. This motion only needs at least 20 yards so it becomes quite simple but effective in its motion.

Head starts simply work on using momentum to go from an already moving position to a full sprinting one. This is mainly for when you want to work on the sprinting portion itself, not the start from zero. These are also great for a time when you simply want to workout your explosive movements while in motion.

Sprinting workouts develop the overall explosiveness of the body

Sprinting Workouts Continued…Again

The distance sprints are beneficial in their simplicity. Starting out with the target finish distance, simply run that distance, take a break, and sprint back. Likewise, the break can be the walk back, when you get back to the other side, start immediately. Adding in a timed run can be a great way to track your progression.

Use a stopwatch to see how fast you are sprinting. This way, you are challenging yourself to beat your previous time. Not only have you run that fast before, you know you are capable of doing even better since you have already done it before.

Also, when doing a sprint, working on perfecting the form will only benefit you in the future moving forward. Using good form allows your body to work for you not against you. Such as workouts in any shape or form, good technique gets the exercise stronger, and in shape, faster.

When the body works efficiently to get you to the destination, injuries are avoided, and progress becomes exponential. Likewise, when kicking, using your body makes your job easier since it gets to work more for the essentials like ball contact, Power, and consistency. Your body when kicking can be your biggest obstacle or your best friend. These sprinting workouts focus on delivering maximum results through maximum effort. If you are going at 80% you should expect 80% results.

Resistance Bands Workouts

Elastic or rehab bands are a great workout for the kicker who wants to develop the fast twitch muscle fibers in the leg. Through consistent work, those muscles become stronger, faster, and more explosive for the kick. Therefore, even if the kicker does not hit a great kick, the strength they have developed will help them make it.

Now pair that with good technique, and that starts to become a Professional status conversation. Developing the fast twitch muscles takes time, but with consistent work, it can be done. There are hundreds of resistance band workouts to work with. The main purpose is to work on the muscles that are weak, making the whole leg balanced and strong.

When the whole leg becomes balanced, the injuries go away since the muscles do not have to make up for the inefficiencies. A simple kicking motion with a resistance band is a great place to start with resistance bands. While there are countless videos, books, apps online, simplicity remains important when doing workouts.

50 resistance band field goal swings, punting swings, and sprint motions are all that is needed.

Conclusion

Implementing this football kicker workout will not only enhance your performance, but will make you stronger mentally as well. Many people who workout intensely have shown a direct correlation to their income rising as well. However, just working out is not enough, you also need to master the recovery side of it as well. If you want a great stretching routine to open up your hips, check out this short video then click the link below the video to see a program which will help you unlock more power in your hips so you can lift more, and reduce injury.

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[su_highlight background=”#fff33b”]Click The Text To Learn How To Unlock Your Hip Flexors![/su_highlight]

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Understanding what muscles need attention, and then tending to them with consistent, challenging work, proves to thrive in development. Workouts are designed to develop athletic performance. Use them wisely, and efficiently my friends! If you enjoyed reading this article, please share this so we can continue to grow! Also, if you have any suggestions for what we should write about next, let us know!

Thanks for reading and stay amazing!

  • Eric

I may earn a small commission through my affiliate links

Resistance bands develop the body to stay conditioned past exhaustion

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