This week’s training behind the highlight feature needs no introduction. Marshawn Lynch’s ground-rattling 67-yard touchdown rush featured everything you’d expect from a highlight-worthy play: a power running attack, a wicked stiff-arm and enough strength to shed six would-be tacklers. Lynch calls it “beast mode.”
You too can run wild like the Seattle Seahawks running back by performing a series of lifts that form the basis of the Seahawks’ strength program.
To increase his players’ explosiveness on the field, Seahawks strength coach Chris Carlisle prescribes lifts that work the full range of triple extension. The Clean Pull is one such lift. It trains the explosive joints—hips, knees and ankles—to go from a 90-degree angle to full extension, the same joint angles used when running.
For active rest, perform Planks between sets of Clean Pulls. This core stabilizer will help you absorb and deliver contact, like the crushing stiff-arm Lynch delivered on his way to paydirt.
Clean Pull

• Grasp bar just outside athletic stance with bar touching shins
• Assume deadlift position with back locked, shoulders up and core tight
• Initiate pull by extending hips and knees
• Explode upward by forcefully shrugging and fully extending hips, knees and ankles

Sets/Reps: 4×5
Coaching Points: Keep back flat and shoulders higher than butt // Keep arms as straight as possible // Shift weight toward balls of feet at top of movement
Plank

• Lie on stomach with elbows bent under body
• Raise body into air until only elbows and toes are touching ground
• Hold for 20-30 seconds

Sets: 3
Coaching Points: Stabilize core // Keep ankles, knees, hips and shoulders aligned // Do not allow body to sag
Photo:  nytimes.com