Aaron Donald has been one of the most disruptive defensive linemen in the NFL since he arrived in 2014. How does he stay so dominant? Simple – he hits the gym HARD. Let’s take a look at the Aaron Donald workout.
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Who is Aaron Donald?
Donald was a star at the University of Pittsburgh, where he played his college ball from 2010-2013. He recorded 29.5 sacks and 66 tackles for loss over the four years while attracting the attention of NFL teams.
Because of his impressive stats in college and at the NFL combine, Donald was drafted 13th overall in the 2014 NFL draft by the St. Louis Rams.
NFL Career
Aaron Donald had a very solid start to his NFL career, recording at least 8 sacks in his first three seasons. This set the stage for the 2017 NFL season where Aaron racked up 11 sacks and 5 forced fumbles. Then he followed up in 2018 with his breakout year posting 20.5 sacks and 4 forced fumbles.
Donald won the NFL defensive player of the year both of these years.
Aaron Donald Workout
So, maybe Saquon Barkley can bench over 400 pounds, but Aaron Donald can put up 500 pounds! You read that correctly. A five followed by two zeros. He also did 35 reps on the bench press at the NFL combine before he entered the NFL.
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He mainly focuses on power movements and strength to help improve his lineman abilities.
Power movements will include low volume, high intensity box jumps, cxasxasadf. These exercises are to help with his acceleration. Adding these into a workout improve speed and quickness off the line of scrimmage for lineman.
Strength exercises include squats, deadlifts, and bench press in the realm of 3-6 reps at 85-90% of his 1-rep max. This is the same technique that Christian McCaffery uses.
On game days, Donald adds in high volume, lower weight arm workouts to prepare him for the three-hour shoving match he has ahead of him. He’ll also add in some ab work with medicine ball tosses
Training with Knives
Knives? Yes, knives. Aaron Donald has someone trying to stab him with knives to help improve his reaction time and hand fighting skills. Albeit they are not real knives (obviously) it still puts the sense of fear in you if one is coming at you.
So yeah, Aaron Donald is playing with knives in the offseason to help improve his pass rushing skills.
Ab Workout
Again, quick, speedy movements is the name of the game even for Donald’s ab workout. He will look into incorporating variation of ab exercises such as medicine ball toss crunches. Right before Donald throws the medicine ball to the trainer, the trainer places another medicine ball on his feet.
Aaron Donald is always working ?? @AaronDonald97 @RamsNFL
(via kilo_dutch, shan.grewal/IG) pic.twitter.com/BLsyVtZj3s
— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) March 12, 2020
He’ll then grab the medicine ball before heading back down for the downward portion of the crunch. This way he can double the work he does with medicine ball work.