By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

Before anything can happen on the football field and the organized team activities turn into minicamps which eventually give way to training camp and ultimately the regular season, the real offseason starts in a 6,000 square-foot weight and training room.

It is within the confines of that room where football players and football teams are made. It’s where the difference between making the tackle in the fourth quarter and having that extra step for a deep go route can be made.

For the Rams, like any other team in the NFL, the offseason begins here. In this room at the Russell Training Center, lined up in precise fashion, barbells are raised and dropped, dumb bells clang off the ground after another set and the steady sound of a primal scream reverberates from the walls as another player finishes a particularly hard repetition.

As another offseason training and conditioning program comes and goes, the Rams have seen plenty of change in the way business is done in this room. It’s a change they hope will help translate into bigger, faster, stronger players that will help them do what every team wants to do at this time of year: win more football games.

A “ROCK” SOLID FOUNDATION

Overseeing it all is strength and conditioning coach Rock Gullickson and his assistant Chuck Faucette.

When the Rams hired Steve Spagnuolo as head coach in January, they parted ways with former strength coach Dana LeDuc. Like with any other spot on his staff, Spagnuolo carefully scanned the possibilities to run the show in the weight room.

That search led him to Gullickson, whose name alone could give you a pretty good idea of what he does for an occupation.

“You just think about that name and what he will bring to the weight room,” cornerback Tye Hill said. “He’s just the Rock.”

Named after Rocky Marciano, the only undefeated heavyweight champion in boxing history, Gullickson came to St. Louis with quite the resume.

This season will be Gullickson’s 10th in the NFL. Most recently he was the strength coach at Green Bay from 2006-2008. He was named the NFL Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year in 2007 for his work with the Packers. Before Green Bay, he held the same position with the Saints from 2000-2005.

Gullickson began coaching at Moorhead State, Minnesota, in 1978.  He also had stops at Maryville State, North Dakota; Montana State, Rutgers, Texas, and Louisville before going to the NFL.

Upon his arrival in St. Louis, it didn’t take Gullickson long to earn the trust and respect of his players.

“Rock has been great for me personally,” cornerback Ron Bartell said. “The first couple of days you could see a change in his approach. Overall, I think guys are just really excited. You can’t get overly excited yet because the season’s so far away, but guys really have something to look forward to this year. Guys have different reasons and there are certain things they want to get done and I think Rock is a great addition. He’s something new, a different approach.”

According to Gullickson the philosophy he shares with Faucette isn’t that much different from what many of the teams around the league are doing. It is, however, a bit different from what was done in St. Louis before his arrival.

In recent seasons, the Rams used a strength and conditioning program that was more geared toward specific movements with less emphasis on strength training and building muscle and bulk.

“The stuff we did last year was more of a movement type of deal,” cornerback Tye Hill said. “It’s kind of hard to explain because I’m not an expert. I just know what I have done in the past and how I have been successful on the field kind of relates to what we are doing now.”

Under the new regime, the emphasis has shifted to power lifting. That means more Olympic style lifts such as hang cleans, squats, dead lifts and a variety of heavy presses.

Gullickson and Faucette say their program isn’t terribly different from what many teams do but acknowledge that every strength coach has his own way of going about his business.

“I do believe in order, being organized, being on the floor with the fellas, telling them when they have done a good job, telling them when they haven’t done a good job, getting to know them, getting to know what makes them go,” Gullickson said. “I don’t think I am overly demanding but I do like to see guys pay attention to detail. I do like to see guys finish and really establish themselves as being guys with a high work ethic. I want them to understand we are a blue collar bunch. We come to work every day and when we are here, we are here to get better and you have to push yourself hard enough each day to get better. We are working together to make this thing happen. We all have a common goal; we want to win some football games.”

WEIGHT ROOM REVAMP

Before Gullickson was even hired, he had a pretty good idea of what he wanted his work space to look like. Not many jobs allow for a 6,000 square foot office but upon his first visit to the weight room, he saw a blank canvas that needed some paint.

When Gullickson went to interview with Spagnuolo, the Rams new head coach asked him what he envisioned for implementing his program and for the room itself. Pen and paper in hand, Gullickson drew up exactly what he saw.

In that picture, there were plenty of free weight stations, all lined up with a certain rhyme and reason, big walking alleys for players to move easily from one station to the next and a general, tidy look to it all.

Spagnuolo liked what he saw and hired Gullickson. A couple days later, he brought back Faucette, who joined the Rams before last season. After getting the go ahead from general manager Billy Devaney and getting input from Faucette for a shared vision, Spagnuolo put his rubber stamp on the dramatic re-shaping of the weight room.

“It was really just drawing out a ‘this is what I see coach,’” Gullickson said. “He said to run with it and we sat down, discussed it, drew it up and took it back up to coach. He asked what the bottom line is and we said this is what it will cost. He said ‘Let’s go, let’s do it.’”

Both Gullickson and Faucette had been part of extreme weight room makeovers before in their careers and went into the process believing it would take six to eight weeks. But the enthusiasm behind the project cut that timeframe in half.

The Rams donated the outgoing equipment to local fire and police academies and those organizations came quickly to pick up the goods. Within a week, the order had been placed and the old equipment had cleared out.

With no players around, Gullickson and Faucette had hoped to have a new beginning waiting for them in the weight room upon their return. In the record time of 27 days, the makeover was complete and the Rams returned to a completely re-designed weight room.

That dramatic yet simple change was enough to help the returning Rams realize there’s a new sheriff in town and the reaction among the players was overwhelmingly positive.

“I think they bought in right away,” Faucette said. “It was kind of an awe factor because we did it in 27 days. Nobody was really here. Really nobody was here so when the players came back we had everything ready. That was coach Spags big thing. He wanted us to start off with a big splash. Players came in and were like ‘Wow.’ Coach explained the program and we hit the ground running. You are only as good as the guys buying in. From day one, they have been right on board with us and working hard.”

If there was any doubt about players buying in, a simple look at the roll call for attendance for the program would put it to rest. Technically, the offseason conditioning program is not mandatory and players have the option of working out off site.

Very few Rams took that option. As of Wednesday, the Rams had been at the program for a total of 30 days and 60 hours in a 10-week time span. In that time, attendance had been right at about 95 percent for the duration of the program.

The cooperation and understanding of the head coach has played a key role in developing that trust from the players.

“I think with coach Spagnuolo watching our back and supporting us and plugging our program to the players at every meeting, he has gotten the point across that this is a real important part of having a successful season,” Gullickson said. “That’s really where it starts when he has told the guys to be here. He has challenged them to keep their attendance up and not only are they here but they are working at it, working hard.”

Make no mistake, that type of enthusiasm has a noticeable trickle down effect that starts with getting the players at the top of the depth chart to immediately believe in the changes.

“There are key players on your team that if you convince those guys and they buy in, then it’s a done deal,” Gullickson said. “Leonard Little, Steven Jackson, Marc Bulger, James Hall, OJ (Atogwe), Adam Goldberg, some of the guys that have those leadership qualities, those guys all of a sudden they are into it and nobody else has a choice. They are all going to buy in too.”

THE PROGRAM

The average week for a Rams player during the offseason consists of four workout days, each with a specific area to work on.

At the forefront of the offseason program is an ideal that Gullickson and Faucette have instituted in concert with Spagnuolo’s team-first ethos.

Instead of individual programs for all 80 or so players, or breaking it down into position, the Rams truly have a team-oriented program. While there are tweaks here and there depending on the player, Gullickson believes in building strength through the shared experience of the program.

In other words, part of building a team can come from everybody going through the same thing at the same time.

“During the offseason, in order to start building the character of the team, to start building the cohesiveness of the team, we work together on similar type movements,” Gullickson said. “I am really not one to believe in OK, we have got 80 individuals, we have got 80 individual workouts. We have got the Rams workout and we all work on similar activities, similar lifts, similar exercises and together we are working to get this thing done.”

The “Rams workout” is a four-day a week program that kicks off on Mondays with a complete upper body workout. That can include chest, arms, shoulder, neck and core body exercises.

On Tuesday, the players work the lower body, doing a variety of leg lifts that hit on all parts of the leg and foot.

On Wednesday, the heavy lifting is set aside and the team does what is called a “functional” day. On that day, the team heads to the indoor field and do functional movements like ankle stability, joint stability, hips, shoulders and stretching.

Thursday is the final workout day of the week and a little of everything from the previous three days is incorporated to that day.

While building strength, speed, explosiveness and all of the skills necessary to compete on the field, Gullickson and Faucette are mindful of finding ways to limit some of the nagging injuries that are common to the sport.

With that in mind, steps are taken to work in plenty of exercises that will eliminate soft-tissue injuries like hamstring pulls and ankle tweaks. All of those workouts are done in conjunction with help from the team’s athletic trainers.

“We work a lot of the joint stability, ankle and “prehab” movements in our workouts and that helps with the injuries, the soft tissue, the hamstrings, ankles, shoulders,” Faucette said. “That’s about what we can do without being trainers in the training room.”

 Preventing injuries isn’t the only part of the job. The Rams have been hit hard by the injury bug the past two seasons and as part of the effort to reduce said ailments, the strength and conditioning staff must also work recovering players back into the mix.

Soon after those players are cleared by the trainers, Gullickson and Faucette will ease them back into the workout routine before setting them loose on the weights.

Take Hill as a prime example. Since coming into the league in 2006, Hill has battled a variety of injuries that have restricted his playing time. In 2008, Hill suffered a knee injury that kept him out for the season and he only recently had a cyst removed from the back of the knee.

Before getting to the NFL, Hill had never had any injury complications. Although some of it is probably just bad luck, Hill believes in Gullickson and his program. And it’s no coincidence that Hill has been a regular in the weight room before the offseason program even officially began.

“I had been working with him before the program started, voluntary workouts,” Hill said. “There’s a reason why I have been around. I trust in him and he’s done a great job for me so far. I have been able to do some things that I wouldn’t have been able to do or shouldn’t have been doing in practice because I have been staying on top of the weights. It’s definitely doing something.”

ROOKIE REQUIREMENTS

Now that their college days are over and they have moved on to the big leagues, the Rams rookie class will receive a crash course in strength training at the NFL level.

Like any other aspect of making the jump from college to the pros, the rookies will be asked to dive in headfirst and ask questions later.

On Monday, Gullickson and Faucette met with the rookies and let them know what will be asked of them in the coming days and weeks. Because the rookies didn’t get a chance to participate in the previous weeks of training, they will be a bit behind the eight ball as they attempt to catch up.

Although many young players come from big time programs with weight rooms that could double as a palace, there is still a substantial jump to the NFL in what is expected in terms of the details and technique.

“I think the thing we stress more than anything is that everything they do, there’s a reason for it,” Gullickson said. “We are not going to go out and run 20 gassers just to see who the toughest guy is. How does that benefit the team? Everything we do, we do for a reason. When it comes to form and function, we are going to pick everything apart that they do. They probably haven’t had that too much where a guy goes you are pretty strong but I need you to clean up this technique or this detail. I need you to finish that rep with a little better form. We are coaching them and motivating them to be the best they can all the time.”

Learning that part of the NFL is as big of an adjustment as anything for a rookie transitioning to the league. Gullickson and Faucette say they try to tell every rookie that “your body is your vehicle to success.”

“That’s a change from college to this level because now you are making money and now your body is going to be what helps you make the money, help you be successful, help you become a Pro Bowler so you have to take this as serious as you do playing on a football field,” Faucette said.

THE OFF OFFSEASON

The Rams officially began organized team activities on Tuesday and with the start of those glorified practices soon giving way to the final minicamp and eventually a summer break, it’s imperative for Gullickson, Faucette, Spagnuolo and every other coach to emphasize the importance of building on the work they have already put in.

In the coming days, the program will be toned down a bit because football activities will take over in the form of the O.T.A.’s. When those wrap up on June 17, the players will go their separate ways until training camp.

Sure, some will stick around and continue to work out and the ones that leave will be given a workout program to follow but for the most part, the players are on their own.

“Our greatest fear is that they put in 14 weeks and make tremendous strides, they can’t let that slip away in that five week period before training camp starts,” Gullickson said. “They will have a program and they will have a pretty straightforward talk from us and coach that they have done a great job but don’t give it up in the next four or five week period.”

When the players return from summer vacation they will be put through the paces of various tests to ensure they are in shape and have at least maintained the level of fitness achieved in the conditioning program.
 
Earlier this week, Gullickson and Faucette met with Spagnuolo and other members of the staff and went player by player to evaluate each individual’s progress.

“We went through player by player on how the guys are doing at this point and when you get a chance to sit down and really analyze how each guy is doing, it is very pleasing at the end that for the most part it shows great promise for what the Rams can become,” Gullickson said.

To this point, that progress has been pleasing for the strength staff but all involved know it’s only the first step toward achieving the ultimate goal when the games begin.

 

 

---