Metabolic Circuit: Behind The Block

This month we are embarking on the infamous “Metabolic Circuit.” Simply put Metabolic Circuit is ten exercises, three sets of twelve, and done on a 80 second per set timer. So 360 total reps done in 40 minutes. The real story is how this came to fruition. 

Nebraska Football was traditionally a very good college football program. Largely regarded as a blue chip program in college football. It may seem like it has always been an accepted part of football, but strength and conditioning was considered taboo and would make athletes slower and more injury prone. Nebraska was on the cutting edge of changing that perception. 

Boyd Epley is considered the father of Strength & Conditioning. As legend would have it, coach Epley approached Tom Osborne (legendary Football Coach for Nebraska) about utilizing strength training with the football team. Coach Epley had a strong background in track and field where getting more explosive through athletic based strength training was extremely valued. He convinced Coach Osborne to let him train a couple of the players and let him decide if Nebraska should continue strength training. 

The risk turned out to be a huge competitive advantage for Nebraska. Nebraska would go on to win multiple national championships, largely credited to their physical development relative to their opponents. The rest as they say is history; strength and conditioning became adopted by every college football program in the country. Every football program now employs a full time strength and conditioning staff where their head coach is approaching 7 figure salaries. The strength and conditioning staff work within multi million dollar weight rooms. Have open budgets as to what they are allowed to spend annually on nutrition, education, and new equipment. 

A huge piece of Coach Epley’s approach was ground based movements. Again this was not a consensus at the time. A huge astigmatism associated with strength training was it was dangerous. Machine based training was massively popular due to its ease of use and its low risk. Coach Epley placed himself out on a limb for potentially risking his career by utilizing more athletic based strength and conditioning programming. Here is an example of what Husker Power looked like: 

Husker Power

Nebraska’s S&C program included sprint training, plyometrics, and ground based multi joint movement patterns. The results were tremendous and were cutting edge for its time. We take for granted what Nebraska did based on its accepted belief that all football players should train like this. At the time, including sports nutrition, Nebraska S&C was at the forefront of a revolution in performance based on training. 

A huge asset was how Coach Epley structured their strength training. He formatted in a circuit method; going from one station to the next in chronological order. The circuit style allowed for the program to check all the boxes of pushing and pulling in a program to accommodate structural balance (equal distribution of pushes and pulls). As well keeping the workout done in an efficient manner to maximize time. This also led to a greater anabolic response with the work to rest ratio. This was amplified by using compound (multi joint) movements that also increased the anabolic nature of the program. 

Boyd Epley Circuit 

A potential downside was that Nebraska exclusively used this style of training year round. What you will find is that this is a very unsustainable program. It has a short window of effectiveness. Recovery is just simply too hard when this style of training is used too long. Incomplete recovery will lead to an increased risk for burnout or injury. There is the crux of really challenging programming, it has a finite time it can be effective for. 

Paying homage to Coach Epley and Husker Power’s innovation is a part of this. The other aspect is utilizing an incredibly effective form of training that will stimulate muscle growth. We can think of this as interval training with free weight exercise. Biggest difference is this method has won national championships. Currently Barry’s, Soul Cycle, Orange Theory have not - pretty obvious what we need to do.