Why an NFL Trainer Wants Lifters Doing More Than 4x8: High Reps, Power and Athletic Strength
UPLIFT IRON CLUBThe problem with living in the 4x8 comfort zone
NFL trainer Ephraim Kitchen has a simple criticism of the way many recreational lifters train: the whole week can collapse into the same comfortable middle. Four sets of eight is useful, but if every exercise, every month and every goal lives there, you are mostly practicing one kind of strength endurance. Kitchen’s argument is that athletes need a broader engine. His own sessions for football players can include sets climbing toward 15, 20 or even 30 reps, not because high reps are magical, but because athletes must keep producing force after the first few efforts.
That does not mean replacing heavy work with endless circuits. Maximum strength still matters. A stronger athlete can make a fixed task relatively easier. The point is to stop confusing one rep range with a complete performance program. Lower reps can build and express high force, moderate reps are efficient for muscle and general strength, and higher-rep sets can add local work capacity.
For a normal gym lifter, the useful version is modest: keep the main lift heavy enough to progress, then let selected assistance work stretch into higher rep ranges. A squat might stay at sets of three to six while split squats, rows, push-ups or carries occasionally run longer. You are adding a quality, not declaring war on 4x8.
Strength and power are related—but they are not the same thing
Kitchen’s second point is the one lifters often neglect once they stop playing organized sport: keep training power. Strength is the ability to produce force. Power adds time to the equation—how quickly you can produce that force. A slow grinding squat can demonstrate enormous strength while a jump, sprint or medicine-ball throw asks the body to create useful force fast.
That is why athletic programs include jumps, throws, short sprints and explosive lifts alongside conventional resistance training. Ballistic work is especially useful because the athlete can accelerate through the movement instead of intentionally slowing the implement near the end. With a medicine-ball throw, for example, the ball leaves the hands. The goal is speed and intent, not fatigue.
The mistake is turning power work into cardio. If jump height is collapsing, throws are getting sluggish or every rep looks slower than the last, you are no longer training peak power very well. Keep the sets small, rest generously and perform explosive drills while fresh. Three to five sets of three jumps or throws can be plenty. The session should leave you feeling sharp, not destroyed. Kitchen’s NFL context is extreme, but the principle scales beautifully to ordinary lifters: preserve the ability to move quickly while you build the ability to move heavy things.
Why sleds are such a good bridge between strength and conditioning
Sled work fits Kitchen’s message almost perfectly because it sits between traditional strength training and running. A heavy prowler demands leg drive and trunk stiffness, but the athlete also has to repeat forceful steps instead of producing one maximal effort. JLT Performance’s NFL offseason work shows the same basic idea: athletes push loaded sleds on turf as part of a larger speed, strength and recovery system.
For gym lifters, sleds have another advantage: they are simple. There is very little technical barrier compared with Olympic lifting, and the concentric-only nature of most pushes can make them easier to recover from than adding another hard squat variation. Heavy pushes can build force; lighter, faster pushes can emphasize acceleration; longer efforts can build conditioning. The tool changes character with the load and distance.
A practical starting point is four to six short pushes of 10–20 metres with enough rest to keep posture and speed consistent. On a strength day, place them after the main lower-body lift. On a conditioning day, use a lighter load and slightly shorter rests. Do not make every sled session a collapse contest. The goal is to create repeatable force under movement, not to prove that lactic acid exists. If your steps turn into a shuffle and your torso folds, the set has already told you enough.
Use higher reps without compromising the rest of the week
Kitchen’s mention of sets reaching 15, 20 or 30 reps is the part most likely to be overdone. Higher-rep work can build local muscular endurance and teach a lifter to keep producing clean reps under fatigue, but the dose matters. Very long barbell sets are not automatically more athletic than sensible strength training. They can simply create more recovery cost than the program needs.
The easiest way to use the idea is to put higher reps on exercises with a lower technical and recovery cost. Rows, push-ups, split squats, step-ups, hamstring curls, cable work, carries and some machine exercises can all tolerate longer sets better than repeated maximal barbell compounds. Leave a little reserve most of the time. Capacity improves when quality work accumulates; it does not require turning every accessory into a test.
You can also progress density instead of endlessly adding reps. Complete the same amount of work with slightly less rest, or keep rest fixed while improving total reps with the same load. That gives you a measurable conditioning target while keeping form consistent. The key distinction is purpose. If the main lift builds force, the accessory block can build tissue and work capacity, and the power block can build speed. A good program lets those qualities support one another instead of asking one set-and-rep scheme to do everything.
A simple three-block session for strength, capacity and power
The cleanest way to borrow Kitchen’s idea is to give each quality its own lane. Start with power while you are fresh: a few short sets of medicine-ball throws, broad jumps or low-volume box jumps with full recovery. The goal is crisp speed rather than fatigue.
Next comes the main strength movement. Pick one squat, hinge, press or pull and train it with a repeatable progression. A handful of challenging working sets is enough for most recreational lifters to keep force production moving forward. You do not need an NFL combine exercise list. You need a few lifts you can repeat, measure and progress.
Finish with a capacity block. Choose two or three simpler movements and use longer sets, carries or sled pushes. A lower-body day might combine broad jumps, squats, split squats, hamstring curls and sled pushes. An upper-body day could use medicine-ball chest passes, bench press, rows, push-ups and carries.
That structure solves a common programming problem: people mix every quality into one circuit and then wonder why nothing is truly heavy or truly fast. Separate the intentions. Explode when the goal is speed, lift heavy when the goal is force, and accumulate reps when the goal is capacity. The session becomes more athletic without becoming chaotic, and each block has a reason for being there.
What to steal from NFL training—and what to leave to the pros
The most useful part of Kitchen’s advice is not the idea that a recreational lifter should train like an NFL player. They should not. Professional football players have sport practices, medical staff, coaching, years of training history and a competitive calendar that completely changes the cost-benefit calculation. Copying the visible exercises without that context is cargo-cult programming.
What transfers are the principles. Do not let every month become the same moderate-rep bodybuilding template. Keep a foundation of strength. Build enough work capacity that repeated efforts do not immediately flatten your output. Preserve some speed with jumps, throws, short sprints or fast sled work. Then recover well enough to repeat the process.
For many lifters, one or two small changes are enough. Add a five-minute power block before two weekly strength sessions. Let one or two accessory exercises use longer sets. Push a sled instead of adding another machine finisher. Track jump distance, throw distance, sled load or total clean reps the same way you track a barbell.
The goal is not to cosplay professional sport. It is to avoid becoming strong only in the narrow conditions you practice most. Kitchen’s message is useful because it widens the definition of fitness: strength matters, muscle matters, but so do repeatability and speed. If your program can improve all four without turning every day into a maximal test, you have borrowed the best part of the NFL weight room.
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