Drake Maye's 2026 Workout: How the Patriots QB Builds Strength Without Losing Mobility
UPLIFT IRON CLUBDrake Maye's offseason goal sounds simple until you try to program it: get bigger and stronger without taking away the mobility that makes him dangerous as a quarterback. After a breakout second NFL season, the New England Patriots quarterback told Men's Health that he spent the offseason lifting four or five times per week while deliberately protecting the movement of his shoulders, thoracic spine and hips.
That combination is more useful to ordinary lifters than another celebrity routine built around random circuits. Maye's approach asks a better question: how do you add strength without becoming worse at the movements your body actually needs to perform?
Why Maye Wanted More Size Without Becoming Stiff
Maye is entering his third NFL season after throwing for 4,394 yards and helping New England reach Super Bowl LX. His stated objective is longevity: build a body that can survive the pocket and repeated contact while retaining the movement qualities that let him create throws from awkward positions.
For a quarterback, simply chasing scale weight is not enough. The throwing motion depends on force moving through the ground, hips, trunk and shoulder in sequence. Extra muscle can help absorb contact and create force, but only if the athlete can still rotate efficiently.
That is why Maye's training is a useful counterpoint to the idea that mobility and strength live in separate programs. His strength work is selected partly around preserving usable ranges of motion.
Thoracic and Hip Mobility Are Part of the Performance System
Maye's coaches have emphasized improvements in hip mobility and thoracic-spine mobility. That matters because throwing is not an isolated shoulder action. Rotation through the hips and upper back lets the athlete create and transfer force without asking one joint to do everything.
Normal lifters can use the same principle. If overhead pressing feels restricted, the answer is not automatically more shoulder stretching. Limited upper-back extension or rotation can change the position of the shoulder blade. If a squat feels awkward, hip motion may be part of the problem.
A short mobility block before training can be enough: controlled open-book rotations, 90/90 hip transitions and a few progressively loaded warm-up sets. The aim is not to become maximally flexible. It is to own the ranges needed for the session.
Medicine-Ball Work Connects Rotation to Power
Medicine-ball drills are a recurring part of Maye's work because they let the shoulders, spine and hips coordinate at speed. Unlike a slow cable rotation, a throw has a clear endpoint: accelerate the ball and release it.
That makes med-ball throws an accessible way to train power. A rotational throw teaches the lower body and trunk to contribute to an explosive upper-body action. A chest pass trains rapid pressing. A scoop toss can emphasize hip-driven power.
The key is keeping the ball light enough to move fast. For most gym lifters, three to five explosive reps per set is more appropriate for power than turning throws into a high-rep conditioning circuit.
Why Maye Uses Dumbbells Instead of Chasing the Barbell Bench
When teammates perform the football staple of barbell bench pressing, Maye often chooses dumbbell presses. The point is not that dumbbells are universally superior. They allow each arm to move independently and can give the shoulder blades more freedom than a fixed bar path.
For someone whose job depends on a healthy throwing shoulder, that tradeoff makes sense. For a recreational lifter, exercise selection should follow the same logic: choose the tool that lets you train the target muscles hard while fitting your joints and goals.
If barbell benching feels great and strength on that lift matters to you, keep it. If dumbbells let you press hard with less irritation, there is no prize for forcing the barbell.
Landmine Presses Train the Whole Kinetic Chain
Maye also likes landmine overhead pressing. The angled bar path sits between a horizontal press and a true vertical press, while a standing variation lets the legs, hips and trunk contribute to force transfer.
That is particularly relevant to quarterbacks, but it is useful for anyone who wants pressing strength that is not limited to lying on a bench. A half-kneeling landmine press can emphasize trunk control. A standing press can involve more of the kinetic chain. A push-press variation can shift the emphasis toward explosiveness.
Use the version that matches the goal instead of making every landmine movement unnecessarily complicated.
Rows Build the Back That Keeps the Shoulder Working
Maye's program includes plenty of rowing. That is not glamorous, but it fits the objective. Strong mid-back musculature supports posture and shoulder mechanics while balancing a program that includes pressing and throwing.
For gym lifters, this is one of the easiest lessons to apply. Use chest-supported rows, cable rows or one-arm dumbbell rows and train them progressively rather than treating pulling as token posture work. Building the back is both a physique goal and a useful foundation for upper-body training.
A Maye-Inspired Upper-Body Session for Normal Lifters
You do not need an NFL workload to borrow the structure. Try this once per week:
- Open-book thoracic rotation — 2 sets of 8 per side
- Rotational medicine-ball throw — 3 sets of 4 per side
- Dumbbell bench press — 4 sets of 6 to 10
- Half-kneeling landmine press — 3 sets of 8 per side
- Chest-supported row — 4 sets of 8 to 12
- 90/90 hip transitions — 2 controlled sets
The session moves from mobility to speed to strength, then finishes with additional range-of-motion work. Keep the explosive work crisp and stop before speed falls apart.
UIC Take: Strength Should Expand What Your Body Can Do
Maye's training is a useful reminder that the best strength program is not always the one that produces the largest number on one lift. His job rewards a combination of size, force, rotation, mobility and speed, so his exercise choices protect that combination.
For ordinary lifters, the principle is the same. Build muscle. Get stronger. But pay attention to whether your program is making the movements you care about better or slowly taking them away.
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