KUSA - When you watch the John Elway Show on Monday nights (6 p.m. on 9News), you'll notice our set is smack dab in the middle of the team's indoor training facility. Ever wonder what goes on in there when we aren't broadcasting?
"Most people think of strength & conditioning as power lifting," says Strength and Conditioning Coach Rich Tuten. "They are here to play football, ,not to become weight lifters."
When Broncos players hit the indoor training facility at Dove Valley, they do spend some time in the monstrous weight room, but more often than not, they are in the adjacent room *not* lifting weights.
"I'm not as concerned about how fast an athlete can move a weight, (rather) how fast he can move his body," says Tuten. "That's what we really concentrate on. That's not just up and down, that's side to side and forwards and backwards. Every angle we can possibly work on because football is a game of angles."
When Tuten started with the Broncos 17 years ago, it was all about the weights. These days, the "clanking" sound is heard a lot less.
"We do more functional type training in our conditioning area with heavy chains, sledgehammers, big truck tires, TRX bands, bungee cords (and) sleds that I built," Tuten explains.
During the season, players are required to strength train twice a week with Rich's program and that includes many non-traditional strength methods. In the off season, players are "strongly encouraged" to participate four times a week.
"Strength coaches are as different as Offensive and Defensive Coordinators as far as what we do," says Rich. "We all try to get to the same place but but we all have different philosophies."
Rich likes his guys to stay on a schedule and be consistent, but he's also open to change. Whether it's for some aches and pains, or select veterans that have plans and thoughts of their own.
"Brian Dawkins is in that category, Champ Bailey is in that category," says Rich. "The older guys that know their bodies and have been in this league a long time, and have stayed healthy and productive, if they like doing special things that really helps them, then I'm totally 100% behind them."
(KUSA-TV © 2011 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)