Dallas Cowboy's Linebacker Micah Parsons strength training utilizes meticulous movements to keep his game on the field at an A+ performance. Watch as the NFL star breaks down his favorite pre-game workouts, the meal he eats post game, and the video games that help his mind wind down after leaving it all on the field.
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00:00 I'm Micah Parsons, Cowboys linebacker.
00:02 (crowd cheering)
00:04 I'm gonna show you my five favorite moves in training
00:09 that keep me on top of my game.
00:10 But first, let me show you how I get ready to train.
00:12 (upbeat music)
00:15 My morning routine, I wake up, I like to shower,
00:23 brush my teeth, wash my face.
00:25 I take immunity shots in the morning.
00:27 This is like a ginger, lemon.
00:29 Sometimes people add cayenne to it.
00:31 I don't know what else they put in it,
00:32 but it's pretty strong and spicy.
00:34 The music that pumps me up would be 50 Cent, "Ride Wave".
00:37 Maybe some Lil Baby sometime.
00:39 I'm gonna put my sweats and my hoodie on,
00:40 play with my daughter a little bit,
00:42 and then get ready to hit the gym.
00:44 We're in my workspace.
00:47 This is my workout.
00:48 We got our lifts in, and dare to be great.
00:51 My favorite warmup stretch would probably be hip openers.
00:55 Things like that to open up the hips,
00:56 release some tightness I might have in my glutes.
00:59 I might put my right leg over my left knee and pull it in,
01:02 doubling up my glute,
01:03 and then I might do some 99ers.
01:07 I feel super tight.
01:08 I feel like my body doesn't wanna move, really,
01:11 so I have to warm up every day.
01:13 - Burrow looking for somewhere to go,
01:14 and Micah Parsons says, "I'll take you right here at the 31."
01:18 - So this is obviously a pretty much
01:22 weighed down abbreviation from 300 plus pounds,
01:26 but I wanna show you the technique
01:27 and the things that go into this.
01:29 My favorite move for power is the power clean,
01:31 or short burst explosion.
01:33 A lot of things in football, coming out of the line,
01:35 you gotta explode out through your hip,
01:37 so it's the same type of movements.
01:39 Yeah, the highest I ever did on power clean
01:41 was like 375, 380.
01:43 What I think about?
01:44 Nothing.
01:45 I think about how to get this weight up.
01:47 But yeah, you wanna do sets of around three to five,
01:50 depending on the weight you're doing.
01:51 But definitely key to your exposure.
01:53 My favorite field drill, it's a lot of get off work.
01:56 I do a lot of ladders and cone work.
01:58 I'm gonna say when you're coming down hills,
02:00 if I was a linebacker, and I'm just,
02:02 or it might be a drill where I'm like,
02:06 and I gotta hurry up and get out
02:09 'cause I'm planning changing direction.
02:11 Another drill would be lateral movement that we like to do.
02:14 My, this would be about four or five cones.
02:16 And just keeping my feet together,
02:18 keeping synchronized with my hands
02:20 and translating the drills into the field work.
02:22 So everything is short burst, short and immediate,
02:24 planning on a dime, emphasizing my feet,
02:27 when to get out, when to go in.
02:28 I'm out of my break.
02:30 I try to get some pushups in every day.
02:32 I do body weight, some joggle at place
02:34 or what I have medicine balls or things like that
02:37 for stability.
02:39 Pushups tell you define your small muscles
02:42 and keeping your tendons strong is important.
02:44 So I do 20 and I do some abs or whatever my set is
02:48 and then I do 20 more.
02:50 My favorite vanity exercise would be abs and curls.
02:53 Your core needs to be extremely strong to play football.
02:56 That's your speed, that's your power.
02:57 I do hanging, floor, V crunches, crunches,
03:01 Russian twist, I mean, you name it.
03:04 I try to make sure I incorporate it.
03:05 I probably do a lot more abs than anything.
03:08 I'm gonna buy some curls, I try to do 21.
03:11 We'll do like some halves
03:12 and then we'll come all the way up
03:15 and we'll go top down
03:17 and then we'll do four curls as the finisher.
03:21 Seven, seven, seven.
03:23 Next season we work out three times a week.
03:25 I like to come in at 245, solid, strong.
03:28 My goal this year would be around 11% body fat.
03:31 I don't ever necessarily wanna get bigger.
03:33 I just wanna stay healthy, really.
03:36 I'm trying to sustain my ability to keep getting faster,
03:40 find ways to get stronger,
03:41 my little ligaments and things like that.
03:43 They become crucial as you get older.
03:45 Cool down, I just relax, take a shower,
03:49 roll out a little bit and then just lay down.
03:52 All these moves help me get game ready
03:54 but when I'm done with the game, this is what I do.
03:56 - Parsons is at his best.
03:58 He's got another sack.
03:59 I see what you did with that one.
04:01 - After the game, I'm pretty still feeling pretty numb.
04:04 My adrenaline is still rushing.
04:06 I like to have a big dinner with my family.
04:08 I usually eat like pasta or like steak after the game.
04:10 Definitely a lot of flavor to my food, all the season.
04:13 I kinda just like to hang with my family
04:14 and I like to play video games.
04:16 Call of Duty and 2K.
04:17 I also play badminton.
04:19 I was a fan of the Cowboys, I played myself.
04:21 When I wake up the next morning, I feel pretty sore.
04:24 I get a lot of stretches, massages and IVs.
04:27 It helps me put that water that the game just took out of me.
04:30 All right guys, thanks for watching me.
04:32 I showed you how I get ready, how I tune in,
04:34 how I prepare and how I recover for the big games.
04:37 So I'm about to head out
04:38 and get ready to hop in this video game.
04:40 (whooshing)