Christian McCaffrey Trains for the 49ers’ Season and Reflects on his NFL Journey!

(0:05) That’s line. (0:08) You got camera footage? (0:11) That’s in? (0:12) It’s in. (0:14) Line’s in? (0:15) Well, I might have been out then.(0:20) My name is Brian Kula with Kula Sports Performance here in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. (0:25) We work with youth through professional athletes here in a speed-based performance program. (0:29) Today, we’re in an off-season mode with Christian McCaffrey from the San Francisco 49ers.(0:33) Kind of working to get him back into shape and starting to touch on the CNS to get him ready for OTAs. (0:38) You got to serve to score, right? (0:40) Yeah. (0:40) 1-0.(0:45) Nice shot. (0:46) We have a great relationship. (0:47) He was my high school track coach, so obviously I’ve known him for a long time.(0:50) But, you know, at this level, you don’t do things that don’t work. (0:53) So even if we did have a great relationship and he didn’t have a good product, I probably wouldn’t come here. (0:57) So for me, it’s about the results.(0:59) And he’s a, you know, great part of a great team. (1:02) And for me, being able to come here and talk through different things and program different things to exactly what I need, (1:08) which changes every year, he’s been a great resource for me. (1:11) And, you know, excited to continue with him.(1:14) He’s never beat me in pickleball or ping-pong, no. (1:31) Get it! (1:33) You’ve got to be kidding me. (1:34) Wow! (1:35) You’ve got to be kidding me.(1:36) Wow! (1:45) Dang it! (1:49) 6-1. (1:51) 6-1. (1:56) What an idiot.(1:59) 6-1. (2:02) 1-6. (2:07) Nice shot.(2:09) Do you want to go one more or do you want to lift? (2:11) You tell me. (2:12) It’s up to you. (2:13) I’ll go one more.(2:14) How about this? (2:15) Let’s go to 5. (2:17) You too. (2:18) Do you want to go 2-1-1? (2:19) 2-1-1. (2:20) Okay, let’s go.(2:26) Top left shelf. (2:28) Top right, sorry. (2:40) What’s a skunk? (2:41) 7? (2:42) Yep, 7. (2:45) Why do you ask? (2:48) That would have been long.(2:51) He’s calling for it. (2:55) 5-0. (3:01) Colin, there’s a ceiling there just so you know.(3:06) That’s a redo? (3:09) Yeah. (3:10) We can’t get a skunk. (3:11) Let’s get a point.(3:13) Ace. (3:13) Ready? (3:15) You get a point. (3:15) Go.(3:25) Gosh darn it. (3:27) Is that a skunk? (3:28) Good night. (3:30) Smell that? (3:31) It feels good.(3:32) It’s time to build up weights. (3:35) My philosophy has always just been to maximize my potential (3:38) and constantly be the best person I can be, (3:40) be the best football player I can be. (3:43) My dad told me when I was a kid that if God gave you abilities to do something, (3:47) it’s important to use those to the fullest of your potential.(3:50) In the process, be a good person. (3:52) Give back. (3:53) Use your athletic ability and all the different things that you do on the football field (3:56) to have a greater impact on the world.(3:59) How many seconds? (4:00) This, you can just go right away. (4:04) Got the barbell hip thrust here. (4:06) This is an exercise that’s going to develop the posterior chain.(4:08) So we’re going to get down in here, sit down, (4:11) roll the bar up to the hip bones, (4:14) establish our foot placement, which should be just a little bit out in front of our knees, (4:18) back’s elevated, going to press up, (4:21) explosive, hold at the top, squeeze the glutes, (4:24) be controlled slow on the way down. (4:32) Good. (4:43) Another pad? (4:45) Yeah, maybe an Eric’s pad or something.(4:46) Can I grab just a black Eric’s pad? (4:48) Or even like, no, that’s fine. (4:50) Okay. (4:52) We put him on the anchor leg of the 4×4 relay.(4:55) He’s like, I’ve never run a 400. (4:57) I said, I don’t care. (4:58) I know how competitive you are.(4:59) So we put the stick in his hand and he split 50 seconds as a freshman. (5:05) 50’s not that good of a number anymore though. (5:07) It’s like you hear that and you’re like, oh, 50.(5:09) Okay. (5:10) Like, all right. (5:11) I had a kid that set the state record in the 400 meter dash, (5:15) still holds it, that ran 51.7 as a freshman.(5:19) He just didn’t stick with it, 46.2. (5:22) Damn. (5:23) All right, stud. (5:25) Am I here? (5:25) Yep.(5:26) You don’t need to go all the way on. (5:27) Just a little heel elevation there. (5:28) Okay.(5:28) Good front squat, nice depth. (5:30) So what we have here is the front squat. (5:32) We like this as a heavy bilateral exercise.(5:34) Today, we’re going to do it with some heel elevation. (5:36) It’s just an option we like to use to get a little extra depth. (5:39) So we’re using a straight bar.(5:40) We’re going to come in here with a nice flat platform on the bones of our feet, (5:45) the heel bones here. (5:46) Okay. (5:46) I’m going to step in, front rack this with a nice proud chest, head up.(5:51) We’re going to go down nice and slow, eccentric movement for depth, (5:55) knees over toes, all the way to the bottom, and then back up. (6:05) Make sure you’re pushing through that big toe. (6:08) Don’t get too far on the outside of your foot.(6:11) Good. (6:18) Come on. (6:21) That’s it.(6:23) Finish. (6:24) Finish. (6:50) So this knee has to go.(6:52) When I go back, it can’t be over my ankle. (6:54) Okay. (6:55) It has to be like.(6:56) Stepping back. (6:57) That has to be negative. (6:59) Yep.(7:00) Knee over toe. (7:02) This is the banded reverse lunge. (7:04) This exercise, we’re going to put some tension on the band.(7:07) We’re going to take a reverse lunge, and as we lunge, (7:10) we’re going to pull. (7:12) We’ve got a torsional rotation that we’re trying to avoid here, (7:14) and we’re pushing the hip forward, (7:16) so we have a balance and stability component, (7:18) as well as a strengthening in the unilateral on the single leg side. (7:25) Better? (7:26) That one.(7:27) That’s not the leg that’s missed. (7:29) It’s this one. (7:38) Feel it first.(7:41) Yep. (7:45) Yep. (7:49) Good.(8:04) Better? (8:14) Better? (8:15) I try to do my best every morning waking up (8:18) and being the best person I can be. (8:20) That’s why I love football, (8:22) because you don’t ever have to put a limit on yourself. (8:24) You can always grow.(8:25) You can always get better, (8:27) and it’s a constant battle, a constant back and forth (8:30) of succeeding and failing and trying to be the best (8:33) and correcting mistakes and capitalizing on your strengths, (8:36) and that constant competitive pull for me is what I love to do. (8:41) It’s what drives me. (8:43) Okay.(8:44) All right, here we go, Copenhagen. (8:49) This is the Copenhagen ISO hold. (8:52) We’re going to come down here and have a bolster (8:54) that’s about 14, 18 inches off the ground.(8:58) I’m going to come in. (8:59) I’m going to make sure my hips are in alignment (9:01) with my shoulder and my foot. (9:02) I’m going to come up to parallel, keeping the hips forward.(9:05) I’m going to ISO hold with the adductor. (9:08) Hold there for about 10 to 15 seconds. (9:10) Then we slow control on the way down.(9:20) That’s it. (9:21) Let’s see. (9:28) Five, four, three, two, one.(9:33) Work. (9:38) There we go. (9:40) We’re going to next do a feet elevated alternating dumbbell bench.(9:44) The feet are going to go onto the wall, 90 degrees. (9:49) We’re going to start with the dumbbells vertical. (9:51) We’re going to alternate one dumbbell at a time, (9:55) trying to stabilize, let the sacrum rotate.(10:03) That a boy. (10:10) Come on. (10:17) Good work.(10:23) I’ll get the 80s. (10:24) Sure. (10:25) I’ll leave it.(10:26) You sure? (10:26) Yeah. (10:27) Be careful with that knee. (10:29) This is the bent over trap bar eccentric row.(10:34) We’re going to set up here, good base of support, (10:37) feet under your shoulders. (10:39) We’re going to hinge to a position where I have a nice flat back, (10:41) neutral head. (10:42) The hands take the bar.(10:44) We’re going to come up explosive, (10:46) down slow, eccentric movement. (10:48) Touch. (10:49) We’re trying to make sure that the back stays flat (10:51) and we’re not rounding the back.(10:53) And it’s truly a back exercise, pulling off the ground. (10:57) All right, champ, flat back, neutral head. (10:59) Find those tripods of your feet.(11:02) Good. (11:10) Excellent. (11:12) Good, bud.(11:13) My dad was a coach for 35 years. (11:15) I kind of grew up in a gym and it was just a passion of mine. (11:18) It impacted me greatly as an athlete.(11:20) And so I just went straight from college into coaching. (11:23) I did that for 27 years where I was always kind of chasing (11:26) and trying to be excellent in training athletes. (11:30) And so sports performance just became a natural segue.(11:33) When COVID happened, (11:35) made a transition from educational coaching (11:37) into the sports performance business world. (11:39) And we’ve had some success with that and seen some results (11:41) with many different athletes in different sports. (11:43) And here we are today, three years later.(11:49) About 20 seconds. (11:51) This exercise is a combination exercise of a curtsy squat (11:54) and a Cossack squat. (11:56) So we’re going to combine the two single leg movements together.(11:59) We’re going to take a dumbbell into a goblet hold. (12:03) Then we’re going to step behind, curtsy squat, (12:06) deep as far as we can go. (12:08) Step back up, gather into a Cossack squat.(12:18) I’m always learning from a lot of different people. (12:20) I wouldn’t say there’s one person that I always look to. (12:23) My dad was a great resource.(12:24) I had somebody who played 13 years at a high level (12:27) who did it the right way, right at the call of the phone. (12:29) So anytime I need something, I used to call him (12:31) and he’s given me great advice on every aspect of my life. (12:35) Really, it’s about wisdom for me and knowledge and understanding.(12:38) I really believe knowledge is power. (12:40) And that’s in training, that’s in football, that’s in life, (12:42) that’s spiritually, that’s mentally, in all ways. (12:45) Just understanding this life that we live, (12:47) I think has always been important to me.(12:49) And as I get older, even more important. (12:51) So really appreciative of him and really all the people in my life. (12:54) My mom’s a mentor, my dad’s a mentor, (12:56) my little brothers are mentors to me.(12:58) It’s people like that I have to have a lot of gratitude towards (13:01) because I do realize you can’t do it on your own. (13:04) What are we doing now? (13:05) Let’s have you do some deep squat breathing. (13:07) Get some happy babies to finish off the week.(13:09) Perfect. (13:11) You can just do it on the mat here. (13:14) See your happy baby there.(13:16) We’ll see what we do. (13:18) Okay. (13:19) Okay.(13:19) Okay, bye. (13:28) I’ve always been very driven. (13:30) And effort and consistency were never really an issue for me.(13:33) And I think it’s because I always found the people who counted me out. (13:39) And I always found something to put another chip on my shoulder. (13:42) In high school, even when I was having a lot of success, (13:45) I wasn’t the top-rated guy.(13:46) I didn’t have SEC offers. (13:48) And so there was always something I was pushing towards. (13:50) And I ended up going to Stanford.(13:54) One would say, you’re at Stanford, what a cool deal. (13:56) But for me, if I wasn’t the starter and I wasn’t at a Heisman caliber level, (14:01) then I was not happy. (14:03) I wasn’t satisfied.(14:04) And then I lost to Heisman, and that pissed me off. (14:07) And then I went top 10 in the draft, (14:09) but I wasn’t the first running back off the board. (14:12) And that was something that I wanted to do.(14:14) And so I’ve always kind of, I don’t want to say not reached my goals, (14:19) but I’ve always fallen short of the things that I wanted to do. (14:24) Looking back, I think that’s a very important thing to experience in life, (14:28) is setting high goals and falling short (14:30) and continuing to push towards something that’s bigger than what you could dream of. (14:33) I don’t like putting limits on myself.(14:35) I don’t like people telling me what I can and can’t do. (14:38) And I found that to be true with a lot of NFL guys. (14:41) There’s a lot of bitterness and a lot of competitiveness between all of us.(14:46) And there’s always someone who counted us out, (14:47) and there’s always someone who said, (14:49) you can’t be this and you can’t be that. (14:51) And even the guys that you see who are at the top of the game in your eyes, (14:55) they’re hungry too. (14:57) And you learn that coming into the league.(14:59) That’s the difference. (15:01) The best guys are also the hardest workers. (15:04) And they’re not just satisfied with one good year.(15:06) They want to do it for 10, 11, 12, 13 years or as long as they can. (15:10) And so it’s a constant driving force.