Training Secrets of the Strongest Men On Earth

5 min readThis story is part of Men's Health's NFL Strong 2026 package, a series of stories that explore how athletes build and maintain strength for the ultra-physical game of football. Read all the stories here.THE INVITE WAS more exclusive than Taylor Swift’s wedding (with more protein on the menu, too). This past June, I traveled to Guthrie, Oklahoma, for the inaugural Open Lane Experience, a training camp hosted by Lane Johnson, 36, two-time Super Bowl–winning offensive tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles. When I say “training camp,” I’m talking about a three-day hybrid fitness experiment to blend different training backgrounds and body types into a single iron-sharpens-iron (or more accurately, muscle-sharpens-muscle) crucible.I trained with guys like Mitchell Hooper (2026 World’s Strongest Man), Josh Bridges (a CrossFit OG), Tristan Wirfs, Will Campbell, and Dion Dawkins (elite NFL linemen), and Robert Irvine (the jacked chef). And, well, Johnson, who’s also a hybrid—a 325 pound legend/gym rat who sprints fast, bangs out chinups like men half his weight, and, last summer, went viral for walking with a 705-pound yoke across his shoulders for nearly 50 yards.I expected to learn how to lift heavier, but I didn’t have getting crushed during 100-yard sprints on my bingo card. Yet Johnson, Wirfs, and Campbell—guys who eat whole chickens for lunch—all generated enough speed to propel their 300-plus-pound bodies so quickly that they routinely beat everyone down the field next to Johnson’s new gym, Rooks Performance. Lesson number one: NFL linemen have electric lower-body power, and that (more than endurance or VO2 max) is the key to speed. Other lessons come thick and fast during the three-day gauntlet, and there are tips that can benefit anyone who wants to build strength and evolve their fitness routine.Denis KennedyTemper TemperBEFORE EACH WORKOUT, trainer Jesse Burdick had each athlete lie facedown. Then he grabbed what looks like farm gear—a heavy, hollow cylinder—and placed it on their shoulders, gradually letting the weight crush them. I watched him do this to Campbell, who groaned in his Georgia drawl: “This! Is exactly what my body needs.” Burdick let the weight rest on Campbell’s shoulders, then rolled it down back, glutes, and hamstrings.Everyone (me included) gasped when the roller rocked their hammies. The practice is called body tempering, and it’s a revved-up version of foam rolling. The heavy metal kneads muscles that a foam roller just tickles. It’s useful for people who have slabs of dense muscle. Each second was agony, especially when Burdick found a tight spot just below my left lat.Anyone who has tight hips (a.k.a., everyone) can use the principle. Sit on the ground with your knees and hips at 90-degree angles. Hold a light kettlebell upside down, letting its handle dig into your hip crease. Shift it back and forth, loosening hip flexor tissue. Enjoy feeling looser (and faster) on your next run.Denis KennedyPerfect Push-PullLATE IN OUR upper-body session, Johnson wedged his frame into a scary-looking machine called a Sorinex X-Factor (right). The rig is about waist-height, with two thick handles in front and two behind him. The X-Factor trains you to simultaneously pull and push, essentially bench-pressing with one arm while rowing with the other. This motion occurs with stealthy frequency in daily and athletic life. (Picture a parent holding a child close to their body in one arm while pushing a door open with the other.)Johnson, pulling the right handle toward his chest as he pushed the left away from his armpit, gutted out 8 reps with 360 total pounds. He exited the machine, a vein on his temple pulsating. I then stripped half the weight—and eked out 5 reps.You can train the push-pull on any dual-cable machine: Grasp handles set to shoulder-height on both sides, turn your torso toward the left cable, then pull with your right arm and push with your left. Do 3 sets of 8 reps per side 2 times a week.Denis KennedyPlay PowerballEVERY DAY, AFTER mobility work, we threw medicine balls. My favorite throw came on day 2: Before bench presses, I sat up on my knees. Burdick threw a 20-pound medball at me. I caught it with both hands, absorbing force. Then I threw it back so hard that my body flew forward and landed on the turf.This worked chest, triceps, abs, and even glutes. That’s the beauty of a medball throw: When you throw as hard (or far, or high) as possible, you’re using every muscle you have, explosively. Try 3 sets of 3 reps of partnered heavy medball throw-and-catch before your next upper-body day.Denis KennedyLift FastAT THE START of lower body day, Hooper stepped into a loaded trap bar for five reps, each done so explosively that his shoulders rose upward and he nearly popped onto his toes. There’s a violence to every rep—and force I saw regularly at camp. Dawkins, who benches 405 pounds so explosively plates nearly slide off the bar. Even when Bridges is struggling with a 315-pound front squat, every athlete is working to lift as quickly as possible. It’s all reinforced by Rangel, who measured every lift with a Tendo, a device that calculates bar speed. The goal: Every lift should take less than 1.5 seconds.Plenty of guys move heavy weights with control. While this can help you pack on muscle, it doesn’t build power. Even on your heaviest lifts, try to accelerate the weight upwards as quickly as you can with good form, of course. The faster you can make the lift, the more you’re training power. Think this on every lift—yes, even pushups and rows and biceps curls—and watch your gains skyrocket.Denis KennedyTap Your TribeEACH DAY’S PROGRAM included one drill designed to stoke our competitive fire. After the first workout, we did ten 100-yard sprints. The last session featured a 10-second “mirror” drill that builds agility: One athlete moved as quickly as they could, any way they wanted, while another had to stay with them. Facing Cowboys tackle Tyler Guyton, who has lightning-fast feet, I stumbled once in two tries.The most devastating challenge: On day 2, Rangel lined up two assault bikes to face each other, then beckoned pairs of athletes to go head-to-head, chasing max calories burned in 60 seconds. Each pairing (from Dion Dawkins vs. Campbell first, right down to me vs. fitfluencer Josh Holland) pushed hard, with Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” blaring in the background.I hit 50 calories, my best effort in years. Hooper, with a lung-busting 77 cals, won the whole thing. (Later, he said he’d never have scored that high spinning solo. Ditto for me. That’s the real magic of this camp: the push to throw/lift/work a little bit harder that comes with training in a group. The Swift-Kelce wedding could never match that.To read other stories in Men's Health's NFL Strong 2026 series, click here.READ MOREEbenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., is the fitness director of Men's Health and a certified trainer with more than 10 years of training experience. He's logged training time with NFL athletes and track athletes and his current training regimen includes weight training, HIIT conditioning, and yoga. Before joining Men's Health, he served as a sports columnist and tech columnist for the New York Daily News.