The #1 Biological Constraint on the Lineman
A Primer on Our Strategy to Mitigate Reactive Strength Injuries in the Lineman.
The Seth McLaughlin Reactive Strength Injury Case
The recent reactive strength injury, Achilles tendon rupture suffered by Ohio State center Seth McLaughlin serves as direct feedback that this is a significant limiting constraint for linemen—arguably the number one biological constraint, even at the collegiate level. It reinforces our systems commitment to prioritizing this aspect of training—especially during the in-season phase.
Unfortunately, we’ve learned the lesson of reactive strength injuries firsthand—multiple times. As the saying goes, "Experience is what you get when things don’t go your way." These skin in the game experiences led us to identify the biological tissues most vulnerable to chaotic loading, such as the Achilles tendon, and to systematically address them in the LSS training system, particularly during the in-season phase.
Conjugate Sequencing: Developing the Neurology of the Lineman
Through our unique conjugate sequencing of Maximal Effort and Dynamic Effort loading, we develop our linemen's nervous systems to achieve both maximal compression and dynamic output. This training goes beyond building raw physical capacity; it cultivates the neurological pathways1 required for absolute strength while shaping their psychology and relationship with resistance.
By conditioning the lineman to systematically confront and overcome resistance in the weight room with violent intent, we prepare their nervous systems to respond instinctively and aggressively on the field. The resistance and loading they encounter in-game is a familiar stimuli and challenge—one their neurology recognizes from training and instinctively compresses to meet with violence.2
Our approach ensures our linemen are neurologically enabled to meet the physical loading challenges on the field but also mentally primmed and condition to meet them with violent intent.
Success Plants the Seeds of Problems
Our discipline to execute optimal neurological training work has lead to more success than we could have imagined. Following just one offseason of training, our high school lineman emerge physiologically prepared to be able to generate the special strength that is blocking. Violence starts to pop on film. This is because they possess the neurological capacity, biological prerequisites, and psychological edge to excel in the zero-sum game of blocking.
The violence the lineman generates instills confidence in his neurology to start to push his biological boundaries—as their neurology starts to explore more degrees of freedom and performance on the field. Blocking is fun, and so by mid season these lineman start to increase the amount of violence they are generating. This is the feedback loop that generally plants the seeds for a reactive strength injury—meaning the dreaded connective tissue injury.
As the saying goes, the genie is out of the bottle, and there’s no putting it back—nor would we want to. Our standard is consistent and constant growth. In our case, we have kickstarted the Big Bang of neurological scaling. Our training system is so potent that we were forced early on to impose constraints on the loads for linemen, even at the high school level. These constraints are outlined in our absolute strength standards.3
When this scaled up neurology starts to explore on the field with a predator mindset, the biology is going to be pushed into chaotic loading that even though we try our best in training we cannot replicate in the weight room. We are getting better in the science of this training, but still the neurology of these lineman will outpace their biology early on. So our neurological success plants the seeds for reactive strength injuries—as a result we installed year round "recovery days" that stimulates connective tissue adaption.
Recovery Days: Connective Tissue Specific Training
We incorporate multiple recovery days focused on connective tissue-specific training. This training is executed with the same level of specificity as our neurological work. It is performed almost daily because our success in scaling up the neurology to the levels required to win the zero-sum game depends heavily on the integrity of the connective tissues.
Below is a year-round training strategy from our manual that specifically targets the connective tissues of the lower body:
Lower Leg Connective Tissue Training
The connective tissues in the lineman’s lower leg are systematically trained year-round using a belt squat machine.
Here’s how it works:
Exercise: March in the belt squat machine with body weight (static load) plus band tension (dynamic load).
Duration: 1–2 minutes per set.
Sets: 1–3.
Frequency: 1–3 times per week.
Each week, band tension is waved to systematically expose the connective tissues to varying loads and overspeed eccentrics. This approach ensures comprehensive connective tissue training, stimulating adaptations at both the architectural level and in load-bearing capacity.
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Neurological synergies.
Resistance at the level of competition (i.e., blocking targets) is dynamic. Resistance in the weight room is more static and less chaotic.
When we did not have constraints we had a lineman who were quickly taking training maxes with 850lbs of barbell weight with green band tension in the box squat. Discipline means being as strong as necessary not as strong as possible.