Steelers’ T.J. Watt still using ‘boring’ training techniques to mold All-Pro performance
Think you can lift enough weights or run enough miles to transform yourself into an NFL Defensive Player of the Year?
The brothers who have combined to win four of the past nine such awards use a much different training method.
“I always tell people,” T.J. Watt said after the Pittsburgh Steelers’ final organized team activities session of the week Thursday, “if they come watch me work out, it’s very football specific. You don’t see just bench pressing every day, squatting every day. It’s all to be the best football player I can possibly be.
“It may look boring, but a lot of it is looking at the little details, and that’s how you be successful.”
The reigning AP Defensive Player of the Year, Watt joins his older brother, J.J., a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, in offseason workouts back home in Wisconsin with trainer Brad Arnett. Steelers fullback Derek Watt has joined them in working with Arnett in Waukesha, Wisc., since they were young teenagers.
“It’s a great partnership with him,” Watt said. “He knows our bodies the best because we have been going to him for so long. It’s awesome because there’s an understanding. It doesn’t matter if I bench press 500 pounds if I can’t rush the passer. So it’s all about making myself the best football player I can be so I can perform for my team when I am needed.”
After being a finalist each of the previous two seasons, Watt won the 2021 honor by claiming 42 of 50 votes. Watt tied Michael Strahan’s NFL record for sacks in a season (since the sack became official in 1982) with 22½ in only 15 regular-season games played. Watt, who signed a contract extension in September that ties him to the Steelers through 2025, has 72 sacks in 77 career games.
And he says his secret is a training program that is very skill-specific to his position and duties on the field.
“You have to not get so caught up in the redundancy. You have to understand why you are doing those little things, because if you are not doing all those little details, someone else out there is,” Watt said. “And I want to be the guy that continues to get better, and I want to be on the top of all those little details.”
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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