Madden Curse or the NFL's Reactive Strength Problem: Christian McCaffrey's Calf Injury

Mitigating Bottom-Up Reactive Strength Injuries: Tissue-Specific Load Management

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The NFL’s Reactive Strength Problem

Here we are, beating the dead horse—the NFL's Reactive Strength Problem—and the NFL is still weeks away from kicking off its regular season. Sadly, we saw this coming from miles away and were not kidding when we told you the NFL would be the gift that just keeps giving with reactive strength injuries, as it is the number one limiting constraint on the NFL athlete. At Absolute, we turn these unfortunate real-life scenarios into learning opportunities to become better strength practitioners.

Christain McCaffery

Christian McCaffrey comes from an NFL bloodline, as his father, Ed McCaffrey, played for 13 years and won 3 Super Bowls as a wide receiver. Christian played college football at Stanford University, where he gained national recognition for his versatile skills as a running back, receiver, and return specialist. In 2015, he set an NCAA record for all-purpose yards in a season and finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting. The Carolina Panthers drafted him in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft. In 2019, he became the third player in NFL history to record 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards in a single season. Last season, McCaffrey led the league in rushing yards and total yards, was named the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year, and tied for the most touchdowns with 21. He will be on the cover of "Madden 25," becoming the first San Francisco 49er to receive the honor in 25 years and the first running back to do so in more than a decade.¹ The game will launch on August 16, and McCaffrey will be sitting out the entire preseason.

"It's all right. He didn't pull it or anything…”

The above quote is from 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan discussing McCaffrey’s calf injury. It’s also worth noting that McCaffrey’s backup, Elijah Mitchell, has missed the past two practices due to a strained hamstring. Perhaps reactive strength issues are so commonplace in the San Francisco organization that there's a misconception that it’s normal for players to lack the connective tissue prerequisites for training camp. This raises a more perplexing question: Considering how limited training camp and pre-season is compared to the regular season due to NFLPA practice constraints, why would any football coach believe that if a player’s tissue can’t handle the demands of training camp, it could handle the more volatile and violent loading demands of the NFL regular season?

McCaffrey’s Training

Firstly, we respect McCaffrey’s work ethic as well as his strength coach, Brian Kula—congrats to them on the success they have achieved over the years! However, whenever an athlete suffers a bottom-up reactive strength injury, the first thing we do is examine the training volume to assess how much work is being done for the connective tissue architecture that has been injured. McCaffrey has been very open about sharing his current training regimen, giving us an opportunity to gain some insight. While we understand that this may not encompass all of his training, we have enough information to infer the overall strategy behind it.

The Neurological Paradigm

Recall when we mentioned that the neurological training paradigm can have cascading effects, one of which is negative for the modern-day athlete: the CNS (Central Nervous System) outpaces the biology, specifically the connective tissue architecture. In the video above, you’ll see a masterclass by Kula on how to coach an athlete while training the neurology. Unfortunately, what you won’t see, is any training for the connective tissue that would allow McCaffrey to absorb and efficiently dissipate the large forces that his body undergoes.

In Absolute nomenclature, what we're witnessing is McCaffrey and Kula optimally training the speed-strength element of Point B, which has an indirect carryover into reactive strength since the CNS is the top-down element. However, there’s no training volume for the bottom-up element of reactive strength—the very constraint that limits McCaffrey’s ability to participate in training camp. To Kula’s credit, it looks like they execute an input that is for the connective tissue of the hamstrings—one we are not fans of, but better than nothing, and we assume the intent is there—but nothing for the currently injured calf tissue.

Note: Speed strength training for the lower body occurs from the ~23 to 35-minute mark, while speed strength training for the upper body is from the 35 to 42-minute mark. A total workload of 24 minutes is a phenomenal execution of this training and plenty of time for the training of other ecologies!

Recovery Day: Still No Connective Tissue Architecture Training Work??

For what it is worth, we are very pleased with Kula’s work in training speed strength. Based on the training session above and McCaffrey’s high performance at the level of competition, it's evident that the training of his CNS is on point! Now, let's see if the connective tissue architecture (CTA) of his calf or lower leg gets the attention it needs on "Recovery Day"—a perfect time to execute this type of training work.

Nope, no training for the CTA. Okay, now we have enough to see that there is non-ecological training occurring. We will let you reach your own opinions on recovery day, but what we will say is that at Absolute, the lymphatic system—while critically important—did not make it to our Point B. What did was reactive strength and its bottom-up element, connective tissue architecture—you know, the element that is THE rate limiting ecology currently in the performance of Christian McCaffrey.

“It’s Just Training Camp, He Doesn’t Need It.”

Football coaches and reporters have become so conditioned to accept the NFL’s Reactive Strength Problem that they’ll say, "Oh well, it’s just training camp; he doesn’t need it." They may be right, but that’s not how McCaffrey sees it. Prior to this training camp, he emphasized how important it is for him:

"For me, it's put my body, mind and soul in the best position to play every snap," McCaffrey said. "And then coaches got to be coaches, whatever they think is best, but I know for me, I prepare to play every snap so I'm ready to go."

What McCaffrey is saying is that due to his reactive strength injury, he won't be in the best position to play—it's a limiting constraint for the player. Furthermore, this issue also limits the coaching staff, as they’re unable to fully coach him. I’m sure the owner of the 49ers isn't thrilled to hear that the player they just agreed to pay $38 million over the next two years has a calf injury—this has to be a limiting constraint on their good mood, to say the least. The point is that these reactive strength injuries aren't just isolated limiting constraints on the players; they cascade upwards to affect the entire team, coaches, and the organization as a whole.

Mitigating Bottom-Up Reactive Strength Injuries: Tissue-Specific Load Management