LA Rams: Justin Lovett has Rams’ strength and conditioning peaking

So far, the LA Rams are believed to be a solid roster, competitive enough to surprise nobody if they win Super Bowl LVI at their home stadium at SoFi, and are incredibly dependant upon staying healthy.  If you weren’t aware, the health and durability of the LA Rams roster are considered the responsibilities of the Director of Strength and Conditioning and his department. In case you were wondering who that might be, that falls to the inbox of 2020-hired Justin Lovett. From his track record, you may have some reason to lean into the optimistic side of the street.

If you haven’t already blocked out the nightmare of the 2019 season, the LA Rams had to limp through that year with up to 20 injuries, many of them ending the season of key players. Even with 40 percent of the roster suffering health matters, the Rams scratched and clawed their way to a winning season at 9-7. But those many injuries may have contributed to the Rams welcoming Lovett to the organization.

The LA Rams hired him away from the Purdue Boilermakers in 2020, where he had successfully installed a successful Strength and Conditioning program under similar circumstances. The Boilermakers struggled with injuries, and injuries hampered the football team’s ability to compete. It didn’t happen instantly. Improvements come from establishing understanding, communication, trust, and repoire.  It took two years to turn Purdue’s football injuries around.

Lovett is innovative, and it shows in the players

Justin Lovett also served with the Strength and Conditioning work at the University of Georgia, where he introduced mixed martial arts training to significantly improve hand placement.  This is year two of the LA Rams benefitting from Lovett’s oversight. So far, Justin Lovett has loved what he does, and it shows:

"“This is the first organization I’ve seen that puts as much emphasis, not only into performance, but soft tissue regeneration and allowing players to work through tissue soreness.” – JUSTIN LOVETT, Director of Strength & Conditioning at the Los Angeles Rams per his Linked IN profile"

Sports medicine and science is truly a fascinating field. Unlike the strategy of prescriptions and surgery, the science of Sports Medicine is about preventing injuries, amplifying the body’s own healing systems, and understanding how to keep football players on the football field.

Los Angeles Rams

The science of sports medicine is sound

At the risk of oversimplification, soft tissue injuries occur when a football player continues to play or train long after fatigue sets in. And the injuries also occur when the blood supply rushes to aid in recovering the heavy exertion from major muscle groups, and the soft connective tissues are temporarily cut off from the important health-sustaining blood supply.

The LA Rams, like all NFL football teams, suffered a bit as conditioning was cut off at the pass last season with the concentrated training camp that negated installing offseason workout regiments. There were plenty of season-ending injuries throughout the NFL, and the LA Rams own roster battled injuries for much of the year.

Unlike a year ago, players can integrate their own workout preferences with the Rams staff. Not only can they supervise and monitor player progress, but they can use any number of strategies and technological advances to enhance and shorten the post-workout recovery time. He is especially adept at ramping up the program for rookies who need to enhance their physical tools to compete in the NFL.

Never has an NFL team been so vulnerable to untimely injuries as the LA Rams appear to be this year. But on the other hand, Justin Lovett is just getting warmed up. His best results occur in year two. Coincidentally, this is his second year with the LA Rams.