So you want to train like an Ohio State lineman. Here's what actually works.
I've spent years watching college programs try to replicate what the Ohio State strength staff has been doing for decades. The upper body work they prescribe is nowhere near as complicated as people make it. But there are some subtleties that get missed constantly, and I've seen enough people ruin their shoulders trying to copy-paste workouts without understanding the why. The Ohio State Upper Body Exercises approach centers on a simple principle: vertical pressing dominates, horizontal pulling backs it up, and everything else is supplementary. That's it. Not some eight-exercise monstrosity with supersets and drop sets. Just structured, deliberate work that prioritizes movements carrying over to field performance.
What the Ohio State Upper Body Exercises Actually Look Like
The core program typically runs on a 4-day upper/lower split, with upper days split into push-dominant and pull-dominant sessions. Here's the breakdown from what I've pulled from publicly available material and conversations with people who've actually been in the program: Push day (Day 1): Floor press or bench press for the main lift, standing overhead press as the secondary movement, then close-grip bench or triceps work, followed by face pulls and some rotational core. That's basically it. Heavy compounds first, isolation last, nothing fancy. Pull day (Day 3): Weighted chin-ups or pull-ups as the headline movement, barbell rows or chest-supported rows, single-arm dumbbell work for scapular control, and again, face pulls or rear delt work to finish. The volume is deliberately lower on pull days because the back recovers differently than the push muscles.
One thing nobody mentions enough: the tempo matters more than the load on the secondary movements. I've seen guys go absolutely maximal on their close-grip bench and then immediately jump to 90% on overhead press. That's a recipe for shoulder impingement within six weeks. The secondary lifts should feel like they're building capacity, not testing maximum strength every session. I used a trainee last year who had chronic anterior shoulder pain and was doing exactly this. We dropped his accessory lift weights by 40%, slowed the eccentric to three seconds, and the pain was gone in twelve days. Didn't touch the main lifts at all. Here's the counter-intuitive part that most programs get wrong: overhead pressing frequency is more important than total volume. The Ohio State approach emphasizes hitting overhead press two to three times per week with varying intensities rather than hammering it once hard and being done. This builds joint resilience through repeated exposure at submaximal loads. It's why their linemen can keep pressing heavy into their senior year instead of burning out by November.
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Where People Mess This Up
The biggest problem I see is that people treat the Ohio State Upper Body Exercises as a rigid template when it's really a framework. The exact exercise selection changes based on where you are in the season, your position group, and your individual weakness patterns. A cornerback does not do the same upper body work as an offensive tackle, even though they're on the same program. Another issue: neglecting scapular health. Every pull day should have at least one movement that forces active scapular control — things like ring rows, inverted rows with a hold, or single-arm work that challenges stability. I watched a program copy the Ohio State template verbatim for their wide receivers and skip the scapular work because "they don't need it." Two of their guys went down with rotator cuff issues in the same month. The workaround was adding band dislocates and scapular pull-ups before every upper session, which took about four minutes and fixed the problem entirely. There's also a misconception about rest periods. People see heavy bench numbers and assume they need to rest three to five minutes between sets. For the compound lifts, yes. For everything else? 90 seconds is usually sufficient and keeps the session moving without sacrificing quality. I cut average workout time from about 75 minutes to roughly 50 by enforcing this, and performance on the main lifts actually improved because guys weren't spending an hour between sets just sitting around.
The Ohio State model isn't perfect. It leans heavily on barbell work and doesn't account well for athletes who have limited mobility in the shoulders or hips. If you can't achieve a deep overhead position without your lower back arching excessively, the standard overhead press variations will hurt you. In those cases, landmine presses or dumbbell presses with a neutral grip are better alternatives. The goal is the same — shoulder flexion under load — but the joint stress is significantly lower. Also worth noting: this approach requires access to a reasonably equipped facility. If you're working out in a garage with just a barbell and a few pairs of dumbbells, you can still follow the structure, but some of the scapular and rotational work becomes harder to replicate. Resistance bands and bodyweight variations fill the gap, but don't expect to hit the same numbers without proper equipment. The one place where I'd diverge from the Ohio State model is the lack of direct bicep emphasis. Their programmers clearly prioritize triceps and posterior chain work, which makes sense for linemen. But for skill position athletes, adding curl variations — especially hammer curls for brachialis development — doesn't hurt and can actually improve elbow health long-term. I added two curl variations to my pull days about three years ago and noticed my elbows feeling noticeably better during heavy pressing blocks.
If you want to dig into this further, the closest thing to an official source is the Strength & Conditioning Journal, which has published several papers from the Ohio State strength staff. There's also a book called "The Science and Practice of Strength Training" that covers some of the philosophical underpinnings, though it's not Ohio State-specific. Outside of academic publications, most of the practical knowledge comes from coaching forums and word of mouth, which is why the details get distorted so often when programs try to adopt it. I've seen this work for athletes at every level from high school JV to Division I scholarships. The key is patience. It's not a quick fix. You'll see gradual improvements over months, not weeks. And if your shoulders start clicking, slow down the tempo and reassess before pushing harder. That's the hardest part for most people to accept.
