AM: What’s an average week for you when you’re training in season versus the off season?
DG: I think that off season is very grind mode. I would say that it is physically more taxing. You’re always trying to get your speed work in and your strength work in. For a quarterback, throwing a football is a whole different aspect to your off season workout. So you attack those 3 while still being around ball and talking football. I think that that is a language, just like any other language to excel at it, you have to speak it consistently and live in it. That is what I try to do while still making the physical aspect more of a focal point.
In season, I think the physical aspect takes a back seat at least day-to-day until gameday comes, but mentally, it’s a lot more challenging. Learning a game plan, executing it, getting everyone on the same page, having conversations individually position wise as a unit and a team. Then there are aspects too that are more than Xs and Os. The motivation aspect and being able to keep people motivated and having themes of the week. So, you encompass all of that while having the physical tax on your body. If I looked at it like that, I would say those 2 things are different in the off season vs in season.
AM: Our community is always excited about workouts that they can include in the routines that they already do. What are 3 workouts that you do that you think could be beneficial for us to think about when we want to switch up our routines?
DG: I love rotational strength. Of course, I’m a throwing athlete, but I believe that being able to have strength in rotation is still good for change of direction. It’s done me well and I love the cable machine. So anyone who can do the cable machines, we’ve tried it from each angle – high, hip height, and low. I love cable rotation and I’ll do those 3 different angles.
I really love working with speed. I love speed and one that I love to do as well is a core bosu ball. I got put onto this core routine that I love. It’s a bosu ball, you put your back on it. You do single leg V ups 10 on each side and then you do cross leg kind of like elbow to knee. So I do 10 reps each and that’s 40 reps total. I don’t care how good you get at it, there’s a rush and a burn and that’s one of my workouts.
I’m also going to go with the curls and things like that. Those are our base workouts that we do with legs - you’ll always catch me doing core and arms at the end.
AM: Tell us about this partnership with Echelon Fitness and how it’s giving back to your high school, Mililani which we think is really interesting.
DG: Yeah, I think that what I love about Echelon is their ability to be able to make training fun, but also that coaching aspect that you still get. I believe that when you are able to have intent behind your lifts and workouts – there is that motivational aspect too where you get direct feedback.
Are you lifting, what’s the strength, speed – and that is where the strength is going. That’s strength training and working out in general. I used it every single day when we were doing team lifts. Being able to have that aspect in our workouts is huge, but I think that when you’re marrying that with what we are doing at Mililani High School, I think that that’s powerful. The impact that that will create for athletes that are trying to get back on the field – it’s like double the work that you’re trying to do. You’re trying to get healthy and you want to dominate when you’re on the field. Being able to have that direct feedback and have measurables, but also walk into state of the art equipment allows you to feel really confident in your workout. I think that for anyone to be able to work in that kind of an environment, you’re going to be better. You’re motivated that much more to get better and to benefit yourself so that you can see results on the field. I am just appreciative of them because they see the vision as well and they understand the youth and what’s up and coming is very important. Any way that we can protect them in any way – I always talk about protection with working out. How are they doing workouts that are beneficial to them and will translate to what they ae doing on the field. With Echelon, you have all of that information in that database on your monitor for each piece of equipment. That’s a unique and cool part to what we are all doing.
AM: That’s so exciting. How did that come together between yourself and Echelon to provide that equipment for your high school?
DG: I think it was about similar visions and being able to hop on the phone with them with Dara and their CEO Lou. We got both of them on the phone and it was just clear visions on both ends with what we wanted to accomplish and believing in that. I think that now that we’re here and you see it in person finally, there have been all of these conversations, but now to see it it’s just a whole different aspect to see things happening in real time. I’m glad that we got to this point and I know that they are a huge piece of what we are doing.
AM: You’ve had an incredible collegiate career, you were a finalist for The Heisman Trophy – what are you the most proud of in this portion of your life right now and what has this meant to you?
DG: I’m definitely most proud of the memories and I think just the journey. As a whole, it has had a lot of success. I’d be lying if I said that there was no failure. I think that when you’re able to learn from that failure, and grow, ultimately whenever there was an uncertainty or an unknown, that is where I have had the most ability to grow. I think that I’m just proud of that journey and how I managed that. I have always chosen good people to be around, but at the same time, the law of attraction. Who you are as a person is who you want to be around. I’ve always tried to live by that and I have faith in what God has in store for the future.
But then I also have those memories that are just day-to-day. The locker room stories – even to this day, I still laugh at those little interactions in the weight room. Just as little as that, on top of those big wins and great environments – the triumph of working through something that was difficult. Because everything worth having doesn’t come easy. For me, I think that all of that is what I think about. The awards and all of that is something that you appreciate because a bunch of people came together to accomplish a goal. There was success in that way. But more than those, I think that you just know that it is the ultimate team sport. Although we highlight individuals, there is no way that you do it alone. That is why I appreciate the game of football.
