How Joe Burrow Packed on 10 Pounds of New Muscle

This story is part of Men’s Health‘s Get NFL Strong package, a series of stories that explore the different kinds of physical and mental fitness it requires to succeed in the toughest sport on earth. Read all the stories here.

THIS TIME, THE call was different. At the end of each of Joe Burrow’s first four years with the Bengals, he’d buzz his longtime trainer, Dak Notestine, C.S.C.S., to plan his off-season workouts. But after Cincy was locked out of the playoffs last year for the first time since 2020, Burrow asked Notestine for something more. The QB wanted to completely rebuild how he thought about strength, fitness, and durability.

The 2023 season had started with Burrow fighting through a strained right calf he’d suffered in training camp. And it had ended with a torn ligament in his right wrist in week 11 against the Ravens (who went on to unseat the Bengals as AFC North champs). For the second time in his pro career, Burrow finished the year on injured reserve. He couldn’t let it happen again. “The biggest thing for me this year is just being out there with the guys,” Burrow says, “and be available.”

To that end, the 27-year-old set out on a renewed quest for power, searching for extra pounds of muscle and extra layers of protection wherever he could. He hired a nutritionist and a chef, rebuilt his hydration routine around Bodyarmor drinks, revamped his workouts, and refocused his mind. So while Burrow’s always been Joe Cool (and his Eminem-bleached July hairdo is proof), he rolled into training camp this year with something more than confidence: a well-rounded approach to his health. And he’s added a solid ten pounds (up to 217), thanks to these fitness and nutrition tweaks.

Burrow Identified Workout Weaknesses

Burrow fell in love with strength training a decade ago, when he packed on 30 pounds between his freshman and sophomore years of high school. “Those two years were the biggest changes in my body in my life,” he says, “the first time that I noticed myself getting bigger and stronger.”

But this off-season wasn’t just about size. Notestine says Burrow didn’t train like a bodybuilder or a powerlifter. Instead, he concentrated on exercises that tested his surgically repaired right wrist: bear crawls and farmer’s walks holding 45-pound plates. (Try them, if you dare.) To better protect his lower body against injury, Burrow challenged himself with single-leg skater squats, building up until he could do them with 100 pounds. Insulating your body against injury isn’t about raw muscle, as Burrow shows. It’s about muscle in the right places.

Burrow Dialed In His Diet

Forget just eating “clean.” Burrow focused his off-season on making sure his calories came from “quality” sources (think lean chicken), says Notestine, and making sure he ate often enough to give his body consistent energy. Having a chef for the first time in his career was key. “He makes a fire chicken sandwich that’s awesome,” says Burrow.

He also adjusted his hydration patterns. No, he says, he’s never had problems guzzling water daily. But he realized that hydration means more than that. “This is the first year that I’m more focused on drinking electrolytes and making sure that my body absorbs those nutrients, as opposed to just drinking water,” he says. “So we use those Bodyarmor Flash I.V.s.” He says the results have been “amazing.”

Burrow’s arm strength and accuracy have helped him earn a career quarter back rating of 98.6.

Burrow Trained His Brain

The magic of his training regimen, says Burrow, is that it built mental muscle, too. Take, for example, the isometric Bulgarian split squat, a brutal move but a favorite of his. The exercise tasks him with balancing on one leg, his other foot on a bench behind him, a bar mounted to a rack (so it can’t be driven upward) pinned to his back. From there, he holds for five seconds, continually driving upward with every muscle in his body.

“I think part of [building mental strength] is just doing really hard, really hard shit—that you have to find that place in your mind that you can go and fight through it,” Burrow says. “If you’re doing really hard stuff that you’re not sure you can push through, when you push through it, then once you’re in that spot again, you know your mind is going to be a lot stronger in that situation.”

That blend of strength building has Burrow ready for 2024. “I have a really good feeling about this year,” he says. “My body’s in a really good spot, better than in years past.” But the “test,” Burrow says, will be the next five months of the year, the heart of the NFL regular season. “Upcoming is the exam,” he adds, “so I’m excited to take it.”

TRAINING TIP

Joe Knows Squat

Learn Burrow’s skater squat to build single-leg strength. Start standing. Lift your left leg, knee bent so that your left shin faces the floor. Bend at the right knee and hip, slowly lowering until your left knee touches the floor. Using only your right leg, stand back up. That’s 1 rep; do 3 sets of 4 or 5 per side.

This story appears in the September-October 2024 issue of Men’s Health.

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