The Old-School Tactics DK Metcalf Uses to Build Unreal Strength

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.

GET READY FOR DK Metcalf’s dirty secret. You’d think a six-foot-four, 235-pound slab of muscle would eat some high-protein, everything-bad-free diet, especially when priming for the biggest season of his football life. But as Metcalf speaks on this Zoom in late April, he’s . . . bingeing fast food. “It’s vacation,” he says between bites, “so I’m having french fries.” He goes on. “I’ll describe it as this: I’m a fat-ass at heart. If I didn’t play football, I would not care about my body.”

Not that anyone will believe him, because whenever DK (real name: DeKaylin) Metcalf takes the field for the Seattle Seahawks, he stands out, thanks to a stunning blend of Thor-level size and Black Panther athleticism. Sometimes Metcalf is all explosive strength, the kind that fueled his 73-yard catch-and-run-away from two Cowboys corners last year. Other times he’s channeling mental strength, the kind that drives a man to chase down a streaking safety half his size on an interception return (Arizona’s Budda Baker in a still-legendary 2020 play). And then there’s Metcalf’s personal favorite show of strength, the brute force he uses to block, which was on display when he forklifted Commanders DB Kamren Curl (who’s also superbly jacked) yards upon yards past the sidelines during a game last season.

How did Metcalf build this strength? By ignoring conventional fitness ideas like “recovery” and “load management” and focusing on something much simpler: training f*#%ing hard. Today’s strength-and-conditioning landscape often leans into complicated gym-jargon principles that encourage athletes and average joes alike not to push their limits. Metcalf isn’t down with that. Two years ago, the league’s wrecking-ball wideout took a sledgehammer to his workouts, ditching Instagram-sexy exercises and ideas like heart-rate variability. His new template: He maxes out his muscles and engine in every sweat sesh. “Basic lifts where I can see where I am weight-wise and test my strength,” says Metcalf, who is a Lululemon ambassador, “but also I feel like I’m grimy and getting after it in the gym.”

It’s an old-school approach that draws on his college and high school days (and allows for french fries)—and it’s working. Metcalf arrives in 2024 fresh off back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving campaigns, even though he spent last season catching passes from journeymen Geno Smith and Drew Lock. The scary part: His next step might be even more impressive.

That’s because he’s mad. He’s aware that he’d never been in the pages of Men’s Health before this issue. “So I stopped reading,” he says. (Gulp.) He’s also aware that he’s no longer the prototype receiver NFL scouts want. The league’s in the midst of a love affair with speedy Smurf wideouts, thanks to Tyreek Hill’s dominance in Miami, Amon-Ra St. Brown’s ascendance in Detroit, and Xavier Worthy’s drafting by Kansas City. “The one thing you can’t coach,” says Metcalf with slight annoyance, “is how to be fast.” His mission: remind everyone that you can’t coach light-speed freight train, either. All he needs to do is drop PlayStation numbers (and more YouTube-worthy blocks).

“I’m not trying to fit in with nobody’s mentality,” he says. “I’m gonna be a total football player.” To reach those heights, he found more strength this off-season, french fries be damned.

WELL, THIS DOESN’T happen often. Metcalf is struggling. It’s mid-March, and Metcalf has just started his off-season program. He’s in UCLA’s weight room (his typical off-season haunt), his hands grasping a loaded barbell on the floor weighing a grand total of 288 pounds. He’s going to attempt to power-clean it six times, a show of explosive strength that will fuel him to run away from more DBs—and that could put an Olympic weightlifter to shame.

Metcalf takes a deep breath, then powerfully stands with the weight, pulling the bar up toward his shoulders. He drops the weight to the floor. He does four reps, then tries a fifth. Except the bar won’t budge. “I kinda pissed myself off,” he says. “I couldn’t hit those last two reps.”

Metcalf almost never misses his reps, says his trainer, Trey Shaw. He actually makes a point to do the opposite, sneaking in an extra rep during every set. A year ago, when Metcalf began working with Shaw, he settled under a bench press and ripped through reps. Shaw went to grab the bar after counting them out. Metcalf hissed at him to stop—then did a few more. “I thought I miscounted,” Shaw says. “No matter what I ask for, he always does one [more] rep.”

Sometimes that means doing a set of heavy barbell lunges for ten reps, then adding an extra. On Fridays, he often runs 100-yard sprints. Shaw will ask him to do six. He’ll gut out seven. Whatever he does, he aims to push hard enough that the final rep is a challenge. This taxes his body, he says, while building mental strength. “There’s a quote: The body will quit long before the mind will,” says Metcalf. “I think it’s just pushing myself . . . always trying to prepare myself for a fourth quarter of a game.”

This approach to your training conditions you to know you can always push harder. Metcalf proves this a few weeks later, when he returns to UCLA and those 288-pound cleans. He easily does six clean reps—and that trademark seventh. “I know I’ve accumulated probably thousands of reps more than probably the normal person who’s in the gym doing what’s on their workout card,” he says later. “Everything to me is mental.”

Metcalf learned this habit from his dad, Terrence Metcalf. Terrence, who spent seven years in the NFL playing offensive line, started bringing his son to off-season workouts when DK was seven. When Terrence retired in 2010 and moved the family to Mississippi, he spent even more time training with his son.

Occasionally father and son would head to Ole Miss, the same campus where Terrence had developed into an All-American (and where DK would star), and run sprints. Other times, they’d hit the weights at DK’s high school weight room. Wherever they were, Metcalf saw his dad pushing hard. “My pops always told me to just do an extra rep, and I just always kept that with me,” he says.

Until he reached the NFL. Partly due to a fractured cervical spine as a junior at Ole Miss, Metcalf slipped into the second round of the 2019 NFL draft, landing with the Seahawks. To avoid injuries, he ditched his one-extra-rep philosophy. He spent his first few years as a pro in athletic training facilities, and most of these take a kinder, gentler approach to getting pros game ready. Instead of pushing an athlete’s limits, pro trainers often make sure they avoid injuries and pain, limiting the balls-to-the-wall sets Metcalf adored. “Not saying anything was wrong with the training-facility approach of taking care of your body,” he says, “but I think of pain as probably a good thing.”

So in the summer of 2022, Metcalf shifted gears, choosing to work out alone. A year later, he hired Shaw, who understood the importance of gym classics like squats and bench presses. “Ultimately,” Metcalf says, “I came to the conclusion of ‘I’m not gonna do any passive lifts.’ ”

FIRST HE SHOCKED you with his french-fry habit. Now he’s shocking you with his . . . balance? It’s June, and Metcalf’s doing his Men’s Health shoot, making a workout video at the Proactive Sports gym in Los Angeles, a cutting-edge facility filled with everything from Bosu balls to SkiErgs to Keiser machines (fueled by pneumatic resistance) to a pair of giant sticks that athletes “stir” into the floor.

Shaw couldn’t make this shoot, so Proactive’s Josh Tuerpe is running the workout. He starts by asking Metcalf to balance on one foot on a Bosu, light weights in both hands. Metcalf leans forward and flares his arms, stretching his pecs and challenging his leg stability.

It’s an exercise Metcalf has never done, yet he never breaks form. He has zero problems slaying anything Tuerpe asks for. It’s a reminder to all gymgoers: If an NFL receiver doesn’t need exotic exercises or overpriced workout gear to build strength (and showcase that strength with new moves!), you likely don’t, either. “We stick to basic workouts,” says Shaw. “He just wants to get in there and work.”

Metcalf uses his physicality to outmuscle receivers for catches, and loves blocking, too.

Metcalf does legs on Mondays, focusing on squats and lunges. Tuesdays are about bench presses. After a Wednesday off day, Thursdays bring explosive moves (like power cleans), and Fridays center on those sprints and on-field work. Metcalf decided this off-season that he wanted to be faster after the catch, so he’ll throw in extra foot-skill work on other days, too.

Every exercise lets Metcalf prove his strength. His most WTF move reinvents the farmer’s walk: Metcalf holds heavy dumbbells, then walks up and down stairs. Because the moves are so simple, says Shaw, Metcalf can focus on moving large loads. “He’ll pick up the heaviest dumbbells he can find,” the trainer says.

Some trainers will tell you that the constant pushing might eventually wear an athlete down. Metcalf says the opposite: He entered Seattle’s 2023 training camp in his best shape, a changeup from his sluggish training-camp starts of the past. “It’s basically me attacking the year,” he says, “instead of vice versa.”

Metcalf can maintain his strength in part because he sneaks in more recovery time than you might realize, even if these moments don’t come with compression boots and saunas. During the off-season, he doesn’t train on weekends or Wednesdays. And when the 2023 regular season wrapped up, he took all of February to let mind and body recover.

He looks forward to retirement, when he’ll indulge that inner fat-ass. “Not M&M’s,” he says, thinking ahead. “But gummies and burgers. That’s what I look forward to.”

For now he needs his strength so he can continue to pummel (and run past/through/around/over) NFL defenders. “I can’t focus too much on the future,” he says. “I’ve gotta stay where my feet are and focus on winning games for this season.”

Build DK Strength

Three basic exercises in DK’s routines. Do each once a week.

Upstairs Farmer’s Carry

Stand in front of a staircase holding heavy dumbbells at your sides. Walk up 10 to 12 steps. Turn around and walk back down. That’s 1 set; rest 60 seconds. Do 3 sets, blasting forearms and core and building underrated back muscle, too.

Barbell Reverse Lunge

Stand with a loaded barbell held across your mid-back, abs and glutes tight. Step back with your right foot, then bend at the knees and hips, lowering into a lunge. Press back to standing. Do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per side.

Hanging Leg Lift

Yes, Metcalf trains his abs, too! Hang from a pullup bar with an overhand grip, abs and glutes tight. Tuck your knees toward your chest. Lower with control. Do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps.

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

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