Christian McCaffrey moves his body slowly across the mat. Crawling on the floor of a gymnastics studio, he twists around and resembles an animal on the prowl.
The video, posted to the Carolina Panthers running back’s Instagram page in April, is captioned solely with a lizard emoji. In the back, watching McCaffrey move, is his trainer Brian Kula, in a red sweatshirt.
McCaffrey invests heavily in his body — what goes into it and the work that is done to keep it in top shape. He’s meticulous.
Kula, based in Colorado, has been working with McCaffrey as a professional since the 2018 offseason after the running back’s rookie year, but has known him for far longer.
“Animal movements,” gymnastics-type movements such as the lizard walk, which help improve mobility and stability, is just one of many workouts that the trainer has included as part of the back’s training routine. Workouts that make recovery as important as intense lifting and running, and where the details are prioritized.
“It’s really important to him,” Kula said. “He takes it very serious, and I think it’s part of why he’s so successful.”
History does not bode well for running backs on their second contracts; the wear and tear on the body can take a toll quickly.
McCaffrey is coming off a year in which he missed 13 games due to three unrelated injuries — ankle, shoulder and quad. There’s not much left for him to prove in terms of his ability on the field. Instead, showing that he can stay on it, as he had his entire career until 2020, is the test.
Preparing for the season correctly is a significant part of an athlete’s health and performance on the field. Kula and McCaffrey’s partnership and trust has also played a key role in much of the NFL’s highest-paid running back’s success and plans to keep that going for years to come.
A PARTNERSHIP
McCaffrey, 25, has been open about not changing his approach following his injury-riddled season. He’s going as hard as ever and not giving too much thought to last year’s events.
“There’s no thinking, there’s just doing. Football, to me, is a meditation. When you’re out there, you’re not thinking ever,” McCaffrey said about his approach on the field. “You’re just using your God-given talents to be the best player you can be, and the more you think, the worse you play.”
Putting too much thought in changing up his offseason plans wasn’t in the cards, either. Kula describes the injuries as “freaky accidents” and that McCaffrey is now healthy, and doing what he normally would. McCaffrey is using the same approach with Kula as they have had since 2018, but their history dates back further.
Kula and McCaffrey’s first meeting was when the future Panther was just 2 years old at a camp his cousin was attending in Florida. The encounter stood out in Kula’s mind as he also had the opportunity to meet Christian’s parents, Lisa and Ed McCaffrey, who at the time was at the peak of his career with the Denver Broncos.
Their paths crossed again at Valor Christian High School outside of Denver, first with the eldest brother, Max, and then with Christian. Kula was the head track and field coach at the school, leading many state championship-winning teams, an assistant coach with the football team and an athletic director.
But their relationship took a turn in 2018.
In January, Kula got a call from McCaffrey. Coming off of his rookie season with an injury, the running back asked Kula to help him train and prepare for the year ahead as an integral part of his personal team.
“We’ve had a long relationship,” McCaffrey told The Observer. “It’s somebody who I trust, who knows exactly what I need all the time, which is helpful because sometimes it’s to push and sometimes it’s to lay off. He’s a good voice for that.”
Developing a plan for an NFL player wasn’t necessarily something Kula was immediately prepared for.
“I kind of said, ‘OK, how the heck am I going to do this?’ ” Kula said with a laugh.
They’ve worked together ever since because of the “trust” that they have built. McCaffrey says that when he feels good, he knows that the training is working. That’s helped them get to where they are today.
DOING WHAT WORKS
The key to their workouts is including recovery time and not overthinking.
“It’s just an approach where we relax and recover. NFL athletes don’t need too much,” Kula said. “That’s what I put together, was a program that was kind of back to the basic. We’re not going to mess around, but we’re going to keep you fast, strong and make sure you’re fully recovered every time we work out.”
At first, that was an adjustment for McCaffrey, but the results showed and he’s kept with it since. Each week during the offseason includes three training days that are heavier in their load — running, for example. Two days of the week are devoted to restoration, recovery, such as the animal movements.
Recovery time is especially important for an NFL running back trying to extend his career for as long as possible. Part of the program goes toward keeping McCaffrey in the best possible shape by working on the small things.
“We try not to ever have him with too much delayed onset soreness. We kind of live in what we call a micro-dosing environment,” Kula said. “We just give him the minimum effective dosage to keep his nervous system on deck, fast, strong but not having him be tired and fatigued.”
Kula, who retired from his high school position this year, is the director of Kula Sports Performance in Colorado and has worked with thousands of athletes on a variety of levels on strength, speed, agility and nutrition. He’s also working to help build an indoor track and sports complex in Denver that will help even more athletes.
McCaffrey’s workouts with Kula will sometimes take place in Colorado — a group of Panthers teammates went out there to train one offseason — but Kula also spends significant time in Charlotte.
Kula’s background includes competing in the decathlon and playing wide receiver at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley — where Ed McCaffrey is now the head football coach. He was inducted into the university’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014. And one thing Kula has been successful at is helping athletes improve their speed, with lifting serving as a significant part of that.
“It really comes down to the force application into the ground. It’s really like physics, it’s Newton’s third law,” Kula said. “If we apply force hard to the ground, we end up with greater speed going in the opposite direction.”
The duo is careful not to reveal all of the specifics behind their workouts, keeping some of the secrets to training an All-Pro to themselves. One big focus, however, is mobility: Spinal mobility and joint mobility. It helps maximize athletic potential, i.e. making sure McCaffrey is strong but can still make his way down the field as he does so well.
Kula said that as much as he’s helped McCaffrey over the years, in turn, he has helped him be a better coach.
And they keep doing it because it works. The next test will be this upcoming season, although, don’t expect any lizard-like movements on the field.
“The main thing that we focus on is just a lot of details,” McCaffrey said. “There’s no rah-rah or stuff like that, just very detailed and it’s like tuning a car, so we’re always trying to figure out the best way to be as fast, strong, quick and powerful as possible.”
