49ers star explains strange new workout routine

The San Francisco 49ers haven't started their offseason program just yet, but that hasn't stopped some of their best players from preparing their bodies for the upcoming season.

Among those is running back Christian McCaffrey, who is no stranger to missing time due to injuries and wants to avoid that going forward.

On Tuesday, McCaffrey posted a video showing himself performing a strange new workout routine on the grass.

Later in the day, McCaffrey made an appearance on NFL Network with insider Ian Rapoport, and the running back explained what he's trying to do there.

"Those are called 'animal movements,'" McCaffrey said. "I actually these from a bunch of UFC fighters way back in the day, and it's a cool way to do a lot of strength through full-range-of-motion and flexibility exercises to kind of prep your joints at weird angles that you're not used to doing. Those are really challenging, really fun. It's kind of taking the linear strength and conditioning aspect of training and putting it into more of a global athletic movement, learning how to fall, learning how to roll, using your body at different angles. They get really challenging and really fun. There are a lot of people who I've learned them from who do them a lot better than me, but I have a lot of fun doing it."

After touching the ball a career-high 413 times times last year, McCaffrey needs to be careful and make sure he's doing everything he can to rest, rehab and recover while preparing for another season.

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This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey explains strange new workout routine