Weightlifter Aaron Williams discusses offseason workout with Chiefs LB

This week, Chiefs Wire's Ed Easton Jr. spoke with Team USA Weightlifter Aaron Williams.

In his interview with Easton Jr., Williams discusses his recent offseason workout with Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jack Cochrane at USA Weightlifting's National Team Camp at the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. He explained the connection between football training and weightlifting, sharing his experience with Cochrane.

"There are definitely fewer reps. Because in football, the way that our weight room was set up, it was, you know, just high energy. Get good reps in, pump your teammates up, just rah, rah, crazy, go at it, get as strong as you can. Weightlifting is just the same kind of intensity. Still, it shifts a little bit towards the intention of just being precise and being efficient, rather than getting as strong as possible, repping out however many reps, and really just having a really, like, explosive environment inside of a weight room, which is, I mean, you can't really get that anywhere else. I've hit a lot of PRs with 40 other guys screaming at you," said Williams. "There's no way you can replicate that. I mean, outside of a football weight room, really, but it's just the transition from that type of atmosphere to just more precision and trying to be efficient and making sure that we can do this for a long time. Because just like with football, if you don't take care of yourself, you know that's not something that your body is going to hold up to long term. So you do have to find those nice middle grounds, making sure you're also taking care of yourself and being efficient, moving your body as it wants to move, to get the most out of the sports."

Cochrane is a veteran special teams standout for the Chiefs who has a passion for weightlifting and strength training. He received some extra tips from Williams while impressing him with his workout.

"Yeah, that was awesome. He (Jack Cochrane) ended up showing up at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. You know, our head guy, Mr. Gattone (USA Weightlifting coach Mike Gattone), told us, like, "Hey, I've got a surprise for you, too. Kolbi (Ferguson) and I were like, Man, I wonder what this could be. It was, it was a lot of fun having him in there, because it's not every day you get to train with another high-level athlete from a different, you know, area, and seeing just what the similarities are between the two," said Williams, "My favorite thing about Jack was that he didn't come in with an ego. He came in willing to learn. He was looking to have fun. That's the kind of atmosphere that we like having at that training center. It also just helps that he was extremely athletic. At one point, he was doing his sprint workout on the turf, moving backward in a more athletic fashion than I would ever move when running forward. It was incredible."