Get Ready for the NFL with TyGee Leach
TyGee Leach, former defensive back from Georgia State University and a 2024 NFL Draft prospect, shared insights into his life as he has been training with Garage Strength located in Pennsylvania to prepare for the NFL Draft.
“I decided to go with them because it’s close to home,” shared Leach. “I have a bunch of friends who have been training there since high school. They work with a lot of Olympians and track athletes, and that’s the aspect I needed help in, so it felt like the right place.”
For his training period of eight weeks, he does the following program:
“We are six days a week, Sunday through Friday,” he shared. “Mondays and Wednesdays are two sessions. At 12 o’clock, we focus on our speed, including 40 starts, technique, and speed drills. The second session typically involves lower body lifts. Mondays usually entail snatches, plate snatches, and squats, while Wednesdays involve snatches with two boxes and single-leg exercises for strength and explosiveness.”
Continuing his week, “Tuesdays are our athlete day, so we work on a bunch of different jumps to work on explosions. Thursdays are upper body workouts, focusing on bench presses, triceps, and biceps. Fridays are our recovery and technique day, where we concentrate on shuttle steps, L drill steps, and conditioning. We have Saturdays off to recover, and Sundays are upper body again, working our 225 bench and triceps, we always end that with a 30-minute conditioning session.”
Approaching his recovery efforts after sessions, Leach takes this very seriously.
“We have a lot of mobility sessions and sauna work,” he shared. “Those have been the main two. The place I train at usually recommends their track athletes to this massage place, so I started using that. I also get chiropractic work. At the end of workouts I take time to focus on mobility and stretching.”
Preparing for the draft has been different to his prior training experience.
“There is more intent towards it,” he described. “You know what you are working for. You have clear goals in mind. It’s testing over such a short period of time, so you’re working against the clock for just one day, a one-day tryout. It’s more intense, and you take it more seriously because you understand what’s at stake and the slim chance of error. You know exactly what you are training for; it’s like, you know this is the drill, and this is how it’s done.”
He has spent a lot of his efforts working on his speed and explosion skills.
“Compared to my baseline testing, a bunch of my numbers have been going up, and hopefully they continue to go up for these last two and a half weeks,” he said.
To ensure his performance goals are met he has tailored his diet to effectively do so.
“My goal was to lose 11 pounds for Pro Day,” he explained. “So far, I’m down seven or eight pounds. So, that has played a huge role in getting me closer to where I want to be and has helped with my performance.”
To achieve these goals he has been following a meal plan his training program gave him.
“It’s pretty specific what I can eat,” he noted. “I’ve been consistent with what I’ve been trying to eat, like eggs, focusing on protein. I’ve lowered my dairy intake, and surprisingly, I didn’t have to cut out a lot of carbs, so that’s been nice. But I’ve eliminated all sweets and alcohol.”
For Leach, he said the biggest obstacles for him have been more on the mental side than physical.
“It’s tiring,” he shared. “It’s repetitive. You have to keep reminding yourself to keep going because you can’t lose sight. You want to see the end, you want to see the final results you’ve been training for.”
Unlike other athletes we have discussed, Leach chose to stay at home sharing his off days with friends and family.
“Every Saturday since being home, I’ve been taking my little brother to his basketball games,” he described. “So, enjoying that and spending time with family.”
What’s surprised him so far during training has been the progression of it all.
“The first week, my baseline numbers weren’t too great,” he explained. “You’re tired, your body is still trying to recover. Then you hit a slump where you feel like you’re getting weaker. But as your body starts to recover, your numbers start to jump up, and it kind of hits you by surprise.”
He shared his favorite experience so far during training.
“The environment,” he said. “The couple of people I have been training with for Pro Day. There are a lot of track athletes training for the Olympics right now, so it’s been cool seeing them go through their process and us going through ours. The grind is real.”