Rams Byron Young Using Unique Training to Improve Performance

Edge rusher Byron Young began Pilates about the time the Eagles were beating the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Now, he’s a lean, mean, breathing machine.

“I definitely feel it a lot just breathing and everything,” Young said on Tuesday after reporting to Loyola Marymount for his third Rams training camp. “I'm feeling a lot leaner. On the field, I don't get as gassed. In my form, in my technique, every time I'm in position, I can be in it for a longer period of time.

“Stability with my knees, when I'm in my stance, it's a lot easier and a lot smoother, especially bending around the corners. … Everything I've been doing, I've seen the improvements.”

Pilates improves posture, flexibility and strength by engaging core muscles in combination with mindful movement. NFL players like Young have seen Pilates enhance coordination, balance and body awareness while cutting down on injury risk. Young said he started doing it two times weekly in February, gradually increased it to 3-4 days and will squeeze in sessions on off days during the NFL season. But it didn’t start out well.

“Yes, it was really difficult,” he recalled. “When I did the first day, I remember I was like, ‘She's trying to kill me.’ I was shaking really bad and I was kind of embarrassed at first because I'm a competitor and struggling at something. Being a professional athlete, I'm not used to that.”

But after a pivotal conversation, Young decided to attack Pilates for the same reason people who fear heights take up skydiving.

“Something my dad told me, ‘If it's something that you are nervous about or struggling with,” Young said, “and you know you need it, I feel like you should attack it. Don't do everything you're good at; you have got to do stuff that you're not good at.’

“Ever since then, something in my head told me that you’ve got to go get it. Every day I was doing it. The weird thing about it is, it really does not get easier. You just understand, this is what it takes.”

So, Sean McVay and Chris Shula can thank Young’s dad for helping his son push through Pilates. And after posting eight sacks as a 2023 rookie and 7½ last season, Pilates might help Young out-maneuver offensive tackles on his way to dropping more quarterbacks.

Leave it to the innovative Rams to start another NFL trend. Maybe Young can get more of his teammates into Pilates after the season, even the loquacious outside linebacker on the other side of the defense, Jared Verse.

“Oh yeah, he could do it. Verse could do it.”  

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