Giants Make Subtle, Yet Potentially Important Change to Training Facility

The Giants are trying to cut down on the number of soft tissue injuries that force players to miss games and practice time.

New York Giants helmet / Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

Of all the categories in which the New York Giants have found themselves among the league leaders on an annual basis, the one category in which they would just as soon rank toward the bottom of the league rather than the top is injuries.

To hopefully end that streak, the Giants re-hired Aaron Wellman as the team's Executive Director of Player Performance. Wellman, who had an earlier stint with the team back in 2016-2019 as the strength and conditioning coordinator, helped the Giants curtail some of those nagging injuries that have seemingly spiraled out of control of late.

Now in his second tenure with the team and in charge of the entire performance program, including strength and conditioning, Wellman has wasted little time revamping the team's weight room to better reflect the tested philosophies he believes in.

Head coach Brian Daboll, speaking to reporters via video conference on the first day of the team's off-season program, mentioned one such change Wellman had made to the weight room: the addition of a piece of turf.

Why is that significant? Performing different movements and exercises on a carpet versus natural grass versus turf can change the exertion level on the body. For example, grass is known to give a little better than carpet, so the thought process is that if the players are going to be playing on artificial turf, it makes sense for them to do some of their exercises and movements on the same surface.

Whether this change reduces the number of soft tissue injuries remains to be seen. Still, the Giants have to do something to stop this seemingly annual rash of injuries that have repeatedly thwarted them.

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