The Viking Age
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Minnesota Vikings hire new strength and conditioning coach

By Dan Zinski

Jan 3, 2016; Green Bay, WI, USA; An Minnesota Vikings helmet during warmups prior to the game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Minnesota won 20-13. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 3, 2016; Green Bay, WI, USA; An Minnesota Vikings helmet during warmups prior to the game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Minnesota won 20-13. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Minnesota Vikings have hired Brent Salazar to be their new strength and conditioning coach.

When is the hiring of a new strength and conditioning coach sort of a big deal? When the previous strength and conditioning coach was fired after a rash of injuries some believe was directly caused by the team’s weight-training program.

Whether previous Minnesota Vikings strength and conditioning coach Evan Marcus was really to blame for the inordinate number of pectoral injuries suffered by Vikings players over the first two years of Mike Zimmer’s tenure, no one can say for sure.

The bottom line is that Marcus was let go, leaving a void on the Vikings’ coaching staff. Today the team announced they have filled that void by hiring former Kansas City Chiefs assistant strength and conditioning coach Brent Salazar.

Salazar was with Kansas City’s staff from 2007 to 2015. Before that he served for one year as assistant director of athletic performance at Pacific. Before that he had jobs as a strength and conditioning intern with New Mexico University, the Denver Broncos and UNLV.

Job number one for Salazar with the Vikings is working to make sure no more players suffer torn pectoral muscles. In 2015, the Vikings saw Brian Robison,  Josh Robinson and Carter Bykowski all suffer pectoral injuries of varying degrees of severity, from mild in the case of Robison to season-interrupting in the case of Robinson to season-ending in the case of Bykowski.

In 2014, the Vikings lost offensive linemen Brandon Fusco and Phil Loadholt to torn pecs.

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The sudden rash of torn pecs coincided with the Vikings’ decision to switch from weight machines to free weights, but head coach Mike Zimmer doesn’t believe that move itself was responsible for the problem. In fact, Zimmer said last month that he intends on keeping free weights.

The Minnesota Vikings won’t be switching up their training regimen all that much it doesn’t appear, but they will have a different man running the show.

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