Bears left guard Teven Jenkins has struggled with injuries during his first two seasons in the NFL. In fact, he’s yet to play a full season.
Jenkins’ rookie season got off to a rough start when he needed surgery to fix a nagging back injury. He missed the first 12 games of his rookie season, and he didn’t start until Week 15. Last season, Jenkins missed a couple of games in the middle of the season due to a hip injury. Then Jenkins suffered a scary neck injury in Week 15 that limited him in the final three games.
Considering Jenkins has proven to be a dominant run blocker and one of the team’s best offensive linemen when healthy, the key is making sure he can make it through an entire season.
Jenkins detailed how he altered his training regimen to help with that.
“Basically lengthening and strengthening muscles and working on all the small muscles that you never think about,” Jenkins said. “It’s like those small anterior muscles around my neck, to build that up so nothing happens again, so I don’t get stingers, so I don’t get another lapse of whatever happened when we played the Eagles, so I don’t have anything happen to my back again. I’m doing those muscles around the spine that make it a lot stronger so those things don’t flare up.”
Jenkins has been working with the team’s trainers at Halas Hall, as well as independently.
“The strength coach here is really good,” he said.
It’s been an eventful first couple of seasons for Jenkins, and injuries certainly can take a mental toll. Jenkins credits his wife for being there to help him through it.
“Mentally, she’s the one that has been helping me out a lot,” he said. “I just go to her when I have any troubles and she reassures me anytime I have any problem.”
