Vikings notes: Players get rears in gear under new strength coach

"Glute activation."

The Vikings trotted out eight players to be mass interviewed after each completed his offseason training session for the day on Tuesday. Defensive end Everson Griffen won the day with how he described the value of the workout sessions under new strength and conditioning coach Brent Salazar.

"He's one of the best in the game that I've seen so far," Griffen said. "We run before we lift. We work on our explosion. We work on using our hips. We work on mobility. We work on glute activation."

Whoa. What?

"All the key, necessary pieces you need to have as a structured football player comes from the glutes. Everything. How you move, how you jump comes from your glutes, your trunk. So he brings all that to the table. The better glutes you have, the more power you're going to have, the more range you're going to have, the more mobility you're going to have. Glutes are everything."

But how does one activate one's glutes, Everson?

"You squeeze tight, you hold, you count for a second, but you squeeze real tight," Griffen said. "Then you squeeze real tight again. There is a lot of stuff he does that helps you get the glute activation going.

"You look at all the good guys who can run and can hit, they can drop their hips, they have good leverage and they can explode and play good on one foot, off-balance. That's the key. Having good glutes and a good back."

Other players praised Salazar, who replaced Evan Markus, who was fired after two seasons after an inordinate amount of pectoral injuries among the players. Cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said workouts are "faster." Defensive end Brian Robison said it's "high tempo" and "probably harder than what we've done in the past."

No Mickey Mouse leader

Teammates say third-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is growing as a locker room leader. Case in point, they say, is the effort he put into organizing a week of private workouts with receivers and tight ends at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando earlier this offseason.

"It speaks volumes of the steps he's taken in the last couple years," tight end Kyle Rudolph said. "A lot of times, the franchise quarterback and leader of the offense is forced on young quarterbacks. … That wasn't the case with Teddy. When we got back here after his first season about a year ago, he just seamlessly took over as the leader of our offense."

Joining Bridgewater for all or parts of the week were Rudolph, tight end MyCole Pruitt and receivers Charles Johnson, Jarius Wright, Adam Thielen, Cordarrelle Patterson, Stefon Diggs and Terrell Sinkfield.

"Whenever you get to do things like that, it just builds chemistry, not only on the football field, but off the football field," Bridgewater said Tuesday. "We were around each other for a week. Outside of football, we're hanging out. We went to Disney, dinner just about every night. Just being around the guys, getting a feel for their personality."

Let it loose? TB says sure

Since last season ended, coach Mike Zimmer and General Manager Rick Spielman both have expressed a desire to see their young QB "let it loose" and play more aggressively.

What say you, young QB? You willing to let it loose?

"Definitely," Bridgewater said. "Once the season gets here and things start going, it's all based on the game plan. But there will be times I will be taking my shots. When they're there, we just have to hit them. If it's coming from the head man, I accept that challenge and continue to work hard every day."