Steelers\' Polamalu hurt despite regimen

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So, after an offseason back in Los Angeles working out the way hedid as one of college football's top defensive players at SouthernCal, what happened to Polamalu mere days before training campbegan?
The four-time Pro Bowl safety pulled his left hamstring whilerunning and couldn't take part in the first two camp practicesMonday.
After a season in which knee, rib and abdominal injuries visiblyaffected Polamalu's play -- he hasn't had an interception sincemidway through the 2006 season -- Polamalu was certain all theseinjuries were behind him.
Polamalu sailed through the eight 100-yard sprints that wererequired Sunday by coach Mike Tomlin, but the Steelers didn't wantto take a chance with one of their most valuable players so earlyin camp.
"I want to practice," Polamalu said Monday. "But I'll do whatevercoach tells me to do. He's been around a long time. So has[trainer] John Norwig, so I'll defer to them on this. But I want topractice."
Tomlin said Polamalu "is in great shape," but he is understandablywary about any injury given Polamalu's run of problems last season.
On the first day of camp a year ago, Polamalu signed a $30.19million, four-year contract that made him the highest paid playerin team history -- at least until quarterback Ben Roethlisberger agreed earlier this year to a deal that could pay him as much as$102 million.
Living up to that contract isn't what motivates Polamalu. Rather,it's playing up to the standards set by a multidimensional,motivated player who creates matchup problems for offenses becauseof his ability to line up at so many positions.
That's why after having offseason knee surgery Polamalu decided toreturn to training the way he has most of his career. So he skippedall the Steelers' offseason practices and the traditional trainingand weightlifting, and went back to working with his formertrainer.
"I talked with coach [Tomlin] because I don't want to do anythingagainst the team," Polamalu said. "They're very supportive of meand the training I wanted to do. I'd trained like that for sevenyears but, coming off the injury, it gave me an opportunity to takemore time to rehab and just train."
An interesting twist: Marv Marinovich, the former Southern Cal and Oakland Raiders player and conditioning coach with whom Polamalu has long trained,promises on his Web site that his workouts mean "you'll avoid theinjury bug. No more pulls or strains."
Marinovich's workouts are designed to boost speed, jumping abilityand football-required strength but are nontraditional, with anemphasis on reducing the stress and strain that can be caused byheavy weightlifting.
Rather than bench pressing 350 pounds, for example, Polamalu willrun in weighted shoes or lift a minimal amount of weight in shortbursts.
Polamalu did slightly more weight training than he once did, butonly to add weight. He is back to his preferred weight of 215pounds after playing at 205 the last two seasons.
Polamalu called Marinovich's program "very awesome" and doesn'tbelieve training away from the Steelers had anything to do with hislatest injury. He can only hope he is getting his injuries out ofthe way early this season.
"When there's an injury like this, it's always best to take thesafe route because it's a very long season," he said. "If youcontinue to re-injure it this early, there's no telling how bad itcould really get. So, if there's any down time that's good, it'sright now."
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press