Fancy a run to Perth? And back?

That's the total distance run - 7200km - by the entire Brisbane Lions squad in the 16-week preseason leading into today's opening NAB Challenge game against St Kilda at Burpengary.

Across 58 hours of training, each Lions player ran an average of 330km - with 15.3km of that in sprinting.

In the gym, the squad lifted a total of 765,590kg with 13,620 repetitions.

Brett Burton, Elite Performance Manager of the Bupa Support Team, said the playing group had trained strongly across the preseason.

"We've seen personal bests from a number of the players - as a group they have really stepped up," said Burton.

"There is some real competitiveness for a number of spots this year and that showed through in the way they trained.

"We've also had a number of players come back out of the rehab group and into full training, which is always really good to see."

One of the players to really benefit from a full preseason was Stefan Martin, the giant finishing last season as the form ruckman in the competition after putting a long line of injuries behind him to deliver on his potential.

The challenge for the 28-year-old is to reproduce the same form as a central figure in Brisbane’s beefed-up midfield.

“I welcome that expectation,’’ Martin told The Courier-Mail. “I’d love to take my game to another level. I am feeling more confident than last year so I want to go that step further.

“I’m pretty excited by the developments at the club over the off-season and I can’t wait to see what that translates to.’’

The 197cm former Melbourne Demon added 3kg of muscle in the pre-season to now weigh 105kg.

“(Pre-season) has been much longer than what we are used to and I’m happy with the amount of work I’ve got through,’’ he said.

“The beauty is I’ve increased my strength and power so it should help my mobility. Extra size won’t slow you down if you put it on in the right places.’’

Martin will be rested today when Brisbane field a near full-strength line-up against St Kilda at Burpengary.

He is set to play Brisbane’s remaining pre-season games against Sydney on March 6 and Gold Coast on March 20 to have him cherry ripe for the Round 1 blockbuster against Collingwood at the Gabba on April 4.