Soccer fitness

Fr O'Blivion

Howdy, just got back into playing football recently but I want to devise some programme to get fitter. Thought my fitness levels weren't too bad till last Saturday when we had a match - I was jacked after about 20 mins! And I play in midfield!

Does anyone have any advice? Any good links to check out? The training once a week really isn't enough. I can comfotably jog a couple of miles but throw in a few sprints and I'm gone! Any help would be appreciated

SpookyBastard

You could give some High Intensity Interval Training a go. It's pretty good for sports endurance. You can do sprints, bike, etc. Check out http://www.hiitsource.com, wikipedia, youtube, etc for examples. I like the bike myself as I can change speed quickly but sprints are good fun too.

Fr O'Blivion

Great stuff, thanks. I have been going for the odd run over the last few months but I want to get more of a routine going. How many times a week do you think I could do some fitness work (with a game and training taking up two days of the week already)?

SpookyBastard

You should be able to squeeze another couple of days in there no probs. Depends on yourself, recovery times, free time, etc. Try adding in an exercise day with a gap before training day if possible just to start off. So if training was on Wednesday, you'd be well recovered from exercise/gym/etc that you did on Monday. Then another exercise day on Thursday so you're good for Sat. Something like that. If training was Thursday evening and match was Sat (as in closer together) then I'd probably do sunday and tuesday or monday and wednesday as exercise days. Just about trying to spread it out a bit so you don't wear yourself out (end up too tired from friday exercise to actually play well at the match)

Good luck with it

SanoVitae

I highly recommend you check out Informed Performance - http://informedperformance.com/


Programs like this will greatly help you improve your fitness for soccer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB-uiN_tcsw&feature=player_embedded

SpookyBastard

Oh yeah, totally forgot to mention IP (sorry will!) who have a pile of helpful vids on youtube.
If you are looking for an awesome place to train Fr , then IP is well worth checking out. Will knows his stuff and offers top advice (feel free to bring him doughnuts )

Good thing you were here Paul to stop me leaving important stuff out

Fr O'Blivion

Thanks for all the links. Never heard of HIIT before, sounds interesting! Is it okay to do this kind of training more than once a week?

SpookyBastard

No worries. Yeah, you'd probably only want to do this twice a week as it's supposed to be intense work.

Fr O'Blivion

Cool, thanks for your help. Just as a matter of interest, I was looking around earlier and found this. Scroll to Muscular Endurance. http://www.netfit.co.uk/training/sportsspecific/football-training-fitness.htm Seems way too difficult though, those circuits would be killer after sprinting, etc.

SpookyBastard

Reckons its something you build up to