GAA Fitness

C__MC

Hello there.
What's the best type of fitness drills for an ordinary club player could anyone reccomend?
Looking to build on fitness and stamina as club season kicks in come mid august.

dobman88

C__MC wrote: »

Hello there.
What's the best type of fitness drills for an ordinary club player could anyone reccomend?
Looking to build on fitness and stamina as club season kicks in come mid august.

Go back training with your team anyway. Few lads on my team saying they want to get fit first and you just know they're doing nothing.

My week would generally look like, Monday sprint work, i run 2.5k at a decent pace to warm up and help with cardio, find a small incline of 20 metres or so and sprint up it as many times as you can, that helps with that first burst of speed.

Tuesday, training. Just go at full tilt for whatever you can at training, it feels like no running at all with a ball in play.

Wednesday. A 5k at a decent enough pace just to keep the legs moving and help with stamina. Can add in a short core work out after that. Push ups, keep elbows close to the body. Sit ups. Plank. Glute bridges.

Thursday, training. Again, go full tilt at whatever drill you're doing.

Friday could be anything from a sprint session to a 10 or 20k run. Depends on how the body feels and if I have plans. Those long runs are no good for football obviously, I just enjoy them for the great mental effects they have on me.

Saturday depends on Friday nights activities. But if I do nothing on a Saturday I'd get a sprint and core session in early Sunday so you have a long time to recover before work on Monday.

Saying all that, I play Junior B and I'm not doing all that training just for that. I do it because I enjoy it and it's a great stress reliever after a days work. Any evening I dont do it, I feel very restless but it's worked a treat for the football as I'm one of the fitter lads coming back after lockdown.

Best of luck.

Realt Dearg Sec

dobman88 wrote: »

Go back training with your team anyway. Few lads on my team saying they want to get fit first and you just know they're doing nothing.

My week would generally look like, Monday sprint work, i run 2.5k at a decent pace to warm up and help with cardio, find a small incline of 20 metres or so and sprint up it as many times as you can, that helps with that first burst of speed.

Tuesday, training. Just go at full tilt for whatever you can at training, it feels like no running at all with a ball in play.

Wednesday. A 5k at a decent enough pace just to keep the legs moving and help with stamina. Can add in a short core work out after that. Push ups, keep elbows close to the body. Sit ups. Plank. Glute bridges.

Thursday, training. Again, go full tilt at whatever drill you're doing.

Friday could be anything from a sprint session to a 10 or 20k run. Depends on how the body feels and if I have plans. Those long runs are no good for football obviously, I just enjoy them for the great mental effects they have on me.

Saturday depends on Friday nights activities. But if I do nothing on a Saturday I'd get a sprint and core session in early Sunday so you have a long time to recover before work on Monday.

Saying all that, I play Junior B and I'm not doing all that training just for that. I do it because I enjoy it and it's a great stress reliever after a days work. Any evening I dont do it, I feel very restless but it's worked a treat for the football as I'm one of the fitter lads coming back after lockdown.

Best of luck.

I think the last paragraph is important there. If you're out of shape at the moment I'd say the routine you've laid out here might be too intense, could lead to burnout or injury. More importantly you're doing it because it's enjoyable to you. If you're the kind of person who finds the fitness training tedious it might be better to ease into it a bit. Make sure you're at a level where you're enjoying it and the training you do alone is leaving you feeling energised rather than banjacksed for team training.

And yeah would agree, team training is the most important thing. You'll always give a bit more in training than on your own

TCDStudent1

dobman88 wrote: »

Go back training with your team anyway. Few lads on my team saying they want to get fit first and you just know they're doing nothing.

My week would generally look like, Monday sprint work, i run 2.5k at a decent pace to warm up and help with cardio, find a small incline of 20 metres or so and sprint up it as many times as you can, that helps with that first burst of speed.

Tuesday, training. Just go at full tilt for whatever you can at training, it feels like no running at all with a ball in play.

Wednesday. A 5k at a decent enough pace just to keep the legs moving and help with stamina. Can add in a short core work out after that. Push ups, keep elbows close to the body. Sit ups. Plank. Glute bridges.

Thursday, training. Again, go full tilt at whatever drill you're doing.

Friday could be anything from a sprint session to a 10 or 20k run. Depends on how the body feels and if I have plans. Those long runs are no good for football obviously, I just enjoy them for the great mental effects they have on me.

Saturday depends on Friday nights activities. But if I do nothing on a Saturday I'd get a sprint and core session in early Sunday so you have a long time to recover before work on Monday.

Saying all that, I play Junior B and I'm not doing all that training just for that. I do it because I enjoy it and it's a great stress reliever after a days work. Any evening I dont do it, I feel very restless but it's worked a treat for the football as I'm one of the fitter lads coming back after lockdown.

Best of luck.

Any reason why you dont take a day off? Most S&C coaches I talk to tell me about the need for 'recovery' days. Or do you consider the long runs a recovery day?

Realt Dearg Sec

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

Any reason why you dont take a day off? Most S&C coaches I talk to tell me about the need for 'recovery' days. Or do you consider the long runs a recovery day?

Implication seemed to be that he either takes Saturday off or Sunday, depending what he did Friday. Maybe I read it wrong.

Again if I were out of shape I'd definitely be taking two proper rest days.

Kevhog1988

What level are you at op??

dobman88

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

Any reason why you dont take a day off? Most S&C coaches I talk to tell me about the need for 'recovery' days. Or do you consider the long runs a recovery day?

Yeah, one of the weekend days I'd do nothing at all.

Some run days would just be a light jog so I'd consider it recovery and just helping to keep the legs moving. Like today, we had a hard running session in training last night so I just did a handy 5k, took me 25mins.

It's more for the mental than physical benefits too. If I didn't do something midweek after work I'd be at home at 8pm climbing the walls and feel restless. I'm on my feet in work all day but have a stressful enough job and it's a great release mentally.

With proper training back now we go Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. So from now on I'll likely do nothing on Friday (maybe a slow 5k if I've no plans) and Saturday.

It's not an exact science and I've never spoken to anyone about it but it works for me and I enjoy it.