Whatever your level of play, 90 minutes is a long time to remain on top of your game so being football fit is crucial if you want to make it through extra time. Amateur football players can be between 15-30% less fit compared to the pros, but fitter amateur teams can establish a winning advantage over their opponents, even if they are not the most technically adept or skilful team. Here are some tips for making sure you are football fit.
Pre-season
Before the season kicks off you should train three to four times a week. Two to three of these sessions will probably be with your team. On other training days you should workout on your own or with your mates. If you were a pro or are really serious about pre-season then seven weeks is the optimum time you’d need to be ready for the season. The emphasis in the pro game is on developing fitness that will last from August to May. This is because once the season starts it’s very difficult to increase fitness further due to playing demands. Paradoxically, in the amateur game it may actually be easier to develop fitness across the season - your involvement in the game is going to be much less intense, so matches and training could actually boost fitness. Another aim of pre-season is to lay down a foundation of fitness that will reduce your chances of sustaining soft tissue and joint injuries.
Football pre-season key training points
Emphasise mobility work in your warm ups and warm downs and in your own time. Muscles and tendons can shorten if they are not worked on and utilised dynamically for a period of time. Both passive and active dynamic stretches should be used. A passive stretch involves gently easing into a stretch and holding it for a period of time (usually 15-20 seconds) - the lunge or seated hamstring stretch are typical and very useful football stretches. Dynamic stretches involve moving a body part with controlled speed into varying positions - leg swings and simulated ball kicks are examples. With these stretches it is important to build up speed and range of movement gradually. Stretches should be performed after you have warmed up with 5-10 minutes of jogging.
Work on your turning, stopping and acceleration
These types of movement are crucial for all players – you’ll complete hundreds in a game – but after a lay-off your muscle strength and coordination may be less than optimal. Perform drills, such as backwards and sideway running and turns at gradually increasing speed in workouts across pre-season. Doing floor-ladder work and other speed and agility drills, over low hurdle and in and out of cones, will be also be highly valuable.
Developing endurance
Football is an intermittent stop start (anaerobic) activity. Your training should emphasise this type of fitness. Developing a sound base of running fitness is key to pre-season. In the first few weeks go for 15-30 minute runs at a comfortable pace, but intersperse these with some faster pace periods of 10-30 second duration. Then begin to emphasise more stop start type interval anaerobic training as the season approaches and
throughout.
Strength work
If you have a good base of weight training strength you’ll get the greatest football power returns from using heavy weights with low reps - and also alternating plyometric (jumping) exercises with weights exercises. The paired exercises should work the same muscle groups. These ‘power combination’ workouts will hit your fast twitch speed and power producing muscle fibres.
When you lift a heavy weight you must be in the ‘zone’ and fired up. Try to get everything you can into each lift to move the weight as quickly as possible (whilst adhering to good form). Sports scientists have found that this type of weight training will increase the ability to sprint, stop, turn and jump – much better than higher rep and lighter load weight/circuit workouts. Rest is crucial for these sessions – take 3-4 minute between sets and if you feel that you are slowing down with a set, pause and then go again.
Diet and Nutrition
Eating the right food in the right quantities is crucial whatever your level of football. Carbohydrates such as pasta will provide you with long term energy -- and you can use healthy sports nutrition bars like the Multipower protein & energy bar to provide you with enough calories to fuel your training. Sports energy drinks like Multipower Energy charge will help you maintain and top up energy levels during matches and training. Sports energy drinks are also ideal for reducing dehydration. A loss of 2-3% in body weight through dehydration can seriously reduce your performance. It pays to remain topped up. As a rule of thumb 1 litre of liquid weighs the same as 1kg. So you could work out your own ‘personal sweat weight’. Weigh yourself in your football kit before and after training and matches. If you have lost 2kg then you have lost 2 litres of liquid -- you can then make sure you drink that much during training or matches. Don’t wait until you feel thirsty before you start drinking -- by then you are already dehydrated. Start your hydration strategy before you turn up for training or a match. Multipower’s Iso Drink mix is an ideal sports energy drink -- designed to combat dehydration. It is an isotonic drink mix with a special carbohydrate matrix, L-Carnitine, minerals and BCAAs (branched chain amino acids). This special carb matrix gives optimum hydration and energy supply.
To support your weight training programme make sure you consume plenty of high quality protein to support muscle growth and strength. You should get plenty of protein from your diet if you include lots of steak, lean chicken and fish. Body weight training can increase your body’s protein needs in which case supplement your diet with whey protein powders and protein shakes. Multipower’s Fit Protein is an ideal protein shake as it is low in fat but provides 53g total milk protein -- 80% milk protein (casein) for time-released supply and 20% whey protein for fast protein supply.
Incorporating sports supplements into your regular diet can also help with post match and training recovery. Taking a great all round protein shake such as Multipower’s X-PLODE can help your body repair and build muscle after exercise. The protein and carbohydrates are digested quickly for faster recovery providing optimum nutritional support.
