Weight Training Soccer: The Truth About Conditioning
It is very commonly heard nowadays that weight training soccer is a major factor of sports training in today’s times as it creates tougher and quicker muscles. Your players will have a chance to play at a higher level if they develop themselves using this soccer fitness plan discussed as follows.
During soccer weight training the aim is to improve the strength, speed and stamina of the muscles instead of just increasing the muscle weight. Though the importance of upper body weight training for soccer is not as much as the legs, we still go on with it for general conditioning and strength.
I recommend you begin your fitness training with the legs. Start with squats. This session should be followed by putting the bar to a weight with which the players can perform 20 reps with. Assuming that they are quite strong, therefore they should begin with 220 pounds. The exercise involves getting under the bar then placing it on the upper back and finally standing up with it.
They should then get out of the stands and stand with their feet and shoulder width apart. Then they should come down while holding it till their hips are only marginally lower than the top of their knees. In weight training soccer, after coming to this point the players should quickly stand up fully and breathe out. They should be motivated to do this for 20 reps even when they are totally worked out.
Give them a break for about 5 to 10 minutes and then start with the leg curl machine to work on the hamstrings. They are required to perform 4 sets of 15 reps each. In between each set of Leg Curls, they’ll also be doing 4 sets of 15 reps on the Stiff-Legged Dead lift. Since hamstrings are very important to a player’s speed, so you want them to be very strong.
Finish the leg workouts on Standing calf-raise machine and doing 3 sets of 25 reps
Begin with using the Incline bench press, for the upper body workout.
Now when the they are warmed up they must go on by including enough weights so that the next set of 10 reps is harder to do. The players must repeat the 5 sets 10 times with weights, while stretching their chest and shoulders and at the end of each set stop and relax for 2 minutes.
In this segment of soccer strength training the second exercise is the pull-ups. Their palms must be facing their body so that they can exercise their biceps and back muscles. Finally the upper body exercises include abdominals and performing 5 sets of 20 or more reps of leg raises. Conclude with 5 sets of 50 or more crunching exercises.
In short weight training soccer is only a small portion of the complete training program required to make great soccer players. You should consider joining our youth soccer coaching society to know more about various weight training exercises relevant to the game of soccer; the community also provides videos, articles, pod casts, and newsletters available for you.
Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make practice sessions fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Practice.
Tags: fitness training, soccer fitness, soccer strength training, Weight training soccer