Soccer Fitness Workout – Be Fit to Play, Don’t Play to Get Fit

There’s no doubt that soccer players are among the most well-conditioned athletes in the world and that’s why a soccer fitness workout is an ideal way for most people to get into shape. Players need to be in tip-top condition to play a 90 minute game or longer methandienone bayer. This means they must train hard throughout the year to get fit and then stay fit. Each position in the sport requires different styles of play and this leads to different fitness routines for specific players.

Soccer players need to perform both anaerobic and aerobic training for a complete soccer fitness workout. Aerobic fitness sets the level at which players can take in and use oxygen to perform a physical activity. Aerobic exercises are basically activities which you can perform over a period of time without becoming tired. Some examples are walking, running, jogging, cycling and swimming.

Anaerobic fitness includes high-intensity soccer fitness workouts, such as short bursts of energy like sprinting, hill climbing, weightlifting, and interval training. These exercises are generally short-lasting as your body will rely on energy sources which are stored in your muscles.

There’s a lot of continuous movement for some soccer players such as midfielders. However, others, such as strikers, need to be able to handle short, intense, powerful sprints. Each player is different in this regard, and that’s why different training methods are often used for players of different positions.

However, all players should practice their stamina, speed, and strength as often as possible. If you can practice these aspects of fitness while combining them with some type of soccer skill it will benefit you a lot more. For example, you can practice both your speed and dribbling techniques at the same time.

But you can’t just jump into to an intensive soccer fitness workout. Beginners should really spend the first few weeks doing lower-intensity aerobic exercises to achieve a base level of fitness. When performing any type of anaerobic exercise you should take five to 10 minutes to cool down when you’ve finished.

While you need to be physically fit to play soccer, you also have to be mentally fit. This means you need to be alert and aware of your surroundings on the pitch at all times. You need to be able to make decisions quickly and you need to be able to make the right decisions.

If you’re mentally tough, you won’t let anything distract you or throw you off of your game. This means you should be able to handle anything that comes your way verbally. The most famous incident of a player not being mentally tough occurred in the 2006 World Cup Final when France’s Zinedine Zidane was shown the red card by the referee after head butting Marco Materazzi of Italy over an insult. Italy went on to win the Cup in a penalty shootout. Zidane became the first player in history to receive two red cards in World Cup matches.

Inspired, in part, by reality TV show, “The Biggest Loser,” fitness boot camps have become a large growth segment of the fitness industry. But, does good TV equal a good workout? Television needs dramatic tension to draw viewers and “The Biggest Loser” uses in – your – face trainers barking commands like militant gods, demanding more sets, more reps, and in effect, imparting more drama to keep us watching. As voyeur-ship goes, this is good stuff and we’re on the edge of our seats to see who gets sick, who crashes and burns, and who prevails to the cheers and tears of their family and friends. But, are we watching a good workout, applied with appropriate intensity levels and exercise science, or just a circus of activity designed to separate the nuts from the shell?

As a fitness professional, I’m well aware of the danger and risks involved in asking a 350 pound out of shape couch potato to sprint uphill on pavement. However, the effort needed for such a feat sure appears noble. That sentiment doesn’t make it a good idea for our overweight fitness hopeful, however. Do you have the sense that your boot camp is brutally hard just for the sake of being brutally hard? Is there a method to the madness, or is it just plain old mad? And, how does a boot camp participant tell the difference? After all, the instructor is supposed to be the expert, and they’re running the show. One has to trust that it’s not being conducted just to “show” the group how unfit they are! With hundreds of thousands of people flocking to fitness boot camps every daybreak, perhaps a little sanity imparted to boot camps instructor’s plans needs mentioning. Before dropping down for a hundred push ups to please said instructor, exercise your free will for a moment and consider the following suggestions.

First off, does your boot camp allow for a warm up beyond the obligatory run? A warm up jog does not adequately provide improved circulation to all the muscles and joints. Make certain you have the opportunity to move all the major muscle groups in light, rhythmic activity in several directions for an additional 3 to 5 minutes minimally. A body ready to train trains more effectively and at a reduced risk of injury.

Secondly, the fitness activities should resemble a bell shaped curve where intensity is concerned. Are you asked to perform at break neck speed immediately after the warm up? A better plan is to begin with easier, less complicated exercises, drills and maneuvers as these type fitness movements require less demand on the nervous system and proprioceptive circuitry, (body awareness). It is yet another avenue to a safer boot camp. Balance training, light agility drills, calisthenics, and bodyweight exercises work well here during this phase.

Next, is there any wiggle room for the lesser fit individuals in the group? Is everyone required to put up or shut up while knocking out jump squats in the parking lot? Older folks, people with knee or hip prosthetics, and exercisers with any lower body impairment aren’t best served by plodding along on a surface harder than their weight bearing joints. As a 30 year veteran fitness coach, I would not recommend anyone make a habit of popping up and down on asphalt, regardless of what we see on TV! The best fitness boot camps provide modifications in their programming to allow for the oldest, youngest, and most and least fit, even if it’s not convenient for class formatting. Is it reasonable to expect a 62 year old female to go toe to toe with a 28 year old male chugging through 50 burpees? Hardly, but I’ve witnessed it many times mystery shopping fitness boot camps over the years.

Fourth point that needs mentioning is this bravado that prevails in making sure people feel it the day after. I call this mentality the 2 by4 mind set. The notion that one needs to be sore, (and the sorer the better), is plain and simply, bogus! If the purpose of training, (and putting together a fitness boot camp), is to make people believe that the workout was a good one using soreness as a barometer, then why not just beat people with a 2 by 4? The analogy is ridiculous, but no more so than the approach. This measuring stick is dangerous if only because it motivates marginal trainer’s to employ navy seal tactics to make certain you will “feel it” and be damn sure where it came from! It is perfectly natural to experience mild discomfort after beginning an exercise program, or deviating from your normal fitness routine. That said, it is not normal to gauge the effectiveness of a fitness boot camp, or any fitness program based on how sore it leaves the participant! While we’re discussing what is inappropriate, one can include the BYOB workout, as well: Bring Your Own Bucket workout. Sorry! It might make you sound like a super-hero to perform until pasty, but in the world of exercise physiology, that kind of response to training is just wrong! Does this argument really need defending?