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.
In soccer weight training, the goal is to have muscles that are strong, fast, and have great stamina rather that to add pounds of muscle mass. 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.
My suggestion is to focus your fitness training beginning with the legs. You can start the warm up session with squats. After a light warm-up set, load the bar to a weight you think your players can get 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.
Now they must stand keeping their shoulders and feet width apart. They must hold it as they go down until their hips are slightly lower than the top of their knees. Coming up to this point in weight training soccer, they are supposed to stand up fast and exhale. Tell them to continue this practice for at least 20 reps even when they are completely exhausted.
Next is working on hamstrings, but before that have a 5-10 minutes break. They are required to do 15 repetitions of 4 sets each. The Stiff-Legged Dead lift with 4 sets of 15 reps should be completed between each set of Leg Curls. Hamstrings are vital for players speed, thus we would want them to be strong enough.
The leg exercises will be completed with 3 sets of 25 reps on the Standing calf-raise machine.
Start the upper body workout with the Incline bench press.
Once the players have performed the warm ups, tell them to carry on by putting more weights such that the next set of 10 reps get harder. A total of 5 sets of 10 repetitions are required with the weights, while stretching their chest and shoulders, yet pausing to relax for 2 minutes in the middle of each set.
Now we move to the second workout of this session of soccer strength training which are the pull-up exercises. This exercise should be done with the palms facing their body so that their biceps and back can become strong. The last part of the upper body portion of this workout is to work out the abdominals and 5 sets of 20 or more reps of leg raises would do well. The final exercise is sit-ups, complete 5 sets of 50 or more.
In conclusion, weight training soccer is only a small part of the overall training necessary to develop great soccer players. You are invited to become a member of our youth soccer coaching society to gain more about various weight training exercises relevant to the game of soccer; The society that has 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.
