Football players can run anything up to 8miles during a 90-minute game.

This may be perceived as aerobic endurance, but this is in fact anaerobic in nature. Aerobic means “with oxygen,” and anaerobic means “without oxygen.” Anaerobic exercise is the type where you get out of breath in just a few moments, like when you lift weights for improving strength and when you sprint.

If you start to analyse football games, players will at some point:

• Walk
• Jog
• Run
• Sprint
• Change direction

We therefore ensure we incorporate interval training into our program, that involves high and low intensities of activity, this will provide better results than long duration, low intensity jogging alone such as ‘jog round the pitch twice’ methods.

Strength is an important component of fitness and forms the basis for power and speed plus the strength to hold off challenges from opponents.

Other benefits of strength training include:

• Injury resistance
• Leaner body composition
• Faster metabolism
• More energy
• Improved balance, stability, and agility
• Faster recovery

Our strength training program will focus on compound, functional exercises (such as lunges, squats, step ups, pushups), and will take into account balancing the strength of opposing muscle groups (i.e. quadriceps vs. hamstrings).

While endurance and strength are very important to improving your performance, faster players have a definite competitive edge. You may have better endurance than the next guy, but if he makes it to the ball first it won’t matter!

Power is the combination of strength and speed. To improve your speed and explosiveness we include power movements in your program, such as jump squats, high pulls, power cleans, and push presses, as well as plyometric drills. These will be as a circuit training program with high intensity intervals.

A typical workout would alternate between power movements for lower body and upper body, with plyometric exercises as intervals. We may also conclude your training session with sprint drills and agility work.

Many players still do passive stretching before a game or training (stretch and hold), when actually this can diminish performance and increase risk of injury!

We integrate flexibility into your routine with dynamic routines (walking lunges, bodyweight squats, high knees, butt kicks, arm circles, etc.)

This is a whole other article. Suffice it to say that what you eat will directly effect your energy levels, recovery, performance and health.

Here are some basic tips to consider regarding your diet:

• Drink A LOT more water.
• Eat 4-6 smaller meals / snacks each day.
• Eat after exercise, not directly before.
• Each meal should include: Protein, fruits and vegetables, Whole grains
• Starchy carbs (i.e.: pasta, potatoes, rice, bread, grains) should be eaten after exercise, or the night before a big game, but otherwise reduced in your diet.
• No (or very little of) sugars, pastries, junk food, pop, chips, alcohol, tobacco, etc.
• Don’t eat before sleep