You’ve probably heard it a hundred times that weight training soccer is a major part of sports training these days as it creates stronger and faster 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. Upper body weight training for soccer is not as important as is for the legs, but we still do it for overall conditioning and strength.
I think fitness training should start with the legs. Start with squats. Now place the bar with which your players can make 20 reps. Supposing they are strong enough, so let them go with 220 pounds first. This practice is performed by getting below the bar, and putting it across their upper back and then stand up with it.
Next tell them to stand having their shoulders and feet width apart. Then they should come down while holding it till their hips are only marginally lower than the top of their knees. When they reach this level in weight training soccer, they should stand up quickly and exhale. The players must be encouraged to continue even when they are worn-out till they do 20 reps.
A 5-10 minutes break should be taken before moving on with the leg curl machine to work on hamstrings. 4 sets of 15 reps each should be completed by them. In between each set of Leg Curls, they’ll also be doing 4 sets of 15 reps on the Stiff-Legged Dead lift. Hamstrings are vital for players speed, thus we would want them to be strong enough.
Finish the leg workouts on Standing calf-raise machine and doing 3 sets of 25 reps
The Incline bench press would be used to start the upper body exercises.
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. They are supposed keep on doing weights for a total of 5 sets of 10 reps, while stretching their chest and shoulders, however taking a break of 2 minutes between each set.
Next are the pull-up exercises in this section of soccer strength training. 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. Then finish with 5 sets of 50 or more crunches or sit-ups.
As a final point weight training soccer is only a minor portion of the comprehensive training program required. To know more about various weight training exercises relevant to the game of soccer, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that has videos, articles, pod casts, and newsletters available for you.
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