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Get Soccer Fit in 2010

Heard the saying ‘There’s no motivation like self motivation’? No? well, it is 100% true when it comes to you and your fitness levels in this year of the FIFA Soccer World Cup when our country is going to be over-run with super-fit, world-renowned soccer stars and all of their attendant supporters, hangers-on and so forth. So, self-motivate you must if you want to get fit and get into shape this year.

Whether you play soccer or not, the training program that club and professional soccer players follow can only be of benefit to you as you strive to gain, or even regain, a fitness level that you possibly last had some time ago.

To be a successful soccer player one requires the following skills: endurance, speed, agility, full body strength and coordination. Obviously, soccer takes a lot of running. But running should be an integral part of any fitness training program.

It is vitally important to always work on technique and form while running. Putting in endless useless hours of running is a waste of time and it increases the likelihood of you getting hurt. To get soccer fit you must spend a great deal of time conditioning the body. Keep in mind that stretching before any exercise is essential to prevent injury to any muscle group and it is the first step in getting fit. You will want to work groin, hamstring, hip/waist, calf and quad muscles in your warm-up routine.

 

Find yourself a local sports field or school field and follow this training program to get fit once you are warmed up and ready to begin exercising. Running is an essential path in building up good lungs but, rather than just running endless kilometers it is more beneficial to run sprints. You can build up your speed, explosiveness and endurance all at once with jogs and sprints mixed up in 20 meter zones. If you are running on the road, alternate your speeds between the lampposts, so jog from one to another, then sprint between the next two, and so on. You can add change of direction stuff as well as running backwards/sideways for variation as well as working different muscle groups.

Short bursts of speed are essential to the soccer player as during a match they are most likely to do 5 – 20 second sprints, but getting in distance in their training regimes is essential to overall fitness levels too. So, start off with shorter distances, of say 2 – 3 kilometers, and build up from there until you are comfortable doing 5 kilometer runs.

Next in you training program, you will need to incorporate leg lifts and sit-ups to strengthen your torso. For soccer these exercises will provide the necessary strength required to support heading, twisting and shooting. Add push-ups to your sets to maintain upper body strength.
As a final word, always maintain a healthy and balanced diet and ensure sufficient water intake as the body needs to be completely hydrated to operate at its peak.