Playing football requires speed, strength, endurance, explosiveness, and agility. Achieving the epitome of strength and resistance does require players to spend a lot of time in gyms to train. The art of football is much more than the techniques; one of the essential aspects of football is preparing perfectly. Football Weight Training has been a long-overdue part and parcel of a holistic training program.
Although it might sound a little outlandish or vague as everybody knows how much Ronaldo trains to become the best version of himself in the field. It is vital to have a robust weight training program for any player globally, including sports like American football, conventional rugby, and Australian football is essential.
A player can train anytime throughout the year; however, winter months are perfect for the players when they can commit to workouts for a complete season to carry out their workout plan. Winter also gives them extra time to focus on their positioning and finally get noticed by coaches and sponsors from across the country.
Do Football players need Aerobic Fitness?
Aerobic fitness is not only confined to other sportspeople; players can benefit significantly from good aerobics fitness. It provides them with endurance to build up strength, effort and even build muscles that further breakthrough tackles. The article entirely revolves around the Football Weight Training Program to develop a comprehensive routine.
Cardio training plays a crucial role in developing vigorous aerobics before pre-season. Later, they can build up their fitness during the early phase of pre-season and then curate anaerobic fitness with an effective workout like shuttles, sprints, and intervals to prepare for the beginning of the season.
Aerobic fitness also suggests that players can run, jog, ski, or cycle for a very long time with necessary moderation. Anaerobic Fitness also indicates players can keep on going for more extended periods of time. The high intensities right in front of the legs and body would eventually slow down. In football, both are essential and very important if players intend to play the whole of the game. While optimizing all of the elements in terms of strength, fitness, endurance, and power, players reach the optimum level of fitness.
Year-long Weight Training program for Football players
The year-long periodized training is further broken down into either three or four phases of the Football Weight Training Program that all players must go through. All phases focus on the designated fitness development. These programs do provide quite an accelerating buildup to support both performance and fitness. Additionally, all stages consist of distinctive objectives that all successive phases further build peak performance and fitness.
This article covers how players are trained throughout the year:
- Early Pre-Season
In this phase, the emphasis is put on building core functional strength, aerobic fitness, and muscle growth. Since most of the players are coming off a long break so it’s really crucial to start slowly to rule out any pre-season injury concerns. The overall procedure is called hypertrophy. By far, this is one of the crucial stages of the preparation for prayers right after events of the offseason.
- Mid Pre-Season
Football Weight Training in Mid Pre Season is dedicated to making play quick at their feet and strong by cutting off the overall bulk that they have accumulated.
- Late Pre-Season
The exercise and training during this phase emphasize building optimum power, strength alongside anaerobic fitness. Pre-season training is imminent for players.
- In Season
When the competition is underway, players still need the training to showcase their functional aspect for the competition. The training pays importance to aerobic, speed, power, strength, and anaerobic fitness.
- Off-Season
Recovery plays a crucial role in players’ overall strength development and durability. In the off-season, players undergo light workout, cross-training, break from vigorous fitness exercises, and football training. But it’s very important to continue with the off-season workout to keep your body in shape when not playing. Most college-level players commit the mistake of keeping themselves from football training in the off-season which is so wrong for your body because to bring it back in shape you will have to start everything from the scratch.
Let’s explore these phases of training for a football player all through the year:
Season-by-season Football training for players
Every sport has a genetic program to train players that might be useful in compartmentalizing roles and physical attributes. For instance, in football, the defensive lineman would require very different training to a quarterback and front-rower. Hence, they have to train differently to meet the demands of the sport and the coaches teaching them.
Nevertheless, the program that will be explored here is an amalgamation of three gameplay in football. The training programs are great for both casual football weight training aspirants as well as beginners. Even if the players do not have a history of football training, they can ace the football training. Remember, the programs are meant to specify the current fitness requirement for the player and their position. If you feel like running the following regime with your coach or trainer, you’re free to do so. Not all football players are into weight training, so if you’re new, then ensure that the basic principles are covered. Additionally, remember to warm up as well as cool down prior to and after the training session. Let’s explore the regime and strength training you need for optimum performance in the field.
First Phase of Training: Early Pre-Season
By far, this phase would introduce the future star player to football weight training to build a strong foundation in terms of strength. In addition to this, if players move from the off-season to early pre-season, the phase shouldn’t be skipped. The program explores the working of all significant groups of muscle in the body.
The football weight trainers with less experience would have to begin with lighter weights, and even the sets will be very few. As they build up strength, they will increase their sets. It is advised to start very early to the season to make the most out of this phase.
There is often a chance that one side of the body will gain more strength as compared to the other. So, if players focus on two significant muscle groups by emphasizing others, they will overcome the stages of injury. Allocating the body with massive training resources can help players achieve strength at the most foundation level. During this phase, the major muscle groups to focus on are buttocks, back, shoulders, arms, abdominals, chest, shoulders, and legs.
The early pre-season training is a combination of hypertrophy, strength, endurance. Here weights aren’t heavy, and sets and reps range between 2 to 4 and 10-15 reps, respectively. Building power is the next stage of strength gaining, increasing muscle mass for endurance and agility on the field. Power is the most sought-after product of both speed and strength.
Workout training for the first phase:
- Dumbbell Squat, Sled Hack Squat, Barbell Squat
- Biceps Curl (Dumbbell)
- Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell)
- Machine Pushdown Or Triceps Extension
- Reverse Crunch
- Lat Pulldown
- Seated Cable Row
- Romanian Deadlift
Second Phase of Training: Mid Pre-Season:
This phase focuses on building strength among players. Players who are agile and fast should ensure not to get beefed up during their football training. During the early pre-season workouts, a great foundation would help players lift heavy weights to train their nervous system alongside muscle fibers graciously.
Additionally, building a core level foundation strength helps during the next phase that includes power development. In football weight training, power is the ability of players to mobilize the heaviest of the loads in the shortest period of time. Power comes from strength alongside speed, and it is quite an essential component to learning several skill sets.
As all the phases are interconnected, building strength on phase 2 depends on the first phase. The football training will improve your ability to run at high velocity. The set number must be less in this phase, but it shouldn’t compromise with the power buildup. From this phase, it is important to take maximum time for recovery in between workouts. If your muscles stay sore for a long time, take an entire day off in between the regime.
Football Training exercises for the second phase:
- Hack squat (Barbell)
- Bench Press (Barbell) or Front Squat (Barbell)
- Military Press (Overhead)
- Pull-ups
- Romanian Deadlift
Third Phase of Training: Late Pre-Season towards In Season:
The strength that you build in the second phase is further amplified here. Players will develop their strength further to increase their overall ability to move at peak velocity. Here, players will learn how power is an amalgamation between both speed and strength. Power training needs lifting more weights as compared to the first two phases. Moreover, the phase will explore the explosive intent that every player needs to become the best.
In between the repetitions, players would be required to rest adequately. The rest will ensure that all movements are done as seamlessly as possible. In this phase, there is a highly likely chance that the sets can be very less. Also, there will not be any point to overtrain as fatigues would ultimately ruin the physical prowess.
As this regime is part of power training, players need to have proper recovery in between repetitions. The repetitions would also ensure that players can maximize the movement velocity. It is important to ensure that the weights aren’t heavy and that the periods between rests are more than sufficient.
There are certain workouts that you can try, like push and pull, to develop greater resistance. When you’re in push and pull, it is important to lift heavier weight than the first phase but lightweight than the second. In push and pull or other compound movements, forms and techniques should be mastered. You can also learn the form from a professional trainer or coach to tune properly in this workout.
The phase doesn’t require doing much workout, but there are specific important weight training exercises that shouldn’t be skipped:
- Split Jerks
- Power Snatch
- Push Press on Dumbbell or Barbell
- Hang Clean on Dumbbell or Barbell
- Weighted Box Jump
Fourth Phase of Training: In Season
The phase not only oversees football training but also ensures power and strength are properly maintained. In any season, it is great to alternate between the second and the third phase of training. Overall the training should be for two seasons every passing week. Nevertheless, in the fifth week, skipping the exercise would benefit in recovery.
These training sessions should be tried every two days between game and strength sessions. It is advised to avoid the very essence of strength training if you’d be required to work out in the field. Even in the fourth phase, taking enough time for sufficient recovery would greatly benefit players during the playoffs. Light workouts in gyms are great; overdoing would ultimately lead you towards injury during gameplay.
There is no particular exercise or workout regime that you need to follow here. You can go for complete full-body strength training but lift lighter weights to build up more strength and agility for the game. After becoming aware of strength training for football, you’d know which workout is perfect for your overall performance during the season. You should focus on techniques on the field in a limited time rather than exhausting yourself in gyms.
Fifth and the Last Phase: Off-Season
Upon the season’s conclusion, it is finally the time for players to take the much-needed rest. The rest is very much essential; it will heal the player physically and emotionally. Even coaches and trainers advise players to engage in other physical activities and leisure sports to stay fit. Crossfit training is a much-suited exercise to keep physical power at maximum. The phase is perfect for recovery both mentally and physically for another fruitful season to come.
Football players do not just need strength or speed; they need a holistic workout plan. By the looks of it, the comprehensive workout will include exercises that oversee strength, speed, agility, and power. It is inevitable to go to the gym for workout sessions. players often require to hit the right area of their body to become strong and fast. The workout regime is carefully curated to give players the edge they need in the field.
If your goal is to improve your performance from the previous year, you should try out the football training and workout program developed by some of the best trainers and footballs in the industry in 2021. Both conditioning and strength play a crucial role; hence the training is divided into five distinctive segments. As you follow the training session one after the other, your strength, agility and ensure will increase eventually.