Read 44 times since Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wayne Rooney may not have had the best of World Cups and Cristiano Ronaldo could have had better, but none the less, you have to admire their fitness levels.
Footballers receive a lot of negative press for the amount of money they earn for what they actually do, but what most people don't realise is that they train almost every day of the week, with a lot of the fitness regimes being gruelling to say the least.
If you want to see just how hard footballers train or you want to see if you can match their levels of fitness, check out this eleven part training schedule which most football teams around the world carry out in one form or another (and it's worthwhile keeping in mind that this makes up only a small amount of the training that the players do on a weekly basis).
1. Start off with a light run twice around the pitch. Whilst this is meant to stretch your muscles and warm everything up for the more intense exercises, don't forget to stretch your thighs and calves before you start.
2. Add an extra lap to make it three but this time start off jogging, then light running and finishing with sprinting. It's your choice whether you do these in sections on each lap or do one lap of each.
3. Do exactly the same as the above, but this time with a football. Do it in a small group if you can, so as to focus on your ball control, too.
4. For one lap, light run doing a mixture of knee-to-chest, side step and heel-to-bum runs. Mix these up evenly throughout the lap.
5. Sprint around the pitch for four and a half laps. After each half of a lap, stop and do half a dozen leg squats or two footed squat thrusts.
6. Carry out the same as above, but include standard and wide arm press ups after each half a lap, in addition to the leg exercises.
7. Do the same as above once again, but this time as well as the leg and upper body exercises, throw in some abdominal exercises, such as a standard sit up or an elbow-to-knee crossover sit up.
8. Do four laps of the pitch, sprinting the width and jogging backwards down the length,
9. Sprint four and a half laps around the pitch with a football. Speed is the what you're looking for here, so give it your all, but don't tire yourself out at the start - you don't want to jog, walk or stop any of the way,
10. For the last major component of this training schedule, run around the pitch at a fast pace five times, stopping after each completed lap to carry out leg squats or foot squat thrusts.
11. The last part has the aim of the first and that is to cool your muscles down, ensuring you don't pick up any unnecessary injuries. Do two laps of the pitch at a light running pace and then stretch fully after both laps have been completed. For more information about fitness, visit the Fitness First website at http://www.fitnessfirst.co.uk.
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