How to Strength Train for Soccer Effectively
There’s a lot of information on the web when you type in how to strength train for football, or something of that nature, you get a lot of rubbish. Or it might not be rubbish, but a lot of methods which are from the textbook, like 10-20 years ago. Does that kind of training really reflect the modern game?
For example, most old school strength guys will say 1 rep max is a good reflection of your strength. But is that really relevant for a sport like soccer (football)? A performance specialist may say its better to judge on a three rep max, or a five rep max — more fairly reflecting the strength stamina demands required for an intensive game like soccer.
As a player myself that spends 1 – 3 sessions in the gym per week, I haven’t been quite sure if what I’m doing is the most effective way to strength train. So I consulted a real experts advice on his opinion.
Meet founder of Performance 47, Nick Harvey: Nick has had an 18 year career working as a physical performance coach in elite sport working for clubs like the world-renowned Southampton academy, Reading FC and the England Mens U/21 National Team. He’s overseen the physical development programmes which guided the likes of Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale and Adam Lallana into their professional careers.
He was a key part of the coaching team at Southampton which achieved back-to-back promotions to the Barclays Premier League and was responsible for the conditioning programmes of the likes of Euro 2016 winner Jose Fonte.
