Regardless of your position or level of play, your fitness plays a huge role in your performance. While first touch, technical ability, intelligence, creativity, tactical knowledge, and psychology are all important, all of these traits go out the window when you are out of shape. We’ll review the best fitness exercises for soccer players, so you can bring out the best in yourself as a player.
If you’ve ever played when you are not optimally fit, you know the feeling. Out of breath. Weak, rubbery legs. Bad touches and poor decisions. On the other side of the coin, being fit provides a huge advantage to your game. As a former professional player and college coach, I’ll give my best insights on what I’ve seen work well for dozens of high level players.
Why Basic Methods Aren’t Enough
Soccer is a complex game with a variety of physical requirements, which means you can’t just go run a few miles a couple times a week and expect that to get you in shape for the various demands of a soccer game. Your training needs to reflect what you actually do in a match – accelerating, cutting, sprinting, jumping, recovery (catching your breath), changing direction, jogging at various speeds, holding people off the ball, and so many other physical demands.
But how do you train for all of these characteristics in the off-season? What should you prioritize? Should you seek out a professional fitness coach (if you have the means)?
For the purpose of this article, we’ll stick to the best exercises for field players. Goalkeepers have a completely different set of physical demands, which we will discuss in another article. You should also try to work on the ball as much as you can. Fitness is an important foundation, and if you can improve your technical ability alongside your overall physical attributes, you will be a much more effective player.
Also, these are more basic/foundational exercises. For the advanced players, you will have to tweak your routine according to your specific strengths/weaknesses/needs.
Note: You should absolutely hire a personal trainer if you have the means. Make sure he has worked with soccer players and those players can give you a testimonial with how they improved working with this coach. Otherwise there are plenty of bad fitness coaches out there who will take your money and give you a program not specific to soccer players. I’ve seen this before, and you should watch out for it.
Otherwise, check out some of these coaches and their online programs.
- Speed Demon by Fred Duncan (lots of applicable soccer methodologies, for more advanced players)
- General Physical Preparation by Fred Duncan (if you’re trying to get back in shape or are an intermediate player)
Sprints / Explosive Training
You should prioritize improving your top speed and acceleration. In a typical game, most of your running involves changing speed (acceleration), but most soccer players don’t train this attribute nearly enough. Instead soccer players mostly focus on longer distance running. While stamina is important, speed is the biggest difference-maker in a game.
Sprinting is the king of athletic training exercises.
You train acceleration, top speed, proper running mechanics, leg strength, flexibility, injury-prevention, and stamina (yes, stamina… look up speed reserve). With different variations, you can train change of direction as well. Improving these areas will make you a better soccer player – whether you are fighting for a professional contract or just playing Sunday league.
Sprinting is also a skill. If you don’t train this skill enough, when you do need to sprint in a game, you have a higher risk of injury (especially to the hamstrings). You need to prepare your body for maximum force output. Even though sprinting takes up less than 10% of the total running volume in a game, sprints are the most common movement right before a goal-scoring action. It’s important to hone this skill, as it usually takes place in the most decisive moments in a game.
It may not make sense to do a ton of sprinting in-season, as this exercise is quite taxing on the body. Here is an article on in-season sprint training, which is still important to perform (but in very low volumes). After a longer sprint session, you should give yourself 2 days before another intense session (whether sprinting or other training). In the off-season you should include sprints in your training regimen at least 1-2 times per week.
How to train sprints
Since sprints in soccer vary in distance, you should also work on sprinting over various distances. 10, 20, 30, and 40 yard sprints are all good distances to work on the varying types of speed you need in a game. For speed training, take at least a minute rest between sprints to fully recover. Longer if you need it. You can do these on flat ground or up a hill (hill sprints work more on acceleration and leg strength). You want to prioritize top speed, not speed endurance – you can always work on the endurance part closer to season (or even in-season by playing).
If you are not fast, practice sprinting to help you get that little bit more explosive. Any improvements to your top end speed will help your game, especially if you have built it on other attributes. If you are fast, then improving this strength has clear benefits.
In terms of other explosive training, you should be doing some kind of jumping in your training. Hops and box jumps are easy to execute. Work on taking off with both legs and on one leg.
Note: if you are trying to get back into the game and haven’t sprinted in awhile, DO NOT try an all-out sprint workout without building up some general fitness first. You will injure yourself. Start with some workouts featuring longer, slower runs (50% or so), then work your way up slowly (60%, 70%, etc…)
Shuttle Runs / Interval Training
These are the second most important type of fitness exercise, after sprinting. Shuttle runs train stamina, recovery, change of direction, and mental fortitude.
For those who do not know, a shuttle run is a form of interval training. You set up cones a certain distance apart, let’s say 30 yards, and you run up and back a set number of times, let’s say 5 times, for one interval (this one would be 300 yards). For this example, you want to try to get each interval completed in under a minute (50-55 seconds for more advanced players), take a minute to rest, then repeat. A very fit player should be able to do 8 of these in a one minute on, one minute off interval.
You can set up different distances too. A popular one is a 25 yard distance, go up and back twice (100 yards total) in 18 seconds (or whatever time is challenging for you), take 18 seconds to rest, then repeat. Since these are shorter, you can do these in sets of 5-10. You’re very fit if you can do two sets of 10-12 maintaining the 18 second intervals.
I would keep it under 300 yards for intervals – these will be most specific to the demands of a game. Any longer, and you start to work in distances that are not as relevant to soccer.
As any soccer player knows, the ability to expend effort, recover, then expend a high-level effort again will give you a big advantage against your opponents. Training this ability will set you apart.
In an off-season program, you probably need some kind of interval training at least 1-2 times per week to maintain your recovery. These are pretty taxing on your legs, so don’t train them on back to back days with your sprinting.
Mile Run
Longer distance running used to be a staple in soccer conditioning. While most higher-level teams are moving away from using strictly longer runs for their training, some include the mile run in their fitness testing.
I think there is value in a longer, hard run, even if it doesn’t mimic the demands of a game. It tests your VO2 Max (lung capacity), endurance, mental toughness, and motor.
This is a common preseason test for pro and college players. They have to complete it under 5:40 or so. For lower level players and amateurs, 6 minutes means you are in very good shape.
Include one of these per week earlier in your offseason to build a good aerobic base alongside your sprint training, then taper off and replace with more interval training as the season approaches.
I wouldn’t do much continual running above 1 mile. You never come close to this type of running in a game, and the recovery needed from long runs can detract from other training. Focus on reducing your one mile time, if you really need to work on your stamina.
If you think you need additional running volume, add some intervals after a mile run, or go play if you can. Save your legs for bigger priorities, like sprints/explosive training, intervals/recovery, and technical work.
Bodyweight Resistance Training
Weights have become more prevalent in soccer training over the past couple of decades. And for good reason – a stronger athlete is usually a better athlete. Strength certainly has its advantages for a soccer player too. You don’t want opponents to easily push you off the ball or bully you around.
The reason I mention bodyweight training specifically, is because most soccer players try to hit the weights before they can effectively handle their own bodyweight. When you can master basic strength standards on the common bodyweight exercises, then you can move to weights.
What are these basic standards? See below:
- 10 full range of motion pull-ups
- 30 perfect form, full range of motion push-ups
- 20 Bulgarian split squats (each leg)
- 20 45-degree back extensions
Focus on perfecting your form and moving with slow and controlled motions. Once you hit these basic standards, you can either add weight or move on to more conventional weight training exercises if you feel like additional strength will help (some players bulk up too much and should de-emphasize weights at a certain point, this may or may not apply to you).
Playing
The best way to improve your fitness is by playing the sport. This is not always accessible in the off-season for higher level players (if you can, try to organize small-sided games with other high level players or you might get an unnecessary injury), but if you are a weekend warrior or someone just looking to improve general fitness, try to find a pick up game.
When you play to improve fitness, your goal should be to work 5% harder than you would in a game. Keep this mindset in your pickup games, and this is by far the best way to improve your match fitness.
Example off-season routine
Monday – Sprints / Explosiveness / Lower body resistance training
- Warm-up – agility drills, sprint preparation
- 4 – 10 yd sprints
- 2-3 – 20 yd sprints
- 2-3 – 30 yd sprints
- 2-3 – 40 yd sprints
- Two-leg hops
- One-leg hops
- Two-leg box jumps
- One-leg box jumps
- Bulgarian split squats
- 45-degree hyperextension
Tuesday – Upper body resistance training, technical work
- 2-3 sets of push-ups
- 2-3 sets of pull-ups (if you can’t do these, try inverted bodyweight rows)
- Abs (planks, leg raises, sit-ups)
- Ball work (juggling, tennis ball juggling, partner juggling, kicking against a wall)
Wednesday – Intervals (medium intensity), technical work
- 2 sets of 6-10 100-yd interval runs (cones 25 yards apart, up and back 2 times equals one rep). Aim for 18 seconds of work and 18 seconds of rest (may have to adjust working time and rest time according to fitness level).
- You want to work on recovery. Don’t overdo it for your legs – you want to be somewhat fresh for your sprint session the next day
- Ball work
Thursday – Sprints / Explosiveness / Lower body resistance training
- Same as Monday, add volume if you are still feeling explosive by the end of the workout
Friday – Upper body resistance training, technical work
- Same as Tuesday, add volume/weight if this workout is too easy
Saturday – Mile run, technical work (or pick up game)
- Run one mile as fast as you can or do the 300 yd shuttle run workout, and then get some ball work in afterwards OR
- Find a pickup game and play for an hour (or more if you can tolerate it)
