5 Ways to Mix Up Your Soccer Workout Regimen

If you’re like most, you can’t wait to get back in the game. Let’s just say the 2020 season left a little something to be desired.

However, before you go hard, you need to get yourself back in shape. How can you make your workout fresh and elevate your fitness for the field?

Here are five ways to mix up your soccer workout regimen.

1. Draw Inspiration From Other Sports

If you want to be the best soccer player you can be, ironically, you should try on other sports for size. Cross-training works different muscle groups while hitting frequently used ones from new angles. For example, adding a pair of short-bladed fins to a water workout helps you use water resistance to achieve a better kick and stretch the joint.

Boxing is another excellent cross-training form for soccer players. The unpredictability of a double-end bag and fast rebound of speedbags improve hand-eye coordination, necessary when goalkeeping. Plus, you get to work your upper body, something that soccer players often neglect.

2. Try AMRAP

The idea behind AMRAP workouts is simple — perform As Many Reps As Possible. You’ll work each muscle group to the point of extreme fatigue before moving on to the next. This technique gradually increases strength and aerobic capacity, using nothing more than your body weight.

For example, one of your moves may be to see how many air squats you can perform in 60 seconds. Then, you might switch to pushups to work your upper body. If you keep alternating between upper and lower, you’ll torch serious calories and get some solid cardio.

Pro-tip: This workout style only works if you master perfect form. If you spent most of the lockdown on the couch, consider working with a trainer until you remaster the moves.

3. Incorporate Compound Movements

Compound movements are those that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. An example of such a technique includes adding a military press to your standard squat to hit the upper and lower body in one smooth movement. These workouts offer the advantage of letting you get more done in the gym in a shorter time.

Here’s a quick and dirty compound movement workout you can do in your living room:

●      Lunge with biceps curl: As you step forward into your lunge, perform a biceps curl with appropriate weights.

●      Squat with overhead press: Try to make the move nice and smooth — as soon as you reach standing from your squat, raise your hands overhead.

●      Close-grip pushup with side plank: A close grip works your triceps and your back. If you are feeling super-strong, add a starfish variation to your side plank.

4. Hit the Dance Floor

Maybe your squad turns up their noses at the idea of putting on a tutu, but that shouldn’t keep them from making getting into the groove a fun way to mix up their soccer workout regimen. Even NFL players use classical dance like ballet to improve their on-field performance.

Nearly any dance style will get your heart pumping, but some styles lend themselves to additional benefits. Forms like ballet teach tight control of your muscles that can help you find those openings and dart between them with ease. Breakdancing is a fabulous upper and lower body workout that could teach your players new ways to field high balls without using their hands.

5. Strike a Pose

After spending most of the last season sitting down, you don’t want to waste a second of this year on the bench. How can stretching help?

Stretching is serious TLC when you have adhesions in your fascia, the multi-layered connective tissue that holds all your muscles, bones and organs in place. Although these aren’t dangerous, they can become excruciatingly painful if a nerve fiber gets trapped and repeatedly irritated. Flexibility training eases these knots and provides relief.

A perfect cross-training activity for your rest day could be participating in a yoga class. Some forms, like athletic Ashtanga, are a vigorous workout alone. Many trainers now gravitate toward more gentle styles like yin for injury prevention and pain relief.

Mix Up Your Soccer Workout Regimen With These 5 Exercises

If you want to have the best season ever, you need to mix up your soccer workout regimen. The five cross-training techniques above can get you ready to take the field.

Author Bio:

Oscar Collins is the managing editor at Modded. He writes about cars, fitness, the outdoors and more. Follow @TModded on Twitter for more articles from the Modded team.