Strength training for soccer players

To be the best soccer player, not only do you need to have a ton of sport-specific skills, but you also have to be quick, agile, strong, and able to last 90 or more minutes on the pitch twice a week.

That’s why the professionals that we see on TV playing in the World Cup and in the Champions League don’t rely only on talent or on skill – they know that will leave them on the bench, even if they pose out of worldly talent like Lionel Messi.

If you want to excel at soccer, you need to consistently work on speed, agility, power, and endurance, and all that training requires is a specific workout regime.

In this particular article, we won’t be focusing on anything else but strength training for soccer players – why it’s important and what some of the best exercises to incorporate in a program are.

Why Strength Training is Important for Soccer

Strength training can be divided into three types: concentric, isometric, and eccentric muscle contraction, all of which directly depend on the duration of work (time under tension).

Typically, if the duration of work is up to 30 seconds, that’s a neuro-muscular stimulus (mechanical overload), and the duration of work over 30 seconds is called a hypertrophic stimulus (metabolic overload).

However, when it comes to soccer, strength training can simply be divided into generic and sport-specific. Generic is what you see fitness influencers promoting online – it focuses not on developing particular skills or advancing the way your body moves but more on the way you look and developing specific body components that would make you stereotypically attractive.

Sport-specific strength training targets your movement in a way tailored to the sport you’re playing. Its primary focus is not on making your body look aesthetically pleasing but on making it move in a way that turns you into a better player.

Along with that, its secondary benefit is making you less injury-prone by strengthening the weaker areas in your physique.

That’s what makes it a crucial part of the workout plan of any elite athlete, and that’s why it’s key for aspiring soccer players as well.

What Exercises Should Be Included in a Soccer Strength Training Program

We’ve already mentioned that speed, agility, and endurance are key for soccer players. But strength is a quality that underpins everything – it affects power production and so it’s of vital importance, regardless of what position you play on the field.

Some players make the mistake of overlooking either the upper or lower body, thinking that either they don’t need to develop more power or that they get enough training as it is; however, the reality is that just working on the pitch isn’t enough to make you elite.

When it comes to what exercises are recommended for soccer players, we can divide them into two groups – generic weightlifting exercises and Olympic weightlifting movements.

Generic Weightlifting Exercises

As we mentioned earlier, following a generic weightlifting program is not what you want to do as a soccer player. However, some of the typical strength training exercises are great for sport-specific training as well.

Those include different variations of the deadlift (traditional, trap bar, or RDL), all squat variations, lunges, as well as the classic bench press, pull-up and shoulder press.

All of these movements are staples of strength training, and as a soccer player, you should aim to progress in each one of them as they’re vital for building overall strength and improving body composition.

Olympic Weightlifting Exercises

Olympic weightlifting movements are not something you start doing on your first day at the gym. They require the athlete to have some strength, and they also have to be performed with the right technique; otherwise, they can lead to injuries. With that said, you can think of Olympic weightlifting as full-body strength training.

Both the clean & jerk and the snatch require using the entire strength of your body from the legs to the back and core, and they’re fantastic at helping you build explosive power.

Along with that, by learning how to perform Olympic lifts and progressing in them, you will improve general aspects of your athleticism, including strength, coordination, mobility, and explosiveness, all of which can easily translate to the soccer field, where you’re required to jump, sprint and fight for loose balls.

The important thing to remember here is to make sure you learn the correct technique for each movement before you start to add weight; otherwise, you’re risking damaging your body and getting injured.

In Conclusion

It’s impossible to be an elite athlete in any sport without taking the time to devote yourself to a specific gym program tailored to make you better on the pitch.

When it comes to soccer, the technical skills and the stamina required often make aspiring players believe that strength training is not necessary but just a nice bonus. Hopefully, this article helped you learn that’s not true at all.

Strength is the underlying current on which all great performances are built, and you need it as a soccer player because it will make you faster, more agile, more powerful, and less injury-prone on the pitch.

The other vital piece of advice to remember is that building strength takes time – so don’t go all in expecting to become the Rock in a week; instead focus on progressive overload and proper recovery.