Football is a demanding sport that requires endurance, power and agility.

Ideally a conditioning or fitness program (“programme” is the correct UK spelling by the way), should be periodised and the volume and intensity should be significantly different during the off or pre season compared to during the football season.

Each exercise program should be specific to a position and player. A midfielder for example, needs more endurance than a goalkeeper.

The program shown here, will be a general fitness program. It can be adapted to suit your own schedule, as well as strengths and weaknesses.

• You should look to build a “base of fitness” – with longer, slower distance runs to build your VO2Max in the off-season before doing specific sprinting exercises etc.

Warm Up

Always warm up – fore example, do 5-10 minutes of steady state cardio and some dynamic stretches.

Cool down afterwards with a light jog or walk and more stretches, including static stretches.

Tabata Intervals

One of the quickest and most effective ways to increase your overall football fitness, is to include several Tabata intervals into your weekly routine.

Tabata intervals can be done as sprints, or on an exercise bike (preferably an air bike).

Exercise	Time	Rest	Sets
Sprints 100% effort	20	10	8
Rest for 2 minutes and repeat

Gym Workouts

Day 1

Exercise	Reps	Sets
Barbell Bench Press*	10-15	2
Plyometric Press Ups	6	3
Medicine Ball Overhead Throws	6	3
Medicine Ball Slams	6	2
Chin Ups	10 (or max)	2
Multi-directional Lunges	12 (total)	2
Rotating Plyo Jumps	6	2
Band resisted backwards walks	20m	3

*If you have any shoulder issues, consider replacing the standard barbell bench press with a floor press either with a barbell, dumbbell or kettlebell.

Day 3

Exercise	Reps	Sets
Barbell Front Squat	8	4
Depth Jumps	6	2
Barbell Glute Bridges	8	2
One arm Row	10 per arm	2
Cable wood chops	10 per side	2
Hanging Leg Raises	Max	2
Plank hold	1 minute
Tib Raises	10	2
Band Assisted Lunges*	10 (total)	2
Band resisted sideways walks	15 seconds each direction	3

Day 5

Exercise	Reps	Sets
Hex Bar Jumps	6	3
Pallof Press	6	3
High Pulls	6	3
Medicine Ball Slams	12	2
Medicine Ball Oblique throws	8 a side	2
Lateral Bounds – Speed Skaters	6 a side	2
Crunches	Max	2
Nordic Hamstring Curls	Max	2
Single leg calf raises	12	2
Dorsal raises	12	2
Cable hip flexion**	10 per leg	2

Download the pdf here:

Click to access football-fitness-programme.pdf

*Band assisted lunges – these are great for improving your ability to decelerate and change direction. You will want to anchor the resistance band in front of you and the band should pull you forwards. You then need to control the descent and power back up to the starting position.

Tib raises also help with decleratoin and protect your knees.

** resisted hip flexion – done at speed, is great for running. You can do this with an ankle weight or foot in a kettlebell handle (at your own risk though!).

Tib Raises:

Backwards Walks

Football Pitch/Field Based Fitness Training

Equipment required:

Cones, speed ladder, small speed hurdles, resistance band

Perform the exercises in a circuit with 30 seconds to 1 minute of rest in between each station

Perform each exercise for 1 minute.

1. 20m backward sprint, turn and spring 10m forwards
2. Lunges
3. Zig zag sprints in between cones
4. 10m sprint and 3 jumps over speed hurdles
5. Press ups
6. Speed skaters*
7. Vertical jumps
8. Resistance band push-press**
9. Hindu squats
10. Bear crawls

This circuit will create a lot of lactic acid and muscle soreness the first time you do it. If you are doing the circuit for the first time, repeat the circuit once. Repeat up to 3 times when your fitness builds up.

*Speed Skaters

**Resistance Band Push Press

Bear Crawls

Some more ideas about fitness training for football here:

Remember, the best way to get fit for football, is to play football! Small sided games for example, are a great way to develop speed and football-specific fitness.