Getting Stronger for Soccer

Back when I was in high school and playing soccer any resistance training was looked upon with a lot of prejudice:

-“Weight training will make you muscle bound, slow and will decrease your flexibility”.

This is what I used to hear all the time. I was a “late bloomer” so I was smaller than the other players in my league. Some of them were pretty strong and big already. I mean, adult big. Playing as a striker was getting much harder for me because, in spite of having good foot skills, I was being pushed off the ball.

I used to do martial arts a couple of times a week and they too were against weight training. Lucky for me, I had a brother who was a few years older, also played soccer and who lifted weights for conditioning. He suggested that I started doing some push-ups 3 times a week. I was about 15 then. On the field I started to feel that I wasn’t being pushed off the ball anymore. I gained a few pounds in my upper body and that made me decide to do something more structured on my own.

Without anyone knowing I bought used set of dumbbells and barbell with just about 50 pounds of weight. I started doing some chest presses, curls and pull-ups. I always had a strong core from the martial arts training so I decided not to overdo those. I kept my workouts to 30 minutes and no more than 3 times a week depending on how busy my week was.

Obviously I got stronger and that helped me immensely in soccer. It’s like I got new game all of a sudden. I also notice that I stopped getting injured because the stronger muscles were helping me.

Nowadays, if you watch professional soccer it’s clear that every played works out to get stronger on the field. Skills alone aren’t enough. Some players are huge, fast, flexible AND skilled. Compare pictures of stars from the past with current stars from the 60s and 70s. The stars of today are much fitter, leaner and much, much more muscular.

So what I suggest is that if you are feeling that you aren’t strong enough on the field, you should probably work on overall strength. Remember, don’t overdo it. Over-training is one of the worse things you can do and in training, many times MORE=LESS. If you are feeling too tired to play what’s the point? Listen to your body and get proper rest.

There are many magazines/books you can get at your public library that will assist you with putting a strength training program together.