Hi, I’m new to this forum. Have used a couple of other training forums in the past but always looked over stuff on here. I have been training for various goals for about 5 years and now looking to get the most out of my training whilst also training and playing soccer.
The last year or two I think I was over doing it and had lots of small injuries but I was also working nights.
Currently my sleep and work patter is incredible. Sleep 11pm - 7:30am
Train at 2pm finish work 5:30pm.
As it’s pre season my soccer schedule is:
Conditioning Tuesday evening (always field based)
Drills and game scenario Thursday evening
Friendly matches on Saturdays
My current training is strength based, Upper lower split Monday Tuesday, Thursday Friday, so leaves me two full rest days on Wednesday and sundays.
My workouts:
Lower
Squats (3x3-5)
Leg press or split squat (3x8-10)
SLDL (3x6-8)
Hamstring bridges (3x12-15)
Standing calf raise (3x8-12)
Core work
Upper
Flat bench 3x3-5
OHP 3x6-8
Pull ups 3x6-8
BOR 3x8-10
EZ Bar curl 3x8-10
Tricep ropes 3x10-12
What does everyone think? Anything I’m missing or doing incorrectly?
I’ll let someone more experienced give you specific feedback but I think it looks like a pretty cool program. Maybe try to get a little push-pull sequence going in the workout, particularly on upper body day. Not sure if it would work on lower body day, but for an ‘upper’ session, you could do:
Bench 3x3-5
Bent Over Row 3x8-10
OHP 3x6-8
Pull-ups 3x6-8
EZ bar curl 3x8-10
Tricep ropes 3x8-10 (could do the arm work as a superset)
Of course I suppose you could directly superset everything if you wanted.
If possible, swap these for seated calf raises. The soleus is a key stabiliser of the knee and force contributor in max velocity sprinting. The gastrocs are less important.
You’re doing conditioning one day, drills another, matches Saturday - I would do a 3-day-a-week program, MWF. Upper lower upper one week, lower upper lower the next.
Agreed, but:
It’s preseason
They’re “friendly” matches
He’s already doing a lower day every Friday
But yes, no need to go ham the day before a game. He could also do a 3 day full body template and just nix leg work beyond light stuff and mobility work before games.
Apologies I put upper lower, but I do lower upper so lower Monday and Thursday.
Once the season starts and match intensity is higher I may have to change this and a three day template may be a good idea.
The Tuesday conditioning is not down to my choice annoyingly but it could range from a 60 minute flat run to a low volume high intensity 30 yard sprint session.
One weakness of mine is upper body strength (&size), I’m hoping to try fix this with my programming
Good shout for the seated calf raise. The new gym I’m at doesn’t have a seated calf raise machine and I’ve never really performed them with plates - any suggestions?
It’s important you’re getting exposure to maximum-velocity sprinting 1-2x per week to mitigate hamstring strain risk. What I would do is cut the volume (down from 3 sets to 1-2 sets) on your second lower body day and add in ~90-120m total volume of high velocity sprinting. For example:
4 x 10m, push-up start, rest 1 min between efforts
2 x 30m acceleration + 10m maintain , rest 4 min between efforts
If you haven’t been doing much sprinting, work up to to the 30+10 but first doing a 15+25, then a 20+20, then finally the 30+10.
I recommend warming up for sprints with 2 rounds of:
10m bear crawl, walk back
10m A-March walk back
10m A-Run walk back
10m pogo, walk back
Followed by 1-2 x 20m of bounding
Videos of all those drills are available on YouTube
In terms of the sprint work, I’d say at least 1 in 3 Tuesday conditioning sessions would look like this but I’m trying to argue a point that all of ours should look like this with a focus on speed, power and technique or repeated sprint ability
I would be performing sprint actions regularly in the Thursday session as it’s game based drills but it’s not a sprint specific session if that makes sense.
Our season officially kicks off on 12th september, after this training moves to a Wednesday and we drop the conditioning session. This is when I might add in a sprint based session on an evening
As the season starts (12th October) I’m debating moving towards a hypertrophy phase for upper body, I will still want to hit some strength for example low rep bench and pull ups but I do feel aesthetically my lower body is more desirable than upper.
How would people recommend moving towards this? Bear in mind I will loose the Tuesday conditioning session and Thursday practise will move to Wednesday evening
Thanks, I will check out your post now! I play right back/ right wing, so sprint speed plus repeated sprint ability would be ideal. Just not keen on 3 days per week
I’d absolutely do not overdo the strength workouts. 4 workouts per week are too much and on the middle run you’ll get fatigued or injured. My best advice; cut training to 3 or (better) 2 times per week. If you have 5/3/1 forever you can choose a low volume 3 day template (1000% awesome is the best, my 2 cents), or, you can go the the main site and take a look to Wendler’s rest pause challenge, which is 2 workouts per week. Last, you can choose any program you want, but slow down training; if you choose a 5 day program, you can do the first 3 workouts on a week and last 2 on next week. I repeat; do not overdo your strength workouts, soccer training is very taxing especially on lower body. Sorry for my bad English but I’m in my bed after a tough work day.
