Football Strength Training

The spotter problem is something I have been wondering about myself. How safe is it to lift heavy weights without a spotter?

 

It is nice if you have a spotter, but if you are going to lift heavy weights by yourself, I would recommend you use a rack with pins you can let go, if absolutely necessary.

 

To be honest, the best time ive ever spent in inury prevention was a Pilates class. No BS, that thing just works. Works your core, stability and flexibility. Extremely effective full body workout.

 

Think people should stop worrying about 'lifting heavy weight'.

Just do the basics and improve your footballing ability. All these kids coming through and making it professional aren't in the gym all day lifting massive amounts of weight.

In fact, the vast majority of their gym work is basic strength training, followed by core work and maybe using a little bit of free weights to improve their muscular endurance.

 

First and foremost, the goal should be to keep injury free.

IF you are extremely serious about your football, have a session with a physio and tell them what you want to improve, and they can give you advice.

Otherwise, have a look at FourFourTwo's performance section: http://performance.fourfourtwo.com/fitness

 

It certainly doesn't hurt to get a little bigger though.

 

Sure. But you don't need to lift huge weights, especially at a young age, to get bigger.

 

For squats, use a smith machine and you don't need a spotter. I use dumbells for bench so that also eliminates the need for a spotter.

 

Oh yes it does. "Bigger" is not stronger. Appearance and strength are two different things. "Bigger," as in more mass, has performance costs and no benefits.

Any type of training will help novice athletes increase performance, but the more advanced the athlete the more an individual assessment and training plan is needed to have a significant performance gain.

 

You should be lifting under supervision of a knowledgeable person.
The danger is not in the amount of weight--the risk is fatigue or injury when the weights are above you. A young person even in their early 20's can pull their back during a routine lift. No matter how strong or experienced you are, there is always risk in lifting to exhaustion.

 

Bigger, to a point, is better much of the time. Of course it can't make up for technical ability or soccer IQ but more mass is usually a good thing (again...within reason).;

 

This was what I meant. It doesn't hurt to put on some mass if you are constantly being pushed off the ball, or if you could benefit from putting on a few more pounds. And when I said bigger I didn't mean go put on a couple pounds of fat.

 

Appearance means nothing. More mass is a disadvantage. If you have more mass, it takes more energy to make the same movements. It also takes more power to make the same movements at the same rate.

In American football and hockey more mass helps, because when you hit another player, more mass means you hit with more energy. But you are not allowed to hit players in soccer.

 

In that case being as skinny as possible would be a huge advantage, which is not true. Bigger muscles (up to a point) can benefit you in ways such as increasing your speed or helping your stability.

 

You're forgetting one very major aspect: we are talking about working muscle, not dead weight. That mass isn't just something extra you have to carry around. It also helps you move and move more explosively. Secondly, soccer is absolutely a contact sport and if you've been playing it other wise you've been playing it wrong. Winning balls in the air, fighting for position on set pieces, holding opposing players off the ball, winning the ball off block tackles...strength and mass most definitely matter in those situations.