Football Specific Exercises

I contribute a fair bit the bigfooty.com forum in the health and fitness area where today a post went up in regards to footy specific so I thought I'd have a go at what my list would consist of.

There's general strength and there's specific strength and for the most part, you'll need general strength before specific strength but the exercises can overlap which you'll soon see.

Kicking

Exercise - Hip Mobility, especially hip extension

Why - Kicking relies mostly on your hip range of motion for 2 reasons. The first one is if you have full hip extension range of motion then it tells me that you have working glutes and adequate joint integrity of all the various muscles that pass through the hip. The second one is that a tight joint is usually a weak joint so if you have good hip mobility, then your strength potential will be greater.

What To Do - Of course you'll need to do some hip flexor stretching but here's a little secret way to do it. In front of a mirror do a hip flexor stretch and note the angle of your thigh in relation to the floor. Next just take a little 'off" the stretch and with the arm of the leg that is in front, perform 5 very slow circles with your arm locked out in each direction then retest and now look at the angle of your thigh which should have decreased (closer to the ground).

Marking

Exercise - Thoracic Spine Extension

Why - If you can think back to the turn of the century there was a bloke called Wayne Carey running around who won games off his own boots and brought a team from close to extinction to perennial finals contenders.   In some circles he is regarded as the greatest player ever and for half of his career he couldn't even really lift his arms above his head. For us mere mortals we need to be able to reach up as high as we can to take contested marks and if you're lacking thoracic spine mobility, especially in extension, then this will not be possible.

What To Do - thoracic spine extensions is easily the best option here placing them in your warm up on each training day and also just do them on your off days.

Sprinting

Exercise - Resisted Sprinting

Why - Most players are tight in the wrong area's and weak in the wrong area's which can make sprinting technique and mechanics sub optimal. Resisted sprinting with a sled, prowler or even hill runs actually trains the muscles responsible for sprinting during the actual sprinting action. You can't get more specific then that.

What To Do - If you have a sled or prowler then attach it to your good self and sprint with it. If not, then the old school hill runs will work just as well. Only perform the sled and prowler sprints x 20 meters maximum as you basically want to improve your hip extension range of motion during acceleration.

Jumping

Exercise - Squats

Why - Squats simulate jumping although it's not quite as specific as resisted sprinting for sprinting speed. For someone that can squat 100kgs, they'll have 100kgs in reserve to jump with during game time so if you can get this to at least 1.5 x your own bodyweight then you should be on your way. Yes plyometrics might be better, but without strength, plyometrics are mostly wasted as you simply won't possess the engine room to optimally benefit from them.

What To Do - Squat in the 1 - 5 rep range bracket @ 80 - 95% intensity and do so with as much explosive intent as you can, even if the actual effort doesn't look explosive.

Tackling

Exercise - Full Contact Twist / Cable Push Pulls

Why - If you can absorb and resist forces when you tackle, they will stick. When you can't do that then the player with the ball will be able to fend you off or simply run through you as your stability is lost once they run into you or you run into them. There are also times when you will be tackled by 2 or more opponents from different angles so you need to absorb multiple forces from anywhere, anytime.

What To Do - For the full contact twists progress from a standing position using the anti rotation principle and progress to using some hip rotation where you start to produce some strong rotational forces once you can stabilise them. For the cable push pulls progress from the standing and push pull action to anchoring a band to something heavy and then wrapping the band around your waist.

Standing Up in Tackles

Why - Easy, once your on the ground you're useless.

What To Do - Deadlift in the 1 - 5 rep range bracket at 80 - 95% intensity and do so with as much explosive intent as you can, even if it doesn't look intensive.

Force Absorption

Why - The more force you can absorb and transfer through the body, the greater output you'll have the potential to produce. The greatest jumpers and sprinters can exert ridiculous amounts of force into the ground with each step and planting action, and coupled with their equally ridiculous force output abilities, result in Usain Bolt like sprint times and Lebron James like leaps. Think of a rubber band, the further you pull it back, the further it goes upon release.

What To Do - Swings with either a dumbbell or kettelbell progressing to assisted eccentric swings where a partner pushes down on the weight at the top just before going into the eccentric contraction.

Prehab

Exercise - Single Leg Variations

Why - Soft tissue injuries are a result of the overuse of secondary muscles for under performing prime movers. Single leg exercises trains all of the leg muscles from toe to hip as now your base of support is smaller and more stabilising muscles are required, a ,ot more then a squat. Also if you can't get to at least parallel during a squat for whatever reason, then single leg exercises should be your go to exercise for legs along with deadlifts.

What To Do - Step Ups, Reverse Lunges, Split Squats, Walking Luinges, Dynamic Lunges, Bulgarian Split Squats, Single Leg Deadlifts and Single Leg Romanian Deadlifts in the 5 - 8 rep range bracket as heavy as you can.