If you are serious about playing soccer, then you'll want to get serious about training. This means training specific types of muscular strength and cardiovascular energy systems, and training them during specific times of the year. To maximize your fitness, set up a training plan based on the concept of periodization, which consists of four training "seasons." These are the pre-season, pre-competitive season, in-season and off-season.
Muscle Building
During your pre-season, which will end about a month before your first game, work on building muscle strength. This is the time to do limit strength exercises in which you lift your maximum weight, performing three to six repetitions per set. The objective is to build muscle. Use heavy free weights and exercise machines. Work on such specific muscles as the calves, quadriceps, hips and core area.
Muscle Training
The pre-competitive season is within a month of your first game. Prepare for specific purposes the muscles that you've been building. Train muscular endurance by doing more repetitions of lighter weights, 50 percent or less of your maximum. Muscular endurance is your ability to use muscles over a period of time, such as a long soccer game, rather than one maximal lift. Use dumbbells, resistance bands or such body weight exercises as lunges and squats.
Train explosive strength in your muscles by using powerful movements in one direction, including box squats, box jumps and dead lifts, using lighter weights or no weights. These can be done during the pre-competitive season and during the season. Train reactive or plyometric strength with quick movements that require a combination of up-and-down movement in your legs. Practice high-knee skipping, giant steps across the width of a gym or field, ankle jumps and other quick up-and-down movements during the pre-competitive season and during the season.
Aerobic Training
You want a combination of aerobic and anaerobic cardiovascular strength for soccer, because of the many bursts of high-intensity moves you'll need to make, the need to be able to recover from them and the high heart rate you'll have throughout the game. Perform aerobic exercise during the pre-season because this uses more low-twitch or slow, muscle fibers, not the high-twitch fibers you will use during quick bursts of speed. Jogging, cycling, swimming, jumping rope, or using such exercise machines as a treadmill, exercise bike, and elliptical or rowing machine provide an aerobic workout.
Anaerobic Training
Once you have an aerobic base, maintain it with sprint training, according research cited by Dr. Jeff Chandler and others in, "The Effect of Sprint and Endurance Supplemental Training on Aerobic and Anaerobic Measures of Fitness." Sprint training helps improve your ability to recover after high-intensity work, such as a sprint down the field. This type of anaerobic exercise is done at 80 to 90 percent of your maximum heart for short periods of time. Start with 30 seconds of high-intensity sprinting, then recover for 90 seconds before you begin the next set. After you build up your stamina, exercise for 60 to 90 seconds with two minutes or more of rest. This type of training should be done in the pre-competitive season and throughout your season.
Active Rest
Soon after your season ends, cross train with other sports that require the same speed, quickness and agility you use in soccer. This includes such sports as tennis and basketball. Cycling and volleyball can also work your legs, with cycling used for aerobic work and volleyball working your anaerobic energy systems. Your off season lasts until your pre-season work begins.
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