Throughout an entire soccer game, you need to have the ability to quickly accelerate, stop, walk, jog, then quickly accelerate again. Training for this type of action is called sport specificity. Simply put, you mirror your training after the exact actions you perform in a game. Interval training is the perfect exercise method to get you in shape for these imposed demands.
Warming Up
During interval training workouts, you activate a high amount of muscles and joints throughout the entire body. Going right into a session without first warming up will put you at risk for a muscle injury. A thorough warmup that includes light jogging and dynamic stretches will help you avoid this. Dynamic stretches move your body through a steady range of motion instead of being held, and they acclimate your body to the movements you experience during a game. Before your workouts, perform stretches such as alternating toe touches, walking lunges, ankle bounces, arm swings, shoulder rotations and leg swings.
Starting Your Intervals
After doing a warmup jog and dynamic stretches, you are ready to start your workouts. You do not want to just start sprinting as fast as you can. This will be too much of a shock to the system. Instead, jog for 10 minutes and gradually increase your speed to get your core body temperature and heart rate up. If you are running on a treadmill, you can easily monitor and adjust your speed with the aid of the console controls.
High Intensity Bouts
The goal with interval training is to alternate back and forth between bouts of high and low intensity. Since you are trying to get into shape, your best bet is to keep the length of your high intensity bouts minimal when just starting. As you get into better shape, gradually increase your sprint times and workout time. However long you choose to do your intervals, follow a 1-to-2 ratio of work to rest. For example, if you start out doing 10-second sprints, jog lightly for 20 seconds.
Amount of Work
A professional soccer game has two 45-minutes halves. Your goal with interval training is to gradually build up to this amount of time, if not surpass it. When you are just getting into shape, there is no way you can go 45 minutes straight due to the intense nature of this exercise. After doing your warmup, aim for 20 minutes of training and increase your time by three to five minutes each week. This will slowly and progressively get you into better shape.
Instead of exercising every day, train three days a week on nonconsecutive days. Doing intervals every day will place too much stress on your body. Fill in your off days with low intensity, long duration running or weight training.
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