Soccer exercises can help you be a stronger, more agile player at practices and games. You can work on strength training specifically, as U.S. women's team defender Heather Mitts did during her years at the University of Florida. She began working out "with a lot of football guys, doing heavy weights, hang cleans, squats, stuff like that," she told the website Stack. Strength work helped her, despite standing 5 foot 5 inches, to take on bigger players as a defender. As a pro and national team member, she tweaked her focus to exercises to promote the fast-twitch muscles and the speed and the agility. You can follow in her footsteps to with an exercise program that develops your total body.
Core
You may want to start by working your quadriceps, hamstrings and calves, but the real keys to soccer fitness lie in a strong core to anchor your balance and provide support for kicks and jumps. You can perform the multidirectional single-leg hop, which works one leg at a time and is part of the University of the North Carolina's men soccer training program. Hop forward on one leg, landing lightly so that you keep your balance, lowering yourself with control. Hop to your right, hop forward, and hop to your left. Repeat three repetitions for a set and switch legs. Windshield wipers further strengthen the core. Perform these lying on your back on the floor, legs together and pointed straight up. Rotate your hips to lower your legs to your left and right, attempting three sets of 10.
Leg Strength
With your core warmed up, you can try ice skaters, which help your cutting ability and leg and hip strength, notes North Carolina strength coach Greg Gatz. You start in a balanced position and push off with your left leg to hop to your right, extending your right leg and bending down to touch the floor briefly with the opposite hand, in this case the left, keeping your left foot slightly above the floor. As you hop in the other direction, you resemble an ice skater waving arms and legs side to side in a sprint. Look for as much lateral extension as possible, Gatz recommends. Work up to three sets of 10 repetitions.
Shoulder and Back
The shoulder and back may be somewhat underdeveloped in the leg-focused soccer player. Dumbbell high pulls help strengthen this area. You hold pair of dumbbells in front of your quads, arms fully lowered, and jerk them smoothly up to your chin, flying your elbows wide at the apogee of the lift. Extend your ankle, knee and hip forward at the top of the pull. Select a weight that challenges you so that you can complete three sets of five with 60 seconds of rest between each.
Arms
Strong arms help you hold off challenges legally and propel yourself skyward for headers. Central College in Iowa, with two full-time strength coaches to work with its men's and women's soccer teams, recommends barbell rows, performed by lowering your torso and raising a barbell up to your middle abdomen for three sets of 12 to 15 reps. Another option is the dumbbell alternating military press. Support two dumbbells on your shoulder, and press first one and then the other up until you complete the desired number of sets and reps.
References
- Stack: Soccer; Heather Mitts Speed and Strength Training
- Stack: Soccer; UNC Men's Soccer Multi-Directional Single-Leg Hop Exercise
- Stack: Soccer; Lateral Explosion With UNC Men's Soccer
- Stack: Soccer; UNC Men's Soccer Dumbbell High Pulls
- Stack: Soccer; UNC Men's Soccer Windshield Wipers
- Central College: Strength-Training Videos
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