Due to the fact that top professional footballers are worth so much money to their club and the high wages that they are paid; most of them are banned from undertaking extreme sports.  Clubs are unable to insure their players for such activities due to the fact that the risk of injury is so high.  Yet there has been a move towards using the mountain bike in professional football in recent years.  Here we look at the reasoning behind this move.

Aiding recovery

The mountain bike was first introduced into professional football as a way of aiding injured players in their rehabilitation process.  Whilst clubs didn’t permit their players to take the sport to the extreme and take any risks; they did realise that the activity had some benefits in the recovery process.  The thinking behind this move was that cycling provides the opportunity to build muscle tissue and thus strength in the legs without having to subject the body to impact that jogging involves.  In the past swimming had been the preferred sport for this stage of rehabilitation, but clubs now began using both in unison to build muscle and improve joint movement.

Preventing injuries

The next step of the role of the mountain bike in football was to help prevent players from sustaining injuries in the first place.  Football clubs always worry in the build-up to big games that one of their best players will pick up an injury.  By getting their players to carry out fitness conditioning on bikes rather than through running and jogging clubs remove the risk of impact injuries and twisted joints.  

Enhancing performance

Football clubs then realised that the mountain bike also provided a risk free way of players undertaking short burst exercise that is required for sprinting during matches.  Instead of asking players to undertake sprints and shuttle runs to develop the short burst stamina that is so important to footballers; they began asking for intensive bursts on the mountain bike.  This approach served to further reduce risk of injury whilst allowing the development of all areas of fitness. 

Conditioning plays an increasingly more valuable role in today’s soccer, so if you ever desire to develop into a professional, you should begin working on your fitness and endurance levels from the beginning. Unlike widespread thought, soccer conditioning exercises are not solely short-term, because you cannot forget how to remain healthy like many other areas.

Think about it. If you stay away from sports for some time and put on a few extra pounds, or just lose touch with your conditioning, you will not be able to run to the same degree like you had previously, your muscles will most likely be weaker and you will not experience the same tone.

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But you will not need to begin from scratch again, for the reason that after you have built up your stamina using soccer conditioning workouts already, it will most likely be so much easier to step up and obtain that level of fitness again.

What’s the best way to figure this out? It all depends on your body, but I want to go over what I believe to be two of the top soccer conditioning exercises, no matter what your build or natural fitness.

Unsurpassed Soccer Conditioning Exercises – The Pine Tree Sprints

This soccer conditioning drill is called this since you are making a make believe pine tree on the ground with your sprints. It is one of the greatest, all around exercises you might train with, as it helps with both your burst sprints and your prolonged sprints. Here’s how to get it done:

Place 5 cones on the ground, lined up perpendicularly from wherever you are standing and be sure the distance linking them is the same. So, the initial point might be located at 10 feet, the next at 20, the third at 30, fourth at 40 and fifth at 50. Otherwise you may possibly reduce distance connecting each one a bit.

At this point, remain on the line and leap, bringing your knees to your chest. Then get someone to assign an audio signal (blow a whistle, clap hands, etc) or give yourself the green light and start running toward the number one marker as soon as you reach the field.

Once you touch the initial marker, make a quick break and spin and run back to the opening line. Without hesitation break and spin and run to the next point and back. Perform the same with all markers and once you arrive at the final one, begin coming down again, to the fourth and back, third and back, and so on. This helps your endurance in a lot of great ways- you will be working on acceleration on sprints with the quick runs linking the opening 2 cones, longer sprints while running toward the 4th and 5th cones and you will in addition practice your breaking (mobility).

Greatest Soccer Conditioning Drills – The Full Court

Here is a different important soccer drill with the purpose of working most areas of your conditioning. Here is how it goes:

You begin in any corner of the soccer field, jogging leisurely at a 1/4 pace beside the span. Do that until you reach the opposite corner. At that time speed up the velocity a little on the fringe of the field, running at a 2/4 rhythm. Once you attain the next segment, get ready and run at a 3/4 pace, just about sprinting. The very last border of the field must be run through on complete race hustle. At that moment as you arrive at the original opening corner, come back down to 1/4 again.

You should breathe with control for the period of the 1/4 and 2/4 pace areas, since you will need to conserve your energy meant for the other two sides of the field. Make a bunch of these full court laps and you will quickly see an increase in endurance. If you cannot continue for more than a few of them, do not agonize. Definitely try to slowly but surely raise the amount of laps each time you workout.