Best Weightlifting Routines for Soccer

They don’t call them “soccer moms” for nothing. Soccer has become one of the most popular team spots and athletic activities among kids and teens today. And if you really want to see them improve their game, and prevent injuries, you should have your teen age soccer players get into a good weightlifting and strength training routine.

Soccer is a sport that uses many muscle groups. It is physically demanding, requiring great stamina and aerobic abilities combined with explosive burst of strength and power for running and kicking. Weight lifting improves all of these areas. Of course soccer require lower body and leg strength for kicking, jumping and running. Upper body strength is needed for shielding the ball and defending against opponents.

Now maximum strength is good for a soccer player, being strong is certainly never going to hurt your game. But maximum strength is not what its all about – just being strong enough to say lift a heavy weight as in weightlifting, doesn’t say anything about your speed –and in soccer speed is as important as strength. So yo must weight train with workouts that are designed to increase your speed as much as your strength.

The best way to train for speed and strength for soccer or really any sport for that mater is to apply a concept that is called plyometrics. Plyometrics basically uses the theory that a muscle that is sufficiently stretched before it is worked out will contract that much faster, faster contractions faster movement – in essence more speed!  But plyometrics work by taking existing strength and converting it into speed and power though more efficient contraction of muscles, so the initial strength must be there first. Therefore, still most soccer coaches sophisticated enough to understand plyometrics and apply the techniques to their players still recommend an effective program of all around strengthening though weightlifting first.

Of course the areas of the body you will want to most strengthen as a soccer player are the legs, hips, thighs, calves, back and glutes. For weightlifters that spells Squats –squats are probably the single most effective weightlifting exercise for building up lower body strength, power and endurance. Leg lifts; leg presses and hamstring curls should also be part of the regular weightlifting routine for any soccer player.

Circuit training is recommended for soccer players this allows them to work many muscle groups in an appropriate order, and even simulates the switching of one muscle group to another, which is often the case during a soccer match.