Fitness
These fitness tips will turn you into a 5-a-side legend
Nobody wants to be wheezing around a compact football pitch on a cold Tuesday night. Become the mercurial talent of your team by building up your fitness.
Have you ever turned up to a 5-a-side match thinking you're in pretty good condition and then five minutes later you're calling for a doctor through fear of going into cardiac arrest. Us neither, honestly.
If you are unfortunate enough to be in that boat, then you'll know that 5-a-side football is a whole different ball game when it comes to fitness, and doing a few miles around the local park just won't cut it if you want to be competitive. So, what can you do?
Here are eight tips to getting 5-a-side fit, and how including other sports in your training can help you prepare.
1. Get to the ball faster
With smaller pitches than 11-a-side, having an explosive 10-yard sprint speed is vital for a good player. As everything happens so quickly, not being able to get to the ball first can be the difference between scoring at one end or conceding at the other.
One of the most effective ways to improve this is through interval training. Get on a treadmill, or if you're lucky enough to have access to one, a Woodway Curve and repeat 10 sets of 30 seconds of flat-out sprinting followed by 30 seconds of complete rest. This will give you an engine that can run fast all day. Alternatively, if you find yourself on a roomy treadmill and want to mix it up a bit, you and a friend could do worse than replicate the video above.
2. Fend off other players with your upper body strength
As you see with giants like Paul Pogba, being able to brush off players on the other team with superior strength is not only fun, it also gives you more time to show off your silky ball skills. So there’s no reason you can’t add a little bulk to your game. Weightlifting with big compound movements such as deadlifts, bench press and shoulder press will give you unrivalled back, chest and shoulder power that will mean no one can get close to you.
Drill: EMOM (every minute on the minute) for 18 minutes:
- 1st min 5 x dead lifts (75-85% Max).
- 2nd min. 5xdumbbell Floor Press (75-85% Max).
- 3rd min. 5xpush Press (75-85% Max).
- Repeat cycle until the end.
3. Weightlift to build legs like tree trunks
Although some may turn away at this point, weights are a fantastic way to increase fitness and functionality and could probably be the answer to all 5-a-side worries. However, the leg power, mobility and most importantly functional strength gained from just a couple of months of training can really change your lower body to become a strong and mobile unit, fighting fit for anything you throw at it.
Drill: AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 15 minutes:
- 15 KB goblet squats (12/20kg).
- 20 front rack KB Lunges (2x12/20kg).
- 15 calories on the assault bike.
4. Be agile on and off the ball
Let's be honest, no matter what type of footballer you are, inevitably you'll come across a player who can turn faster than you, bounce back up off the floor better than you and hang in the air longer than you. Get closer to them with a series of multi-directional HIIT training drills, including skipping for explosive calf strength, burpees over a box to learn how to get off the floor quickly and lateral movements such as Cossack squats to teach your body to move well in all directions.
Drill: Strength – 5 sets of 6 cossack squats each side (focus on depth of movement).
Then, 2xTABATA (20 seconds work: 10 seconds rest x8 rounds) alternating between jump rope and burpees over box.
5. Keep onto the ball with a solid core
Not all of us are blessed with a 5ft 5" frame with an extremely low centre of gravity, so increasing your core strength is vital for emulating the skill of evading tackles and wriggling out of tight spaces for those of us less vertically-challenged. Avoid the standard sit-ups and crunches – as challenges will rarely come at you head-on in that plane of motion – and instead test yourself on unstable surfaces such as a Bosu-Ball and TRX, which will recruit stabilising muscles you didn't even know you had.
Drill: TRX core circuit (4 sets, 12 reps):
- A. TRX Pike.
- B. TRX Oblique crunches.
- C. TRX Side Plank Rotations.
6. Power up your shots at goal
With the goalposts in 5-a-side more than half the size of regulations frames, accuracy is not so much required as power. Building explosive power in those legs will not only help with sprint speed, but also give you the edge when it comes to breaking the back of the net, too. In addition to the strength work carried out in your other sessions, make sure to include lots of plyometric exercises such as box jumps, weighted plyo squats and burpee tuck jumps (if you dare) and take advantage of what's known as the 'stretch-shortening cycle' to increase your explosiveness twofold.
Drill: 5 rounds for time (as fast as you can):
A. 50m sled push.
B. 20 battle rope high slams.
C. 15 dumbbell jump squats.
D. 10 burpee tuck jumps.
7. Allow your body to recover
What's the first thing 5-a-side players think about post-match? Beer. It goes without saying that this is less than ideal, so shifting your focus directly after the game to recovery through things such as foam rolling, stretching or simply eating well can give you long lasting results and keep you in peak condition. Instead of waking up the following day in a crumpled heap, stretching for 10 minutes will allow you to reduce DOMS (delayed onset muscular soreness) and even mean you can sneak in another session at the gym if you're feeling up for it.
Drill: Foam roll quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes for 10-15 minutes.