This sport has one of the highest fan bases on earth. It has a way of bringing people from different backgrounds together on different occasions to share beautiful and emotional experiences while watching the game. With that being said, a lot of people do not know how much hard work these players put in on a daily to stay fit and able to play. They are always on a soccer workouts program on and offseason, and don’t even get us started with their diet plan. Their aim is to keep improving, or at least maintain a certain level of agility, speed, stamina, explosiveness, and strength to go power through a game effectively.

If you are a professional or non-professional player, you’re going to have to keep up specific soccer workout both in the field and in the gym. There are even some moves you can perform at home if you don’t want to go out, and we’re going to show you some of them.

Top Soccer Workouts Plans

Soccer Stair Scoop

With this move, the aim is to strengthen your core which helps to improve your agility and balance while playing soccer.

How to:

• Begin by sitting on the top of a staircase, letting your feet dangle. Rest your hands behind you, and lean slightly backward. Lift your knees to your chest.
• Next, slowly straighten your knees and move your legs downward in a scooping motion.
• With your legs fully extended, pull your knees back to your chest. Repeat the full motion over several reps.
• To increase the resistance, place a small weight between your feet and perform the exercise.

Do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps of this move. Increase the number of sets and reps with time to improve the benefits.

Sprints

Every soccer workout plan requires that you keep improving your explosive speed with exercises like sprinting. It is a fundamental skill that supports how you play the game.

How to:

• Hold your torso straight and vertical.
• Hold your head still, but relax your face and neck.
• Bend your elbows at 90 degrees.
• Pretend you are lightly gripping a small bird in each hand.
• Pump your arms so your hands travel from “hip to lip”, and keep your arms close to your sides.
• As you pump your arms, keep your shoulders steady but relaxed.
• With each stride, lift your front knee high (“knee drive”) and straighten your back leg completely to deliver full power.
• At the start of your sprint, keep your strides short and quick. Lengthen your strides as you gain speed and momentum.

These are the basic elements of correct sprinting in every soccer players workout, simple enough to get even newbies started on the trail.

Agility Ladder

This move gives a combined benefit of speed and coordination, something you’ll need to do well in the field. You’re going to need an agility ladder to perform this move.

How to:

• Lay down your ladder on the floor
• Jog with single foot in each square
• Jog with two feet in each square

These moves can serve as your warm-up moves for your soccer workout plans, after which you can get on with more complex ones like the following.

• Lateral stepping with two feet in each square
• Jumping jack feet with two feet jump together in a square, then jump out while moving down the ladder
• In in out out
• Lateral carioca

Grapevine as you move across the ladder; do each side and lead with right then left:

• Cross-overs with one foot crossing front and stepping in square; two feet step to the side and then keep repeating, keeping one foot in the square, two feet on the side
• Icky shuffle – two feet step in a square; one foot to the outside
• Single foot hops. Start with the right, then the left
• Side shuffle – Inside foot moves in and out of each box while the outside foot is keeping pace with an alternate step
• Walking push-ups – In each square as you move laterally down the ladder

There are a whole lot of variations to this move that would make you burn a lot of calories and build your legs muscles too. Professionals like working it into their soccer player workouts, even if they have to cut out other moves.

Gym Workouts

You also need to hit the gym, not necessarily to bulk up (as is the case with a lot of people in the gym), but to improve your fitness and relevance to the game. Some soccer gym workout moves to get you through include:

• Dumbbell bench step-up
• Weighted sled drags
• HIIT on the treadmill
• Burpee pull-ups

Other Soccer Tips to Help You Get Better

Again, playing soccer beautifully well is a lot of har work. You have to take up a serious routine with a lot more moves than what we have on this piece. Plus, you need to be on a nutritional plan to support your soccer workout program. Aside from all that, here are a few tips that can help you get ahead in this game.

1. A strong mindset with qualities like coachability, self-motivation, compassion, mental strength, etc.
2. Grounded in techniques like dribbling, ball control, body control, passing accuracy, etc.
3. Spatial awareness – ability to see the entire pitch at every point in time from anywhere on the field.
4. Game intelligence – your ability to make smart decisions on the pitch
5. Tactical knowledge – knowing the structure and nature of the game