Recently, I started watching soccer and honestly, it is such a beautiful game. One thing I’ve learned is that soccer actually demands more than just skillful footwork and strategic play. To truly excel on the field, you need to embrace high-intensity soccer workouts to elevate your physical attributes.
These workouts help you in so many ways. Not only does it improve your cardiovascular fitness, but it also enhances agility, speed, endurance, and stamina.
The three elements of success in football are agility, speed, and endurance. In the background, dominant players focus on soccer drills that improve their sprint performance and quick direction changes.
In this article, I’ll share a comprehensive list of high-intensity soccer workouts for your legs, strength, speed, and agility.
10 Soccer workouts for strength
These are 10 of my best strength training and weight lifting soccer workouts.
1. Goblet Squats
This lower body workout will strengthen your lower body and help you work your hamstrings, quadriceps, glutes, and core. It also lessens the strain on your back and spine.
How do I do this?
You will perform 2 sets of 10 squats for this exercise. To begin, hold a kettlebell or dumbbell up in the middle of your chest, under your chin, with your feet shoulder-length apart. Squat down while maintaining a straight back.
2. Deadlift
This is the first exercise you should add to your soccer routine for strength training. It strengthens your muscles and produces more energy and stamina in your body.
A well-executed deadlift is truly a full-body exercise that works the muscles throughout the entire body.
How do I do this?
Once you pick up the weights, use your heels to pick them up. While doing so, rise from the downward position and push your hips forward.
Repeat this movement once more. Stand with your knees and shoulders apart at the same level. Bend down and lower your hips. Keep your chest and head up.
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3. Bench Press
How do I do this?
With the bar resting on the rack above your eyes, lie down on the flat bench. Using both hands, grab the bar firmly and with straight wrists.
Unrack the bar straight up and move it over your shoulders. Lower the bar to your chest, maintaining the vertical position of your forearms.
Press up and raise the bar straight up into the air, locking your elbows at the top of the movement.
The bench press strengthens your triceps and helps build chest muscles.
4. Dumbbell Lateral Lunges
The exercise helps your core, lower back, and obliques.
How do I do this?
Begin by spreading your legs wide, about shoulder-width apart. Grasping a dumbbell (5–15 pounds) in each hand, lunge to one side, lowering the dumbbells toward the ground as you go. Once at that point, forcefully push off the leg and return to the starting position.
5. Push-ups
The pushups are a great way of pumping up your chest, abs, biceps, and triceps as well.
How do I do this?
Maintain a straight posture while lying on the ground, place both hands beside each other to support your weight, and raise and lower your chest.
6. One-Arm Dumbbell Rows
It targets your lats, traps, and biceps in addition to your mid-back muscles.
How do I do this?
Dumbbells should be placed on the floor on either side of you while using a flat bench.
You should make sure your upper body is parallel to the floor by leaning forward with your right arm, which should be at the front of the bench, and placing your right leg on the end of the bench.
With your left hand, pick up the dumbbell from the floor. At the top of the lift, pause and make sure to contract your back muscles to maximize muscle growth at the end of the range of motion.
7. Jump rope
Jumping rope is the best approach to improving your rapid reflexes. All you need is the proper jumping ropes; practice this till you are unable to do any more. Jumping rope helps you build your speed and stamina.
8. Planks
These are similar to pushups but do not have to move up and down. Instead, you have to tighten your abs and support your body weight on both of your arms.
9.Turkish Get-Ups
It improves core strength, lower body stability, and shoulder mobility, all of which benefit your speed, agility, and power.
How do I do this?
Start by lying on your back on the ground, your left leg extended straight out, your right knee bent, and your foot flat on the floor. Grab a dumbbell or kettlebell.
While holding the dumbbell or kettlebell in your right hand, stretch your left arm to your side at a diagonal angle, placing your palm down on the ground.
Press the weight straight up, just above your shoulder, as you extend your right arm.
Subsequently, elevate your hips, bend your left knee, and extend your leg backward, placing the knee on the ground beneath your hip.
With your foot flat on the floor and your right knee still bent and out in front of you, you should now rise up. Reverse the motions and return to the beginning position. Next, raise your upper body into a lunge stance.
Do 2-3 sets of 10 reps on each arm.
10. Kettlebell Swings
Kettlebell swings work out a range of areas, including your core, hips, glutes, shoulders, hamstrings, and muscles in your back.
How do I do this?
Start with the kettlebell on the floor between your feet, which should be about shoulder-width apart.
Keep your back flat and bend your knees to form a squat-like position.
Grasp the kettlebell with both hands, then swing it between your legs to eye level by using your glutes and legs to explosively extend your hips.
Repeat consistently for 10 to 15 swings, making sure to use your knees and hips to power the movement—this is not a shoulder exercise.
To begin, use 20–25 pounds.
Soccer Workouts for Speed
The most crucial physical attribute for a football player is speed, and if you look closely, you will see that most of the top players in the league, like Messi and Halland, are also exceptional sprinters.
Here are 5 of my best soccer workouts for speed:
1. Fartlek running
Mix continuous running with brief bursts of fast running to create a controlled speedwork session. Use time as a measure; for example, run one minute at full speed followed by three minutes at an easy or moderate pace, or run fast for half a mile and easy for the remaining mile.
2. Uphill sprint
How do I do this?
- Start with a solid 2.0 stance, then explode out of it to sprint 20–30 yards uphill at your fastest pace.
- Before doing the following rep, go down the hill and take a 2 minutes break.
Run 8–10 reps with 2 minutes of resting in between.
3. Sled pushes
It is also known as a prowler press; the sled push is essentially a sled loaded with weights.
How do I do this?
- When using a sled for the first time, aim for a lower grip on the bars to mimic a natural sprinting position.
- Start with about 30–40% of your maximum load.
- Give it your all as you sprint 30–40 yards at a 100% effort.
- Then, take a two-minute break before running the sled back to the starting position.
Do this 8-10 times with enough rest in between.
Soccer workouts for legs
1. Stairs Workout
Stair workouts provide high-intensity cardio for your heart and lungs while also strengthening leg muscles.
How do I do this?
- Spend two minutes running up and down stairs, then take a 60-second break.
- After you get used to two steps, you can add to your single-leg stair hops by hopping up two stairs with your right leg and then two steps with your left leg.
- Then take a 60-second break.
You can do this for as long as you want.
2. Box Jumps
It builds a stronger core and powerful arms, in addition to strengthening your legs and improving posture and balance.
How do I do this?
- Position a box (or a group of boxes) two feet below your feet; the boxes’ heights should be challenging but doable.
- Place your feet shoulder-width apart and assume a semi-squat stance.
- To make a jump, squeeze all the energy from your legs and hips by pushing up.
Do 5 sets of 8 reps each.
3. Single-leg squat
How do I do this?
- Start by standing on your right foot, extending your left leg straight out in front of you, and keeping your arms by your sides or straight out in front for balance.
- Lower yourself into a squat position, keeping your left leg elevated, and press your hips back until your hips are parallel to the floor.
- Lift your left leg while performing five pushups, then switch legs.
This one can be challenging for beginners, but you can practice with a chair by sitting in it, pushing up with your leg up, and then returning to the chair.
4. Jump Squats
This intense workout works the muscles in your legs, glutes, and lower abdomen.
How do I do this?
- Start by standing straight and placing your feet and shoulders apart.
- Put your hands by your sides, raise your chest, roll your shoulders back, raise your chin, and face forward.
- Squat down with your palms together in a sitting position by bending your knees and pushing your bums out, being careful not to overshoot your toes.
- Throw your hands down to leap out of the squat posture. Land softly again. Then, put your palms together, push your butts out, and bend your knees just enough to avoid going over your toes.
Do 4 sets per session with 10 reps each.
5. Front Lunges
How do I do this?
- You should squat with your knees bent, your back straight, and your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Your hands should be in front of you on the floor inside your feet.
- Jump into a push-up position while maintaining your weight on your hands.
- Now that your back is flat and you are standing on your hands and toes, lower yourself to perform a push-up.
- Put your hands inside your feet and jump your feet back up to a squat position.
- Raise your arms above your head to stand, then jump back into a squat.
Do 5 reps and take a minute to rest.
Soccer Workouts for Agility
In soccer, agility refers to the ability to quickly alter your body’s direction without sacrificing your strength, balance, coordination, or ability to control the ball.
1. 1-on-1 Change of Direction
How do I do this?
- You can work out with any even number of soccer players, 8 or 10.
- Starting with five cones, make 2 parallel lines with 6 yards between them.
- Leave a gap of 4 yards between the first four cones in each line. Between the fourth and fifth cones, leave a space of 10 yards.
- The team should be divided into two groups, with one group being the leaders and the other the followers. Each group should stand in a line behind the starting cones.
- To play, the first player to decide to go forward is the leader, and the first player to run is the follower, who tries to run as close to the leader as possible.
- The leader makes a sudden 180-degree turn at any of the three cones and heads back towards the starting line before making yet another about-turn, ready to sprint to the finishing cone. While having the followers follow the leader closely and make the same turns on the same cones on the opposite line.
- The two players dash to the finish line, trying to outpace each other after making their second turn.
- After the first player finishes, the next in line starts.
When they are done, the two players re-join the line, but this time they take turns being the leader and the follower.
2. In/Out Agility Ladder Drill
This is a folding ladder that you can roll out and spread virtually anywhere: on the pitch, at the gym, and even in your bedroom.
It helps with your speed, agility, and coordination. It is actually cheap.
If you have not purchased an agility ladder yet, you can get crafty and create one on the ground using tape.
How do I do this?
- Lay the ladder out on a level area.
- Spread your feet hip-width apart as you stand at one end of the ladder.
- Step forward into the agility ladder’s first square.
- As soon as possible, push off so that both feet are off the ladder.
- Next, place both feet in the next square and push off quickly again.
Repeat these steps, pacing through the ladder.
Soccer Workouts for Endurance
1. Burpee Pull-Ups
Messi mentioned in one of his interviews that one of his favorite soccer drills is the burpee pull-up.
You become stronger with each rep because you are strengthening your arm, quads, hamstrings, glutes, chest, and abs.
How do I do this?
- To start, begin by bending down and extending your hands to reach the floor a few inches in front of your toes. As you do this, quickly jump your legs back to assume the push-up position.
- Do a push-up. Perform the push-up while quickly raising your hips to a squat position at the same time.
- From the squat position, stand up and jump to grab the bar and quickly do a pull-up.
- Repeat 10-15 pushups and pullups, then return to the beginning position (standing) and repeat.
2. HIIT (high-intensity interval training) on treadmill
How do I do this?
- Begin by warming up for 5 minutes, either by jogging or walking.
- After the warm-up, run for 20–25 minutes at a difficult pace, then increase the speed progressively.
- After that, give yourself 5 minutes to recover by slowing the speed to a comfortable walk or jog.
Repeat this process for 3 or 4 more times, and you are good to go.
