6 Ways To Stay Football Fit From Home — The Soccer Mentor

With the spirit of “resolutions” in the January air, I thought I would kick off the year by sharing my thoughts on how to stay football fit from home. Ontario, like many other areas around the globe, has returned to a lockdown state due to COVID-19, but this doesn’t mean we can’t make progress on our goals.

As I write this, gyms are closed, and the weather sucks (welcome to Canada in January!)

So how on earth do I stay fit and in shape for football?

1. Work with what’s in my control

In the current COVID climate, it’s easy to feel like we have no control over our progress, but if the global pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we are adaptable.

Put your focus into the things which you have control over. If you focus on things that are out of your current control, you will only find yourself disappointed and discouraged.

For example, if improving your flexibility is more achievable than working on your cardiovascular fitness from home, then focus on your flexibility.

Remember, progress is progress no matter how big or small.

2. Adjust nutrition accordingly

Naturally, the more football you play, the more calories you burn.

I find that my appetite decreases when I’m not playing, so my body partly takes care of this point for me. If you’re one with a consistently big appetite, this one’s for you.

A quick-fix and starting point for this is to identify the calorie dense, and perhaps unhealthy foods that you were eating, and limit them. For most people, these are likely snacks, and the most dangerous window for snacking tends to be in the evening after work and dinner when your will-power is lowest.

I used to eat a bar of dark chocolate every night whilst my wife and I watched Netflix. If I know that my daily energy expenditure has been lower, I’ll simply cut out this snack, or replace it with a healthier, lower calorie alternative, e.g. a protein shake, or a bowl of strawberries.

Additionally, if there is another source of caloric intake which you could focus on reducing, I believe you need to look at Carbohydrates first. We typically consume complex carbohydrates as footballers to fuel us for matches and training. Whilst they remain a vital component of your diet, you won’t need to consume as much of these whilst you are not playing as the energy demands are not there. Carbohydrates include pasta, rice, bread, oatmeal, and potatoes.

Personally, I look at meals where I’d usually complement my protein source with some vegetables and a carbohydrate, e.g. chicken, broccoli, and rice, and I reduce the volume of carbohydrates and increase the vegetables on my plate. So in this case, I’d half the amount of rice and fill the remaining space on my plate with more broccoli.

Just be smart and monitor how you look and feel. Don’t cut things out of your diet completely. To be sustainable, you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself, or limit yourself too much.

3. Leverage my why

You may not realise this, but people are typically purpose-driven. Usually, there is some kind of internal motivation, big or small, influencing our actions.

As amateur players, staying in shape for an unknown return date to football may not be enough to get you motivated to dedicate the time to staying fit. You may be more inclined not to workout, and instead spend time lying on the sofa watching TV.

Knowing ‘why’ you are doing something, and leveraging this reason is a great way to get things done. People are motivated in many different ways.

My reasons why include:

I must feel great everyday

I must have enough energy to excel in all areas of my life

I must lead by example and inspire others through The Soccer Mentor platform

I must perform at my highest level on the field, or else I feel down and upset

To identify your why, it will help to ask yourself some questions:

4. Invest in simple home fitness equipment

The beauty of working out at home is that there is SO much you can do with your bodyweight. There are, however, some limitations. Now, I’m not saying that you CAN’T build a stronger back from home with no equipment, but pull exercises are tricky to perform with zero equipment.

One of the best products I’ve invested in is a suspension system training kit. This allows you to do a whole range of exercises, including those key pull movements such as the inverted row.

Other equipment which I recommend are:

Resistance bands
You can pick these up cheaply and they allow you to perform a variety of exercises, including additional pulling movements such as bicep curls, and face pulls.

I am yet to purchase one of these since moving to Canada, but when I lived in England I had one which I used regularly. The pull-up is a key movement to master, and ideally should be included in any good football workout programme.

Skipping rope
I use a speed rope for various reasons including warming-up, and getting in some cardio when I can’t get outside and run due to ice and snow.

Agility ladder
I purchased one of these to work on my agility (shock), and quick feet. Pair these with a skipping rope and you can perform a great football conditioning session.

5. Limit Social Media and Information Sources

Having a background in strength & conditioning, I generally create my own workouts to follow. I do gather information and constantly try to learn new things, but I’m strict and selective about how I do this.

Don’t scatter your brain too much by following irrelevant workouts you have found on Instagram. I’m not saying that these are all bad workouts, but please keep this in mind:

Many new and improved recommendations are based on calculating profit first and then working backwards to justify the method. People overcomplicate simple principles to make them ‘sexy’ so that they can get clicks and sell.

Too much information can be a bad thing, and it can lead to paralysis by analysis which prevents you from ever taking action and following through with something.

Identify your reason why, find your trusted sources of information, be that articles, books, influencers/bloggers (be careful) or self-experimentation, and stick with it long enough to test the effectiveness.

Don’t go “oh X is doing this live workout I’ll give this a try” then jump to another workout plan the following day, and continue this cycle until you realise you haven’t made any progress and the workouts being completed are not tailored towards improving football fitness.

6. Workout first thing in the morning

This almost certainly won’t be for everyone, but I find working out early in the morning, before work or the daily stresses impact my will-power too much, to be most effective.

This is how I do it:

5:45–6:00
Alarm goes off.
Take dog outside.

6:00–6:30
Drink coffee and eat something light (I usually opt for a banana for a bit of pre-workout energy).
I often use this time to journal and plan the day too.

6:30–7:15
Workout.

7:15–7:30
Eat breakfast.

7:30–7:50
Shower and get ready to start work at 8.

Notice that I’ve got a structure in place here, and every morning is almost automated for me. I get up early enough to reduce distraction, and always follow the above schedule.

Automating this process prevents me from talking myself out of working out in the morning.

As I’ve said, this process almost certainly won’t be for everyone. I was just hoping that my example might give some inspiration for fitting your workouts in. The essence of what I’m saying here is to make time to workout. Look at your daily schedule, and figure out where you can get that extra hour from. For me, I get up earlier. For you, you might sacrifice the hour of TV you usually watch each evening to get it in, or pair working out with listening to an audiobook when you’d usually read for an hour a day. Try your best to make it easy for yourself. Set yourself up to win.

These are all principles, rather than specific ways to keep football fit from home, during lockdowns, or periods where you cannot play. I will write about these in future articles, but in the meantime, I recommend installing some of these.

I’d be keen to know what works for you, so please share your thoughts and experiences with me below!

Originally published at https://thesoccermentor.com on January 6, 2021.