Why are football players leg workouts important in football?

Leg workouts are important in football because it is a highly demanding sport.

Players are often required to accelerate, decelerate, sprint & change direction hundreds of times within a game. 

Football players often complete between 10 – 12 km per game and during high fixture periods football players can complete 3 games per week.

Because of these physical demands football player leg workouts become really important.

In this article we will provide you with a free program, example exercises, videos demos & explanations, taking your through;

• What is a football player leg workout
• When to complete a football player leg workout
• What exercises a football player leg workout should include
• What should a professional football player leg workout look like
• Example football player workout
• Free football player leg workout
  
  

What type of exercises should football players leg workout contain?

Leg workouts should involve strength exercises, power exercises and speed exercises.

Strength exercises can help players absorb high numbers of accelerations, decelerations & changes of directions as well as reduce the likelihood of injury in the lower body, such as the hamstrings. We have summarised all the findings below but this recent scientific journal describes the extensive benefits.

In addition, check out our specific article on why is strength important in football to get more detail.

Power exercises can help players become faster, more powerful & change direction faster. This is really important because it can help improve a player’s performance in areas of the game such as 1v1 defending or during fast transition periods within the game.

Below we will give you specific examples of exercises which will help your game and also give you a free workout to try.

What is a football players leg workout?

Simply put a workout that involves the lower body is known as a leg workout. Because of the high physical demands of football, leg workouts are really important to reduce your chance of injury & improve your performance.

When to complete a leg workout for football?

How many times you should complete a leg workout will depend on how many fixtures and training sessions you have within your week & also how important to your game it is to improve.

One of the most important things you can do as a player is to prioritise your football development areas.

For example, if you struggle to keep up with the game over 90 minutes, then perhaps fitness should be a higher priority. 

In this situation, you might decide to complete x2 fitness sessions and only x1 leg workout per week. 

Conversely, if you want to improve your 1v1 defending, strength on the body and winning duels & second balls perhaps leg workouts and lower body strength and power are very important to you. 

In this situation, you might decide to complete x2 leg workouts and only x1 fitness session per week for example

The takeaway here is to first understand your biggest focus area.

We have made a FREE goal-setting masterclass for you here to help you map out this process. You can download it for free here 

Once you have a clear idea of what you want to improve you can then go ahead and figure out the best weekly make-up of your sessions for your week to maximise your results and improve your game.

What should a football players leg workout include?

Depending on how many lower body sessions a player can complete within a week,  a football players leg workout should generally include both strength and power exercises within one workout. 

By including both strength and power exercises within one workout it means a player can work on all aspects of the game within a single session.

If you are completing more than one football players leg workout within a week then dedicating one session to strength training & one session to power and speed can also be a really good way of separating the workouts & therefore the stimulus your body will adapt to.

Let’s dive into some examples of strength and power exercises which are perfect for football. 

Strength exercises for football

Power Exercises for football

The jump squat is an excellent exercise to develop power for football. This exercise improves your acceleration, deceleration & change of direction ability all critical in football. 

A football player demonstrating a Football players leg workout – Squat Jumps

Pogos are an awesome plyometric exercise – Pogos help develop stiffness in the lower body specifically in the calves and ankles. This helps create a solid platform to become faster and help your acceleration.

 

Box jumps for football are an excellent way of developing power and projecting yourself forwards. These exercises will help with your power & acceleration.

What does a professional footballer players leg workout look like?

Within professional football clubs, the number of leg workouts a player completes will often be dependent upon how many fixtures they have within the week. 

In addition, the strength and conditioning coach at the club may decide to split the players workouts into lots of small workouts vs completing one single large workout. This splitting of workouts into lots of small workouts is known as ‘micro-dosing’. 

Finally, the strength and conditioning coach will also be considering all of the individual requirements of each individual player, therefore each player in the squad may be completing slightly different football players leg workouts at varying times within the week & of varying duration & intensity. Extensive scientific research has been conducted on this with an interesting strength and conditioning research paper here documenting the evidence.

Below we have put together some of examples football players workouts we have given to professional players in the past.

Football Players Leg Workout with One Game Per Week.

Monday: Light Training Day

Tuesday: Heavy Training Day & Leg Workout 1 (45 Minutes / Strength Training Focus) 

Wednesday: Recovery Day

Thursday: Moderate training day & Leg Workout 2 (45 Minutes / Power & Speed Training Focus)

Friday: Light training day

Saturday:  MATCH DAY

Sunday: Recovery Day

Football Players Leg Workout with Two Game Per Week.

Monday: Light Training Day

Tuesday: MATCH DAY  

Wednesday: Recovery Day

Thursday: Moderate training day & Leg Workout 1 (30 Minutes / Strength & Power Focus)

Friday: Light training day

Saturday:  MATCH DAY

Sunday: Recovery Day

Typical Football Players Leg Workout with Three Games Per Week.

Monday: Light Training Day & Power Leg workout 1 (Micro-dosing 10-15 minutes, pre training)

Tuesday: MATCH DAY  

Wednesday: Light Training Day / Recovery

Thursday: MATCH DAY

Friday: Recovery Day

Saturday:  Light Training Day & Power Leg workout 2 (Micro-dosing 10-15 minutes, pre training)

Sunday: MATCH DAY

What exercises make up the best football players leg workout?

Your footballer leg workout should include the following common areas;

1. Quadriceps / Hip Strength exercises – these are good for 1v1 duels, acceleration, deceleration & change of directions
   
2. Hamstring Strength Exercises – these help players tolerate lots of high speed running and can improve speed and acceleration
   
3. Power exercises – these help players acceleration, change of direction & ability to evade the opposition

Plyometric exercises – These exercises help players speed, agility & quickness.

The Ultimate Football players leg workout

Below we have given you 5 exercises which could make up a brilliant footballer leg workout. Please only try these exercises under professional guidance and supervision.

Exercise 1: The Back Squat

Exercise 2: Long-lever hamstring hold

Exercise 3: Jump Squat

Exercise 4: Box Jumps

Exercise 5: Pogo Jumps

Keep your workouts personalised and specific to you

Although we have given you a good example of a professional football players leg workout we believe it is very important to be specific & individual to maximise your performance. 

To get a 7 FREE footballers workout and our free guide – sign up and download it here 

For more information check out the related articles 

Why is strength important in football

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