With the holiday season fast approaching and packed schedules threatening to disrupt fitness goals, Live Football Tickets teamed up with Sustain Health Magazine to explore a solution.
Intrigued by the prospect of a quick and easy routine to stay active during the festive season, they engaged in a conversation with Sports Coach Steve Clark, Head of Development at Progressive Sports North Glos.
Clark shares his expert insights into utilising typical footballing exercises to tackle winter fitness goals, providing a holistic approach.
The most effective winter football fitness regime to follow!
| Exercise | Exercise detail | Exercise sets | Exercise type |
| Plank – Football touches | 30-60 seconds | 3 | CORE |
| Football toe taps | 30-60 seconds | 3 | CARDIO |
| Shuttle runs | 15 meters | 5 | CARDIO |
| Burpees | 10 reps | 10 | ARMS, CORE |
| Single leg squat | 10 reps | 10 | LEGS |
Clark details five of the best football-inspired exercises that can be utilised to keep fit over the winter:
Exercise 1: Plank – Football touches
“The Plank is an amazing way to work on your core strength. The addition of placing a football out in front of you and reaching out to touch, one hand at a time will only improve the exercise to give you much better results.”
Alternative: “For people with lower fitness levels or limited mobility, you can utilise an easier kneeling plank to help you complete the movement”
Exercise 2: Football Toe taps
“This is a very popular exercise that’s suitable for people of all ages. This particular exercise will help improve your cardiovascular fitness, which is key in maintaining a high level of fitness.
The movement is key in helping footballers to improve their balance and coordination, which can translate to older generations and even younger.”
Exercise 3: Shuttle Runs
“Shuttle runs are another drill that will put your cardiovascular fitness to the test. The great thing about these, are their adaptability in length, allowing people of all ages at different stages in their fitness journey’s to complete them and build upon them.”
Exercise 4: Burpees
“Burpees are a great universal exercise that work a variety of different muscle groups within your legs, arms and core. Burpees are by far the hardest exercise in the list, but that also means it’s the best for you. You will only ever get out what you put in.”
Alternative: “If you are someone who struggles with ranges of mobility, you can replace this exercise with a squat jump or a simple star jump, and increase the volume of repetitions”
Exercise 5: Single leg squats
“A perfect exercise that footballers employ is a single leg squat, which will aid in building leg strength. This exercise will allow you to keep your hamstrings in good working order and help work on your balance, so you can stay quick and nimble.”
Alternative: “If single-leg squats aren’t viable, you can easily replace them with regular bodyweight squats. This will still work all of the same areas, but at a slower pace, so you may want to increase the repetitions”