Is it possible to get match fit in a month?

Konqwest · Post by **Konqwest** » 16 Jul 2007, 15:00

Is it possible to get match fit in just a month?

Soccer4Life · Post by **Soccer4Life** » 16 Jul 2007, 15:45

It depends on your current fitness level, what position you're trying to get fit for, and if you're using a well-thought out program or not.

If you answer the first two things, we can help you with the last one

Midfielder · Post by **Midfielder** » 16 Jul 2007, 15:57

Well, Soccer4Life has it all planned, but...

You can do morning jogs, treadmill runs, sprints etc. these all help. It might be possible to get pretty fit in a month - but it wouldn't be easy, and the above suggestions would need to be carried out for a few hours daily. It also depends how fit your aiming to get and how fit you already are as Soccer4Life stated.

Soccer4Life · Post by **Soccer4Life** » 16 Jul 2007, 16:43

Midfielder wrote:You can do morning jogs, treadmill runs, sprints etc. these all help. It might be possible to get pretty fit in a month - but it wouldn't be easy, and the above suggestions would need to be carried out for a few hours daily.

Working on fitness every day for a month won't help in the least bit. Especially for a few hours. Fitness sessions should generally be no longer than an hour. I personally can get a lot done in 30-45 minutes. From working like you suggested every day, at best he would come off with minor injuries and major fatigue. At worst, he could be out for months/years, sporting a major injury. A good beginner program would be 2-3 days/week, intermediate 3-4 days/week, and advanced 4-5 days/week.

If you're just starting a program on your own, no matter how fit you think you are, a beginner program would probably suit you best. From my personal experience, interval training can work wonders. There are many types of interval training one can do, I'll tell you about the two that I've found bring me the most success:

1. Pick out a bodyweight strength program with just a few exercises. 3 to 5 is good. Figure out something that challenges you, but not too much. Remember to ease into programs and not be going all out the very first few sessions. For your "rest" in between sets, you should sprint 10-20 seconds, and jog back and continue until all the sets of your first exercise are complete. Rest 30 seconds - 2 minutes before going to the next exercise. Continue like this until your whole bodyweight program is complete.
To make more challenging: sprint both before and after sets, and use the exercises as your rest.

2. This is more of a circuit, you're going to need a jump rope, and either a track to run around, or your block (of houses). This is the circuit:

Run around your track/block
1 minute of burpees
1 minute of pushups
1 minute of any core exercise
1 minute of jumproping

You should repeat all of that with no rest in between. After that entire circuit is done, then you can take 2-5 minutes of rest and repeat it again. There's no need to repeat more than 3-5 times.
To make more challenging: decrease the rest and increase the minutes you're exercising.

If you do those two interval workouts, each once a week, for a month, you should be pretty fit. If you like, you can add 1 day on long distance running (2-4 miles). However, I would recommend, if you're going to add something, make it be a sprint day. Suicides are a good exercise or you could do 10-90 second sprints, with minimal rest time in between. Really no more than 4 days/week should be necessary. Even 3 days/week should be plenty, as rest days in between are very important. If you're not even a little sore the days after any bodyweight exercises are done, either you picked ones that are too easy, or you may want to consider using some free weights to amp up the intensity.

You should warm up with a light 5 minute jog and some light stretches before every session. After every session, cool down with another light jog, or even a walk if that suits you better, and lots of stretching. Flexibility is an often underrated component of fitness. Stretching is best done at the END of a session, when your muscles are 100 percent warm. Something that is also often under looked is nutrition. Make sure you are eating the right foods before and after sessions. Stay away from sodas, sweets, and high-fat/high-sugar products. For more on nutrition, check out our Ensoccerpeadia.

Midfielder · Post by **Midfielder** » 16 Jul 2007, 16:48

So your saying if I did sprints for 30 mins, jog for about an hour, and work out for 30-45 minutes would be a waste of time if I did sprints for 15 mins, jog for about 30 mins and a 15-25 minute work out session?

Soccer4Life · Post by **Soccer4Life** » 16 Jul 2007, 16:58

I would say drop the jogging (it's really not as useful as you think) and increase the intensity of the sprints because that's what you'll benefit most from during games. When I said 30-45 minutes, I wasn't including weightlifting in that, I was solely talking about running. I'm too young to lift, that's why I didn't really consider it. But you certainly don't have to take my advice on anything. If you can handle 2+ hours of fitness every day of the week and you think you're benefiting from that, go for it. You should always do what you need to for your own body.

J · Post by J » 16 Jul 2007, 17:41

Depending on the level you are playing at, it can be difficult to get to match fitness without playing in actual games. You can definitely build yourself up by doing sprinting and strength exercises, but it's difficult to duplicate actuall game fitness.

But again, this all depends on what level you are playing at.

Konqwest · Post by **Konqwest** » 16 Jul 2007, 18:16

Soccer4Life wrote:It depends on your current fitness level, what position you're trying to get fit for, and if you're using a well-thought out program or not.

If you answer the first two things, we can help you with the last one

My level of fitness is not bad. I just stopped playing much over the last month, and need to get back into shape for my freshman year of college. I play foward. I ran 3 miles today cause thats what my college routine asked for. I did it in 18:43 not a bad time. Mile runs in an alotted time are no problem for me I could run 8 miles at 7 min pace no problem. Its sprints that I need to get in shape for

Soccer4Life · Post by **Soccer4Life** » 16 Jul 2007, 18:25

It sounds like you don't need work on your long distance running at all. You can stick with the interval training I mentioned before and do stuff like suicides, and 10-90 second sprints with a jog back as your rest.

soccerdude510 · Post by **soccerdude510** » 16 Jul 2007, 20:03

i dont think it is possible because i used to run 45 minutes a day 5 times a week for a month and i didnt get into shape

Soccer4Life · Post by **Soccer4Life** » 16 Jul 2007, 20:13

That's because long distance running is one of the most ineffective ways to get into shape. Sprinting and interval training mixed with strength exercises is ten times more effective. If you don't want to believe it from me, PM Icy.

Konqwest · Post by **Konqwest** » 16 Jul 2007, 20:31

THIS is very true. I use to run 400, or one lap on a track. I use to run 10 of them, with a 2 min break inbetween

adnankhan · Post by **adnankhan** » 16 Jul 2007, 21:18

Soccer4Life wrote:That's because long distance running is one of the most ineffective ways to get into shape. Sprinting and interval training mixed with strength exercises is ten times more effective. If you don't want to believe it from me, PM Icy.

U r kidding me...u r the first person who said that...in soccer u need stamina and long distance is the best way to get into shape,,,..i have been to lots of camps lot of good soccer coach their first word in soccer shape was long distance for being in shape.
Now if u run like 2 mile in 20mins,that is not good but if u finish 2 mile in 12 mins or less is really good. U have to beat a time if u go and like keep running like a turtle it is not gonna help.
In a soccer game u run/jog for at least 70mins and u sprint for 10mins or so.
Now look at that ur body is needs to get adapted to 80mins of jogging thats why you do long distance running.
and u atleast run 2mile in a soccer game if u r good and aggressive player.

and intervals are really good for soccer helps u to change directions quickly and getting u in shape.

All these 1 minute workout are not that effective to you.
like push ups doing 1 mins of push up. thats more better if you do like
for example..do 50pushup at a time and then take 2mins brake and again 50push ups...and you can do sets of 4 if u r tough enough if u cant do that do wat soccer4life told yall..

and i just wonder that where did u get all these information from. do u just write these stuff from wat u know r u go to any soccer academy.

Post by **expert** » 16 Jul 2007, 22:19

Soccer is a series of short sprints in between long periods of walking and jogging. Most of the time in a match is spend "recovering" for the next 'brust' of sprints. This is where interval training helps you.
Aerobic or long distance running is important too to some extent, but it shouldn't be the focus of your training.
Lastly, as J said, you would need to be playing at a good level all the time so that your touch and decision-making are top notch.

Icy · Post by **Icy** » 16 Jul 2007, 22:55

adnankhan wrote:
Soccer4Life wrote:That's because long distance running is one of the most ineffective ways to get into shape. Sprinting and interval training mixed with strength exercises is ten times more effective. If you don't want to believe it from me, PM Icy.
U r kidding me...u r the first person who said that...in soccer u need stamina and long distance is the best way to get into shape,,,..i have been to lots of camps lot of good soccer coach their first word in soccer shape was long distance for being in shape.
Now if u run like 2 mile in 20mins,that is not good but if u finish 2 mile in 12 mins or less is really good. U have to beat a time if u go and like keep running like a turtle it is not gonna help.
In a soccer game u run/jog for at least 70mins and u sprint for 10mins or so.
Now look at that ur body is needs to get adapted to 80mins of jogging thats why you do long distance running.
and u atleast run 2mile in a soccer game if u r good and aggressive player.

and intervals are really good for soccer helps u to change directions quickly and getting u in shape.

and i just wonder that where did u get all these information from. do u just write these stuff from wat u know r u go to any soccer academy.

Adnankhan, I pretty much never do specifically long distance and my overall (soccer) fitness has tremendously improved.

Certainly if you're not in great shape you want to do long distance first to "break in" to running because it is much less strenuous on the body. After you're able to even do a slow 3 or 4 miles I gaurentee you you'll get better results from intervals and such stuff.

Let me guess you're also the type of person that will tell me that marathoners don't do any type of intervals. If you think they ONLY run long distance you're far off. Certainly they won't be sprinting at all (eh, maybe at the end if it's close

) but they still train using it. It not only is great from improving aerobic and anaerobic conditioning but also helps you run distance at a faster pace.

You state that you're body will be jogging atleast 80 minutes a game and you're jogging should be part of you're SKILLS training. If you're training skills and are just walking around you're not only going to end up doing less but you are teaching you're body only to operate slow when you're actually using a soccer ball. Even if you're training just an hour with a ball if you add that to your invtervals (20-30 minutes) than there is you're "long distance" running and jogging that will be involved in the game.

All these 1 minute workout are not that effective to you.
like push ups doing 1 mins of push up. thats more better if you do like
for example..do 50pushup at a time and then take 2mins brake and again 50push ups...and you can do sets of 4 if u r tough enough if u cant do that do wat soccer4life told yall..

I agree I doubt anyone here can maintain a fast pace on things like push-ups for a minute consecutive times. Certainly you're method would work but it's not the only way. Lets say do 20 seconds push-ups and 10 seconds rest. If thats too or you can't do it do 10 seconds of push-ups 20 seconds rest.

I love intervals because during them you experience more or less the same type of fatigue you'll feel during a game. Perhaps you guys have felt it too but I feel a completely different type of fatigue between long distance and intervals. This also helps me during games because if I quit in training I will end up quitting in a game.

and i just wonder that where did u get all these information from. do u just write these stuff from wat u know r u go to any soccer academy.

Most of mine comes from research and just trying it out. All the research in the world doesn't work as well as trying it out. Everyone is different but I have found people have much more success when involving intervals and such into their training (not talking just about soccer).

Have you even tried doing intervals? I've compared the two ON MY OWN and if you haven't even tried intervals why are you even argueing? If you haven't even compared the two on your own you're just giving a stupid biased opinion. Not only that but you try to sound like a jerk and as though you know it all.

Try involving intervals for even a month and I guarentee you you'll see much more progression than doing just long distance. Not only that but you're pace for long distance will be much faster.