AUTUMN. This season is about focus, and training the nervous system to control the muscles for posture, prevention of injury and sustained performance. In November aim to do heavy sets of 2-4 reps, with long rests in between to allow the nervous system time for recovery. In December, work on long-holding postural exercises to strengthen vulnerable muscles. Yoga-type stretching also demands strong core muscle recruitment to hold the positions accurately for 4-6 breaths, and by stretching the whole body as a unit rather than just a muscle at a time it reduces sport-specific tension and injury risk more effectively than isolated stretching.
WINTER. Set the weights low and work on multiple sets with high repetitions. When you play sport you’re free to move in all directions so make sure you’re using a wide variety of exercises again, using tools like cables and medicine balls so that you can train freely in all planes of motion. This should be a well-balanced program to build muscular endurance and maintain mobility, while making sure core strength and posture are maintained so that injury risk stays low. Yoga stretching through winter will also meet these requirements, keeping you mobile and injury-resistant.
SPRING. By this time in the season, sport-specific tension in the muscles will mean the focus in the gym has to be to minimise the risk of injury. Hamstrings and glutes need to be bullet-proof, because they not only slow down the leg after a kick but they also take some strain away from the knee ligaments. Stiff-legged deadlifts (NOT straight-legged, i.e. have a slight bend in the knee throughout) are a fantastic functional workout for hamstrings and glutes, and if you do them on one leg it’s an incredible core exercise too. Swiss ball exercises for core stability will stabilise the spine and pelvis which give the legs a solid base to work from too, so that you end the season in good shape and can start the next season physically sharper than last year.
SUMMER. In June, the early off-season, maintain endurance with longer cardio sessions. Holding long stretches will restore the flexibility lost last season. Rebuild muscle mass by using 3 sets of 8-12reps of lots of free-weight exercises in the gym. Include free-standing cable exercises to use core muscles functionally. From July, build strength (using 3 sets of 4-6 reps) with 6 key exercises like squats, dynamic lunges, deadlifts, pull-ups, push-ups, and cable pushes. In late July and early August, more dynamic stretches and some plyometric work will help prevent injury when you kick off. These will help you to safely perform speed and agility drills as the new season approaches in August.
LATE SUMMER. Late August should see another 4-week phase of general weight training for muscle mass and endurance conditioning, using sets of 8-12 reps. These movements should be fairly slow to make sure your stabiliser muscles are engaged, because they prevent injury to the joints. Keep doing one long cardio session a week but look to train cardio more specifically with short sharp bursts of speed and mid-tempo recovery in other sessions. The next heavy phase (4-6 reps), starting in September, can also include one-handed or one-legged exercises to challenge balance and core muscle recruitment.