At beginning of season many injuries I see are because the player has done too much exercise, too soon! Our muscles and tendons can easily be overloaded when we start running and kicking. If the muscle and tendon are not robust enough to cope with the load demanded on them we get symptoms. We need a balance between the load on the tendon (or muscle) and it’s capacity to tolerate that load.
At first it might be a tightness and fatigue but this can progress to pain and dysfunction. The easy way to avoid this is to build up slowly with your exercise and do it BEFORE the season starts.
Start running.
If you’ve done nothing over the summer maybe just 20 mins and gentle jog, aiming for 3 times a week. Only increase distance by 10 % if your feeling tired by the end of the run but do try to get the time up slowly.
Strength and conditioning is really important too.
Get to the gym or use body weight to resist the exercises. You want to target your calf, hammies, quads, gluts and abs. Pick the load that you can do 12 times and by the end of these reps you couldn’t do another. Have a min rest or do a different exercise and repeat that exercise 3 sets. As you get stronger, increase the weight to one that you could say do 8 or 10 reps with. Try some squats, lunges, bridging, calf raises, split squats as a start.
Agility is also important so get to training and work on those ball skills. We need the brain switched on ready for soccer.
And of course a good warm up and cool down are very important.
Also have a rest day. Plan your training so that you rest at least once a week and don’t back up 2 heavy sessions.
If you’d like to know more or are having any issues with your body mechanics come and see me. I love to get people on that field fit and achieving their best. We don’t want people ‘falling like flies‘ after the first few games!!
