How to train your endurance in winter - without endurance runs out in the cold
Whenever winter takes a particularly firm stranglehold on us in this country, many footballers start to work on their personal top form.
Often they rely exclusively on endurance runs - a mistake?
In this blog post, we show you how you can train your endurance in football.
Gyms closed, team training not allowed - for many players, an endurance run through the streets and forests is the only way out.
Equipped with flickering headlamps, they then head out on the asphalt tracks of their hometown - to get the necessary stamina for the rest of the second half of the season.
But does a pure endurance run during the off-season make sense at all? We have the answer and a solution for you at the end of the BLOG!
If you want more information on how to prepare for the spring season during the winter break, you'll find it here.
Basic endurance training as an important foundation
To emphasise this clearly: Basic endurance is important - in principle, it represents an important basis for all sports.
If it is well trained, it primarily increases physical performance and thus also optimises the ability to recover.
This can also lead to improved injury prevention.
Players also tire more slowly, which can help avoid technical and tactical errors.
This should clarify that every athlete - including football players - should have a pronounced basic endurance.
Nevertheless, pure endurance running in winter is now "old news".
Also in endurance training, one has to do justice to the complexity of football as a sport.
The statement that football has become faster and faster in recent decades is probably no longer news to anyone. While ball contact times have shrunk to less than a second, running performance and especially so-called "hard runs" (i.e. maximum sprints) seem to explode from game to game.
This means that the requirement profile of a football player - whether in the district or national league - has changed: From trotting strategist to serial sprinter. Therefore, it is only logical to train endurance with a sport-specific movement pattern.
For the football player, this means:
Starts, stops and changes of direction must be included. Movements that probably occur rather rarely in a typical endurance run in winter.
HIIT - Approach: specific and close to the sport
Another way to effectively prepare footballers for the "faster" game is the HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) approach.
HIIT alternates intense exertion with active breaks. This means, for example, sprints or jumps as an intensive load followed by an active break.
There are no rigid rules about how long the intervals have to be.
The exercises push the body to its limits, so that it needs an above-average amount of oxygen and thus stimulates the metabolism, which consequently significantly improves endurance. During a high-intensity interval session, the body also burns more body fat than as a result of a "normal" running session through the half-dark alleys of the hometown.
Off-season with the GAMECHANGER pays off - Click here for the B42 football app!
Intensive, almost 30-minute sessions in the interval range are exactly the genre that our GAMECHANGER covers. Therefore, it is not surprising that the feedback from previous users of the app accessing the training is consistently positive.
"Since the GAMECHANGER, I get much more air and have been able to improve my running time by 30 seconds per km! I'm sure it's the combination of the training and the breathing exercises, but my biggest problem before was actually the oxygen intake. So you guys helped me tremendously! Thank you so much."
~ Florian Rädler, Kirchheimer SC (Landesliga Südost)
The exercises of the training programme are designed for off-season, pre-season and during the season and also include preventive mobility exercises. This means that performance is not only improved, but there's also a focus on protection against injuries.
What we want to show with this: The winter endurance run in the preparation period on the road is not just no longer fashionable in current football - but it is also not fundamentally wrong.
We clearly recommend interval-based training measures, such as interval runs or our GAMECHANGER - which are clearly the more effective and specific alternative for footballers.
In the final stages: the B42 endurance training for football players
Speaking of interval training, we have been working intensively on an endurance programme specifically for football players over the last few weeks and months.
It will run for eight weeks, combine various interval runs and can be carried out both on the pitch and on a normal running track.
Together with our expert for endurance performance, Hosea Frick from the HYCYS Institute, we will soon integrate this special programme into the app.
Our training programme will shape you and change you - we promise. Are you ready?
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