Training Zones for Football Fitness

Article by Darren

The below information should help provide you with guidelines for designing fitness and conditioning sessions with specific training objectives. Due to the intermittent exercise profile of football, players require a strong aerobic base in addition to capabilities to perform maximal bouts (i.e. sprints) and must be exposed to various training zones. The energy systems of a player therefore have to be trained with this profile in mind. An easy way to determine if the workrate matchs the desired training zone is to using Heart Rate (HR). Calculate Training Zone Via Resting Heart Rate

For charts, please refer to Soccer Training Zones and Drills

Fig 1. 3 Basic Training Zones and for a Trained and Un-Trained Player

The diagram above (Fig 1.) displays the training zones for a trained and untrained player (20yrs). The zones are indicated for the Trained Player only. The Un-Trained Player would hit these zones earlier. This chart above displays the three basics training zones. We can however go into more detail (as described below and displayed in Fig 2.) and sub-divide these zones. The zones are set based on percentages of generally one of three values:

Lactate Threshold VO2 Max Maximum Heart Rate

Fig2. Detailed Training Zones with Heart Rate for U-11 to U-21 ages.

Zone 1: Recovery Also known as: Overdistance Intensity: Very Low % Lactate Threshold: 65%-84% % VO2 Max: 55%-65% % Max Heart Rate: 60%-70% RPE Scale: 6-9

Used for: These are the easiest workouts, used to promote recovery after harder workouts. It is also generally the intensity level used during the recovery period of interval work and long slow distance (LSD) runs.

Zone 2: Endurance Also known as: Extensive Endurance Intensity: Moderate % Lactate Threshold: 85%-91% % VO2 Max: 66%-75% % Max Heart Rate: 71%-75% RPE Scale: 10-12

Used for: Used for long, endurance workouts and easy speed workout; builds and maintains aerobic endurance.

Zone 3: Lactate Threshold Also known as: Intensive Endurance Intensity: Moderate Plus % Lactate Threshold: 92%-95% % VO2 Max: 76%-80% % Max Heart Rate: 76%-80% RPE Scale: 13-14

Used for: Used for Tempo workouts, training in Zone 3 is usually done in the preparation and base phases. Generally, in the later phases you want to bump up to Zone 4.

Zone 4: VO2 Max Intervals Also known as: Anaerobic Threshold, Race/Pace Intensity: Race/Pace % Lactate Threshold: 96%-100% % VO2 Max: 81%-90% % Max Heart Rate: 81%-90% RPE Scale: 15-16

Used for: Intervals, hill work, and tempo work. Intervals in this zone generally have work-to-rest ratio of 3:1 or 4:1. Training at or slightly below your Lactate Threshold (a.k.a. Anaerobic Threshold) helps your body lean to “recycle” the lactic acid during high intensity work. This level is where you cross over from aerobic training to anaerobic training which is called the anaerobic threshold or AT. This is the point where the body cannot effectively remove lactic Acid from the working muscles quickly enough. Lactic Acid is a by product of glycogen consumption by the working muscles.

Zone 5a: Threshold Endurance Also known as: Superthreshold % Lactate Threshold: 100%-102% % VO2 Max: 91%-93% % Max Heart Rate: 91%-93% RPE Scale: 17

Used for: Intervals, hill work, and tempo work; typically used after some Zone 4 time has already been done. Zone 5 workouts are very short because it is difficult to maintain this level for any length of time.

Zone 5b: Anaerobic Endurance Also known as: Speed Endurance % Lactate Threshold: 103%-105% % VO2 Max: 94%-98% % Max Heart Rate: 94%-98% RPE Scale: 18-19

Used for: Intervals and hill work to improve anaerobic endurance. Intervals in this zone generally have work-to-rest ratio of 1:1, for example, a 20 second sprint followed by 20 seconds of easy recovery (Zone 1).

Zone 5c: Anaerobic Capacity Also known as: Power % Lactate Threshold: 106%+ % VO2 Max: 98%-100% % Max Heart Rate: 98%-100% RPE Scale: 20

Used for: Short-term Sprinting. Intervals in this zone have a work to rest ratio of 1:2 or more.

Find More Speed Training Workouts For Football Articles

Getting in Shape for Football

Article by Phil Tucker

You’ve seen all the movies. The entire team gets on buses and goes away to football camp, where a battery of grizzled and tough coaches put the players through months of physical training, honing them to their very best, pushing them to their limits so that when they take the field they are the toughest, strongest and most enduring theam there is. Yet how can you mimic that training if you don’t have access to those coaches? In today’s article we’re going to take a look at the basics of football training to help you get in the best shape you can before the start of your own games or seasons.

The first thing to understand is that football requires a wide array of different physical abilities, and that particular array will depend on the position you play. A linebacker will have a different training regimen from the wide receiver, and you need to take that into account when figuring out your own workout regimen. Simply adjust the following advice so that you are getting the right amount of each to suit the position you intend to play.

Football games are long. You need to be able to last on the field, and that involves depending your cardio. Toward that end, you need to practice a combination of running drills and swimming drills to build your core cardio and get in the best shape possible. Interval training is key here, during which you run set distances or for set times over and over again, pushing hard so as to be able to do your best within the given parameters. Examples of this are running three sets of ten minutes, with a five minute break inbetween, or swimming four sets of ten laps, working for long term endurance. You can also do the same with sprints, and should do so so that you develop your anaerobic abilities.

Second, you need to be strong, and toward that end you should look to do the most basic barbell exercises in the gym. Your regimen should consist of squats, dead lifts, shoulder presses, bench press, clean and jerk and pull-ups. Don’t mess with isolation machines or anything else, but stick to the bar and really work on your strength.Finally you need to work on your speed, and that’s where High Intensity Interval Training comes into it’s own. Work on brief bursts of extreme effort with minimal breaks inbetween for maximum results.

Football Speed Workouts: 4 Exercises for Lateral Speed

Article by Steve Calamuso

Football speed training is not just about getting faster while running straight-ahead. You also have to master the ability to be fast laterally. Your football training workouts need to reflect this. Here are 4 lateral speed exercises that will make you faster on the football field.

1. Angle Lunges

Similar to Lateral Lunges, but you step on a 45-degree angle forward. This is a great movement for football (and, again, all sports) because now you

The true essence of football speed workout

Article by Bruce Kilgour

The true essence of football speed workout

Any football workout program would comprise of rigorous and well designed football speed workout programs. If you are big and a strong muscled athlete, but lack the required amount of speed to excel in your sport, you probably need a good dosage of football speed workout and speed training.

Development of endurance and strength building workouts are an integral part of football training. Workouts such as these are a sure shot strategy to maintaining healthy athletic bodies. When football coaches implement this technique of football speed workout too literally, more than helping the players, they tend to limit their capabilities. This technique of football speed workout is not an end in itself, but it’s a means to achieve the end.

Strength training workouts are all good in own capacity but they tend to limit the player if it is not judiciously intermingled with training in football speed workout as well. The most crucial aspect in a game of football is speed and football players are more often than not disappointed in their speed gains.

Now the big question is what is speed training? Training for speed is a completely different ballgame altogether when compared to training for endurance and strength. Hence, this training has to be completely different when the resultant has to be responding like lightening on the football field. Speed training can be simply understood as the quickness and muscular agility that is required for the effective responsiveness on the field. Speed is measured by how fast your muscles can contract and not by how strong your muscles are. The irony here however is that, you can run faster only if your muscles contract faster.

Research done by various experts’ shows that a blend of resistance cable exercises and isometric exercises can lead to an increase I muscular speed.

Latest researches point out that to increase muscular speed use of a combination of resistance cable exercises and isometric exercises is quite effective. These exercises are believed to do the conditioning of the body muscles for better velocity on the ground. Many of these isometric exercises are misunderstood to be strength training schedules and sometimes the claim is proved to be right. Nevertheless when incorporated aptly, these exercises could turned out to be the most effective football speed training systems as well. Football speed workout, as the term implies, are training schedules and programs, which are designed in order to release muscular energy that can be translated into speed on the football field.

How to achieve speed on the field would be one among the critical questions arising in the minds of promising football players. The so called Isometric exercises that are practiced during the strength training mode would help developing some extra speed. However, this particular exercise when combined with the resistance cable workouts could result as an important feature of football speed workouts. These types of football speed training and workouts would ensure speedy mobility of muscles, essentially where it really counts, like on the football ground. More info here http://www.tinyurl.com.au/62c

Visit www.FootballCoachingSecrets.com for more football coaching videos. In this episode, we review several strength and speed exercises you can add to your football conditioning workouts. Bench press, power cleans and agility ladder drills are demonstrated.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

High School Football Workouts

High School Football Workouts to Increase Strength, Speed and Explosiveness at the Same Time

Football training for high school needs to be centered around workouts that address strength, speed and explosiveness at the same time. The outdated model of working on strength for 4 weeks, then speed, then peaking is a waste of time. It may work for the rank beginner, but after a few months, you’re spinning your wheels. Any kind of weight training workouts for high school football players must address all these elements concurrently!

Football is a game of speed, power, and strength.

Your football training should address this. High school players especially have to continually build their max strength. Simply doing more reps won’t cut it. Nor does increasing strength in your 6, 8 or 10 rep sets! It all comes down to max strength.

All workouts should be structured like this:

Start fast, then go heavy, then do some reps…rotate exercises and include very football specific movements. The key is in knowing how to rotate and which exercises to pick.

When you rotate exercises, start fast, go heavy, then do reps, you are building strength year-round while also getting faster and more explosvie. Why would anyone want to waste all that time? Waste 4 weeks and your opponets have a 4 week head start on you!

While the average gym rat can get away with wasted movements, exercises that don’t do a damn thing and literally weeks wasted training on do-nothing movements, we football players can not. Our off season is short and there is no time to waste. So, while your non-football buddy can go F-around with Rear Facing Reverse Hammer Cable Kettle Curls, we have to get down to the business of getting faster and stronger. If he wastes time? No big deal. If WE do? The competition now has an advantage.

High School Football Workout – Upper Body

 

Jump Rope – 3 x 30

Kneeling Chest Pass-Throw – 5 throws

1-Board Bench – 45 x 3, 95 x 3, 135 x 3, 160 x 3, 185 x 3, 200 x 3, 225 x 3, 185 x 8 (back-off set for extra volume to help gain weight)

DB Incline – 4 x 6

Low Cable Row – 4 x 8

 

Shrugs – 3 x 8

DB Front & Lateral Raises – 3 x max reps (super set with Shrugs)

Thats one front raise, then one lateral raise.

Medicine Ball Chops – 2 x 12, each side

 

Motivational video of preseason workouts during the summer of 2007 with highlights of the 2006 season. The song is Stronger by Kanye West. Join the Georgia Tech YouTube group: www.youtube.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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