Phil Neville: Pre-match warm up

Underestimate the importance of a pre-match warm up at your peril. Skip the stretches and light jog and you'll find yourself performing like a one-legged carthorse, with injury looming on the horizon.

Execute your pre-match warm up with diligence and you will increase your chances of putting in a match winning performance and reduce your risk of injury.

A pre-match warm-up raises the body temperature, increases metabolic activity, quickens the heartbeat and breathing rate and prepares the muscles and nervous system for exercise.

As an added bonus, it helps a player prepare psychologically for a match. In an exclusive video for FourFourTwo Performance Phil Neville, veteran of more than 450 Premier League games, demonstrates his pre-match warm up.

Download Phil Neville’s Football Training iPhone app here.

Also see:
Phil Neville: Sizing up your opponent
Phil Neville: Post match warm down