VIDEO: Pre-season gym workout: Week 2

FLOOR POSTURE SLIDES

Bulletproof your shoulders with this pre-hab exercise. Lying with your back flat on the floor, put your arms up above you, with the back of your hands flat on the ground. Lower your elbows towards your hips until they’re in a right angle position, before extending them back to their original position.

A slight progression/variation to the kneeling wall throws we did last week. In the video we use a football, but this exercise is probably best with a medicine ball. Sink down into the split-stance squat position, with your left foot forward keeping your right knee off the floor, and your core switched on. Rotating from your hips, look to release the medicine ball as your force your right hip forward, before catching the ball again and following the same plane of motion back to your original position. This can be done against a wall if your mates are busy!

Want to develop that upper-body strength so you can hold off defenders? Get this exercise done! Load the barbell with a weight heavy enough to challenge you, but not too heavy to hurt you. With feet slightly wider than shoulder width, lift up the barbell with an overhand grip. Hinging over at the hips with the barbell in line with your thighs, drive your elbows towards the ceiling, whilst keeping them relatively close to your body. Keep the movement controlled.

This is one of the most important strength exercises for football and should be used in every training program. They’ll fire up those glutes and strengthen the muscles in your hamstrings. The Romanian deadlift (RDL) is a hip hinge movement, which generally involves a relatively fixed position of the knee and lower leg while the hips flex and move backwards. Load the barbell with a challenging but manageable weight. With your feet slightly wider than shoulder width, get hold of the barbell with an overhand grip. Hinging forwards from the hips, keep your arms long and drop the barbell until it gets just past your knees. Reverse the movement until you get back to your original position.

Using two dumbbells of a relatively challenging weight, the alternating bent-over rows act as a variation of the bent-over barbell rows we performed earlier in the session. Again, hinging over at the hips with the dumbbells close to your thighs. Drive each elbow alternatively towards the ceiling, ensuring you keep the rest of your body stable. Add weight for a further challenge, but ensure the technique isn’t sacrificed.

Reps: 6

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