Using Periodization to Adjust Your Workouts for Greater Success

Using Periodization to Adjust Your Workouts for Greater Success

As an athlete, you know very well that your body responds to training. Having a proper training program is important. Many times people assume that more is better, that is, training more will produce better results. However, science says that this is not always the case.

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Vary Your Workouts to Maximize Gains

Vary Your Workouts to Maximize Gains

When playing soccer, you need to be able to compete for a long period of time at different intensity levels. While all of us would love to be able to sprint at top speed for the entire match, our bodies are not equipped to be able to do so. In addition, there are times when slowing down makes more sense tactically. Different length workouts improve different fitness components.

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A Different Kind of High Intensity Workout

A Different Kind of High Intensity Workout

Since soccer is a sport that requires explosive actions separated by periods of recovery, the best way to improve your fitness is to do just that – perform activities of high intensity followed by some rest.

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Save your Legs and Build Endurance

Save your Legs and Build Endurance

Newton’s law states that for every force, there is an equal and opposite force.   For soccer athletes, that means that every time your foot hits the ground, the ground is actually hitting you.  Each impact is a collision that your body has to absorb.  While it may not seem significant, if you add up all of the training volume from fitness sessions, practice sessions, games, pick up, etc.  that can be a heavy toll on the body.  In order to stay healthy and keep yourself fresh for the season, you have to budget your ground contacts.  Other than games and practices, high intensity activities like sprinting and plyometrics should be the only other time your feet hit the ground during training.  Don’t waste your ground contacts on slow runs of 30+ minutes.  While these are necessary for building cardio endurance, the overall volume can do more harm than good.

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6 Off-Season Fitness Workouts to Improve Game Speed Fitness

6 Off-Season Fitness Workouts to Improve Game Speed Fitness

Improve your game speed fitness. SoccerFit Academy provides us with 6 Off-Season Fitness Workouts to Improve Game Speed Fitness and a Manchester United Fitness Test that you can do to work on your fitness.

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Top 15 of 2015

Top 15 of 2015

Here are the top 15 viewed articles that you read the most in 2015 from Amplified Soccer Athlete. We look forward to providing more articles and resources in 2016 to support you in the journey to #AmplifyYourGame.

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Your Off-Season Training Guide Preview

Your Off-Season Training Guide Preview

Here are previews of some of the articles from our December "Off-Season Training" Issue. 

Most professional athletes have the advantage of getting professional trainers to plan their off-season training program for them. Most everyone else doesn’t have that luxury. That’s why we’ve worked to put together some resources in this issue specifically to help you get better during the off-season.

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Taking Care of Your Body and Mind

Taking Care of Your Body and Mind

It was a bright, sunny day in Colorado with not a cloud in the sky. The perfect weather to train, and what I thought would be the start to a great week. I arrived at Dicks Sporting Goods Park, greeted my teammates, got treatment, put on my training gear, laced up my boots, and walked across the parking lot to the training pitch like I always did. 

We began with a game of 5v2 while the coaches set up the day’s session. The whistle blew, and it was time to start practice. Jogging to begin the warm up was routine, something that didn't require an abundance of energy, usually. 

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Are you fit enough for the start of your season?

Are you fit enough for the start of your season?

For serious athletes, being prepared for your season is not something you begin doing the week before the season starts. Getting stronger, improving your level of play, and being in top condition is not something that happens overnight. There are no shortcuts. It takes time, hard work, and a consistent effort to be at your best.

You need to be strong enough and in good enough condition to be able to play soccer for a couple hours each day, starting with pre-season and going all the way through your season. This also means maintaining your nutrition and doing strength training to prevent injuries so you can play at the top of your game.

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Top 10 in Our First 100 Days

Top 10 in Our First 100 Days

With our first 100 days of Amplified Soccer Athlete now behind us and more than 1,000 downloads of the app under our belt, we wanted to recap the top 10 viewed articles from the website to showcase some of our partners and writers.

Thanks to everyone that has made this possible (see full list at the end of the article), for our great audience and for the motivation to keep providing this resource!

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From the Magazine - Get Fit by Going Fast

From the Magazine - Get Fit by Going Fast

Soccer is a series of high intensity runs, like sprinting, that are separated by some lower intensity activities, like jogging, walking, or standing. The best players are the ones that can continue to perform high intensity activities later in the game. There have been numerous studies that investigate the speed and distance covered by soccer players. In a study I worked on, we found that English professional players cover on average over 11 km per match, with up to 1200 m (3/4 mile) covered while sprinting. Others found that teams that tend to win also tend to cover more sprinting distance in the last 15 minutes of the game than those who lost.

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