Conditioning plays an important role in any sport, especially in football. If you want to be a professional football player, you better start conditioning your fitness and endurance level early on. Or, if you want to play football again from years of being away from the sport, you have to lose that extra weight and warm up your long hidden football skills with these football conditioning drills.
Uphill Sprints. This exercise will help enhance breathing and leg power. Other alternative for uphill sprints is the beach run. Running in soft sand doesn’t only enhance your leg power but also develops acceleration.
Straight Sprints. Football players often underestimate the conditioning ability of straight sprints because they believe football is purely aerobic, which is wrong. Players must focus more on anaerobic than aerobic conditioning. And keep the sprints below 60 yards; longer than this will defeat the purpose of sprints.
Intervals. This is definitely one of the most popular and most effective exercises for football. Intervals can be done anywhere, and only takes minimal amount of time to be completed. If you’re doing it in a track, start by jogging the straight side and sprinting on its curved sides. Repeat this cycle for 5-7 lapses and increase as you progress day by day.
One Leg Squats. One leg squats is the best exercise for leg endurance. You may feel a little aching afterwards but will certainly improve your leg strength. Start by standing on a platform and lowering off one leg until you are below parallel. Then stand up with the use of your other leg. Make 10 of this on each leg and repeat the set 3 times.