Q & A

A GREAT EXERCISE FOR INJURY PREVENTION

A great exercise to strengthen the stabilizing tissue around the ankle, knee and hip joints for the purpose of injury prevention is the Step Up. This exercise is a standard in most strength and conditioning programs but I like to add a few different variations to the movement to make it more challenging. The first variation is to change the line of resistance by using Dumbbells or a Barbell; the barbell is the more demanding of the two because it also involves the core and upper body to stabilize the bar.  Another variation is to change the box height.  By making the box just 1 inch higher makes the exercise that much harder by adding a greater range of motion to the movement.  Any unilateral exercise can benefit the athlete in the area of injury prevention but this movement is great to start your program with and then progress into more difficult movements such as the single leg squat. 

Exercise Description:

Starting Position: Start with one foot on the box and other foot on the ground.  As you start the upward phase of the movement, concentrate on driving your heel into the box in an explosive manner.  You should be using the leg that is on the box to perform the entire range of motion during the upward phase. 

Middle Position: Balance on the foot that is on box at the top of the movement and pause for one second.  Concentrate on extending and balancing of your single leg. This targets the stability in the joints of the leg and works on proprioception (body awareness). 

Finish Position: Descend down on the single leg as slow as possible. Perform all repetitions on one leg and then switch to the other leg.   

For this exercise I would recommend 3 sets of 8 reps with 1-minute rest between sets.

Q & A

Mark,
Recently received your manual and have been using it with my team for off-season work.  The strength workouts are great and my question for you is this – how should I integrate conditioning work outs within your strength method during the off-season without compromising results?

Thanks,

J.R.

A Thank you for the kind words about the manual. As for your question, in terms of placing conditioning sessions within a training week without compromising results in the weight room, I recommend that you schedule your week as follows during the off-season:

Monday: Max Effort Lower Body Workout

Tuesday: Conditioning Session – Light intensity – Longer Runs

Wednesday – Off

Thursday – Max Effort Upper Body Workout

Friday – Conditioning Session – High intensity – Sprint Work

Saturday and Sunday – Off

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

 

Question and Answer Section:

You can ask Mark any question dealing with Strength and Conditioning for Soccer players and he will address two or three questions each month.

Mark now has his strength training manual Williams Soccer Strength Method available on his website!