It doesn’t matter if your name is Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo – you need lung-bursting levels of stamina to last 90 minutes.
Footballers cover on average 10 kilometres every game, but doing laps of your local park won’t be enough to get you in top shape.
We’ve rounded up all our best stamina drills and gym workouts, as well as tips from top players, to ensure you can cover every blade of grass. Enjoy…
Stamina drills
We know you’re probably spending £50 a month on a gym membership, but all you need to improve stamina on a football pitch is a pair of boots and a bit of grass. Below we’ve got a range of drills you can do on your own or as a team to improve your ability to get up and down the pitch.
Fitness for a box-to-box midfielder
Improve your speed, stamina and strength
Three drills to help football endurance
Interval training for football
Make your engine work faster, harder and longer
Premier League stamina workouts
Love them or hate them, Premier League footballers are super-fit athletes. With that in mind, who better to ask how to boost your endurance than the players themselves? Click on one of the following links and you’ll soon have the fitness of a professional footballer…
George Boyd: Learn to last the full 90 minutes
Jack Rodwell: How to play box-to-box
Ashley Young: Outrun the opposition
Shane Long: Build lung bursting endurance
Get fit with Liverpool: Part five
Improve endurance with Manchester United
Stamina shortcuts
Not everyone has the time to spend an hour at the gym or doing doggies at the park. Our short, sharp sessions designed by Premier League fitness coaches will ensure you get fit in double quick time, meaning you’ll have longer to lay on the sofa watching the pros get a sweat on instead.
How fit are professional footballers?
Build endurance and a rock solid core
Rev up your early season engine
The fastest way to stay in shape
Alternative stamina training
If you fancy a change of scenery from a football pitch then there are a host of different sports that can help build football endurance. Long distance runners, cyclists and even hurdlers require supreme stamina and we spoke to a load of top athletes to get their advice on how to run for longer.
What your game can learn from…long distance running
What your game can learn from cycling
What your game can learn from other sports
