On Saturday 26th May, Liverpool Football Club, who finished in 4th place in the Premier League, and 12-time champions of Europe, and Real Madrid, go head to head in hopes of winning the Champions League trophy. But as both managers are putting their heads down planning strategies and formations for their players ensuring they are mentally fit for the match, players are also training very hard to be physically fit for the big game! 90 minutes on a pitch running intervals of sprints and jogs whilst constantly on your toes, can be incredibly taxing on the human body, it is said a typical midfielder can cover anywhere between 9.8 – 11.8 km per game. So how does this type of fitness differ from the type of fitness most of us experience or train for when at the gym? To find out, we’ve broken this post down into 5 main categories which we think sum up fitness best: Healthy, Functional, Athletic. Under each category, we will discuss and then compare the two types of fitness to help you better understand the training involved and level of fitness that goes into football and gym training.
Note: it is also important to understand that we are not by any means attempting to debunk the training of gym goers or footballers, nor are we looking to draw a conclusion about which type of training is more impressive or significant, that argument would be far too opinionated, especially given “fitness” is hard to measure in terms of importance, it truly depends on what you are training for, but for a more in-depth look at this concept check out Ross Edgley’s podcast on The Law of Specific Skill.
HEALTHY
By this we strictly mean healthy, nothing more nothing less. Is the training healthy for the body? Now excluding anything diet related, let’s look at Oxford Dictionary’s definition of
- Oxford definition – “Healthy”: In a good physical or mental condition; in good health.
Vague? We agree, let’s refine that definition to understand the idea of being healthy at a level more relative to fitness.
- FFUK (unofficial) definition – “Healthy”: A physical and mental state where the body is functioning at it’s optimal as a result of external input.
Now the question is, how does football make athletes more healthy and how does gym training make us more healthy? Well according to one site, footballers train 5 days a week, 4-5 hours per day, taxing all three energy systems, including the ATP-PCr, Glycolytic and Oxidative systems, per game. One 15-minute rest period and short minute rest periods spread over a consecutive 90-minute or more game, football is no joke, it is tough and incredibly tiring on the body if not conditioned well. Generally, football training is considered a very healthy sport, especially for improved cardiovascular and muscular health. One 2015 study, however, looked at the “Mental and psychosocial health among current and former professional footballers” concluding a relatively high prevalence of mental health problems and/or psychosocial difficulties in current and former professional footballers, however, the presence of mental health problems was associated with low social support and recent life events. With gym training, however, it is more difficult to distinguish if it is healthy or not without knowing the exact program being used, so for example if you combine weight training and cardio training together with progressive overload in mind, then said training can be considered very healthy especially with regards to muscular development and improved cardiac function. On the other hand, if gym training is combined with external supplements or stimulants from untrustworthy brands, the healthiness of the training changes.
ATHLETIC
Not a difficult one, but let’s discuss why. Football clearly consists of a highly athletic style of training, endurance, speed, agility, and skill trained synonymously, whilst having prior talent, is what builds a successful football athlete. How about gym training? Well, gym training has come a long way and has displayed a thorough journey of evolvement over the years. Recently gyms have seen an introduction of more basic functional equipment being installed in order to encourage members to pursue athleticism over sole vanity training.
FUNCTIONAL
Let’s start with football, for no particular reason at all. Football is a full body sport, however, there is a slight dominance in the lower half of the body where most skill and function is trained. Although coaches encourage professional players to train the entirety of their body, there is much focus on lower body training as this will increase playing performance most, which is why upper body function is not as trained as lower body. That being said, football players are among the most taxing sports out there, they are expected to cover long distance runs during each game with the ability move quickly when necessary, be agile, skilful and tactile all at the same time with winning in mind. Gym training is once again sceptical if training for looks then hypertrophy is the main training style employed which focusses on muscular growth but not function. However, if training in the gym for performance, such as Crossfit, Weightlifting or Powerlifting, then being functional is imperative.
If you found this post insightful, why not check out some of our previous posts on our blog page or if you are interested in becoming a qualified personal trainer check out our main page for course information and if you have any questions feel free to email us at info@focusfitnessuk.com.
Written by Daniyal Siddiqui.