football trainingEveryone has their own opinion of professional footballers, some members of the public think that they are overpaid, lazy, and just wear their Premier League kits each week for millions of pounds of wages per week. However kicking a ball around for 90 minutes every Saturday is not all they have to do, there is a huge amount of training and fitness that they have to go through each week in order to stay in the team, never mind play for the starting 11. Medical assessments also take place regularly to assess whether each player is fit to carry on playing. When any player moves from club to club they must undertake a medical to check their fitness but this is not a one off procedure and happens quite often, this is another reason professional footballers must keep training, to improve fitness to be sure of their place in the team.

The Premier League is one of the most popular and physical leagues in the world and the players must train hard as the amount of players being signed up during transfer windows is mounting and the manager will only pick who he thinks is fit and healthy enough to play. Aerobic endurance fitness is one type of training that all football players must undertake; this really works all parts of the body and is a great type of work out. Managers often use cross training and incorporate fitness into their training drills; the training coaches will have set out a plan for each session and explain what the squad have to do.

Most clubs use fitness exercises that you can do at home or in the gym, certain exercises such as squats, walking lunges and dumbbell squats. All of these exercises can be easily achieved and these are a few of the ways you can train like a Premier League footballer. A typical regime for a footballer would probably start like this, this is an example of one former managers training plan for the week:

- Saturday - AM or PM - Usual Premier League fixture
- Sunday - An active recovery session, this could be cycling for 15-20 minutes
- Monday - Extended recovery session, a day of light training, maybe technical work to see that the squad have fully recovered ready for more intensive training on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
- Tuesday - AM - High intensity training, this could be continuous small sided football games with no goals or a man to man match where you must follow a fellow player wherever he goes.
- PM - Strength and power work such as squats, bench pressing and pull-ups.
- Wednesday - AM - Moderate to high intense training work, possession drills and 11- a side tactical play.
- PM - Power development and complex training - a mixture of strength and fitness looking at explosiveness, this could be hurdle jumps for example.
- Thursday - AM - Low intensity work usually focusing on tactical preparation, speed and reaction times usually timed. Short shuttle runs sometimes take place at the blow of a whistle.

During times when teams have three or four games lined up in a week , the tactical preparation and recovery is a priority. After looking at an example of a typical footballer's regime I can now see how the manager can make his choice depending on how each player has performed in training that week. With so many different areas that get worked on the manager can really see which player's will be fit for the game or not. Even though the millions of pounds are a bit much and some players are over-rated I have no doubt that they are put through their paces every day of the week and the only time they have free time throughout the year is when the season finishes. Players have around 4-5 weeks when the season ends to do as they please then they are back for pre-season training to try and regain their fitness.

What are your thoughts on footballer's training? Do you think that they are just paid way too much to wear the Premier League football kits even though they have tough training sessions?

Let us know your thoughts.
Emily writes exclusively for Soccer Box, here you can buy your very own official shirt, kit, training wear or souvenir.