As a footballer, you should train your upper body regularly to be strong in tackles, to prevent injuries and to become faster. That's why we'll show you the 5 most important strength exercises for the upper body that cover all muscle groups. Of course, you can incorporate many more exercises, but if you do these 5 exercises twice a week, you'll be doing very well.
1. Push-ups
The classic: With push-ups you train your chest, shoulder and triceps muscles. It is important that you perform the exercise really cleanly and have a straight back (tension!). We recommend 3x as many repetitions as possible (as long as they are done cleanly).
2. Horizontal rowing
Find a bar that you can use to pull yourself up (see video). As an alternative, you can also do pull-ups. Here you train the upper back muscles, rear shoulder muscles and the biceps. Here again, do 3x as many repetitions as you can.
3. Front plank
When doing the front plank (also called forearm plank), it is important that you keep the tension constant. Start with one minute of exercise and increase as you go. With this exercise you train your stability and your core.
4. Side plank
With the side plank you train the side abdominal muscles as well as part of the lower back. Start with 30 seconds of exercise on each side and then increase as you go.
5. Plank back
With this exercise you train not only your lower back but also your hamstring muscles (posterior thigh muscles). Nevertheless, we include them among the upper body exercises because you are training the opposite of what you train in the previous plank and so you don't get any muscular imbalances. Very important! Start again with 30 seconds of exercise and increase continuously.
