Can someone please explain 'Functional Lifting for Soccer'?

[OMARSCOMING]

I have been playing soccer all my life more or less. I also really enjoy lifting and try to get in 3 sessions a week.

I have found that building muscle only slows me down - when the soccer season starts it takes a few months until I'm back to my best ad most agile.

I understand that you can lift in a way that actually allows you build strength/explosiveness while still being agile and quick on your feet, can someone please explain how this is done? I came across an article online that stated how the worlds top players lift for power.

[ConnorPatt]

Well if you aren't conditioning/running in your off season whilw you're gaining weight, you're bound to slow down.
As for explosive power and soccer, I have no clue

[amar654]

Get on a beginner program. SS is great. Keep practicing everyday and you will remain quick and agile

[OMARSCOMING]

Get on a beginner program. SS is great. Keep practicing everyday and you will remain quick and agile

Do you think this would be beneficial?

I have tried it before but i didn't do it for very long.

[amar654]

Do you think this would be beneficial?

I have tried it before but i didn't do it for very long.

Yes, every sport needs strength and power, and soccer is no exception. The program will give you the power, and practice will give you the skill and the ability to learn how to use that power.

[timfreysc]

Building muscle makes you slow because your training with slow rate of force development, you need to be power training or using plyometrics. Research it! A good way to think about off season training would be 4 weeks for hypertrophy, 4 weeks for strength, 4 weeks for power! lets the improved performance roll!!

[krakkerz]

Building muscle makes you slow because your training with slow rate of force development

No, it doesn't. Not now. Not ever. Which is interesting because your advice after that is good.

[BananaTree23]

i think you should workout when season is over....cause if you start lifting mid season or whatever..your gonna be sore and your legs will be fatigue

[amar654]

i think you should workout when season is over....cause if you start lifting mid season or whatever..your gonna be sore and your legs will be fatigue

Lets all make a consensus, we dont listen to this idiot.

[4lefac]

During my practice we barely lift except if its pre season because during the season all we do is run, and practice our skills. Other than that when it comes to lifting we are on our own. So what i do is i just workout what ever body part i have to workout that day before practice starts. OK to build muscle and remain fast you have to be conditioning(for example: sprinting 100m 5 times 200m 5 times and 400m 5 times), and you have to lift explosively. For example, if your benching you will slowly go down, and then explode back up real fast, and you will do this for every rep. This helps build fast twitch fiber's. If your squatting you will slowly go down, and then explode back up and do that for every rep. You get what I'm saying? Also keep your BF% low.

[blitz042000]

No, it doesn't. Not now. Not ever. Which is interesting because your advice after that is good.

I respectfully disagree with you. Hence the dynamic effort method, if you train slower you not training your neural drive to get faster and thus the recruitment of muscle fibers will slow down. This is the point of lifts like the snatch or clean. This make periodization important, you need to spend time under tension to build muscle. The downside is grinding out reps. Then you move onto strength training to teach the CNS to recruit more muscle fibers. Finally, a power phase will develop the neural drive that allows an athlete to become more powerful and faster.

[krakkerz]

I respectfully disagree with you. Hence the dynamic effort method, if you train slower you not training your neural drive to get faster and thus the recruitment of muscle fibers will slow down. This is the point of lifts like the snatch or clean. This make periodization important, you need to spend time under tension to build muscle. The downside is grinding out reps. Then you move onto strength training to teach the CNS to recruit more muscle fibers. Finally, a power phase will develop the neural drive that allows an athlete to become more powerful and faster.

I think you are trying to bring something to the thread that is well outside the scope of what has been discussed. When you do that, you can disagree with just about anything and make a good point.

If you'd like to have a discussion at a more advanced level, I'd be happy to on another thread. I like sharing and learning. But that's not what this is.

The reality of the post I responded to is that it effectively makes two assertions. One is that building muscle makes you slow and the other is that hypertrophy training is necessarily non-accelerative. Neither of these is true and it is well demonstrated.

In terms of the points you've made, I don't necessarily disagree with anything. That's aside from the fact I use a different terminology and less strict interpretations.

As I said, if you would like to start a thread to discuss some more advanced concepts, please do.

[bertabama]

Focus on exercises that build lower body explosiveness eg. squats. Building lower body explosiveness with weight training will give you an edge that those who lift don't have.