Ask A PT: How Do I Get Back In Shape For 5-A-Side?
Dear Luke,
The World Cup is getting me all misty-eyed about my playing career (second choice left back for my high school team - 1998-99). I think it’s time to dust-off the boots and get back on the pitch. What’s your advice for getting into shape for a 5-a-side league?
Paul
Hi Paul,
You're certainly not alone on want to get back out there - where I live you can't pass a piece of grass without seeing a bunch of Harry Kanes living the dream. In my opinion a World Cup - or a Wimbledon, or even a Wiffleball tournament for that matter - is doing its job properly when it inspires people into grass roots sport.
With regards to getting back on the five-a-side court – my principle piece of advice is to train to get fit for your sport, rather than relying on your sport to get you fit. The cornerstone of every aspect of fitness is strength. Often when I explain this to a client or an athlete, they assume this is only applicable to power-based sports such as sprinting or weightlifting, but it's equally true when preparing to play field sports.
If we consider the movements and demands you place on your body when playing a multi-directional field sport such as 5-a-side - running, sprinting, cutting, turning - really what you’re doing is applying force into the ground in a multitude of directions and pushing off it in a multitude of other directions. To do this without hurting yourself requires adequate strength to absorb the impact of landing, decelerate you and then propel you off in another direction.
I am making an assumption from your question that you’re looking to get back to playing after a period of lay off… in this situation, a balanced strength program is even more important to avoid injury. In every day life we tend to live and move in straight lines - we sit at the desk, on the train, at the table – and even when we go to the gym to exercise we run on treadmills, sit on spin bikes or choose activities like squats and press ups, all of which are fantastic ways to burn calories and get generally ‘fitter’ but don’t really help you recreate your Cruyff Turn and bury one in the top corner with confidence.
My advice to you is to undertake a balanced strength training program that involves moving in 3 planes of motion: forwards-backwards, left-right, and rotation, as closely as possible preparing your ankles, knees, hips and lower back for being able to glide effortlessly through a defence, but also for the Klinsmann dive or the Shearer salute.
Creating your own multidirectional (tri-planar) strength program is possible, and my suggestions would be to begin with body weight, and progress gradually to adding load. As a general rule of thumb I advise progressions of no more than 10% a week in terms of load OR volume (not both!).
However, if you have access to a qualified fitness professional who is competent and experienced in carrying out biomechanics assessments, they will be able to help you prioritise the movements that you are less competent at and perhaps spend a little less time working on the ones you already have mastered. Movement assessments don’t have to be especially complicated or time consuming. I created a standardised assessment and program design system for Third Space called Out / Set that is offered to all members for free and carried out by a qualified trainer. The movement assessment takes approximately 20 mins to complete, and although it might mean that your first visit to the gym is more of a sounding out than a sweat fest, having a little bit of patience on this is well worth it in my opinion.
Take your time to get it right this time and hopefully you’ll still be playing by the next World Cup - and maybe, just maybe, by the time we eventually win one.
Got a question for Luke? Tweet us @EsquireUK using the hashtag #askaPT
Luke Worthington is an Elite Master Trainer and Trainer Educator at Third Space Group. He's also a former professional rugby player and a former world endurance record holder.
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