Training and testing physical capacities for elite football players

Top football matches are characterized by increased work and increased movement velocity. Football players spend a substantial amount of time to improve physical capacities such as aerobic endurance and strength and the strength derivatives speed and power. The average oxygen uptake for international level football teams is reported to range from 55 to 68 ml.kg-l-min-I and the half-squat maximal strength from 120 to 180 kg. The hearts' stroke volume has recently been shown to be the element in the oxygen chain that mainly limits aerobic endurance for athletes. This finding has given rise to more intensive training interventions to secure high stroke volumes, that in turn have proved positive in changing both maximal oxygen uptake and football performance in terms of distance covered, involvements with the ball and number of sprints in a game. The training employed has consisted of 4x4 min interval training at 90 to 95% of maximal heart rate uphill running interspersed with 3 min jogging at 70% of maximal heart rate to facilitate removal of lactate. Research has revealed that a football-specific training routine with the ball is as effective as plain running. Strength training to produce neural adaptations has proven effective in changing not only strength in terms of "one repetition maximum", but also sprinting velocity and jumping height in elite football players without any change in body mass. The same training has also improved running economy and thus aerobic endurance performance. The effective training regimen used for a European Champions League team was 4 times 4 repetitions of half-squats with emphasis on maximal mobilisation of force in the concentric action.