Exercises for Football Strength and Conditioning

The below exercises are Ben Rosenblatt’s top staples in football strength and conditioning. Their effectiveness lies in their ability to target specific aspects of performance while offering a variety of challenges, including intensity, perturbation, and neuromuscular control. By incorporating these exercises into training programs and gradually increasing their complexity, coaches and trainers can help football players develop the necessary physical attributes for success on the field.

Kettlebell swings: are often underrated but have been highly impactful in their application. This exercise is known for its ability to develop lower body power, particularly eccentrically in the hip extensors. This is an important exercise to protect the hamstrings  and enhance their capacity to generate explosiveness during movements such as sprinting and changing direction.

Drop Jump Squats: This exercise involves a drop before a jump, resulting in a high eccentric demand during the task. The drop squat with a concentric jump is an underrated exercise that can generate a significant eccentric impulse despite employing low loads. This exercise helps improve explosive power and eccentric strength while simultaneously challenging the neuromuscular system.

Drop Jumps: This exercise also aims to reduce contact time and enhance ankle stiffness, which can be beneficial for football players. By incorporating biofeedback and tracking contact times, players can monitor their progress and make necessary adjustments to optimise performance.

Multi-directional lunge: Involve performing lunges in multiple directions. By introducing perturbation through a slosh bag or an external object, players are required to challenge their postural control while executing braking tasks. This exercise provides a low-intensity stimulus to the lower body while promoting high levels of perturbation, making it an effective training tool.

Lateral hops: Over a given distance, combined with feedback on contact times, are a highly valuable exercise. This exercise targets lateral power, stability, and coordination, which are essential for cutting, sidestepping, and changing direction on the football field. These types of activities are often performed by players, but the intensity of effort required to elicit a physical change is frequently overlooked.

Free Football Resources:

About Ben: ‍

Ben led the physical performance of the England men's pathway and the Senior Men's team to 2 World Cups (2018 & 2022) and 1 Euros (2020). Prior to this he physically prepared the GB & England Women's Hockey team to become Olympic & European Champions. He led the rehab science of the BOA and EIS , has a PhD in biomechanics and has coached in the PL and EFL. He is the founder of 292 Performance which provides high performance support to high performing people & teams.