Why are the players training with weights in South Africa?

[birchwoodgingerste]

Listen do you want them to look like this...

...or this!

Is that micah richards 2010?

 

[Why Always Ste]

If the OP paid any attention, the weight training was one station during a circuit train.

One station.

One whole circuit involved jumping over a set height, pushing your opponent with resistance, pressups, there was loads of different stuff man for different circuits and this for me is primarily to Recondition the whole body which has been doing nothing.

Gives the coaches a nice view of the players Strength & Technique as well...
One would presume they can then correct this technique then look at ways to improve their strength.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

If the OP paid any attention, the weight training was one station during a circuit train.

One station.

One whole circuit involved jumping over a set height, pushing your opponent with resistance, pressups, there was loads of different stuff man for different circuits and this for me is primarily to Recondition the whole body which has been doing nothing.

Gives the coaches a nice view of the players Strength & Technique as well...
One would presume they can then correct this technique then look at ways to improve their strength.

The way the team were knocked off the ball versus Norwich in the last home game, maybe a bit more strength and conditioning work could help.

 

[welsh_andy]

obviously i would have thought strength training to a certain extent would help players not be shoved off the ball, im no expert, so may be completely wrong

 

[LHarper]

In the video they are doing circuit training so the main benefit will be a combination of muscular and aerobic endurance more than strength and power per se.

However, in general, resistance exercise is vital for athletes, including football players for a multitude of reasons including joint stabilisation, increased muscle force production, improved muscle fibre activation and a rise in capillary density (leading to greater muscle oxidative capacity) amongst others.

With regards to fatigue, in pre season there should be a period of 'over-reaching' where players will have a greater fatigue profile than during the season. This fatigue phase may then give rise to 'supercompensation' and the benefits will become apparent. Periodisation is key in football and the players will be currently in the prepatory phase. During the season it is likely that they will be in a predominate maintenance phase depending on the number of matches around that time period.

For people talking about the fact that the players are at altitude - any adaptations caused by the reduced oxygen content are likely to be transient as the acclimatisation period isn't long enough.

Some good journal articles on the topics for people who may be vaguely interested and not bored to death:


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14987126
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14987126
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23301779
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23301779

 

[bobom]

I also saw them drinking yellow energy drinks on the Inside City video. Blue energy drinks are much more effective because they look more refreshing. Yellow drinks look like tepid wee.
These Spaniards don't know what they're doing!

 

[Blue>Red]

I can't get over the naivety of the OP. Staggering.

Different players will differ though in his slight defence, like I don't think we'll see this boy competing with Vinnie on the weights.

 

[garymj]

If you really want to know why the players, use weights, google,"Ross Training.com," to see why athletes use them, very good website and forum to.