Upper Body Training For Soccer

For the video version, click here or on the image above for the full YouTube video!

Well hello there! Fancy meeting you here! I think it’s pretty safe to assume that if you’ve ventured over to this article, you’re either looking for an upper body workout for soccer, or you are badly lost. So if you’re the former, I hope this page is of much help to you, and if you are the latter, please stay and read this article, and then I hope you find your way to whatever rabbit hole the internet has brought you to. 

Today is your lucky day! Now, maybe you’re thinking otherwise. Possibly you’ve had a very shitty day, and me telling you that it’s your lucky day might just be making it that much more shitty. However, your luck, my friend, is about to turn around! No, I don’t have a car to give you or $1,000,000, buuuut I have the gift of time. Not time as in turning the clock back 10 years to get rid of wrinkles, but rather I’m saving you time… 2 ways actually. First, I’m giving you an awesome upper body workout for soccer that is completely ready to go, sets and reps included, so that’ll save you time of trying to make your own training. Second, unlike my usual articles (if you have not read them, you’re truly missing out cuz I personally think they’re hilarious), today I’m cutting right to the chase. This can be attributed to the finger cramp I am currently having. So you know what they say… one (wo)man’s cramp is another (wo)man’s time saver… or something like that. 

When it comes to soccer, it’s pretty obvious that people predominantly use their lower body. However, you’d be doing yourself a great disservice if you didn’t train your upper body in addition to your lower half. Even though we don’t directly use our upper body as we do in basketball, football, baseball, etc., it is still an imperative aspect of soccer. When it comes to defending the ball, pushing off of someone, going shoulder to shoulder, jumping, falling, sprinting, change of direction, being balanced, etc., the upper body plays a massive role. Especially if we look at sprinting, the mechanisms in which our body generates max power output during this motion is through the sling system, moving our arms in unison with our legs for force production. The power from our lower body works with the power from our upper body through the linkage of the core musculature in order to propel ourselves as fast as possible. This is just one example of why it’s crucial to have a balanced body. If we were all legs and no upper body, we’d get our asses kicked on the soccer field. 

With upper body training for soccer, a lot of the time coaches program circuit type of sessions consisting of high reps, low load, and minimal rest. While this has a time and a place, it is imperative we are also training for relative strength as well. It’s pretty safe to say that we don’t need a massive upper body for soccer, in fact, that’d probably be detrimental to your performance. However, we do need to have upper body strength for all the reasons I stated earlier and then some. Going back to the sprinting example, it’s all about producing max power, and in order to build power, we need to have a solid strength foundation. The stronger we are, the more powerful we can become. While a majority of the power for sprinting comes from the lower body, we cannot discredit the impact the upper body has as well. 

The final thing I’m going to say before giving you this workout is not based on science and is not a valid reason, but I’m going to say it anyways. A reason we should train the upper body is because who the hell doesn’t want a strong and ripped upper body?? I mean most of the time we see someone with a good body, we notice abs (if the shirt is off or unless they’re so good we can see them through the shirt) and the upper body. So while that should be reason enough to train the upper half, that thinking has little to no importance in the realm of performance training. But I just thought it was worth mentioning. 

Doot Da Da Doooo  ??? yes, that was my attempt at announcing something important as if I was a messenger during the King Arthur area. Anyways, here’s the workout: 

*A mid back focus simply refers to consciously keeping the shoulders down (don’t let them elevate up towards your ears). By keeping the shoulders down, we incorporate the lower traps and rhomboids into the exercise, while still using the deltoids to perform the OH press. 

**This pull up complex goes as follows: for each of the 3 sets, do strict pull ups until failure. Once you reach failure, you’re going to perform assisted pull ups with a band for 8 reps, 6 reps, and 6 reps for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd set, respectively. So, for example, on the 1st set, you do regular pull ups till failure, then put your foot in the band as the video shows, and do assisted pull ups for 8 reps. On the 2nd set, regular pull ups till failure, then banded for 6 reps. For the 3rd set, regular pull ups till failure, then banded for 6 reps.

Alrighty guys, that wraps up this workout article. Hopefully it was of some help to all of you looking for an upper body workout for soccer! Make sure you’re checking out our instagram, @powerlux_fitness, and our YouTube Channel for more athletic workouts and ways to train like an athlete for the everyday person! If you’re interested in working with PowerLux Fitness, if you want programming, training, or a consultant, don’t hesitate to reach out! We have top of the line trainers with experience training professional athletes ready to help you!

Until next time, stay rad ??