How Much Do Pros Really Train?

Do you really need to train 4-6 hours?

Author

Footy Tutor
March 04, 2024

Happy Monday, Footyfam!

It’s another amazing week of football and life.

More opportunities to learn, grow, and get better.

We have a pretty short but punchy read today.

Let’s get right into it!

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Lucas Paqueta—West Ham’s Savior?

There are some players that are the glue that holds their team together, and Lucas Paqueta has proven himself to be one of them.

West Ham were without Paqueta for the past two months after he picked up an injury in early January.

It was a grim time without him.

After not being able to win a match without him, they’re back in form and have been able to win their last two with him back on the pitch.

Former Teammates Both Face Bans

Ronaldo and Pogba both found themselves in a bit of hot water this past week.

Though Ronaldo’s water is lukewarm compared to Pogba’s.

CR7 finds himself looking at a one-game suspension for an interesting gesture he made toward opposing fans after they were chanting “Messi.”

On the other hand, Pogba is looking at a 4-year ban after Italy’s anti-doping agency tested him positive for testosterone.

Do you need to train 4-6 hours a day?

Lately, I’ve been hearing more and more about how pros are training for 4-6 hours a day,

And if you want to be a pro, you need to be doing the same.

So I thought we would dive into that today.

This is a calendar from a study done on a Premier League club in-season (they wouldn’t say which one).

Notice that they only have 3 off-days the entire month.

But also notice how many of their sessions are recovery or light training.

7 recovery sessions and 8 light training sessions—these will be shorter, probably around 45–60 minutes.

There’s really only 3 days of full training sessions.

That’s because their focus is fully on being ready for the match.

So watching film and tuning up for the big days is most important.

Realistically, players are probably spending 3–4 hours a day at the facilities.

Only 45–70 minutes of that are going to be spent directly on training or working out.

However, that’s just in-season.

We also have some pre-season data we can look at.

This is a day of pre-season at Wolverhampton.

No doubt, this is a long day on the job, but notice how much of it’s based on actual work and how much of it’s recovery-focused.

A lot of this is prepping the body for the demands of the season to come—about 135 minutes are spent on workouts, while only 35 minutes are spent on technical work.

Obviously, this wouldn’t be an everyday schedule, but it paints a picture of what a day would look like.

Some clubs will use 2-a-days and others won’t.

Long story short, pre-season is going to have the most training volume,

And even then, players definitely won’t be hitting 6 hours of hard training.

They might hit 4, but that kind of work isn’t sustainable and is a 1-2 times per week deal.

Conclusion

The amount that you can train every week is going to vary from person to person and with age.

These players may spend 45–180 minutes training per day, depending on what part of the season they’re in,

But there are always going to be players who are going to do more work after training if their bodies can handle it.

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re young and looking to get better day in and day out.

I encourage you to push to what you can handle with maximum effectiveness.

That means trying to get a lift in before training or doing some skill work for a bit after training.

While you are younger, your body can handle a higher workload.

Don’t run yourself into the ground, but take advantage of the stage you’re at in life.

We’re just trying to find the minimum dose to get the greatest results and adjust from there.

For when you’re ready to improve

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Until next time,

Footytutor