Footballers who do strength training not only become faster and more agile, but are also far less likely to incur injuries. Researchers at the Higher Institute of Sport and Physical Education in Tunisia have written about this in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. The Tunisian study suggests that strength training can reduce the risk of injury by more than a third.
Study The researchers divided 52 young footballers, aged 13-14, into two groups. One group did strength training twice a week from September to March [Training Group; TG] and the other group did no strength training [Control Group; CG].
To prevent overtraining from happening the training group took a one-week break from training every three weeks.
Each strength training session lasted 90 minutes and consisted of regular and plyometric exercises. The sessions were specially designed to help prevent injuries.
Results The group of footballers that did not do strength training had 3.25 times as many injuries as the footballers in the group that did do strength training. The strength training not only protected the players against torn muscles, but also reduced the chance of ankle injuries.
Source: J Strength Cond Res. 2016 May;30(5):1295-307.
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