Getting back to sport level fitness

redzerologhlen

Howr ye all, 23 year old lad a bit new to this side of boards so take it easy on me .

When I was a bit younger (up to 19) I used to play an awful lot of football, between training and matches I was playing I was out 4/5 evenings every week kicking a ball and I was very fit at the time. I lost interest a bit then when I was in college and havent played much the last few years since and fitness levels have dropped dramatically as a result. I went back playing junior A football for a while earlier in the year and while none of the team were really that fit it was really annoying me that I wasnt as fast off the block and didnt have the stamina that i used to have and how I had taken it for granted. Anyway football is coming to and end for the year and I would like to try and get myself into better shape for 2014 but I dont really know where to start. Nearest gym is a half an hour away and I was thinking about joining for the winter. Never been to a gym before so I dont really know where to start there. I could walk for miles and miles without any discomfort but the short sprints I was used to doing are taking a lot longer to recover from. 5'11'', fairly broadly built and 11.5 stone. Wouldnt be overweight or heavy by any means and all I want to do is recover my fitness really. Any tips on the best way to approach it would be greatly appreciated.

Alf Veedersane

I'll leave the gym for a moment but you'll need to get onto some HIIT to get the fitness back for football.

Ease yourself into it with something like 3-4 mins jog until you're warmed up then go as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds followed by 1 minute of a very light jog. Rinse and repeat for about 15-20 mins.

The other variant is to do it by distance, e.g. 200m all out and then 400m light jog etc etc.

After a while you can up the fast time/distance or shorten the rest time/distance.