Should Footballers go to the Gym?

Football players often wonder if the gym negatively affects their performance on the field. It is commonly believed that the gym makes the body feel heavier, more difficult to maneuver around the field and even slows down movement. This concern is a very common misconception. The gym is a place for training and fitness. It can make your body feel heavier, lighter, stronger…etc. How your body changes with the gym completely depends on how you choose to use the gym. You apply it in the way that suits you best.

Contrary to popular belief, the gym is not only useful for increasing your muscle mass. People choose to use the gym in that manner but that isn’t its only function. Its functions are variable and are dictated by you and the goals you are working to accomplish. You can use it to work on your flexibility, your muscular endurance, your respiratory endurance. At the end of the day, you choose how to make use of the gym.

All footballers go to the gym. So, your feelings of fear towards the gym or your unwillingness to go to the gym is built on many misconceptions that we learnt through rumors. The gym is one of the best places that you can rely on to achieve your fitness goals regardless of what sport you participate in.

If we paid attention to someone like Big Ramy, the two time Mr. Olympia Champion, you would say that his goals are dependent on the gym. At the same time if you looked at a football player like Cristiano Ronaldo you would also think that his physique relies on the gym. Both use the gym as a way to maintain their physical health and appearance yet they are in drastically different conditions.

The concept of increasing or decreasing your body and your muscle size is something that is decided by you and your choice of how you want to use the gym. It doesn’t occur by accident simply because you decided to go to the gym.

Don’t hesitate to explore the gym and discover how it can work in favor of your goals. The baseline is that you need to figure out what your targets are and understand how you want to achieve them. Based on your goals you decide which setting is the most suitable for what you are trying to accomplish. Go to the gym, go to the field, go to any place that you can train in. What’s important is that you know what you are working towards and you understand what the proper steps are to get there.