The best football gym workout

As Sefton explains, football players require a “high level of aerobic fitness” as games typically last 90 minutes: a demanding feat of endurance. Young agrees: “Footballers will be asked to repeatedly sprint, accelerate, decelerate, change direction and jump, so training in the gym must be directed at building lower-body muscular endurance, strength and power.”

Sefton recommends core-focused strength training as well as exercises which target your lower limbs to achieve the best football leg workout. The coach, who has also helped rehabilitate professional footballers, says, “I personally find the cable machines helpful as well as an incline leg press.”

Young agrees with the use of a leg press as well as a Glute-Ham Developer to focus on building your glutes and hamstrings. To mimic the action on the field, Young adds that “treadmills could also be used to carry out short, high intensity running if necessary.”

However, machines aren’t necessarily the end-all and be-all. “They aren’t always as efficient as, say, a simple barbell,” says Sefton.

Sets that include squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, bench presses and rowing movements for your upper body are a great place to start for the machine-adverse – allowing people to build upon their routine as their muscle groups get stronger.

Young also advises “functional core work” using resistance bands, as well as running routines which focus on both aerobic (“longer, more steady state distance training”) and anaerobic (“shorter, high intensity training”) exercises. For those at home, she also says lunges and split squats are great options if you don’t have access to a full weight rack.

However, Sefton stresses the importance of speaking to an accredited professional such as a personal trainer before embarking on a new training routine. “We must ensure it is periodised to lower risk of injury and get the most out of the programme.”