I need a training regimen

garroad_ran

I play soccer in a men's league. I'm 30, coming up on 31, but most of the guys on my team are in their mid 20s. I am not ashamed to admit that I'm basically the most useless player on the team, but I'd really like to change that.

At the moment I have a light workout routine: squat, deadlift, bench press, military press, two lifts a day, mon/wed/thurs. it's a great routine for me, but it doesn't do much to help me with my biggest problem as it relates to soccer: stamina.

One or two sprints down the field and I'm completely worn out!

I would appreciate any advice you guys have that might help me perform better.

incidentally, I live in one of the snowiest places in the world, so outside running is pretty much a no-go until late April, and I'd like to start training for the summer season already

JohnnyCache

How mobile are you now? Can you run, say, 5k fairly comfortably?
If so, I would look into HIIT (high intensity interval training). It's a system of alternating sprints and jogs that is basically the gold standard for increasing your stamina for something like soccer of basketball.

Madpoet

I took up Rugby at 30, and ran into much the same issues. Still strong, but no endurance. I did HIIT cardio for a while, but I hate running alone, so it didn't last. I was able to get much the same effect with circuit training and Tabatas. You can do the latter with just body weight, though I prefer squatting with a lightly weighted bar. Since you're stuck indoors, that might be a good option for you.

garroad_ran

Cool, thanks guys. I've heard about hiit before, but have never come across a program that details roughly what to do, how often, and what milestones I should be reaching for. One of the things that keeps me motivated for basic lifts is the fact that I keep records of how much I lift every day, and it's nice to "make the bars go up," so to speak.

Tabatas also seems like it could be promising! I'll try to incorporate some of that into my current routine and see how it goes.

cmsamo

I'm making the assumption that you are playing 11-a-side soccer/football here?

Back in my younger days our manager would make the team do 'lamppost' runs around the local streets. Basically, find a block or two of pavement and use the street lamps as your guides for sprint/jogging. Football fitness is all related to interval training, and this will help, if you can do it when the weather improves.

Start jogging, and once you pass two street lamps, then put in a sprint to the next street lamp. Then jog the next two, then sprint the 3rd etc. This of course is only good for you after April. There are apps that can ape this low-tech approach by letting you set interval timers which beep in your ears when you need to sprint. If you do go running, and you have a fitness app, then maybe try that? The one I used to use was Endomondo, buy you needed the paid version of the app to do the intervals.

Seeing as you are confined to the indoors, the other way to build up football endurance would be to find an indoor 5-a-side game. This form of the game tends to be much more intensive rather than the stop/start of 11-a-side and is a great way to (a) improve technical skills, and (b) build football endurance.

Ultimately, I've always found that the best way to build endurance for football is to put in the running. I have a program that we use but it needs a running track - Not many places have a gym with an accessible indoor 400m track though!