How to warm up and stretch quickly and easily before football

Today I'm going to help you warm up for your football game with friends.

It is very important that you warm up before exercising, or you may risk injury. Everyone knows someone who strained a muscle or tore a ligament playing football. That's why I've put together a series of stretches, very important tips, and simple warm-up exercises for you to prepare for your football.

None of these exercises require coordinated or rehearsed movements like those you see professional players doing on the field. All the movements selected here are simple, and anyone can do them..

Before we warm up, we need to stretch our body. Stretching helps you make your body more flexible and also greatly reduces the chances of you getting injured during heavier or more intense exercises.

Upper Body Stretch

It is very important that you stretch your body in parts, and calmly; Therefore, it is recommended that you always start with the upper part of the body.

Contrary to what many think, during football, we work our upper body a lot, especially when kicking, balancing, and changing directions when running.

All of these movements involve Rotation, which is why we also stretch our upper body with rotation exercises.

Neck Stretch

Lengthen your neck, slowly turning your head, dragging it across your shoulders in a 360º movement. Do this movement 4 or 6 times.

Afterwards, hold your head on the sides for 20 seconds, as shown in the image above.

Stretching upper limbs

Stretch your arms by rotating them at the sides of your body. It is important that your arms almost touch your ears while they are raised above your head. It is also important that you try to throw them back as far as possible when they are passing behind your back.. Do around 10 to 15 rotations, at moderate speed (not too fast, not too slow). Repeat the same movement in reverse, 10 to 15 rotations again.

From the central body

Rotate your body slightly from left to right in a pendulum motion. Gradually increase the intensity and strength of the movement. Do 10 to 20 repetitions.

Using the same movement as the last exercise, open your arms, and instead of rotating your body, hold for 10s on each side, the movement in the position indicated in the image.

Afterwards, cross your arms in front of you repeatedly. Try changing the position of your arms with each repetition (left arm on top, then left arm on the bottom... etc)

Bottom stretch

Stretch the lower part of your thigh, bending forward, trying your best to touch your feet. It is important that you do not try to go too far beyond your limit, as this way you could end up getting injured. Do the movement calmly, and if you can't touch your feet, that's okay, go as far as you can.

Now after stretching, let's warm up.

The next series of exercises is for you to literally warm up your body, increasing your heart rate and preparing your muscles for the game.

These exercises are light series of some varied types of running that you can do on the football court, and are important for your body to “understand that you are preparing to do heavy physical exercise”.

Imagine that your body is like a car that takes a long time to start on a cold day. If you demand that it turn on out of nowhere, and start running at a football game pace right after standing still for a long time, it could fail, and you could get hurt.

Therefore, we should always do the following exercise series before starting to run and play ball.

Warm-up series complete

For warm-up exercises, use the football court measurements for each set however you like. Run from the sidelines to the midfield, or from one of the goalposts to the midfield, or if you're already an expert, run from one goalpost to the other or from one sideline to the other, to complete a series of the following exercises.

Warm-up series

Start with 1 set of “jogging” or light running. Use the balls of your feet to push off. Don't run fast, it's important that you maintain a steady pace, with short steps, keeping your posture upright.

Afterwards, without losing pace, do 1 series of runs. While running, stretch your leg back and up until your heel hits your buttocks as shown in the image above.

Then, without losing pace, do 1 series of running while raising your knees, as in the image above.

Lastly, still without losing your rhythm, do a side run. You can switch sides every two steps to work both legs during the set..

Okay, now you're properly stretched and warmed up, ready to start playing ball!

If you've read this far, thank you very much, I hope you had fun and enjoyed the content.

Don't forget to share this article on social media. Until next time!