If you’re a free kick taker and you want to get better at taking frees, what’s your best form of attack when it comes to improving technique? This isn’t a trick question. You practice hitting free kicks. You create movement patterns that will result in the successful performance of the chosen activity. The result? You get better at taking free kicks. 

Taking that theory forward, if you want to get faster, or leaner, or stronger, then how do you do it? You don’t sit on a bar stool, sipping a pint, talking about how fit you were when you were younger, that’s for sure. You act now, pint later. 

Do not complain about being slow when you can train the body to be faster. Include plyometric movement in your work outs, march, hop, learn to move more efficiently and repeat. The body will adapt over time. Fast twitch fibres will emerge, technique will improve and you will increase your speed.

Do not complain about a lack of strength when you’re unwilling to lift weights. Work on your major movements; Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, Lunge and Rotation. Add weights to these movements in a measured and progressive manner and you will get stronger. Your body will respond and adapt to what you’re asking of it and that strength you’ve been dreaming of becomes a reality.

Do not complain about stiffness and poor mobility when you aren’t open to trying a yoga class or implementing some sort of daily mobility routine. We live a much more sedentary lifestyle than our parents and grandparents did. We sit at desks, hunched over computers, or in the car for hours. Our muscles are stuck in shortened or strained positions as we don’t move and stretch them as often as we should. That’s all they need though. It’s what they’re crying out for. Stretch them, extend them, strengthen them through controlled movement. A few months of yoga or pilates will go a long way into dealing with those day to day aches and pains.

Your social media streams, newspapers, magazines and televisions are going to be polluted with the message of ‘New Year, New You’ in the upcoming weeks. The old you has done pretty well, it just needs a little kick up the arse from time to time. You don’t need a complete overhaul when it comes to diet and exercise. 

If you’ve been following my tips over the course of the last year then you should be in as good as shape as you’ve ever been, both in terms of health and performance. So don’t be the person who complains of a sore back and says “I’ll start the yoga in January, sure what good would it do me now?” Plenty of good is the answer to that. 

If you want to get better at free kicks you practice free kicks, so if you want to get fitter, faster, stronger and more mobile then you start doing something about it right now. 

I don’t want a “New You”, I just want a better you.

For more information contact me via Facebook.com/PGthePT or on Twitter @PGthePT.

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