Football training over 35: how to keep playing well

Plenty of players are still turning out in their late thirties, forties and beyond, in vets’ leagues, walking football or the Sunday side they’ve played for since their twenties. The game doesn’t change much, but your body’s response to it does. Here’s how to adjust.

What changes after 35

From the mid-thirties, muscle mass, maximal strength and especially power drift down if you don’t train them. Tendons get stiffer and take longer to adapt. Recovery between hard efforts and between games gets slower. None of this happens overnight, and training slows most of it a great deal. Resistance training is recommended for older adults precisely because it keeps strength, power and function Fragala et al. 2019.

The common mistake is to stop lifting and keep playing. That leaves you with less strength to absorb the same demands.

Strength: the foundation

Two strength sessions a week is ideal in pre-season, and at least one in season. Strength can be kept on a low dose as long as the effort stays high Spiering et al. 2021. Focus on:

• A main leg exercise: trap bar deadlift or squat, 3 sets of 4–6, leaving two reps in the tank.
• Single-leg work: split squats or step-ups, 2–3 sets of 6–10 each side.
• A hip hinge: Romanian deadlift or hip thrust.
• Upper body: one push and one pull.
• Calves: bent- and straight-knee calf raises, 2–3 sets of 10–15, twice a week. Calf and Achilles problems become more common with age, and calf strength is cheap to keep.

Keep some speed and power

Power falls faster than strength with age. Keep a small amount every week: a few jumps, a few short accelerations, and a few runs close to top speed when club training hasn’t included any. Low volume, full recovery, good form. Plyometrics should restart gently after any break.

Hamstrings and groin

Age is one of the factors a large meta-analysis linked with more hamstring strains, along with previous hamstring, calf or ACL injuries Green et al. 2020. That’s a reason to do the work, not to worry. Keep the Nordic hamstring curl in your week all season, ideally twice a week, and the Copenhagen adductor exercise once a week. Programmes including the Nordic were linked with about half the hamstring injury rate in studies van Dyk et al. 2019. See the Nordic guide for the build-up.

Recovery after games

After a match, strength and sprint ability can take up to 72 hours to come back Nédélec et al. 2012, and older players often sit at the slower end of that. So:

• Heavy leg sessions go about three days after a game by default.
• If two days after the game you jump and feel as you normally do, two days is fine.
• After a Saturday–Sunday double-header, wait until Wednesday unless you feel fully recovered on Tuesday.

The extra day is coaching practice rather than a tested rule, but it’s a small cost for a fresher week.

Warm up properly

A 20-minute warm-up based on the FIFA 11+ is the best investment of time a veteran can make. In studies, teams that regularly did the FIFA 11+ had fewer injuries Thorborg et al. 2017. Turning up five minutes before kick-off and doing a few stretches is the habit to break. See the FIFA 11+ explained.

Your heart

This is the most important section. In a survey of amateur masters footballers, 22% reported symptoms that could point to a heart problem, and around half said they would carry on playing with chest pain Francis et al. 2022.

It’s also worth having a yearly health check with your GP or pharmacist after 35, including blood pressure, especially if heart problems run in your family.

Sleep and food matter more

Recovery depends on the basics. Aim for at least seven hours of sleep, eat a proper meal with protein and carbohydrate after games and training, and spread protein across the day. If your weight is creeping up, small and steady changes to your diet beat crash diets, which also strip the muscle you’re working to keep.

A typical over-35 week

Sunday game, Wednesday club training: rest Monday, light mobility or a walk Tuesday, strength Wednesday before or Thursday after training (no heavy legs and Nordics before training the same day), a short speed and Copenhagen session Thursday or Friday, rest Saturday, play Sunday.

Be patient with breaks

After two weeks or more off, through illness, holidays or injury, come back with a couple of lighter weeks before going heavy again. It’s the jump straight back in that tends to cause problems.