Soccer strength training: a gym workout plan built around your club

Updated: October 16, 2026

You play football (soccer) at a club and want a conditioning plan that serves your game? Here's what Kaizmax actually generates for a football player, for a week without a match and then with a Sunday match: the week, the conditioning session in detail, and your club counted in your calories. Everything comes from a rules engine, not from AI.

What football asks of your body

Repeated runs, accelerations, changes of direction, shots, duels, headers. For its “Targeted strengthening” block, the app's football conditioning aims at three areas, in this order of priority: the adductors, the hamstrings and the ankles, one exercise per area, two at most. The goal: strengthen them, with technique before load.

An example output by the engine for a sample profile: with or without a Sunday match

The sample profile: man, 22, 74 kg, 1.78 m, maintenance goal, intermediate level, three 60-minute gym sessions around 6 pm, including one requested conditioning session. In “My club”: training on Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 pm (90 min); in season, a match on Sunday at 3 pm (90 min). The two generated weeks:

Highlighted: what the match changes. With other draws, the days stay the same; only the exercises change.

Without a match, your sessions avoid your training days, and conditioning replaces the last session (the third “Full body”) instead of piling on top: five active days in a row, then a free weekend.

What a declared match changes: the 48-hour rule

With a match declared in “My club”: no conditioning and no exercise the engine classes as legs (squat, hip hinge, lunge, calves, leg isolation, and combined moves driven by the legs, such as the thruster or the push press) in the 48 hours before it; and in the session, no box jumps and no sled: cardio switches to bike, rower or walking when the equipment allows. Since both kick-off and your session time are known, the app computes the exact gap: on Friday, your session ends at 7 pm, 44 hours before kick-off. So Friday and Saturday fall inside the window.

• Conditioning moves from Friday to Wednesday, with the same content.
• Session B, now on Friday, becomes a no-legs variant instead of disappearing. The barbell squat becomes a dead hang (a passive hang from the bar), the stiff-leg deadlift an ab wheel rollout, the low cable side bend a barbell torso rotation; in the warm-up, a kneeling thoracic rotation stretch and a bird dog replace the fire hydrant and the banded lateral walk, and the closing stretches change. The decline dumbbell press, plate bent-over row and machine shoulder press stay.
• No session removed, none on a training day or on match day. The original exercises are kept: if your match moves to another day, “Protect my week” can give them back.

If you answer “It varies” for your session time, the app takes the cautious case, the day before and the day before that: same result here. If you declare the match after generating your plan, “Protect my week” ends up on the same days; only the details of the variant may differ.

One caveat: the day after the match isn't protected; it's only a placement preference. On Monday, session A keeps its front squat and sumo deadlift; the week has six active days out of seven. With two conditioning sessions, only Monday and Wednesday stay free outside the window: conditioning A (strength) therefore lands on Monday, the day after the match; B (power) on Wednesday; session A moves to Friday, without legs. For the day before, read our guide on lifting the day before a game.

The football conditioning session, exercise by exercise

A single conditioning session requested: strength-oriented (with two: strength then power; with three, endurance is added). Here's the one from the example, identical with or without a match:

• Warm-up, 30 s each: mountain climbers, downward-facing dog, low lunge.
• Workout:
  • dumbbell Bulgarian split squat, 4 × 8-12, 90 s rest;
  • trap bar deadlift, 4 × 8-12, 90 s rest;
  • dead bug, 3 × 12-15, 45 s rest;
  • squat with torso rotation, 4 × 8-12, 90 s rest;
  • seated calf raise, 3 × 10-15, 60 s rest;
  • box jump, 6 × (30 s work, 30 s recovery), on the guided session's timer.
• Targeted strengthening: Cossack squat (adductors), lying banded leg curl (hamstrings), 2 × 10-12, 30 s rest.
• Cool-down, 30 s each: elevated straight-leg hamstring stretch, 90/90 hip stretch.

For a 60-minute session, the structure is fixed: lunge, hip hinge, core, squat, calves, cardio. The exercises themselves are drawn at every generation based on your gear: a hip thrust, dumbbell bench step-ups or a sled push can take those places.

What counts in your calories

Your football counts in your expenditure, at the length you declare. For this profile: a basal metabolic rate of 1,748 kcal (Mifflin-St Jeor) × 1.35 for a lightly active daily life, plus your sessions (3 × 60 min at 0.07 kcal per minute per kilo), plus your club at the app's football coefficient: 270 min (two training sessions and the match) × 0.12 × 74 kg ÷ 7 = +343 kcal a day.

Result: 2,835 kcal a day, versus 2,492 without the club. Protein stays at 133 g: the difference goes to carbs (+63 g) and fat (+10 g). Meals follow the week: 2,887 kcal on the six effort days, 2,530 on Saturday. Without a match (180 min of club), the target is 2,721 kcal. In the questionnaire, the app counts 1 hour per checked club day, so 3 hours here instead of 4.5: declare your 90 minutes in “My club”, then accept “Update my targets”, and the target moves to 2,835 kcal. Starting estimates: run your own numbers with the calorie and macro calculator.

How to get it in the app

• Steps 1 to 3: you (18 and over only), your goal, your daily life outside sport.
• Step 4, “Your training”: level, sessions, length, time, gym or home. Under “Outside this plan”, pick “Football” and check your club days. The app then asks whether you want conditioning and how many sessions, from 1 to 3 (it suggests one); answer “No” and your plan stays classic.
• Steps 5 and 6: your diet, the recap, then “Generate my plan”.
• Then “My club”: for each day, Training or Match, time and length. With a match, “Protect my week” shows you what moves before applying it.

Free or Premium?

Free: the questionnaire, the first plan generation (meals and sessions, conditioning included if you want it), the guided session, tracking, “My club” (days, times, lengths, matches) and “Protect my week”.

Premium: regeneration, the adaptive coach (first adjustment free), the shopping list, advanced stats and the gym tools, including the suggested load during your session.

Frequently asked questions

Go further

The general principle: our sport-specific training app page and the guide tailoring strength to your sport. Other sports: boxing strength training, strength training for runners and basketball strength training.

Want your own week, built around your training and matches? Download Kaizmax for free.

This article is informational and not a substitute for medical advice. In case of a health condition, pregnancy or doubt, consult a healthcare professional.