Sport is for everyone, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re a professional athlete or an amateur in a particular discipline—the important thing is that you take care of yourself and your health. However, people who train recreationally in a specific sport are often convinced that twice a week is enough to stay in good shape. The truth is that even professional athletes spend hours in the gym—sometimes even more than they spend on the field.
Some of the most popular sports in Bulgaria are football, volleyball, skiing, tennis, and swimming. We’ve briefly summed up the benefits of each sport and will recommend ways to enrich your training with weekly visits to the gym.
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If you’re a fitness fanatic
We support your enthusiasm for spending every day at the gym, but if you want to stay in good physical shape, we recommend varying your club workouts with different sports or group classes. Set aside two days a week for yoga or CrossFit. Visit the tennis court or take swimming lessons. Each of these sports will help develop your muscles. Swimming will lengthen and tone your body, while tennis will shape the muscles in your arms and back. Yoga will help you become more flexible and teach you to relax and give your body a little rest. If you’re a fan of more strength-based workouts, try CrossFit—it will improve your endurance and strength.
The key is to vary and enrich your sporting experience so you can keep your body healthy, strong, and in its best shape, while preventing it from getting used to gym exercises or cardio workouts.
Football
We’ve mentioned that football involves a lot of speed and cardio training. This can lead to muscle loss, so every football player, even an amateur, should focus on gym training. Here’s a workout plan to complement your football sessions with friends. The exercise routine is split into two 30-minute parts—first, work your upper body, then your lower body.
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Focus on your upper body—include exercises for your back, arms, and chest, but don’t use excessively heavy weights. Simply lifting weights as you would in bodybuilding can backfire, since football requires aerobic endurance and strength, not just muscle mass. Plyometrics are the most effective way to boost your explosive speed and power. Plyometric exercises include various jumps (for height, distance, onto and off a box), bouncing movements, medicine ball throws, and more. Studies show that well-stretched muscles can contract faster and more powerfully.
Volleyball
As with football, pure muscle mass isn’t the goal here. Focus on exercises that stretch your body well. Here are a few important training tips:
- Warm up well for at least 5–10 minutes with light aerobic activity, followed by stretching all your muscle groups for the same amount of time.
- Do plyometric exercises before endurance training or ball work. Your muscles should be well rested.
- Perform each movement at maximum speed and high intensity. For example, when jumping, try to bounce back up as soon as you land—and as high as possible. Don’t squat too low; simply bend your legs slightly before each jump.
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Add more leg exercises to your program, since you already put your upper body through plenty of work. Barbell squats, leg presses and lunges are essential parts of your gym routine. Don’t neglect your calves either—they need to be strong enough to support your entire body weight. Ab exercises are also a must: planks and sit-ups hanging, lying down or on a machine will become your good friends.
Skiing
To become a really good skier, focus on strength and flexibility training, as well as cardio. Use exercises that target the muscles specifically used in downhill skiing, such as your calves, quadriceps, abs and lower back. Strengthening these muscles will help stabilize and protect your joints. To improve your leg strength, start with intense squats, lunges and wall sits. Add an ab workout program too, since your core is key to upper-body stability.
Round out your exercise routine with upper-body workouts. Target more muscle groups in this area, including your biceps, triceps and back. This will help you develop your upper-body muscles as well as your legs. Since your arms don’t work as hard on the slopes, give them special attention at the gym to develop your body evenly.
Tennis
Tennis is a highly active sport that primarily works the upper body, especially the arms. A tennis racket weighs around 300 g, and although that may sound light, you’ll feel its weight more and more as the game goes on. At the same time, your legs get a workout too, so you can say you’re training your whole body. This sport also calls for fitness exercises to improve your balance and stability on the court. Here’s what you can include in your fitness program:
- Diagonal lunges (3 sets/20 reps) – You’ll need a 3–5 kg dumbbell for this exercise. Lunge diagonally to put more strain on your knee, while holding the weight in front of your chest with your arms extended. Keep your legs bent at a right angle.
- Squats (3 sets of 20 reps) – You’ll need some space and a suitable weight. Squat only as low as a right angle at the knees. You can use a dumbbell, medicine ball, barbell or just your body weight—the choice is yours.
- Single-leg squat (3 sets/20 reps) – Again, try to bend the leg you’re balancing on only to a right angle, with your arms extended in front of your chest. This is a really challenging exercise that requires a lot of focus.
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Swimming
Swimming is one of our favorite sports. It’s incredibly beautiful and works your whole body at the same time. Swimming won’t build the definition you can achieve with weights at the gym, so you should also do strength training 2–3 times a week. These exercises are also really important because, in addition to strength, they give your body the flexibility you need for swimming. You can try exercises such as deadlifts, squats, jump rope, bent-over rows, barbell lifts, interval sprints, flipping a heavy tire and kettlebell workouts. To become really good swimmers, we recommend building your strength and endurance with jump rope, fast squats, lunges, CrossFit exercises and burpees. Swim 100, 200 or 300 meters, and always try to push yourself and go beyond your limits.
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At Pulse, we support your drive to become the best version of yourself. That’s why we encourage you to find a sport you love and combine it with workouts at our gym. We guarantee you’ll see results in no time.