Lionel Messi is one of the greatest football players in the history of the game. The Barcelona talisman seems to get better season by season.
The superstar has been celebrated for his great skills and incredibly amazing abilities, but how does he maintain his fitness and from?
In spite of freshly entering in the thirties, Messi still looks rejuvenated, better and brighter and does not look to be slowing down any time soon. So, what are his secrets?
Goal looks at the secrets behind the Messi’s skills, stamina and speed.
Messi’s Training
The Argentinian is not a fitness freak as his former Portugal rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who undergoes rigorous exercising regime. However, he follows some regular workout regimen under the supervision of his coaches.
Messi often focuses on maximizing his agility prior to each match-day and working hard on his linear speed.
So, in order to build his speed, he practices the pillar bridge-front, lunges, hamstring stretches, and pillar skips. And in order to strengthen his core and leg muscles, he uses the hurdle hop and split squats. He also does different acceleration drills to boost his speed. In order to maximize his linear speed, he does pillar skips, skipping ropes, and squats. For boosting agility, he skips past diagonal hurdles along with cones.
At the end of each workout, he drinks loads of water to stay hydrated and then jogs for at least 10 minutes to cool down.
Messi’s Diet
Messi is on a very strict diet to help boost and maintain his football skills and abilities.
Giuliano Poser, the Italian nutritionist, has revolutionized the Barcelona superstar’s diet since 2014. As the foundation for Messi’s diet, he has identified five vital foods, which include water, olive oil, whole grains, fresh fruit and fresh vegetables.
He said, “Also very good are nuts and seeds,” and explained that he advised Messi to cut down on the sugar.
He continued, “[Sugar] is the worst thing for the muscles. The farther he stays away from sugars, the better. Refined flours are also a big problem as these days, it’s difficult to find uncontaminated wheat.”
He has advised Messi against excessive meat consumption, which is too common in Spain and South America. He added, “The amount of meat normally eaten by Argentinians and Uruguayans is too much, as it is difficult to digest. My methods are not in doubt, everyone can see Leo week in, week out.”
The striker has also been advised to give up pizza, one of Messi’s favorite foods.
Other secrets
Messi’s natural gifts, abilities and skills, have what made him such a great, talented footballer. There are plenty fitness exercises and regimes one can try out to become a player like Messi, but there is certainly a reason why he is touted as a “Greatest of All Time – he is absolutely unique.
Craig Friedman, the performance innovation team director at Athletes’ Performance, has tried to explain the natural phenomena of Messi’s speed and agility.
Friedman told ESPN, “First you have to be explosive and powerful. Then, you have to be stable enough through your ankles, hips and torso to be able to deliver that power efficiently into the ground. And finally, you have to deliver the power into the ground in the right direction, and that’s where technique comes in.” He continues, “He’s a small guy but his rate of force development is very high and his power-to-weight ratio is just ridiculous.”
