Match-week planner: when to lift in a week with matches

Pick the days you play and how many gym sessions you want, and the planner shows where they fit. The short version: the heavy leg session goes at least three days after one match and three days before the next, nothing hard the day before or after a match, and one session a week is enough to keep your strength through the season.

Your week

MoMondayRecoveryEasy movement: a walk, an easy ride, mobility. No gym.
TuTuesdayTeam training or restFine for team training; keep extra gym work light.
WeWednesdayStrength sessionThe main session: heavy lower body plus upper body, 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 6 reps on the big lifts.
ThThursdayTeam training or restRoom for hard training, but one gym session is enough here.
FrFridayLight sessionUpper body, or short explosive work such as jumps and light squats. No heavy legs.
SaSaturdayStay freshRest or a short team session. Nothing heavy the day before a match.
SuSundayMatchWarm up properly; no gym.

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The rules behind the plan

Three days between a match and heavy leg training, on both sides. A 2018 meta-analysis of 77 studies on football found hamstring force and sprint performance still measurably down 72 hours after a match (Silva et al., 2018).
The day after a match is for recovery and the day before for staying fresh. Neither is a gym day.
Never two gym sessions on back-to-back days. A light session can sit two days from a match; a heavy one needs three.
In-season, one session a week holds what you built. Professional footballers who kept one strength session a week maintained their strength and 40 m sprint for 12 weeks; those who did one every two weeks lost some of both (Rønnestad, Nymark and Raastad, 2011).

These are rules of thumb built on those findings, not a tested programme. If your legs still feel heavy on the planned day, move the session or make it lighter.

Why bother lifting in-season at all

Strength you do not use slips away, and a season is long: in the study above, one session every two weeks was already too little to hold leg strength and sprint speed. A short, heavy session a week keeps what you built in pre-season.

It also protects you. A meta-analysis of 25 trials with 26,610 participants found that strength training programmes cut sports injuries to about a third, where stretching programmes made no measurable difference (Lauersen, Bertelsen and Andersen, 2014).

What a short in-season session looks like

Warm up for 5 to 10 minutes, then build up to your working weight in a few sets.
One squat or hinge for the legs (a squat, trap bar deadlift or Romanian deadlift), 2 or 3 sets of 3 to 5 reps, heavy but with 2 or 3 reps left in the tank.
A single-leg exercise or Nordic hamstring curls, 2 sets.
A push and a pull for the upper body, 2 or 3 sets each.
Stop there. The goal is to keep strength, not to leave the gym tired.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Should I lift the day before a match?

Not heavy, and not your legs. Some teams do a very short activation session the day before, but for most amateur players rest or a light team session is the better choice.

Can I lift on the same day as team training?

Yes, and on a busy week it is often the best option: one hard day, then a real rest day. Train with the team first or leave a few hours in between, and count both when you judge how tired you are.

What about two matches a week?

Then there is usually no day three days clear of both matches. Do one short session on the day with the most room, or skip the gym that week. One session a week is enough to keep your strength.

Does this work for padel, tennis or hockey?

Yes. The planner does not know your sport, only your match days. The rules come mostly from football research, the sport with the most of it, but the logic of recovering before you load your legs again holds for any sport with matches.

Plan your gym sessions around your matches

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