What Gym Equipment Helps Goalkeepers To Train Better?

Goalkeepers have a different role to everyone else on a football pitch and that means many of the exercises you do need to be different. A multifunctional workout bench can be an invaluable item for helping you to undertake many of these.

England’s World Cup hopes may be over for another four years, but the new season begins next month and from the highest echelons of the game to local community clubs up and down the land, players will be starting to train hard and get ready for action.

If you are a goalkeeper at any level, you will know that small margins can make all the difference. Your fingertips could literally make the difference between winning and drawing a game, or between drawing and losing.

Who Are The Best Goalkeepers In The Premier League?

Last year’s Premier League Stats, for example, highlighted the importance of marginal differences:

• Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, regarded by many as the best in the world, saved 72.6 per cent of shots on target that he faced.
• Aston Villa keeper Emi Martinez, another regarded as being among the best in the business, saved 70.9 per cent.
• Burnley’s Martin Dubravka had a lower save ratio at 64.1 per cent, but made the highest number of saves (127), figures that reflect his plight in a hapless Burnley team.

However, while these are important stats, they are not the only ones that matter. Being able to catch crosses under pressure, punch a long distance, run to reach loose balls and kick long balls are also important.

You may or may not ever get near the heights of the world’s best, but with the right training, you can certainly be better between the sticks, thanks to greater agility, mobility and strength, the kind of thing that helps you dive full length, then leap up to save the rebound.

It may not always be apparent just how much fitness work goalkeeping requires. True, you don’t have to run around like an outfield player and while goalkeepers are by nature usually tall, some look like skinny beanpoles while others look like muscle-bound ogres.

However, the reality is that all of them will train hard. The days of keepers like the legendary 24-stone William ‘Fatty’ Foulkes belong to very different eras of football history.

What Are The Main Exercises That Can Help A Goalkeeper?

• Among the different exercises a goalkeeper can do to get stronger and fitter are:
• Plyometrics, box jumps, lunges, squats and leg presses to build up leg strength
• Core muscle exercises such as planks and hanging leg raises
• Upper body exercises for strength and power, such as bench presses, medicine ball slams and lat pulldowns and pull-ups
• Agility exercises like lateral jumps and skipping
• General fitness activities like cardio and sprints

Carrying out all these exercises will require different equipment and sprints, by definition, won’t be something you can do in the confines of a home gym. But it is not something you should ignore, as you will often need to move fast, for example, to intercept a through-ball.

However, several of these are exercises for which you either need a workout bench or can enhance by using one.

Bench presses are the most obvious example of this, which is great for building up your chest, triceps and shoulder strength, which you will need when the six-yard box starts to resemble a rugby scrum at a corner kick.

They can also be used as something to hold onto when doing plank exercises, various dumbbell exercises, bench dips, lateral step-ups and leg curls.

For all these reasons, a workout bench can be a great tool not just for general fitness, but specifically for building up core and upper body strength to help you cope with the rigours of challenging for the ball in a crowded penalty box.

What Does A Goalkeeper’s Home Gym Need?

Apart from workout benches, several other items that will be of obvious use to complete the exercises you need:

• Dumbbells
• Medicine balls
• Barbells (which can be used as an alternative to dumbbells for lunges)
• Arm or leg lifts can add extra strength to side plank exercises
• Pull-up bars

Professional goalkeepers will have access to all this and more at their club’s gyms, with the most advanced Premier League training facilities backing these up with cutting-edge sports medicine, dieticians and other elite-level measures to create optimal fitness.

If you are looking forward to another season with a non-league team, you won’t be able to use facilities like that, but by investing in the right equipment for a home gym, you can still become a stronger, more agile and athletic goalkeeper than you would otherwise be.