Over the past decade we have seen a number of professional sportspeople take up functional fitness and CrossFit training to improve their performance in their chosen sport.
This article will look at a workout routine by football star Mohamed Salah. For those who aren’t familiar with Salah, he is an Egyptian football player who currently plays for Liverpool FC in the English Premier League. He’s also a current star player for the Egyptian national football team and an ex-player of AS Roma, Fiorentina and Chelsea.
Mo Salah is now in his 30’s, which is typically considered to be the twilight years for a footballer but his performances have ensured Liverpool are second favourites to win the Premier League in the betting markets. He’s still their key player and recently earned a lucrative new contract for that reason.
Here is a closer look at one of his workout routines he uses to stay in peak physical condition and some diet tips of his:
According to Mo Salah, here is his breakdown:
The Routine of Mo Salah in the Morning
Salah completes all of his workouts throughout his morning training periods. Most of Salah’s exercises combine cardio and core elements. Salah believes you get the best results when these are done together.
In terms of cardio, Salah recommends HIIT (high intensity interval training) exercises. These exercises are designed to help you increase stamina while also removing excess fat from your body. On social media posts, like Salah’s Instagram, we have seen him do a lot of bike riding, running and rowing. So we’ll include those exercises into his regime as well as jump roping which he also does.
Skipping Rope/Jump Rope: Mo Salah usually completes 15 minutes of intense jump rope in one-minute increments. He usually has a 20-35 second break as rest between these sets.
Cycling/ Bike Riding: Salah usually completes 15 minutes of cycling with 30 second sprint intervals each minute.
Rowing: Mo Salah generally completes 15 minutes of rowing with 30 seconds of sprint intervals each minute.
Running/Jogging: Salah usually completes 15 minutes of running with 30 second sprint intervals in each minute.
In Mo Salah’s core workout, he usually does a quick circuit routine to help him get that cardio finish and also help burn off fat from his core area. Here is a quick breakdown of his basic regime:
Exercises in each circuit: Eight
Repetitions: 40 secs
– Rest time after the whole circuit is complete: 2 minutes
Evening Routine for Mo Salah:
Mo Salah’s evening routine is mostly based around strength and weight training. These help him build muscle strength and endurance for his specific sport.
Strengthening Exercises
Salah recommends doing exercises like Olympic weightlifting (clean and jerks and snatches), deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, rope climbs, battle rope sets, farmers carriers, farmer walks, sled pushes and sled pulls and other similar movements like these.
These workouts generally offer full body movements and really target most muscles of the human body. Salah also often adds in some gymnastic movements like pull ups, chest to bar pull ups, muscle ups, and resistance lunges as well core movements like planks.
Weight Lifting (snatch/clean and jerks/OHS etc.)
Salah recommends four days of combined weight training focusing on upper and lower body muscle groups. Remember that you may add resistance bands to any of these movements for more resistance. Also, with extra resistance, try to be explosive with exercises like deadlifts, snatches, clean and jerks and bench presses.
Exercises and Movements Incorporated into Regime Include:
Basic pushing movements like: Push-ups, pull-ups, bench press, shoulder press and dumbbell flys.
Basic pulling movements like: Lat pulldowns, cable rows and pull ups.
Standard leg movements like: Leg presses, lunges, leg extensions, deadlifts and weighted squats like barbell front and back squats.
Diet Plan for Mohamed Salah
In terms of food, Salah primarily consumes a nutritious diet rich in protein, carbohydrates, good fats, and other nutrients. This diet allows Salah to fuel his training efficialty, giving him enough nutrients, fats, carbohydrates and protein to allow his body to recover and grow. This is essential for most professional sports people.
Summary
As you can see in the above, Mo’s regime incorporates many different movements and a variety of exercises. This variety is the key to ensuring he has a wide range of muscular skills and strength for his chosen sport, which in this case is football.
The above exercises also ensure he has the explosiveness needed for football and the endurance that is required of professional players in soccer (football). His diet also compliments this well, allowing him to recover each day so he isn’t too sore for the next day of training.
We hope the above article has been helpful in giving you an insight into the fitness regime of a professional sportsperson. Hopefully you can take some ideas from the above and incorporate it into your own fitness regime!
If you have any particular exercises or movements you think are also great for professional sports people like Salah, please let us know in the comment section below.
Happy training!
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